End of Month-Check Your Links

[HHI Golf Guy]

Did you know that linking to a "bad neighborhood" may cause your own site to drop in search engine rankings (especially in Google). It's true - we have had it happen to some of our sites. Once we removed the offending links we climbed back up in the rankings.

You should get in the habit of checking your outbound links each month. Yes, this is a time consuming process, but it is well worth the effort.

What too look for:


Broken links
Sites that have lost their Google Page rank
Sites that are no longer indexed by the Big 3 search engines (G, Y!, and MSN)
Verify that reciprocal links are in fact linking back to your site


Remember, with both your inbound and outbound links - quality supercedes quantity. (I'm sure that 50% of SEO or Web Developers will say the opposite is true - but we stick with what we know provides results for our clients).

[San Diego Real Estate]

HHI Golf Guy...

You are exactly right I just had that happen to one of my sites because I didn't slow down to check! !!!!!It's a Must !!!!!! ;)

[jimj]

I better go back through mine. I have been stacking em on for months without going back in to check. Gee....how fun :rolleyes:

[San Diego Real Estate]

JimJ it is an absolute must! I went from a PR 4 to a 3 last update because I had not kept them in check! ;)

Have fun!

[HHI Golf Guy]

One of our sites ranked #5 for our primary key phrase on Google. The other day it dropped to #22. Considering no content changes were made to the site except for adding a few links, that's way too big a drop to see unless something is terribly wrong - especially when the rest of the SERP's didn't show a big bounce.

When I did my EOM link check I find 3 offending sites and promptly removed them. Google has since spidered the pages again, and now the site is at #4 for most of the data centers.

I cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these bad links were the cause of the drop in SERP's. However, the site held a stable position +/- 1 place for an extended period of time, and once the offending links were removed and the pages spidered again the site came back in a position better than it's original position.

Draw your own conclusions. But it certainly doesn't hurt to verify your links.

[San Diego Real Estate]

Great example HHI Golf Guy of how important this really is! I can tell you first hand that you can't let this slip or it can really effect your results! ;)

[Jade456]

What a pain in the ..... :eek: I do agree with quality versus quantity.

[San Diego Real Estate]

Jade you are so right Quality is the RULE! ;)

[Jade456]

More and more it is the on page content, not the page rank too. Those that are getting hung up on pr are going to take a hit I think.

[HHI Golf Guy]

More and more it is the on page content, not the page rank too. Those that are getting hung up on pr are going to take a hit I think.

They already did with the last Google shakeup in February :D

[Real Estate Forum]

Quality survives long term, hang with the best and be one of the best.
I have never joined the coop because of that, too scarry ... never know who joins : forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=10555

Sometimes you need to use your instinct and get to know the webmaster a little.

A lot of shady people out there and when Google catches on, you become guilty by association quickly.

[Real Estate Forum]

has anyone seen GoogleGuy's post yet? http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3279&page=2&pp=20

[San Diego Real Estate]

No Mike... please fill us in! ;)

[Real Estate Forum]

his post seems long winded but really isn't. He just points out what a bad neighborhood can look like and reaffirms the fact that linking to those can "take you down with them".

[San Diego Real Estate]

Thanks Mike...Another great example of what to do and what not to do! ;)

[divicohen]

I had a PR 5 and 6 for a month than I got dropped to 3 - 4 but I can't seem to find the "bad" links,
my links page is: http://www.divinemoving.com/linkspage.html

home: http://www.divinemoving.com


point it out if you see something wrong....
thanks

[Real Estate Forum]

hmmmm ... looks all good to me. Anybody else?

[divicohen]

I forgot to mention that the rankings didn't go down I am still in the same area first page on most keywords(but PR is down to 4)
I hope they will not fall.

[Real Estate Forum]

I would not worry about PR, only rankings. I know a lot of high PR sites with no rankings and vice versa.
Google itself states that PageRank is "for entertainment purposes only".
It still means something but I would not pay too much attention to it.

[San Diego Real Estate]

Mike once again Great Advice...Been there done that! ;)

[San Diego Real Estate]

Jade you are right if your links were not in order in Feb you were made aware! :rolleyes:

[HHI Golf Guy]

I had a PR 5 and 6 for a month than I got dropped to 3 - 4 but I can't seem to find the "bad" links

Bad links won't effect your PR, but they may cause your rankings to drop.

As far as any drop that you may experience in PR, just remember that while you are trying to increase your PR. millions of other webmasters and SEO gurus are working on their sites. Everytime G updates PR, the baseline changes. So the same criteria that allows a site to be a PR6 one month might only equate to a PR4 the next month. PR threshhold levels are a moving target.

Does PR matter? According to Google it does. In fact, if you get a hold of the right person by email they will tell you that "...our automated PageRank algorithm lies at the heart of our technology. PageRank takes into account not only the content on the page in question, but also the quality and anchor text of the links that point to that page." (Actual quote from one of the many messages I have received from G).

However, I believe that the PR ranking that Google uses in their SERP's is much different than the PR that we see on the toolbar.

[Las Vegas Real Estate]

GREAT information. I'm copying & pasting into a .doc I'm keeping... a tutorial of important tidbits. Thanks for the insights.