Google and Linking

[jcohen]

Where can I get a true read on what Google does with links and how it values them? For instance is it more important for an outside website to link to my site (same category) or is the value higher when I return the "favor" with a link from my site to their site (same category)?

Thanks,
Joel

[alex-party]

Where to read, I can't tell now...maybe other members can help you with links to read....but I can try to answer your question.

1. "is it more important for an outside website to link to my site (same category)" - Yes! Get as many relative web sites pointing to yours, then Google will think your web site is important and start pay attention to it more often.

2. "is the value higher when I return the "favor" with a link from my site to their site (same category)" - NO! if you return the "favor", the value is LESS FOR YOU, but may be a good value for them, it depends on what PR your category has !

Hope it explained a bit,
Regards,
Alex

[jcohen]

Thanks for your reply. Another question regarding this. How important is the web site that links to my website (inbound) be in terms of Page Rank and position on Google ... and of course then vica versa, how important is my Page Rank and position on Google for their keyphrase I'm optimized for, be for the recipient of my link from me to them (outbound.)

Thanks joel

[alex-party]

I'll try to explain it simple.
Imagine situation:

Your page PR=2 <- ...........{A}....link.....{B}............... -> Their page PR=4.

{A} link from their page to yours -> can give you hopefully PR3, as their PR higher.
{B} link from your page to theirs -> don't effect their PR, as yours is lower.

Only higher rank having web pages can affect lower PR pages.

Regards,
Alex

[jcohen]

Thanks again for the speedy response.

From your reply, basically linking from my website with a higher PR to another website with a lower PR than mine, doesn't discount or devaluate my web site in Google's eyes.

joel

[jcohen]

The strength of a link in and out is not in the link itself, but in the PR of the originating web site?

[alex-party]

Originally Posted by jcohen

basically linking from my website with a higher PR to another website with a lower PR than mine, doesn't discount or devaluate my web site in Google's eyes.

Yes, the idea of linking from your web site to someone's else does not do anything for your PR! If only they link to you and their PR higher, makes a difference to PR.....I'm saying it's ROUGHLY!

Originally Posted by jcohen

The strength of a link in and out is not in the link itself, but in the PR of the originating web site?

Yes and no,
The link itself makes a fact that someone cares about your web site.
Then Google will decide how to measure the link strength based on many factors.
For example, If the cross-linking web sites has relative contents - good! If not, then this link may not affect PR at all! I've seen it with my own eyes. A link from PR5->PR2 did not make any difference on PR.

Only google knows how PR works, we can only guess based on our experience.

Hope this helps,
Alex

[alex-party]

Originally Posted by jcohen

Thanks again for the speedy response.

From your reply, basically linking from my website with a higher PR to another website with a lower PR than mine, doesn't discount or devaluate my web site in Google's eyes.

joel

It can probably devaluate YOUR web site "reputation" if the web site you're linking to has "bad/suspicious/irrelevant" contents or even worse - banned from google search. I would stay away from such web sites.

Let's see an exmaple:
You wrote an article about "iPod Mp3 player" {PR4} and you placed a link to "Dating Services" {PR2} which has nothing to do with your article ->
Visitors who will read this article are probably not interested in "Dating Services", right? Now, ask yourself - "is this link important?". Google may think so too!

Remember - Google represent people interests first who seek information! Not the link farms!