This post is intended to give an insight the main considerations we make when building links.
Page Rank:
- Pagerank as an algorithm works by examining relationships between similar content both on your site and 3rd party websites (links), freshness and relevance.
- Historically the more relevant links pointing at your site, the higher the page rank. (This is also true of non relevant links to a lesser degree).
- Each link is viewed by Google a vote indicating the credibility of your site.
- Page rank flows through links like water through pipes. E.g. If you link to your site from page rank 5 page, you will achieve a page rank of 2.
- Please be aware that if you link from a Pagerank 5 website. The page on that site may be page rank 0. Just because a root URL is page rank 5 does not mean the page on that site linking to your will also be page rank 5.
- Page rank is graded from 0-10 with 10 being the highest. The grading system is controlled by Google and usually updated every 3-6 months.
- Page rank is a contributing factor used to calculate the ranking of a website for desirable keywords and how frequently Google’s bot will review a site’s content looking for new content.
Notes on Trust Rank:
- Once SEO’s started to understand how Pagerank worked it became necessary for Google to modify the way it graded websites. One of the most important changes in the last few years is Trustrank.
- Trustrank works by looking at how many hops away from a trust hub your site is.
- Trusthubs are manually set points of authority accross the internet e.g. bbc.co.uk, google.com, cnn.com
- Pagerank and Trustrank work in tandem. Whilst Trust is not necessary to rank, in competitive niches it can make the difference.
- Trust insulates website owners against algorithmic bumbs such as Penguin/Panda.
Anatomy of a Good link.
- A link must come from a high quality relevant website.
- The link should pass page range (do-follow).
- The link should be located on page with Pagerank
- The domain/page the link is placed on should have a high trust flow.
- The anchor text used should be your company name, rank URL or be branded.
- Less than 2% of links built should use exact match anchor text if at all to satisfy Google’s Penguin Algorithm unless your site has sufficient trust.
- Links should be built on diverse platforms / IP ranges.
