Greetings, spanishsteps!
First, I want to mention that, because the Google searching and
indexing algorithms are secret and proprietary, nothing can be stated
"for sure" and "for every single link". The information that is
"known" has been developed by persistent webmasters who spend most of
their time studying Google Search Results and tweaking web pages to
see what effect their changes have on Page Rank and Search Engine
Results Ranking. Therefore, this information is purely speculative
(although there appears to be some real degree of accuracy to a lot of
it).
Because of Google's secrecy, it is not known for absolute certain, but
the general consensus among experienced webmasters who have
extensively studied Google's "backward links" function pretty much
agree that the link: function will only return pages with a Rank of 4
or higher:
From Senior Forum Member "Birdman" at WebmasterWorld:
"It is thought that Google only shows backlinks from pages that have a
pr4 or higher."
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/7309.htm
Bear in mind that the Page Rank which matters is the Page Rank of the
page which *contains the link to your site*, not the PR of the site's
Home Page. There is not a lot that you can do to affect the linking
page's PR. The best you can do is get your site link put on a page
that already has a PR4 or higher.
However, there is one good way to pull up a list of a *LOT* more sites
that contain your URL than just those returned by a Google "link to"
search.
If you enter your URL into the Google search text box and click
"Google Search", something like this usually comes up:
------------------------------------------------------
Showing web page information for www.spanishsteps.net
Spanish tuition London Learn spanish Lessons Courses.
HOME, SPANISH TUITION, CONVERSATION, ONE TO ONE, CRASH COURSES. DELE TRAINING,
BUSINESS SPANISH, INTENS. SPANISH, DIPLOMAS, RATES, TRANSLATIONS, CONTACT
US, ...
Google can show you the following information for this URL:
Show Google's cache of www.spanishsteps.net
Find web pages that are similar to www.spanishsteps.net
Find web pages that link to www.spanishsteps.net
Find web pages that contain the term "www.spanishsteps.net" <<---
------------------------------------------------------
://www.google.com/search?q=www.spanishsteps.net
As you're probably aware, clicking on "link to" in the
next-to-the-bottom line will provide the Search Results for a "link:"
command with the URL string you entered -- showing only those pages
with a high-enough ranking to be included (in this case, Google
returns "Results 1 - 5 of 5").
://www.google.com/search?q=link:sLQWgdlH8d0J:www.spanishsteps.net/
******
But...
******
... if you click on "contain the term" in the last line, you should
get a list of ALL the web pages Google has indexed that include the
URL string you entered (in this case, Google returns "Results 1 - 10
of about 197").
://www.google.com/search?sa=G&q=%22%2Bwww.spanishsteps.net%22
Now, something odd that I have discovered is that if you enter in the
Google Search text box the "link:" command with no space before the
URL, you get the same results as in the "link to" list above:
link:www.spanishsteps.net
://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Awww.spanishsteps.net
*However*, if you enter in the Google Search text box the "link:"
command *with* a space before the URL, you usually get a list with
more URLs than the "link to" list, but fewer URLs than the "contain
the term" list.
link: www.spanishsteps.net
://www.google.com/search?q=link%3A+www.spanishsteps.net&num=100&filter=0
Note that for your URL, these sites have Page Rank anywhere from 0 to
2 (in fact, most of them are 0). As far as I know, Google has never
explained this little quirk. If you use the "link:" command, you will
want to be sure to *not* include a space before the URL.
Notice, if you leave off the "www", Google may find even more pages
(Results 1 - 10 of about 270):
"spanishsteps.net"
://www.google.com/search?&sa=G&q=%22spanishsteps.net%22
This is because there are a lot of pages that refer to your business
as merely "SpanishSteps.net". Be aware that these will not contribute
to the Page Rank of your site: if you want these pages to be factored
into the calculation of your Page Rank by the Googlebot, you will need
to write to the webmasters of each of these sites requesting that they
change the reference to "www.SpanishSteps.net".
Before Rating my Answer, if you have any Questions about the above
information, please post a Request for Clarification, and I will be
glad to see what I can do for you.
I hope that this Answer provides exactly the information you were seeking!
Regards,
aceresearcher |
Clarification of Answer by
aceresearcher-ga
on
05 Jun 2004 11:38 PDT
<< It doesnt appear the same results, in fact looking for the links
to spanishsteps.net (without www)
only gives me : "Your search - link:xY883ECrCRIJ:spanishsteps.net/ -
did not match any documents." >>
You're correct. The results of the two searches are *not* going to look the same.
Google has your site indexed as www.spanishsteps.net for the main site.
You don't *want* Google to index your site as two different sites:
www.spanishsteps.net and
spanishsteps.net
If it does index it as two sites, it will dilute your Page Rank.
That is why I said:
"This is because there are a lot of pages that refer to your business
as merely "SpanishSteps.net". Be aware that these will not contribute
to the Page Rank of your site: if you want these pages to be factored
into the calculation of your Page Rank by the Googlebot, you will need
to write to the webmasters of each of these sites requesting that they
change the reference to "www.SpanishSteps.net".
Ideally, to contribute to your Page Rank, any site that references
your site needs to do so as "www.SpanishSteps.net" and not just
"SpanishSteps.net".
The "xY883ECrCRIJ" string is Google's code for the subindex which
contains the list of backward links to your site. This subindex is
created when the Googlebot indexes the site and stored, rather than
being created on the fly whenever you search for the backward links to
your site.
Bear in mind that it is the nature of Google Search Results to vary
considerably from day to day, and perhaps even hour to hour. Sometimes
we can tell why a site's Page Rank has dropped, due to obvious
reasons. Often the reasons are not obvious, and there is no way of
knowing why the Page Rank has dropped.
Does this Answer your Question?
Regards,
aceresearcher
|
Clarification of Answer by
aceresearcher-ga
on
07 Jun 2004 05:03 PDT
Yes, 301 redirecting is the best thing to do. It's my understanding
that the Googlebot will recognize this, and that it will not consider
it the same kind of redirect which Google warns webmasters not to use.
First, you will need to contact your webhosting company and make sure
that their server is not set to ignore .htaccess files (this is not
uncommon); if it is, you will need to request that they enable
.htaccess, at least for your site, and hopefully they will be willing
to do that for your.
If your site already has an .htaccess file, you will need to download
it and add the following lines, otherwise, you will need to create an
.htaccess file containing the following lines:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} http://spanishsteps.net$
RewriteRule ^(.+) http://www.spanishsteps.net/$1 [L,R=301]
ace
|
