Hi Rosalynkc ~
It's good that you realize the importance of relevant sites linking to
your own. But you should be careful of the "type" and quality of links
to your site as well.
If you search Google for www.webuyhouses-investors.com, you get the
following results:
"Showing web page information for
www.webuyhouses-investors.com
Sell my house We buy houses FAST USA Real Estate Investors
Sell My House We Buy Houses FAST!! USA Real Estate
Investors. We buy houses in the USA, You can sell your
house FAST. We are Real Estate Investors. ...
"Google can show you the following information for this URL:
* Show Google's cache of www.webuyhouses-investors.com
* Find web pages that are similar to
www.webuyhouses-investors.com
* Find web pages that link to
www.webuyhouses-investors.com
* Find web pages that contain the term
"www.webuyhouses-investors.com"
[Google Search Results]
- ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=www.webuyhouses-investors.com&btnG=Google+Search
Clicking on "Find web pages that are similar to ..." returns 0 links;
and clicking on "Find web pages that contain the term ..." returns
about 208 results.
=========================
Links to Your Site
=========================
As a rule, Google returns 'links' which are considered "relative" or
"important" and not part of any linking scheme. Most results that
return for "links" have a Page Rank of at least 4.
Looking at the pages that are returned "Find web pages that contain
the term "www.webuyhouses-investors.com", show a lot of "link pages",
many with either a greyed out PageRank or which are nothing **but** a
page of links.
In addition, there are several identical sites which look like this:
"title
... We Buy Houses Sell Your House (http://www.webuyhouses
-investors.com) We buy houses USA, You can sell your house
FAST. We are Real Estate Investors. ...
www.sedona-real-estate-arizona.com/real-estate_us.rub -
14k - Cached - Similar pages"
www.aspen-real-estate-homes.com/real-estate_us.rub
www.santa-fe-real-estate-new-homes.com/real-estate_us.rub
www.tucson-real-estate-arizona.com/real-estate_us.rub
www.scottsdale-real-estate-homes-homes.com/real-estate_us.rub
www.phoenix-real-estate-and-homes.com/real-estate_us.rub
www.tempe-real-estate-1.com/real-estate_us.rub
www.boise-idaho-real-estate-and-homes.com/real-estate_us.rub
and others, which can only be seen as a linking scheme and could
conceivably get your site and the participating sites penalized or
banned from Google.
Google specifically warns against such schemes in its "Quality
Guidelines - Basic principles":
"* Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine
rankings...
* Don't participate in link schemes designed to
increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular,
avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on
the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely
by those links."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
and in Google's reasons your page may not be included in ithe index:
"... certain actions such as ... setting up pages/links
with the sole purpose of fooling search engines may result
in permanent removal from our index."
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html#B3
And just as an aside, each of those identical linking pages above have
identical coding errors which are visible to visitors, which is a
further reason to reconsider having your site linked from those.
====================
How Google Works
====================
It might help to understand why Google is considered "the best" search
engine and is so popular. Its purpose is to return the *most relevant*
results for a user's queries:
"From its inception, Google has focused on providing the
best user experience possible ... Google has steadfastly
refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit
to the users who come to the site." [From "Google Today"]
- ://www.google.com/corporate/today.html
===========================
PageRank & Links
===========================
Google further explains its technology in "Our Search: Google Technology":
"The heart of our software is PageRank?, a system for
ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page
and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we
have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect
of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide
the basis for all of our web search tools."
and its PageRank in "PageRank Explained"
"PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the
web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of
an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets
a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for
page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume
of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the
page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are
themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make
other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank,
which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of
course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't
match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with
sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that
are both important and relevant to your search. Google
goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a
page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and
the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if
it's a good match for your query."
As you can see, it's not enough to have a bunch of links unless those
links are likewise considered "important". And being included on page
after page of links from different sites won't help, and could hurt
you if they're seen as a "linking scheme" such as those identical
sites listed above.
At the risk or repeating myself, links to your site help - but
"quality" links which are part of relevant context from other sites
are the type of links which matter.
===========================
Establishing Links
===========================
As stated, Google's PageRank is based on the number of pages which
link to your site.
"The best way to ensure Google finds your site is for your page to be
linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google's robots jump from
page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to
you, the more likely it is that we'll find you quickly." (SEE Google's
" How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google? - 2. Submitting Your site")
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html#A1
Some site owners have recently decided they wanted to "buy" links from
websites which have a PR of 6 or more. However, a very recent crawl
(started around Friday, November 14th) and the comments it is
producing on Webmaster World's discussion board, show that might not
have been such a good idea. I urge you to take a look at that
discussion, which you can find here:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/18296.htm
There are many practical ways of establishing links which are
beneficial to you in your endeavor to get respectable position
placement on search engines. These methods may take time, but they
also help in establishing credibility and help with your page rank.
Approach like-minded or complementary businesses about linking to your
site (with a reciprocal link from your own). This works without
harming search engine positioning or page rank.
A WORD OF WARNING:
==================
Google specifically warns "Don't participate in link schemes designed
to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid
links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own
ranking may be affected adversely by those links." (See Google's
Quality Guidelines - Basic principles)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
It stands to reason that what's good for Google, currently ranked as
the number one search engine is good rule to follow for other search
engines.
Articles on Link Popularity
===========================
A couple of excellent articles on how to establish the right kind of
links are available in Traffick's "Ten Steps to Building Links to Your
Site", Craig Fifield - 5/3/2002
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=77
and "The Right Way to Improve Link Popularity", By Paul J. Bruemmer -4/14/2002 -
- http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=41
Notice both articles offer suggestions which can be easily adapted for
use on any website without resorting to link farms. They both point
out the differences and offer easy ways to get started to the kind of
linking search engines prefer.
"Link Building Is Important", which discusses link building from A to
Z and also provides a good reference page with linking resources.
- http://www.linkingmatters.com/WhyLinkingIsImportant.html
The information contained in the above articles offer suggestions
which can be easily adapted for use on any website without resorting
to link farms. The differences in "good links" and those which may be
harmful are discussed, and the articles offer simple ways to get
started to the kind of linking search engines prefer.
The kind of links listed above will be the links that do get listed by
Google. Avoiding many of the types of links that are seen as "link
schemes" or link farms will keep you from being penalized or banned
from Google's index.
==========================================
Important Google Links For Your Reference
==========================================
Here are some important links on the Google site. Webmasters who
follow the guidelines and avoid Google's "Thou shalt nots" usually
have no problem getting listed and showing up under the search terms
they desire.
* Google Today (absolutely the best information you
can read about the "how and why" of Google's results
- ://www.google.com/corporate/today.html
* How Do I Get My Site Listed on Google?
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/1.html
* My Web Pages Are Not Currently Listed (a good 'primer'
on how and why Google works so well)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html
* PageRank Information (covers both Google's PageRank and
SERPS)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/4.html
* Webmaster Guidelines (contains both the dos and don'ts)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
* Google Facts & Fiction (can you buy your way to a
high ranking in Google?)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
* Search Engine Optimizers (some good advice on what to look
for if you're going to hire a Search Engine Optimizer)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
* Frequently Asked Questions (pretty much what it says, but
definitely worth wading through)
- ://www.google.com/webmasters/faq.html
================================
Other Sources of Information
================================
There is also good information from many of the top search engine
optimization experts, such as
* Detlev Johnson, Search Engine Guide
- http://www.searchengineguide.com/detlev/
* Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch
- http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
* Jill Whalen, High Rankings
- http://www.highrankings.com/
* Shari Thurow, Web Pro News (and quoted all over the Internet)
- www.webpronews.com/
who all have columns or newsletters to which you can subscribe and
keep abreast of the best way to use good content for better
positioning in search engine results.
In addition, Webmaster World - http://www.webmasterworld.com/ - has
discussion boards on most of the search engines. While some of the
discussions are anecdotal and/or questions for information, there is
usually enough discussion to keep abreast of what seems to be
happening.
There is an entire section devoted to Google at:
- http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/
It never hurts to keep track among these discussions, but remember,
trying to optimize for search engines only is like trying to hit a
moving target. You'll notice among the more experienced contributors
to the discussions - plus the SEO experts listed above - that there
really is no substitute for content, relevant links and good HTML.
====================
Summary
====================
Understanding what Google is looking for, and then providing it is the
best way for your site to be listed for your relevant material. You
should also make sure that pages which link to yours contain relevant
material. Otherwise, you may be very unpleasantly surprised.
Search terms used:
Besides the specific search on your own site and looking at those
sites which were including in the "contain the term link", I relied on
bookmarked information from reliable resources and recent information
from Webmaster World.
Finally, I noticed your domain is fairly new (registered in early
October). Use this time to establish your links and design your site
to give relevant information and you shouldn't experience problems.
Good luck and best wishes,
Serenata
Google Answers Researcher |
,
0 Comments
)