Poking myself in the eye?

baldlygo · 01-12-2004, 04:57 AM

I am trying to give my web visitors plenty of links to Shropshire tourist sites for their information. Having learnt much from this forum I am now thinking that the links I provide are diluting my own PR in relation to my own other Sites that I DO what to promote.
So I gather it would benefit me if I hide the tourist links from robots in some way. Am I right in thinking this way?
If yes - would it be better to use Javascript, robots.txt or any other way?

Johan007 · 01-12-2004, 06:08 AM

robots.txt is best.

I dont think its worth it though cos a site cant leek that much PR to effect SERPs

I, Brian · 01-12-2004, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baldlygo

I am trying to give my web visitors plenty of links to Shropshire tourist sites for their information. Having learnt much from this forum I am now thinking that the links I provide are diluting my own PR in relation to my own other Sites that I DO what to promote.
So I gather it would benefit me if I hide the tourist links from robots in some way. Am I right in thinking this way?
If yes - would it be better to use Javascript, robots.txt or any other way?

If you have lots of pages with lots of outgoing links on each page it can affect how much PR you distribute about your internal pages.

In this instance, as you have few pages, I would say that PR is not a great concern.

Get the links in first. Using a forum sig link here is a good start, but get listed in dierctories such as DMOZ, and start a link exchange with other B&Bs from other areas, if you can.

Think more about getting many links to your site. That's the real biggie for you at the moment.

I, Brian · 01-12-2004, 08:07 AM

PS - To be honest, I'd look at getting your own domain name and little webhosting package, if I were you, as well.

baldlygo · 01-12-2004, 09:01 AM

I suppose I was worried because I have a Links page with 50 og links - and no ic links picked up yet.
I have had one paid B&B portal - www.go2.co.uk but this has not shown up as an ic link either.
I am working on DMOZ but it is in a waiting state. I will be looking at others shortly.
I use the fsnet name since it is using my normal Anytime ISP access. I could have easily added a domain to my pre-existing hosting package but was not aware of there being any particular disadvantage (apart from choosing a name which would help with Shropshire B&B keywords)

I, Brian · 01-12-2004, 11:18 AM

Well...with your own domain name you have branding and improved marketability. After all, think of how you would communicate your domain name to prospective customers over the phone. The shorter the better. ISP names in a domain - in my personal opinion - make a website look amateur. So does free web hosting, such as tripod and geocities, where host advertising distracts from the content of your own site.

Even more simply - a business (again, IMO) neesd to look professional about absolutely everything, wherever possible. On the internet, that means a decent domain name for starters (you should be able to pick one up from most places of around £10-£15 - - - or try www.123reg.co.uk for les than half that).

Then webhosting - again, the costs are absolutely minimal - if you host from the US you could get a decent starter package for around £3/month - check out somewhere such as www.fluidhosting.com in Boston - close enough to be well connected to the internet backbone crossing the Atlantic. Connectivity issues with the US for a website such as yours should *not* be a problem, so long as you're not hosting from a backwater datacenter.

So - for your own domain name, and proper webhosting (which will include a range of jiucy features - not just stats packages all inclusive) - it would cost you the princely sum of around £7.50 - and £3 month after.

Even the poorest business should be able to pay for that. And, in return, you can a better basic presentation, plus various professional hosting goodies to boot.

For example, a favoured technique of mine is to add a directory to new sites (for some webhosts this is merely a single click from an admin panel to set up). That way you can set up a proper link exchange program with non-competitors, and siets of related interest (for example, tourist attractions may consider listing you on a page of recommended accomodations - and if they don't, recommend they do - the smaller ones may just take your suggestion on board.

There's a real freedom you can have as a webmaster - much of which you simply cannot have on free ISP space. Have a look, and feel free to run some questions by on potential hosts.

baldlygo · 01-13-2004, 04:44 AM

Thanks for that Brian. I agree with what you say. I could add another .co.uk to my existing hosting for £1.99 per year.
In our small B&B example we only really need to get across our location, price and phone number. It needs to be seen on keywords Shropshire Bed and breakfast - I cant think of any other that might help. We are not on a main road and we can't afford the £300 per year for Tourist board listing - bearing in mind we can only have one visitor at a time (£10 profit a night?). We are already paying £60 per year for extra home insurance cover. So you can see we need the pr for Google visibility.
It has taken me 6 months to get this far with the fsnet domain - if we chose another domain wouldn't we be back to square one?
Armed with the good advice received here I think I just need to work on the more backlinks - preferably from sites which are not accommodation.

Johan007 · 01-13-2004, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baldlygo

It needs to be seen on keywords Shropshire Bed and breakfast

What about the towns in Shropshire?

I, Brian · 01-13-2004, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baldlygo

I think I just need to work on the more backlinks - preferably from sites which are not accommodation.

Good idea - except try to get similar content where you can, and that means other B&B's (preferably in completely different areas, ie, non-competitors).

The reason being is that it could give your backlinks extra weight on some of Google's calculations.

baldlygo · 01-13-2004, 07:06 AM

John - The nearest town is Oswestry (5 miles) and that will be my DMOZ category. I presume anyone specifying Oswestry in a search is not likely to go 5 miles out - even if we are the best B&B in the world

baldlygo · 01-15-2004, 04:04 AM

Quote:

LocalRank doesn't actually deal with relevance - that algo is for devaluing links across the same IP range.

I,Brian - from another thread (any BB help nearby - can't remember quote syntax!)

I have been linking my various sites together but most are hosted on my main hosting package. Does this mean I will might suffer on LocalRank from this? And is this another reason why a completely different host/provider is a better option?

Johan007 · 01-15-2004, 04:56 AM

There is no proof of that hosting domains and urls under the same IP has an effect. I can host 10 domains on my IP and each site seems to act independently of each other when toolbar PR is given.

If your practices are ethical then don’t worry about it.

Emancipator · 01-15-2004, 05:02 AM

Johan is correct on the IP issue. You can host more then one domain on one IP and it will not affect PR given so long as your domain alias is setup right. I am also using the same method on some sites.

With that said doing this you can NOT find backlinks to these sites. It is an interesting problem that I am not sure if it is my setup, or a generic issue. Can you see your backlinks Johan?

Johan007 · 01-15-2004, 05:26 AM

yes I can see 100% of any backlinks between linking the sites up - make sure pages have PR of 3 or more.

Emancipator · 01-15-2004, 05:27 AM

That is not a question. I am going to assume it is my alias definition then.

I, Brian · 01-15-2004, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baldlygo

Quote:

LocalRank doesn't actually deal with relevance - that algo is for devaluing links across the same IP range.

I,Brian - from another thread (any BB help nearby - can't remember quote syntax!)

I have been linking my various sites together but most are hosted on my main hosting package. Does this mean I will might suffer on LocalRank from this? And is this another reason why a completely different host/provider is a better option?

Okay - let's mix up the topics, then!

As for LocalRank - it's one of a handful of powerful algos Google has under its belt. Some are suspected of being applied already to some dergee, some may not be applied at all.

One point about LocalRank - also known as LocalScore - is that, if I remember the paper right, part of it implicitly states that links from the same IP range (ie, XX.XX.XX.different = XX.XX.XX.same) can be devalued.

Now, for most sites that isn't going to be a problem.

But in SEO terms it means this needs taking into consideration.

Some SEOs may build links networks and drop them quickly and easily. My own policy would be to make link networks resilient to Google updates, so I have a number of hosting packages across different datacenters.

So for your own sites, if interlinking - it may help in the long-term to have them spread across entirely different IP ranegs. But, really, there's far more basic SEO to take care of first. Backlinks is the priority - and if LocalRank causes you pain, you can easily open up hosting accounts elsewhere (the US hostnig market is very competitive - just make sure you get a .co.uk for local listings).