I give up! SEO question that I can't find the answer to...

1. 0

   girly_girl09posted 13 years ago

   I hate asking for SEO advice because I feel that I learn more when I find the answer for myself. I remember reading a blurb about this somewhere but every time I google related keywords I come up with websites trying to sell me high-PR links. The frustration has set in!
   
   My main reason for asking this question is for my own personal website, but it would be helpful to know for hubs optimization, too. This question popped into my mind when I was researching my competition, which ranks #1 (I'm #2) for my main keyword phrase. That link is to a single page, not even the homepage of a site and there are only 6 backlinks! It's so odd. The only thing I noticed was that they link out to high PR sites....so:
   
   Does linking to high PR sites (for example a well-known website in the related niche) impact the ranking or SEO of your site in any positive way? We all know that a link from one of those sites can do amazing things, but what if I link to them?
   
   The only reason why I hesitate to do this is that people might not stick around on my site for quite as long and this would affect my bounce rate, which I am currently obsessed with reducing.
   
   Do the pros outweigh the cons?

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   1. 69

      Peter Hogganposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      PageRank is a measure of inbound links and Hub Score or HubRank is a measure of outbound links. Hub Score and HubRank have nothing to do with HubPages in this instance.
      
      PageRank in itself is a rather superficial measure of authority because it doesn’t take into account anchor text, the relevancy of the page casting the link or any of the factors that are uses to calculate authority such as domain age...
      
      You can get a more comprehensive list of these factors here:
      
      http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-little-pie … m-revealed
      
      HubRank makes use of the same criteria but is based on who you link to. By analyzing who links to you and who you in turn link out to search engines can define your sites neighborhood. A good neighborhood will improve rankings. If you link out to low quality pages you lower the quality of your neighborhood and your HubRank. Conversely, linking out to high quality relevant sites will improve your neighborhood, Hubrank and search engine rankings.

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      brakel2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Recently I have only been linking to ranked pages that are, of course, important to my subject matter. I noticed that one of my hubs with page rank has good links like that. I guessed that it was a good idea. I have an SEO book that helps by Michael Miller. I always get good SEO answers in the forum by SEO expert hubbers too.

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      learner.brownposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      In terms of SEO, linking to another site with the keyword you are hoping to rank for as the anchor text WILL help you to rank in the search engines for that term. You will also be helping them rank for that same keyword, so choose wisely.
      
      If you just use the title of their site as the anchor text, it will not help you at all. Sorry.

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2. 68

   Bill Manningposted 13 years ago

   Yes it's good to link to other related sites high in PR. Google does see this as good and benefits your site at least a little.
   
   Just make sure it's related to your subject. I always make every link on my websites open in a new window. That way you have not really lost your customer.

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   girly_girl09posted 13 years ago

   thanks! I decided to put a few on my homepage and see how that works for the time being.

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4. 57

   NicheTrafficMastrposted 13 years ago

   It's a good strategy to link to higher PR sites than your own but don't over do it....obviously.
   
   The same as Bill everything that doesn't link to my site I link to open in a new page or tab.
   
   I also have been experimenting with the same kind of things with links and backlinks. One of the things I've been playing with is social bookmarking any of the pages I link to and pinging the site...assuming they have an rss feed, although pingomatic.com seems to work with just a url.
   
   It's something that I read about to help get the whole process started and attract the attention of the spiders. It seems to work ok.
   
   Good luck.

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      Peter Hogganposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn’t thank you for taking control of my browser and opening a new window. If I want a new widow I will open one.
      
      Think about usability, how do you normally return to a website you have previously visited? By using the back button. When you open a new window you reset the back button in that window which makes it difficult for internet novices and the visually impaired (or anyone who may not know that a new window has been opened) to get back to a page.
      
      If every link opened a new window finding previously visited pages would become a real nightmare.

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5. 73

   CarpetDiemposted 13 years ago

   SPAM link in comment above me?
   
   I've seen people speculate that linking to other sites will some how help, but I doubt it. If it was true, you can put a link to google on your homepage and then you should see your rankings go up... does that make sense. My guess is the link would only help google, not your site. But if you want to experiment, you can put links to several of my hubs and see if that helps you.
   In the end, it's who links to you, not who you link to (unless you link to bad sites, and then you can get in big trouble). IMHO

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   1. 73

      CarpetDiemposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      UPDATE: The comment I was referring to with the spammy link above my comment has been deleted (good job mods!). I was not talking about Peter.

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6. 94

   Susana Sposted 13 years ago

   What a lot of BS. You've put your link in several unrelated threads. Oh well, you'll be gone soon.

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   johnortonposted 13 years ago

   SEO is essentials for every online content which is present on web. Whether this is our hubs, our websites or articles on ezine or buzzle. SEO rules are applicable for every website even our hubs only. Some seo techniques are always helpful for our hubs for getting more traffic.

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   AlanZimmermanposted 13 years ago

   What I would add, aside from the other comments here...its all about context.  Google is getting smart enough to recognize not only the literal behind what you are writing and selling, but also the deeper meanings.
   
   So I give you an example, say you have a site that promotes an athletic product such as running shoes. If you were to link to a high page rank site, such as health.gov (PR 6), and also put some good contextual content around that link, you might actually be rewarded for your effort.  Putting a bunch of links under the heading "Resources" would not have the same effect.
   
   Hope that helps. Sounds like the #1 rank site ahead of you could be using some sort of link cloaking. What are you using to check their backlinks?

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