to link or not to link?

Hi All,

The question is - to link externally or not?

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

So, poor Yorick, to link, or not to link?

Best,
Borek
--
http://www.chembuddy.com - chemical calculators for labs and education
BATE - Base Acid Titration and Equilibria
program for pH calculations
CASC - Concentration and Solution Calculator
program for solution preparation and concentration conversions

Borek wrote:

Hi All,

The question is - to link externally or not?

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

Do the link(s) have value for your visitors? Yes/No?

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

John Bokma wrote:

Borek wrote:

Hi All,

The question is - to link externally or not?

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

Do the link(s) have value for your visitors? Yes/No?

Definitely link. That's what the Web is about, as long as your links are
justifiable. One of the wonderful things about the World Wide Web is that
you get contextual networks or channels. If nobody links, all that we get
is a bunch of islands whose only meaningful entities are metadata and
domain names. A site that has no external links will sooner or later be
considered a secluded, uninteresting source. Search Engines will have no
inclination to favour egocentric sites.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:42:01 +0200, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com>
wrote:

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

Do the link(s) have value for your visitors? Yes/No?

What if yes, what if not?

I am thinking about links to sites that contain similar material,
so these are links of value. But they steal part of my PR - will
it be compensated by the on-page factors in SERPs? And what is
better - links page, or links scattered throughout the site?
For the visitor links page will be IMHO more convenient, if links
are as on-page optimization, they should be scattered.

Best,
Borek
--
http://www.chembuddy.com - chemical calculators for labs and education
BATE - Base Acid Titration and Equilibria
program for pH calculations
CASC - Concentration and Solution Calculator
program for solution preparation and concentration conversions

"Borek" <borek (AT) parts (DOT) bpp.to.com.remove.pl> wrote

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:42:01 +0200, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com
wrote:

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

Do the link(s) have value for your visitors? Yes/No?

What if yes, what if not?

I am thinking about links to sites that contain similar material,
so these are links of value. But they steal part of my PR - will
it be compensated by the on-page factors in SERPs?

They don't steal PR you are giving it to them. Anyway, don't worry to much
about them going out. It works both ways with links. Links going to you and
links going out.

And what is
better - links page, or links scattered throughout the site?

It all depends on if the links going out match what the page is about or
really related to.

Stacey

<snip>

Roy Schestowitz wrote:

Definitely link. That's what the Web is about, as long as your links are
justifiable. One of the wonderful things about the World Wide Web is that
you get contextual networks or channels. If nobody links, all that we get
is a bunch of islands whose only meaningful entities are metadata and
domain names. A site that has no external links will sooner or later be
considered a secluded, uninteresting source. Search Engines will have no
inclination to favour egocentric sites.

Yup, I would say: link to sites that provide (very) relevant extra info to
your visitors.

I have sometimes the impression that people over SEO: they count the exact
number of keywords, the density, the number of links, the number of lines
before the content starts, etc, etc. Mostly based on rumours, and wrong
ideas. A waste of valuable time which often could be used to write another
page with good content, or adding a few interesting links.

Moreover, at a next update such a very fine "tuned" site can drop to
position #993 and it's game over.

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

Borek wrote:

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:42:01 +0200, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com
wrote:

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

Do the link(s) have value for your visitors? Yes/No?

What if yes,

Put them there: put your visitors first.

what if not?

Why would you put links on your site that have no value to your
visitors?

I am thinking about links to sites that contain similar material,
so these are links of value. But they steal part of my PR - will
it be compensated by the on-page factors in SERPs? And what is
better - links page, or links scattered throughout the site?

What is better for your *visitor*?

For the visitor links page will be IMHO more convenient,

I never go to someone's bookmarks collection. If I read about scorpions
I love to see 3-7 links to more info. Not: for more info, see our huge
(!) link page, and enjoy finding relevant links.

if links
are as on-page optimization, they should be scattered.

Try to see your site through the eyes of a visitor. That's what Google
is trying to do more and more.

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

Stacey wrote:

They don't steal PR you are giving it to them.

Read: PR leaking. And regarding PR leaking: some say it exists, some say it
doesn't.

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 11:19:09 -0400, "Stacey"
<stacey (AT) staceyssimplestuff (DOT) com> wrote:

"Borek" <borek (AT) parts (DOT) bpp.to.com.remove.pl> wrote in message
newsp.sr64zhka584cds (AT) borek (DOT) ..
On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:42:01 +0200, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com
wrote:

If I link I am loosing some of the 'PR power' that can be used to
increase PR of pages on my site.

At the same time if I link to external sites I should be ranked
higher, or at least that's what I read in several places.

Do the link(s) have value for your visitors? Yes/No?

What if yes, what if not?

I am thinking about links to sites that contain similar material,
so these are links of value. But they steal part of my PR - will
it be compensated by the on-page factors in SERPs?

They don't steal PR you are giving it to them. Anyway, don't worry to much
about them going out. It works both ways with links. Links going to you and
links going out.

Think of it like you're the Pope; if the Pope blesses Mother Theresa,
does he have less blessing afterwards?
Man. Weird shit, this PR. But You Guys Here got me into this!

BB

And what is
better - links page, or links scattered throughout the site?

It all depends on if the links going out match what the page is about or
really related to.

Stacey

snip

--
www.kruse.co.uk/ seo (AT) kruse (DOT) demon.co.uk
seo that watches the river flow...
--

On 11 Jun 2005 16:09:52 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Stacey wrote:

They don't steal PR you are giving it to them.

Read: PR leaking. And regarding PR leaking: some say it exists, some say it
doesn't.

It does exist and if you think PR doesn't leak you don't understand
how PR works.

BTW done the experiments that prove it, not going to publish the test
sites that show this as it's an on going test ( I want to know if PR
stops leaking in the future), if I post it here, it could ruin the
setup. I did post how to repeat the tests not that long back in a
thread discussing this with Bill, so feel free to look back and repeat
the tests for yourself.

David
--
Free Search Engine Optimization Tutorial
http://www.seo-gold.com/tutorial/