First Link Priority - Is Stompernet Wrong?: Don't just take the word of your favorite SEO blogger, learn to test.. http://tinyurl.com/qcwl9x
neyne
· 7 months ago
Hi Andy,
Actually in my"Second link doesn't count -rebunked" article you linked to the other day, I did the whole "nofollow" scenario. The first link was nofollowed and it had a rather rare anchor text and the site that the link targeted was still ranked for that keyphrase, while the second link didn't count.
Send me a mail and I will be glad to discuss details with you
Branko
Writers-$1000/Daily
· 7 months ago
I have to agree with the whole SEO business. SEO is fickle, and while one thing might work for others, it may not work for another website. All i know is the more backlinks you get from a high page rank dofollow source, the more your website will rank in a certain amount of time. Now, Google has starting banning sites who gain backlinks to quickly. They have also banned other websites for helping contribute to the spammnig problem like Squidoo and Go articles.
@Andy: Great discussion. Wasn't the 'unique anchor text' / 'single result for a query' called google whacking?
Does that mean I can simply prefix 'random adjectives' on my anchor text to ensure link juice is passed? I should test this out with one of my domains.
Synergy Space
· 7 months ago
I've had several pages on my site indexed that were only linked to with nofollow, I thought that pages needed a certain amount of PR to get indexed? In any case I'd be happy if the first link priority theory was proved wrong, then I don't have to figure out how to fix it.
Brett Pringle
· 7 months ago
Hey Andy,
I recall Rand also doing a similar experient awhile back, regarding which anchor text link counts, also referred to the anchor text link counted, while the 2nd duplicate is ignored. I've only seen a handfull of websites that use CSS effectively to keep navigation in the code below content (heck, still amazed that some designers still use inline styling still today)
With your point on the nofollowing of links, sure Google crawls and indexes, but would nofollowing not simply also mean for them not to count the "vote"? while still indexing the page/content, which would result in "unique" anchor text appearing for those unique searches?
I did test the basic theory of all of this last year, but I always had a unique anchor text in the first link.
Niche
· 7 months ago
Just some clarification on the first link thing. If I find some really obscure keyword phrase that has never before been used as an anchor link and use it to my benefits, what is the benefit of this. If the term is so obscure as an anchor link, what are the chances that ranking for this in the search engines getting a ton of searches
"As the tests I have seen used unique to the web anchor text, based upon what Halfdeck is saying, that is why the anchor text for the nofollowed links were used, and the second followed links were ignored for the anchor text.
Thus in theory, as a "Home" link is common as anchor text, if you nofollow it, Google will ignore it… totally."
First statement states that even if you nofollow the Home link they are still used. 2nd statement states if you nofollow the Home link that Google will ignore it totally.
This is good info to know if Google uses the first link/anchortext combination they find whether it's nofollow or not. My article was about Google ignoring it because it's nofollow.
Business Search -Guy
· 7 months ago
I have noticed that Google does follow some rel=”nofollow” tags and follows, and even in some cases indexed the nofollow pages, So why not nofollow links. I don’t know if the same alt text in images on the same page drops the second image link or not but I always put unique alt text on every image link anyway, always have. I also not waste my time on nofollow comments for link building and only comment on a blog with nofollow if I have an interest in the post and I have something to say about it. It’s a waist of time to comment just to build links anyway. If you like a post and it’s a dofollow blog and you add a comment and a URL all the better.
Kingpin
· 7 months ago
After just going through the 10 or so hours of Stomping the Search Engines 2.0, I've been desperately searching for more info on the first link priority theory, but its limited obviously. There are some interesting points brought up in the post.. which has left me more undecided in which direction to take :/
Thanks for the the Dan Ties video, hadn't come seen that one yet.
lexington law review
· 7 months ago
We actually just tested this by nofollowing our "home" link and then linking to the home page with our #1 keyword phrase. We moved up 7 spots in google from this.
AndyBeard
· 7 months ago
Well it looks lie you nofollowed the link with useful anchor text, and let the "home" link which appears first without a nofollow - totally illogical
In addition this isn't a useful test as there are too many external and factors.
Adding the link with a nofollow in this comment so people can see, but it is really bad SEO practice.
Vitaly
· 7 months ago
That Stompernet video does a great job of giving some basics on how to test and (as they intended) makes clear that for most of us it's not worth our time. As they point out as well one question in your testing is, is the result "useful." Most of the pagerank sculpting and other internal nofollow tricks strike me as dancing for today and may very well wind up being a big hassle to change yet again in the future.
Mark
· 6 months ago
good work on the Stompernet video. more power on SEO :)
Chris
· 5 months ago
Nice Findings there!!! But other videos on stompernet are good and very informative.
All Comments
Actually in my"Second link doesn't count -rebunked" article you linked to the other day, I did the whole "nofollow" scenario. The first link was nofollowed and it had a rather rare anchor text and the site that the link targeted was still ranked for that keyphrase, while the second link didn't count.
Send me a mail and I will be glad to discuss details with you
Branko
Does that mean I can simply prefix 'random adjectives' on my anchor text to ensure link juice is passed? I should test this out with one of my domains.
I recall Rand also doing a similar experient awhile back, regarding which anchor text link counts, also referred to the anchor text link counted, while the 2nd duplicate is ignored. I've only seen a handfull of websites that use CSS effectively to keep navigation in the code below content (heck, still amazed that some designers still use inline styling still today)
With your point on the nofollowing of links, sure Google crawls and indexes, but would nofollowing not simply also mean for them not to count the "vote"? while still indexing the page/content, which would result in "unique" anchor text appearing for those unique searches?
http://andybeard.eu/1605/wordpress-seo-themes.html
I did test the basic theory of all of this last year, but I always had a unique anchor text in the first link.
I'll checkout Stomper's video. Great post :)
I had a hard time understanding this
"As the tests I have seen used unique to the web anchor text, based upon what Halfdeck is saying, that is why the anchor text for the nofollowed links were used, and the second followed links were ignored for the anchor text.
Thus in theory, as a "Home" link is common as anchor text, if you nofollow it, Google will ignore it… totally."
First statement states that even if you nofollow the Home link they are still used.
2nd statement states if you nofollow the Home link that Google will ignore it totally.
This is good info to know if Google uses the first link/anchortext combination they find whether it's nofollow or not. My article was about Google ignoring it because it's nofollow.
Thanks for the the Dan Ties video, hadn't come seen that one yet.
In addition this isn't a useful test as there are too many external and factors.
Adding the link with a nofollow in this comment so people can see, but it is really bad SEO practice.