Link Popularity is to Homepage only?

[KevinC.]

Keep trying... to get this answered.

The fabled link popularity is for your homepage only, or for also all your internal page for your website too?

thanks Kevin C.

[ihelpyou]

If I understand you right then yes, for the whole site as some pages may link to other pages of your site other than the home page.

[KevinC.]

Thanks Doug,

So the internal pages within my site that have the forward slash.htm (/htm.) also benefit from the link popularity that my homepage receives.

(Damn this is hard to explain.)

Kevin C.

[Advisor]

Every page has it's own link popularity (or in google's case, PageRank). The inner pages don't necessarily have the same page rank as the main page. Usually they don't because not as many sites link to them.

Jill

[KevinC.]

Jill:

That's what I trying to figue out. I couldn't understand why someone who has a much lower link popularity rating than mine, was ranking higher than me until I noticed that that search term brought up this persons homepage but one of my obscure inner pages.

So if Doug is right and the inner pages ( i.e. the pages with the forward slash -- /htm.) benefit also and equally from link popularity that the homepage does, then that person ranked higher for some reason I not aware of.

If you are right, however, and the person ranked higher than me becasue my inner page doesn't receive the benefits of link popularity that my homepage does, then I'm really depressed.

If the 70+ outside sites pointing to my homepage don't benefit the other 100 pages in my site, why bother even making sure they're indexed? If this is the true situation, then one should spends one's time and money just really having the homepage indexed and optimizing that page to the max.

Kevin C.

[Advisor]

Kevin, it has always been my belief that optimizing your page is waaaaaaaay more important than link popularity. If you don't have an optimized page, your link pop. can only take you so far, and vice versa. You can't always tell by looking at backward links why someone ranks higher. It's just one very small part of most search engine's algorithms...even Googles.

Jill

[billy fullerton]

Hi Kevin,

Jill is spot on here. There is a lot more important factors that you have to satisfy before link popularity will give you an extra boost in rankings. Your page content is THE most important thing that matters here. If you get your content right and optimize your page properly you will reap the benifits.

Link Popularity does indeed apply to every page on your web site individually, but your home page is always going to be the page that you should have other websites pointing towards. Even the global navigation of your site all points to the homepage so you will benifit from the link pop from your internal links as well.

[3rd eye]

I managed to get one of my internal pages no.20 in Hotbot for 'internet marketing', that site has no links pointing to it other than the ones from my site and one from DMOZ. However my homepage is no where to be seen.

[Sharon & Roy]

Originally posted by KevinC.

Keep trying... to get this answered.

The fabled link popularity is for your homepage only, or for also all your internal page for your website too?

Hello Kevin,

Link popularity (PageRank for Google) is measured SEPARATELY for all pages.

Internal pages can and do benefit from their Home Page's importance and popularity, but that is not to say that an internal page cannot have MORE importance and popularity than its Home Page.

This domain is one such case.

PageRank3 for the Home Page ... http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/

PageRank6 for the Interior Page ... http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forum/


So the internal pages within my site that have the forward slash.htm (/htm.) also benefit from the link popularity that my homepage receives.

(Damn this is hard to explain.)

Yes.

Especially if you link to that page from your Home Page and the page has NO outbound links at all.

The more outbound links a page has, the more PageRank you will lose.

TIP: Don't create any outbound links from your Home Page unless you use javascript to do so, since Google doesn't index them, so they don't count against you when it comes to counting PageRank. This will then deliver the FULL PageRank your HomePage receives and distributes it back to your internal pages (the most important and those with no outbound links).

I couldn't understand why someone who has a much lower link popularity rating than mine, was ranking higher than me until I noticed that that search term brought up this persons homepage but one of my obscure inner pages.

Kevin, the link popularity rating (PageRank) is the SECOND PART of the equation for ranking pages and is NOT that important UNLESS there is a tie or a very close rating for 2 or more pages when the FIRST PART of the equation is calculated. Herein lies your confusion about link popularity and how your page ranks lower with a higher link pop.

Look here (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=24725#post24725) for an explanation of this.

Link popularity is the Roof, your content and keyword placement are the walls. The roof does you NO good, if you have no walls to place them on, right? The same can be said about link popularity (the roof).

and the inner pages ( i.e. the pages with the forward slash -- /htm.) benefit also and equally from link popularity that the homepage does

Kevin, the inner pages do benefit, BUT NOT equally.

For a quick lesson, let's say that you have 100 internal pages.

Now, do you want 100 links on your Home Page leading to each of your internal pages?

Even if you do, it would NOT be a good idea to do that.

A better idea, is to create a Site Map Page (a page that links TO every page in your site and a page that links FROM every page in your site).

So, let's say you link to just 10 internal pages (including the Site Map Page).

Now let's say that you have a total count of 1000 link popularity (PageRank) POINTS coming INTO your Home Page.

This number would need to be multiplied by 0.85 -- So you now have 850 points available to send OUT from your Home Page.

If you ONLY link to 10 internal pages, EACH page will now get 85 points of link popularity (PageRank).

So you see, Kevin, while the internal pages do benefit, the benefit is NOT equal.

If you are right, however, and the person ranked higher than me becasue my inner page doesn't receive the benefits of link popularity that my homepage does, then I'm really depressed.

If a page outranks yours and you have a higher PageRank, then they either have "better" Anchor Tag Text leading back to their page (i.e. they contain the keywords queried) or they have better keyword placement and better utilization of the important HTML tags used to determine rank or BOTH.

If the 70+ outside sites pointing to my homepage don't benefit the other 100 pages in my site, why bother even making sure they're indexed?

This statement gives us further evidence that you are confused about the IMPORTANCE of those "70+ outside sites pointing to my homepage" and you need to CONCENTRATE on the FIRST PART of the algorithm and do the "On The Page Optimization" before you start to focus on why another page with a lower amount of inbound links ranks higher.

They rank higher because their page is optimized better than yours.

If this is the true situation, then one should spends one's time and money just really having the homepage indexed and optimizing that page to the max.

You should optimize ALL your pages. Well, the ones you want to be ranked high, anyway.

ANY and ALL pages on your site have an EQUAL opportunity to rank high. (that is if you don't create too deep a subdirectory, keep it to no more than 1 level deep for the BEST results.)

[KevinC.]

Thanks Sharon and Roy:

Right now my site has about 6 important hotspots on the homepage. Each of those 6 "internal" pages then link to about 25 " other internal" pages each.

Thats about it, currently, I don't have anything linking to outside urls. It's totally self contained. All internal pages have a link back to the homepage.

Is a site map beneficial to ranking? I'm confused. Someone said it was, but them you seemed to imply that all that linking in a site map could decrease or dilute page ranking points.

What about links outbound to outside urls? Same question... making a link page as people do.

I do understand now that link popularity is not nearly as important as content. In fact, I notice on Google that with many search terms my internal pages rank higher than my home page entirely based on that the internal page has that specific search term in the title.

Kevin

[Sharon & Roy]

Originally posted by KevinC.

Thanks Sharon and Roy:

Is a site map beneficial to ranking? I'm confused.

Hi Kevin,

The short answer is, it could be, but not very much.

The site map page's MAIN function/purpose is to provide the search engine spiders with EASY access to INDEX your ENTIRE Web site.

Another purpose is to provide your visitors with a quick look and the ability to find what they are looking for, in other words, a quick way to navigate your ENTIRE site.

If designed properly it can help retain your SITE's "PageRank Points" which will eventually help your pages rank better, but again, NOT much, or as much as you seem to be asking about anyway.

Someone said it was, but them you seemed to imply that all that linking in a site map could decrease or dilute page ranking points.

Kevin, sorry, but you misread us. We NEVER implied anything of the kind.

You asked if your Home Page's link pop (PageRank) would equally benefit your internal pages ...

and the inner pages ( i.e. the pages with the forward slash -- /htm.) benefit also and equally from link popularity that the homepage does

We went on to explain that your internal pages DO benefit, but NOT equally.

What about links outbound to outside urls?

Links that lead out from your domain will take with them PageRank Points, of course, but if you link to "Expert Pages" then your page could end up being considered an "Authority Page" which is then a good thing.

What is MOST IMPORTANT and beneficial to you is the QUALITY of the page you link TO and the QUALITY of the page you link FROM.

Another factor to also consider when you link TO your page is the amount of links on that page.

For example, a PageRank6 page with 100 links on it is worth LESS to you than a link from a PageRank5 page with only 10 links on it.

For a very detailed understanding of PageRank, go here (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=916&perpage=100&pagenumber=1) ...

Same question... making a link page as people do.

To retain more of your PageRank Points, you should create a link (on your site/domain) to a brief review of EACH outbound link you create on your links page. More on that can also be found be visiting the above reference.

I do understand now that link popularity is not nearly as important as content.

EXACTLY.

Without optimized keyword content, you could have all the popularity in the world and it would not do you ANY good. Link popularity becomes beneficial and advantageous ONLY after your "On Page Ranking Techniques" have been optimized.

[nudetravel]

Kevin:

One of the things you might consider is if some of the (outside) links that are currently pointing to your home page should actually be pointing to a deeper page?

One of the things I do when requesting links is ask them point to the page on my site that is most relevant to THEIR site. This helps my internal pages link popularity, delivers good content to the user who follows the link and, I think, increases webmasters willingness to link to me without a reciprocal.

Just a thought.