EzSEO Newsletter # 10
Who was voted the
Best Web Host by my
newsletter subscribers?
Find Out in the
Top 9 Web Hosting services review.
Andy Williams ez SEO
ezseonews.com
Hello again
This last week has been great for me. A lot of feedback from my last newsletter, which is always welcome. Keep it coming. One person in particular wrote to say that he disagreed with something I wrote last week. This guy is an SEO expert who knows his stuff, What did he disagree with? Is he right, and I am wrong? Read on. This issue is going to be a one off with the SEO course put on hold until next week, so that I can explain it all to you.
Reminder: If you have missed any of this series, you can read all of the archived versions online at:
Search engine optimization newsletter archives
THIS WEEKS ROUNDUP
For those of you who read my free "Niche Keyword Research Report",
Niche keyword research article
you might be interested in having a look at some new software I reviewed this week. I say new, it isn't really. I have known about it for some time. However, now in version 2, it really is interesting. 1st Position is another keyword research tool. What sets this apart from the competition is that it will find the number of competing sites on Google by searching with the keyword phrase in quotations. This is something I have been telling you is vital for good Niche Keyword Research. You can read my review at:
If you have not yet bought Nichefinder,
this might be an alternative. My leaning is still towards Nichefinder, because of the greater number of keywords it can retrieve as well as having a little more "intelligence" in the way it finds those keywords. In addition, by using he Nichefinder Results Analyzer software that I wrote (and you can get for free if you buy Nichefinder from the above web page), you can edit/delete/manipulate your results, and output them in a variety of ways.
Google Experiment Update:
Well, not much has happened yet with the Google experiment. You will remember that just over a week ago I changed the web page to try to get better rankings. The changes I made have still not been picked up by Google. When they are, I would expect this page to rise above its current #5 position, but let's wait and see. SEO is a funny old game!
That's it for the roundup this week. Let's get on with this weeks newsletter.
RIGHT OR WRONG
OK, I got an e-mail from a subscriber to this newsletter called Brad. This guy is an SEO professional - who by the way offers an outstanding service at
I could certainly not beat his price OR his guarantee!
Brad wrote to me and told me that he did not agree with this statement I made last week:
"In the world of SEO and link reputation, the web page that will provide the highest reputation boost to your page is the one that HAS THE HIGHEST PR. Simple as that."
His reasoning was that there was no evidence that he knew of to suggest that Link Reputation and Page Rank were linkes in a synergistic manner as I have stated. He suggested that they only worked independently of one another, and that all search results could be explained in terms of PR and Link Reputation working separately. i.e.:
BRAD WROTE : "In other words, all things being equal, a higher Page RANK site will rank higher than a lower page ran site.
And between two sites with equal rank, the one with the better
reputation wins."
Brad is certainly correct in what he says here. Results can be explained in this manner. However, one thing you need to remember is that my ramblings are written from my own experience. I have a hunch, or gut instinct that tells me that PR and Link Reputation are not just two unrelated properties of a web page. Can I prove it? No! Does it matter? No! Does it change the way you need to link? CERTAINLY NOT!
The point here is that we both agree that Link Reputation and Page Rank are a formidable tool that you can use to get top rankings. Follow the advise in these newsletters and you can rank high.
You might be wondering why we don't set up an experiment to prove it one way or another. Great idea. If anyone has any suggestions as to how we could do this fairly, I will give you a free copy of my Sitemap Creator software. Your suggestion has to be valid though, with the potential to answer this question one way or the other.
You see the problem is this. Look at the first part of Brad's statement:
"In other words, all things being equal, a higher Page RANK site will rank higher than a lower page ran site."
The problem with proving this statement is the "all things being equal" statement. All things will never be equal. A higher PR site got its higher PR from the links to it. The links to the lower PR site were obviously different links, resulting in a lower PR, therefore things cannot be equal.
In Brad's second statement:
"And between two sites with equal rank, the one with the better
reputation wins."
This is easier to test. We can control PR and the link text in any experiment. All we need to do is create two identical pages, and link to them both from a single web page, but using different link text. Let's take an example:
Webpage A is about "car fenders"
Webpage B is identical to webpage A
Webpage C links to A using the link text "car fenders"
Webpage C links to B using the link text "car repairs"
Which one will rank higher for "car fenders"?
Which one will rank higher for "car repairs"?
The answers should be obvious.
Of course the big problem with this is that Google will identify the two pages as duplicate content and only index one of them. This is not too hard to overcome, but it does show the problems we are up against.
Can you see the problems faced with finding evidence of PR and Link Reputation working in synergy?
This week has certainly made me question my own SEO beliefs which have been formulated over the last 2 years of working online.
THE BOTTOM LINE.
It really does not matter which of us is correct. The bottom line is this:
Getting links from high PR sites using the Link Text YOU decide on, is the way to get top search engine rankings.
A link from a high PR site using YOUR link text (primary keyword of the page they are linking to), will always give your page a better ranking boost than a link from a lower PR site using the same link text.
The only thing we cannot decide on for sure is whether it ranks higher because of the PR, or the Link Reputation brought about by a higher PR link.
My main point here, is this:
Even if they are two separate entities, they both work together in deciding where your page ends up in Google.
IT DOES NOT REALLY MATTER - YOU CANNOT TREAT PR AND LINK REPUTATION AS TWO SEPARATE ENTITIES.
I hope you followed me in this issue. Next week we will hopefully be back on track with our series.
We only have a couple more issues before the course is effectively over. We will then be looking at specific areas of a webmasters job together with the tools she/he can use to help accomplish their goals. We have already had a request to discuss server side includes, so if anyone else has suggestions, please let me have them.
Speak to you next week.
####################################
Visit the subscriber Bonus page for free reports and other subscriber-only offers:
Search Engine Optimization Ezine
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please recommend it to your friends. Also if you have any tips of your own, questions or comments, please send then to me at [REMOVED - USE CONTACT US LINK]. Any tips or questions & answers I print in this newsletter will also be put up on the web version of the newsletter with a link to your site
if you want it. That's extra free traffic for your site as well as an incoming link to your site.
Join our search engine optimization newsletter
Join our internet marketing newsletter |
 |
Whenever possible, set up a new e-mail address when subscribing to a newsletter. e.g. ezSEOnewsletter@yahoo.com. This prevents your main e-mail address being used for spamming by unscrupulous companies who may sell their mailing list addresses to spammers. It also makes it quick and pain free to unsubscribe, should your attempts to unsubscribe fail. Just delete the e-mail address. |
