There is always a lot of chat about how Google value different kind of links. Here are three important videos from Matt Cutts and Google that I think you should look through if you haven’t already done so. Also subscribe to their channel as they post about a video a week, sometimes more often.

It is friday so why don’t kick back and watch some vids right?

You shouldn’t always trust Google, especially when it comes to what works and what doesn’t. It is important however to follow changes in what they say. These are four videos of about 14 hrs (yes I’ve seen them all) of videos from the Google Webmaster account. These videos are solely about how they view links from different sources.

1. Social Links

The important thing that Matt says in this video is that they look at each web page individually. Authority links are more important than no authority links. Page Rank is what is a face value of authority, but there are many other aspects that are calculated into a web page’s authority. On topic, LSI, co-citation etc. Page Rank gives you a rough estimate if the web page is harmful or if it is good for you though but you cannot solely depend upon it.

Social links are usually not followed. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build them. All links that Google find to your website are good although they do not pass page rank. In a natural link profile, there are nofollow links included, so don’t forget them when building your link profile.

2. Linking to Friends

This is basically an ethical discussion. The nofollow attirbute is discussed in some detail and Matt doesn’t give away anything new. The video is important however as it takes aim at what other aspects than paid links that might not be accepted by google.

3. Matt Cutts on Reciprocal Press links

In this video Matt discuss press links. Reciprocal links are also a part of your natural link profile, but your links should not only be to websites that have linked to you. Variations are important and if you put the user/brand thoughts in the center of your analysis you will end up on a good place.

4. On Blog Comment Spam

Again, Matt discusses the nofollow attribute but he also mentions some really interesting points about servers and spammer tactics that are important to take into your blog comment tactics. Do not behave in a spammy way as he describes here, but behave naturally and they won’t notice. There is this excellent wordpress plugin called pingcrawl that can help you out with some automatic pingback reciprocal linking. This might come in handy when you are building weaker domains in the beginning. As a compliment to normal link building, naturally.

That’s my contribution to the friday afternoon/evening. Have fun

//Jesper

One of the major misconceptions of the modern web is that websites still exist. Websites are institutions on the web, often depicted as an organizational scheme, never too seldom used to show the content of a domain with the name “sitemap”.

As modern web users we all know that this stopped being the case a couple of years back. Still however, we use these kind of images to depict our websites. Why? Well, my guess is, that it is easy and pedagogical within an institution to display its web “face” in the same fashion as the oranisational schemes people are used too. Fair enough. But with regards to SEO, this view of a website can be very hassardous.

Google as the startpage
Since Google decided to take over the web, it has become more and more important for oranizations to become visible on the search engine result pages. Simply enough this is due to the fact that people search, and they like to search. People like to compare and given the 10 options of a search engine result page, they are satisfied that they are given enough options to choose. Now, most people choose one of the first three choices in a search result, but they still find this as being a choice in front of the other nine that was out there to grab.

Google has for many become the real start page of the entire web. They do not go to a website to start their exploration or search endeavors. They go to Google. Then they click what ever link Google presents to them. Naturally, and as you probably allready know. Most of those links presented to you in the search result do not lead to the “start page” of websites. It leads to web pages.

Start page, site section and a webpage
This is why some people (I think actually the designers started this chat) argue that every page on your website needs to be treated as a “start page” and not only the page that pops up when you type in your domain name.

You can in many cases, if you work well with your keywords, on-site optimization, internal link structure and inbound link baits, make specific pages rank for specific keywords. Thus, when you think of your website on the modern web, and with SEO ambitions at heart, please start thinking in terms of themes and topics.

When I say that each page should work as a start page, I do not mean it should be a start page for the entire website. (Remember, the only page of your site that should include all the links to all your important pages is the sitemap.) I mean that every page should belong to a theme and should therefore be presented as a start page of that theme. Given the topic of that specific web page, it decides what kind of content you open up in your theme on this “theme start page”.

Example of a theme start page
A theme start page only displays the topic of that specific page – ie, the webpage content minus all the navigation. Then the theme start page takes into account that there is related information within the same theme on the domain.

Cause you want to show Google and your users that you have more on the topic. Imagine a user lands on a page, searching for “apple pie”. The user might be searching for a picture of apple pie, a recepie, or just some kind of story about apple pie. By using theme start pages, you can easily satisfy the needs of the user.

As far as Google is concerned, you show that you know a lot about this topic apple pie. Enough to be an authority. Perhaps you have a link to “other delicious pies” giving Google and the users a chance to have a look at what else you have on your website. BAH… I am really expressing myself horribly.

The Modern view of a website
Basically, what I want to make sure is that you view each and every page of your website as a sub-section to the Google start page. Thus you connect related webpages on your site so that the user can find his or her way no matter where they came from.

Thus every pages becomes a start page, a site section and a webpage in itself. If you don’t have the relevant information on your website, then link to another website that has the information. That way you put your website in the same neigborhood as good articles within the same theme. Sometimes it is even better to connect your webpage to a webpage within another domain. Especially if you are a newbie on the block and need some big friends around to keep you protected.

Concluding remarks
Your website is not your organization on the web, it is a number of webpages grouped and linked together in the context of a domain. Each and every webpage you have has to compete with all webpages about the same thing on the web. Offcourse it helps to have good genes (good domain) just as in real life, but you really need to understand that in the end we are all alone if we do not connect to others. (hmm… I’m sure you get the point by now… I will try to explain this better in another post if you don’t.)