Site Wide or Home Page Back-Link?

bytech · 11-27-2006, 11:17 AM

With IPB 2.2 around the corner, we'll be putting out new versions of the Mocha and Licht skins. I'm thinking of removing the forum wide back links, and just going for a back link from the forum home page. I figure the more natural looking links may be worth more, while the many links from the same site are not really giving any SE benefits anyway.

The only loss I can see would be the click-throughs, but as nice as they are, they don't appear to be doing anything for business or forum traffic.

Thoughts?

Shawn · 11-27-2006, 11:21 AM

From an seo point of view I would choose the home page link over the site wide. But if the site wide delivers traffic that may someday convert or is even the least bit worthwhile then I would stick with the site wide option.

Aviva · 11-27-2006, 11:23 AM

Hey Shawn - you've returned :-) Good to see you here!

Shawn · 11-27-2006, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aviva

Hey Shawn - you've returned :-) Good to see you here!

Yes sorry been too long

Good to see you too!

overdriveelectronics · 11-27-2006, 11:40 AM

Yeah i am going to have to agree, whichever brings the traffic is what I would stick to. I would probably want a homepage link more than a sitewide

Webfu · 11-27-2006, 01:33 PM

I'm all for the sitewide link if you trust the website you are getting it from.

bytech · 11-27-2006, 03:05 PM

Thanks for the comments so far... please keep in mind that I do not control who downloads and uses our skins, nor should it matter too much as inbound links themselves cannot hurt you.

Also, the click-through traffic has been very low quality. If I can take a hundred click-throughs that just come to see our page and don't buy or participate, and trade that for a higher SE listing that rankings for terms like "winnipeg web design", then I'm for it.

As nice as it feels to have lots of entries in the visitor stats log, at this point I couldn't care less for them if they are just grazing our site and not contributing to the community or business (we can get most of the branding benefits from the company logo in the forum credits, without the logo being an functional back link on each instance).

So, looking for further thoughts on SE benefits: lots of backlinks via hotlinked credit on all pages, OR, natural looking links with one backlink from the homepage of the forum.

Shawn · 11-27-2006, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bytech

nor should it matter too much as inbound links themselves cannot hurt you.

I disagree.

Anyway, given your explanation, I would recommend going with the homepage only then.

bytech · 11-27-2006, 03:36 PM

Thanks Shawn.

Not sure though how you can disagree about the inbound links not really being able to hurt a site: are you suggesting a person could create a bad site, and link to their competition to eliminate them?

euro · 11-27-2006, 05:31 PM

To many backlinks from site A too site B would dilute the PR value received from site A`s links. Maybe being flagged by the SE as spammy and untrusted.

solidghost · 11-27-2006, 05:38 PM

But won't that make it easier for a competitor to just do that?
Create a lot of pages, all with links pointing to your competitior.

bytech · 11-27-2006, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by solidghost

But won't that make it easier for a competitor to just do that?
Create a lot of pages, all with links pointing to your competitior.

Yes it would... that's why inbound links cannot hurt you. The damage I am worried about deals with future gains, or lack there of. I want to make sure I get all the benefits I can, because anything less is damage in itself. Beyond that, inbound links cannot do damage.

Shawn · 11-27-2006, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bytech

Not sure though how you can disagree about the inbound links not really being able to hurt a site: are you suggesting a person could create a bad site, and link to their competition to eliminate them?

Well, in theory I suppose yes, although in most scenerios, it would probably take more than that and you would need a pretty big budget to buy the site-wides. But for simplicity reasons I'll give an example.

Site A goes and gets sitewide links from 10 different websites totaling 1,000 links total in one months time.

Site B gets 1 link from 20 different related websites over 3 months time.

Which of these do you think will still be around in 6 months?

Point is site wide links are huge red flags.

euro · 11-27-2006, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by solidghost

But won't that make it easier for a competitor to just do that?
Create a lot of pages, all with links pointing to your competitior.

K I am bit sleepy....but this is what i am trying to say....it doesn`t matter about the inbound links coming into site B. Its the site they are coming from that gets its seeped PR value devalued/ diluted. So the full PR seepage site B would have received from Site A is decreased due to sitewide links to site B.

Site B is not penalised its site A thats penalised for spam linking.

Rule: Links were links need be. You could have 2 links on site A to Site B and be ok. Natural linking were needs be, Shawn is right in his point sitewide links wave big red flag....

But choice between sitewide and homepage...... Homepage all the way to the bank for SEO...

bytech · 11-27-2006, 07:49 PM

Thanks Euro, Shawn, and all others. I figured I'd drop the question before going to a single link from site wide, which is exactly what I'll do for our next versions of the skins.

solidghost · 11-28-2006, 02:54 AM

Ahh....thanks for the explanation.

John Scott · 01-11-2007, 02:45 AM

Sorry to bump.

Site-wide links are easily detected as paid links, whether are not they are in fact paid, and could be subject to devaluation/negation of value and/or penalty. I would go with the home page link, given those choices.

But what would be best would be a link from a relevant page on the website. A single, contextual link. (A link embedded in a sentence.) Ideally, the page title of the linking page should contain the keywords you are trying to rank for.

If you are trying to rank for "SEO Blog", the anchor text should be "SEO Blog", and the page title of the linking page should also be "SEO Blog".