| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
mikeman
Pilot
Joined: 04 Oct 2002
Posts: 623
529 ants
|
 Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:32 pm Post subject: Links from Aardvark are Valuable |
 |
|
If you manage a travel website, you are well aware of the strange behavior of Google in recent months.
My five year old website experienced of loss of almost all its (reported) inbound links. We dropped from several hundred backlinks, to only 19. It is particularly unsettling, since I have spent these months adding links - only to see the count drop so dramatically.
Google seems to have a high regard for Aardvarkland. Links from Aardvark now make up 7 of the total 19 backlinks still reported by Google for my site. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
DarrenC
Pilot
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 774
Location: Leeds, England
360 ants
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 4:36 am Post subject: |
|
|
I agree links from Aardvark Travel can be valuable, but doesnt it all depend on the PR rating of the link? - if you pay any attention to PR rating that is!
I had 584 links from external sites, and now have 36 - to say its soul destroying is an understatement, I've started to build these up again, but it'll take sometime to get back to the heights of before..
The only good thing to come out of this is that I had around 250ish pages indexed on Google now I have nearly 600.. so the traffic has actually increased.
The problems in May thru to July really made me think about how I market my business and website and that's my reason really for not relying on Google anymore. Even though Google provide with a good volume of traffic with some very good keywords I have spent alot of time looking at SEO on MSN, ATW and others aswell as looking at good cpc advertising.
Darren 
_________________
Worldwide Holiday Homes | Travel Rants Blog | Florida Travel Guide |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mikeman
Pilot
Joined: 04 Oct 2002
Posts: 623
529 ants
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 4:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | but doesnt it all depend on the PR rating of the link? |
Google ranks the main pages of this forum and the travel net at PR6. These days, that is a pretty impressive page rank. The Aardvark links page itself shows a blank bar, but I assume that it has a PR4 or PR5 based on its close relations to the main pages. Also, Google is known to only report backlinks of PR4 or higher - and they do report a number of Aardvark links to my site.
So, yes the PR of the links matter, and Aardvark has a high enough PR to be important.
| Quote: | | - if you pay any attention to PR rating that is! |
I am convinced that Google is providing misleading feedback to webmasters these days. There is a clear discrepancy between the "real world" of traffic and search results, and the PR and backlinks they report to webmasters. As my PR and backlinks fell, my position on the Google search results held firm, and traffic from Google grew substancially. The "real world" results match very closely to the results I would have expected from the work I had been doing on my site.
So, no I don't rely on PR and backlink reports to make decisions anymore, I look to the traffic and search results. However, if Google is going to credit me with those Aardvark links, I am very pleased to have them. There are not many link pages out there that still have a PR4.
| Quote: | | have spent alot of time looking at SEO on MSN |
Have you found any way to improve your position on MSN without spending a lot of money? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
aaron
Airport Manager
Joined: 09 Sep 2002
Posts: 6544
Location: Aardvarkland
8722 ants
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mikeman wrote: | | Google ranks the main pages of this forum and the travel net at PR6. These days, that is a pretty impressive page rank. |
Yes, but one we're pretty disappointed with if the truth be known. The homepage used to be a PR7 and we hope to re-gain that in the not too distant future. We have secured links from a number of PR7's in recent weeks which will hopefully help tip the balance. (I'm assuming we're a high PR6 given that we used to be a PR7.)
Anyway, as I think has been eluded to already, it's all to easy to become too pre-occupied with PR. It is a measure of perceived Google popularity... not a measure of how much traffic you are getting or how successful your website or your business is. That should always be kept in perspective.
The main thing that I'm personally glad to see and hear is that people are benefitting from having links from this domain. That, to be honest, is probably the most rewarding aspect of all for us and long may it continue!
Aaron
_________________
Aardvark Map - custom maps for your site
Follow me on Twitter
Become an Aardvark fan on Facebook |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
safaris
Co-Pilot
Joined: 25 Apr 2003
Posts: 310
Location: Kenya
320 ants
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2003 7:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | The homepage used to be a PR7 and we hope to re-gain that in the not too distant future. We have secured links from a number of PR7's in recent weeks which will hopefully help tip the balance. (I'm assuming we're a high PR6 given that we used to be a PR7.) |
Kindly simplify the language for us or at least me i seem lost i do not have the slightest idea of what PR7 is i can only guess page ranking?? The reason , is that i am redoing my site completely adding tags and meta tags and i would really like to know the bits...
safaris.
_________________
wildlife safaris in East Africa
Twitter: africanroutesaf
www.africanroutesafaris.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
DarrenC
Pilot
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 774
Location: Leeds, England
360 ants
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2003 7:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
You dont have to spend a fortune on getting listed on MSN. Join Inktomi and you get into the MSN listings along with other search engines.
Relatively speaking Google is easy to get listed in - not so easy to get listed highly I agree but MSN takes more optimisation and work on the webmasters part. We are getting some good steady traffic from MSN and Lycos, but our main source of traffic is Google.
Personally I'm concerned that we all spend our time thinking about PR ratings and our listings on Google but we do not spend enough time looking at other marketing avenues.
Has anyone had any luck with AlltheWeb? I have a few good keywords in the top 10 and receive very little hits from them.
Yes it does take effort but not a great deal of money unless you go to an SEO company to do it for you.. and we wont go there 
Darren
_________________
Worldwide Holiday Homes | Travel Rants Blog | Florida Travel Guide |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
aaron
Airport Manager
Joined: 09 Sep 2002
Posts: 6544
Location: Aardvarkland
8722 ants
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2003 7:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
Hi safaris... PR refers to "PageRank"... here's the blurb from http://www.google.com/technology/
| Quote: | 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. |
Does that help?
Also, take a look at the Aardark business forums... there's a forum there's specifically for Web Marketing (as well as Web Design) where you might be able to pick up a few tips...
Aaron
_________________
Aardvark Map - custom maps for your site
Follow me on Twitter
Become an Aardvark fan on Facebook |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
