A "Top Ranking" hiding in your site?
"After more than 6 years… I have not met a site where I could not create ranking improvements from internal linking changes alone".
– Leslie Rohde, GoingNaturalSix Video #2 – "Referential Integrity Rocks!"
But what does SEO have to do with my business… or my LIFE?
Valerie Van Booven, mother of toddler twins, has every excuse not to succeed online. But instead, she chooses to educate herself on how to make her business boom using the SEO strategies she learned in "Stomping the Search Engines 2″ and "The Net Effect" each month. So how are her results?
Using strategies she learned from StomperNet's expert faculty, she sold out one product in just one hour, earning her $15,000 dollars in sales! In ONE HOUR! Income like that allows her to enjoy more free time – something a 'twin mommy' can use plenty of!
Another incredible true story. Thanks to Valerie for sending us this! If you want to know more (much, much more) about StomperNet SEO and "The Net Effect" Action Journal that Valerie talked about, we've got GREAT news for you! Our "Stomping the Search Engines 2″ flagship SEO course is BACK NOW! And you can get BOTH STSE2 and TNE for an insanely affordable price: Just $1!
NOTE: If you missed Part 1 of this video, you can watch it here.
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Speak Your Mind
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"Really interesting article, thanks!"
That is such a great video. It explains optimization and Google ranking so well! I'm looking forward to another!
This is really good info Thanks!
Good stuff.
What a great resource, i didn't know that changing a structure of a website it could prove your rankings.
Great information! Great video. I learned so much useful information. Time to get this stuff into action!
Thanks!
Between what we have learned from Leslie, Dan, Jerry, David, Sherman… EVERYBODY basically, I know we have made thousands more in profit than the amount I have paid.
really that's something I needed to know..
The videos are great!
This is also a test to see if my nickname provides link juice to a related site.
Brian
I was able to use this strategy to fix my internal links and completely change my websites rankings. This video is the defintive seo solution.
Wow! I really enjoyed that presentation. I've got so much to tweak on my site after having watched about the internal linking strategies. Thank you!
I love this article,I was searching for similar information. Thanks for it and i promise that i will be visiting here often from now !
Hey, great post there! Im first time here visited your blog, definitely will visit back later, keep it up
The video really clarified the relationship between topic, reputation and confirmation was so well explained it's amazing you fitted it in i under 20 minutes.
The synergy of combining all 3 to get that sweet spot is something that is often overlooked by a lot of product pushers out there.
Michael James
http://www.messagestickmedia.com.au
It's amazing to find how this is everything we need, yet a lot of people tend to overcomplicate things.
Topic + Reputation + Confirmation = Top Rankings
Leslie's stuff is amazing. These videos helped me understand how Google actually works. The whole internal linking thing is empowering because all of a sudden I have control over my links.
Brilliant video, really well structured and explained.
Great video.
I had always wanted to learn more about SEO and this video really hits the spot. Great info on SEO.
Keep up the good work.
seen Leslie Rohde's two videos from StomperNet's Going Natural series
Thanks for the videos! You guys rock. I have always been a newbie and had so many things in my mind about SEO that needs some answer. These vids help me a lot.
I also have a question – does URLs with .asp or .aspx extensions pass on PR? Considering the links on that page are dofollow. Please help.
Thanks a bunch!
Rommel
Stupendous video you brought total google transparency to life. thanks
forex trading system
Great method of explaining the ranking methodology. It has been my experience that Google prefers the outside links. Thanks for providing this information. I will recommend it to others!
You Guys are a truly the best in the business!!! Thanks for sharing your helpful resources !!!
Wow, you guys are the bomb! I would have never figured this out on my own in my life. I was about to get my rankings up and increase my traffic by about 25%!!!! Thanks so much StomperNet, I love you guys.
Hi there
I am interested in your feedback on two things; firstly drop down menu's ad the top navigation bar and how well they are picked up by Google.
Secondly I am looking at having my website redesigned in Wordpress, any thoughts on this and if you know if Google sees this as bad or good?
Cheers
Jon
Why do you guys keep giving away such powerful information for free?? I'm just glad that I am a member of Stompernet and my competition IS NOT!! We have been climbing the ranks for all our keywords and even dominate 7 out of 10 listings on page one for one of our keyword phrases!!
Between what we have learned from Leslie, Dan, Jerry, David, Sherman… EVERYBODY basically, I know we have made thousands more in profit than the amount I have paid.
Keep us on the cutting edge and I'll be a customer for life.
Thomas
There are many "SEO gurus" floating around the web, and not all of them offer good information. You are definitely one of the better sources of SEO info out there. Thanks!
This is just superb. John, SEO UK, UK
I've gone through StSE2 and this is a great synopsis of a lot of the valuable information you put in there. It only makes sense for the Google algorithm to find consistent relevance in order to rank keywords properly. While the algorithm functions nicely for finding quality sites that are "confirmed" by outside pages, knowing how to connect your site properly to itself is tremendously valuable. A surprising number of people are unaware of details on how to do this, but this video will most likely enlighten many.
I was listening to some of your teachings today from the stse2, which was about using the nofollow tag on sone of the links on the frontpage and I was editing the link to the frontpage, which of course was to the index.php file, but I was thinking about if I should add the nofollow tag to the cart link, the login and logout link plus some links to choosing language, which are all the first links in the html of my sourcecode.
you chaps at stomper certainly turn the traditional seo myths and beliefs. I have follwed you for a while now and your stuff really works.
I love it
thanks
Thank You Leslie!! I'm so glad I found your info before I spent hours trying to decipher LSI lingo, and its obtuse theories. Keep it simple. Before this video, I had no idea of the importance of internal linking anchor text. I modified my footer linking keywords, and jumped in both my Google and MSN ranking for a site I haven't even finished yet. I hit #10 in MSN for one of my keywords. I'm eager to learn more.
Leslie, great video. In regards to link priority, how are image links handled? Even if I use the table cell trick to change the order of my code, for a typical category page my category or product image will still be positioned before my keyword rich text link (image and text both link to the same place). Wouldn't this still be a problem even if I position the content section above the nav bar in html?
Also, should I use nofollow on my category/product image links (which link to the same place as the text link) and on other image links like the header logo and "Home" menu button? thanks!
Absolutely brilliant! Stompernet is the best. Presentation is so professional and without hype. Moreover, subject matter is top end stuff, critical to successful net marketing. I just love the cool, succinct way you guys present it. Even a technical dunderhead like me an understand it. Thanks!
Very nicely done!! I assume the Topic – Reputation – Confirmation scenario can be applied to blogs just the same, at least in terms of general site structure, but since blogs and individual posts tend to often be more free-form, would you have any specific suggestions on structure of a “post” for best SEO? Thanks! Tom
Great explanatioin ! I've been using internal linking to improve the ranking of sevaral of my websites and now have 5 electrical tyhemed websites on the first page of Google for their relevant 'truths' or keywords.
great stuff – it's confirmed to me what I need to work on, so I'm off now to create more internal links!
Leslie,
As user/client of STSE2, I find your information invaluable. Thanks for adding this video to the blog. The STES2 videos are made for watching several times. At least for me anyway.
this page is intense. love the music. thanks.
Excellent Top Notch SEO Video – "Referential Integrity Rocks."
Hey Leslie what do you think of the storm of warriors rubbishing your video at: http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-ppc-seo-discussion-forum/74577-google-myth-lsi-revealed.html
Is there any truth to what they're saying? Is your research incomplete on this RI?
Thank you for these amazing videos. I've learned more about search engines in a few minutes from just watching two videos than every other source put together in the last 10 years.
You guys are so cool and smart.
Leslie, thank you for the informative video. I have a couple of questions in relation to the structure of my site. I would be very grateful to have your answers and look forward to the next product launch as I have not had the opportunity to purchase any Stomper products yet.
1. Anchor text to my pages include the key words PLUS additional words. The same applies to the title of each page. Does the inclusion of the additional words in the anchor text and title harm the relevance to the keyword or is it ok to leave as it is?
2. On my category pages there are two links to each individual page – one with the anchor text referred to in my first question, and a second 'read more' link. Should I change my 'read more' links to optimised anchor text? If so should they read 'read more about [keyword]' or just '[keyword]'?
Thank you very much.
Both good questions Nathan.
1. The additional words do not detract from the positive effect of your keywords in either links or title, so if this is the way these links should read for best human experience than leave them as is.
2. This is a great deal more involved. The 'read more' link is baggage that I prefer not to have associated with a target page and in those cases where "First Link Priority" is found these sorts of links can significantly mess with your Link Reputation. At a minimum I would nofollow the 'read more' links but the better solution I think is to segment the content so that each section stands along and is then followed by a list of links to the next parts — almost a small "table of contents". The text on your page could introduce this small table of article titles with 'read more….' but that is no longer a link — the keyword rich article titles are now the link text.
Leslie,
while answering to nathan's question you said that segregating the contents is a better way. So one should increase the use of keywords as much as possible while making a page? or should have less but quality keywords?
The video is very helpful..
Thanks
Leslie,
I watched the video three times but did not pick up a definitive answer if using a partial keyword phrase in your Nav Bar is acceptable if you have the full keyword phrase in the footer.
Thanks for all of the great info. Y'all rock!
Dan
Quick question for Leslie -
Ok, so I've spent a good bit of time today learning about LSI (and this whole deal regarding SVD, co-occurance, etc.), trying to understand what it is, so that I can see for myself why its something that is not in use in the Google algorithm.
I eventually found my way here, and through piecing together what the heck some of this stuff is, this helped seal the deal – http://www.miislita.com/information-retrieval-tutorial/svd-lsi-tutorial-5-lsi-keyword-research-co-occurrence.html
With that aside, where is a good resource for the way that search engines *do* work? By the way, I do own Stomping the Search Engines 2.
Oh, and big THANKS to everyone involved in that (Andy, Brad, other Andy, Dan, Leslie, and Jerry) – pretty much owe you guys for every SEO client I've ever had.
While I think STSE2 has some of the greatest, most actionable SEO content available, period, I'm just curious if there's more stuff out there on a "higher level" about the "hairy matrix math" of how they really work.
I understand your comment made on another blog about not trying to create scientists but empowered business people – totally respect that and believe that's the right way to go for StomperNet's customer base. Just curious about some other "theoretical" goodness for those of us who might wish to check it out.
Thanks again,
Chris
Great video! I have just begun to try and build and improve my internal linking. It is simply not simple. I have, at this point, about 30% of my traffic coming from Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Regards,
Jeromy
I watched your video over amonth ago and made 10 internal link changes based on your recommendations. I have increased traffic to my site by over 5% in a month! Great information – Thanks for real world traffic generating tips.
Thanks for the great video Leslie, by far the best description of internatl linking and link text consistency that we've seen so far. Keep putting out the good work and we'll keep sending it on to all our people!
Regards,
Pete
I love it!
Some of the stuff on the video i have covered on my blog
http://centuryhouse.net/backlink-anchor-text-optimization/
having links on the
navbar
sidebar
in your article
footer
is important, and not many people do it.
Hi,
Excellent presentation of ideas and it is expected that there should be more to say about internal and external linking strategies…
Great video. This is my first time watching the video. I do agree with most of what your saying, and that there is more than just 1 Lsi factor, but I don't agree that Lsi in theory does not exist. Great job guys.
Great stuff Leslie. Looking forward for more!
All I can say in response to this vid is
B E A UTIFUL.
I appreciate the work with all my heart. Good job.
Thank you very much for the eye-opening videos that left me somewhat concerned about what I am trying to accomplish, e.g. improving the PR for a graphically-driven website (link) that contains little 'traditional' content.
This video just opened my eyes. Just awesome
Nice video.. I think Stompernet always give us a valuable information. Thanks again.
Very informative and entertaining video.
I appreciate your explanation of the relationship between Topic, Reputation and Confirmation. Makes it very clear and easy to understand.
I also liked the advice about correcting any incomplete links (or half truths) on a site, in order to get higher rankings and better quality traffic.
As usual, Stompernet creates another valuable resource for the public. Leslie Rohde gives a solid description of how Google views links and determines their relationship to the page topic.
What I think is most impressive about stompernet is that it fully embodies that web 2.0 mantra of transparency and the free exchange of great information. The key is that you do it without harming your business model, and then explain your business model as a shiney example of how it should be done. Well done boys. Take pride in knowing you are that first slimey creature that crawled out of the ocean to see if there was any food on land. By the way happy easter everyone.
David Wolf
http://orlandosearchenginemarketing.com
Thanks for the great video. I subscribe to The Net Effect and the monthly DVD and the information your team put out are just invaluable. Just need to structure my time so I can implement all of them!
Thanks again,
Francis
Lots of good information on SEO and how it applies. The "voice" made it even mor interesting as this topic can be quite boring at times. That aside, the video hit the nail on the head and drove it home.
Excellent video content, Google ranking factors in a nutshell..
Great work.
This suff is well, what can I say, Its just great stuff keep up the good work guys
Thank you
Guys you keep rolling out these great vidoes, and for free thanks alot please keep up the good work. Cant wait for the next one.
Fantastic informatiom. Maybe it's time to sign up for StomperNet.
This is amazing information, and just goes to show what I've been telling friends before about the evolvement of the mind of Google as an entity unto itself – it almost seems as something awakening into sentience. If you want to know how Google thinks, just look at how humans do! ^_~
Excellent! I never paid much attention to LSI because I didn't fully get it. My rankings never seemed to suffer because of it. Now I know why. Thanks!
Leslie,
Great videos and clear explanations. I just took a quick glance at my sites and realized right away that my "reputation" is sorely lacking. I have created a significant amount of "confirmation" and that is what is powering my sites up the SE rankings at the current time.
Thanks again!
Olan
Without a doubt, the best information I have seen on SEO. Thank you for sharing, and I will certainly be at the next conference.
Again, fantastic information. The only part I would caution is the ratio of on-site vs. off-site linking. I still think it is weighted 80%-95% off-site links. I tested this theory and got a #1 ranking nationwide for a phrase THAT DID NOT APPEAR ANYWHERE ON MY SITE—NONE OF THE WORDS. I love experimenting, same as you all. Wish I had more time to do it.
BTW, since the words did not appear on my site, Google's Algorithm actually CREATED them for the SERP listing, based on the external anchor text. Obviously, it's not a preferred method of SEO; but it shows how unbelievably advanced the algo is. It is the closest thing to AI that I've ever seen. Maybe Google is the real SkyNet?! Or maybe I'm just an SEO geek…sigh.
Yes, Google is building SkyNet. Statements the founders have made about AI confirm this. This year's Google April 1st joke further illustrates it.
This is very intriguing, and important. The question is, are the links a confirmation, or where the real juice for keywords comes from? When you tested, were you using phrases that were also on other websites? In other words, maybe Google gave you a high ranking because those phrases were not in other websites, not in your website, and therefore Google resorted to using phrases from the off-site links?
thanks!
Links both on-site and off-site contribute Link Reputation in the same way and more-or-less the same degree. For small sites with little opportunity for internal linking, the external links will be the primary source of reputation whereas for larger sites reputation can be controlled through on-site linking alone. In all cases however there is a need for some links from other sites as a "trust filter". This is the most holistic and ill-defined aspect of Google ranking and is therefore the subject of the most controversy and ongoing research.
I totally agree on this matter, internal linking, semantic mark up is the kwy to SEO in general..
Great video.
One question though. The technique of putting the full search term in the footer links…
Yahoo already disregard footer links in their algorithm and there is evidence that Google is also beginning to devalue footer links. Might this necessitate a different strategy for internal linking?
Leslie,
Does a Wordpress blog, with an SEO plugin (slugs are keyword rich, categories as well, etc.)automatically optimize you for on-page and on-site SEO?
Also, how much does updated content have to do with ranking?
Great job on the videos, as usual!
Thanks,
Howard
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing
Leslie with respects to linking and body copy for a service business. I'm not sure if I could run into some penalty if I use the same copy for multiple towns.
Since we have multiple towns we want to rank for (in my case 37) if I want the page copy to be the same (because it converts well), but change the title tags for each town, the h1,h2 with that towns name in the body copy, will that become a concern with google for duplicate content?
Secondly, since I offer multiple services, ie carpet cleaning, carpet repair, oriental rug cleaning, etc. So if google is on a carpet cleaning page, they would find in the footer all my towns I clean, then a link to my carpet repair, oriental rug and other service categories.
So if I add those links to all those towns on the footer nav, plus link to the my other categories, will google devalue those links or look at that as spam?
If so, is their a more effective way (other then a just a site map)to get those links found without penalty?
This would be a huge benefit for localized seo services who deal with more geo base seo.
Look forward to your thoughts on this?
Andre'
Awesome video. Not often these days that i will stop and take notes on content delivered from a random incoming email. Leslie, you know your stuff and I'm grateful to be receiving some of your wisdom. Interesting for me to note that confirmation is third most important as I'd been placing most of my attention on getting anchor text links in .edu and .gov sites recently, but I am going instead to focus on getting my 'reputation' 100% optimised first before moving on to the 'sexier' process of chasing down external anchor text links.
Observation – The work of an SEO expert on a website can never legitimately be said to be complete. (ie SEO = Good market to be in!)
Although 90% of your information was known, it's nothing with the missing 10% you gave me in your video's.
Waiting to get more supreme tips from you!
Great video. I have been creating websites for ten years, and I decided early on that the best thing to do is to simply make sites as natural as possible. I have tried to more or less ignore all the SPAM techniques, and just organize the info the way I would like to see it if I were visiting the site. The structure that evolved for me over time is validated by your thoughtful work. Thanks so much!
Great Job! Finally someone is revealing how to get better Google page location without calling "Secrets to getting on Google page 1″ for $1235.
Leslie, powerful yet easy to understand 'topic', 'reputation' and 'confirmation' for us mortals who daily need your godly outpourings for hope and optimism in an ever complexifying world. I mean, 'thank you' Leslie. Geoff D.
Given what you explained in the video…
Can you explain why on Brad's site – myweddingfavors.com that all links are nofollowed. Not just the home page… but every page.
I would have expected that the site would be sculpted with nofollow.
But I can not find the (internal) links to the pages.
Fantastic video! Wow. It all makes sense to me now. Thank you Leslie! Is she available for private consulting?
Anita Lay
Thank you very much for this. Great to have you back and thanks for emailing me, new Stompers.
Great staff.
Keep the good work flowing.
Michael.
Hi Leslie,
What a great video, common sense, easy to understand with effective graphics. I am in the middle of designing a new WP site and after watching this I think I will have to think again LOL, fantastic work, keep the video's coming,
best regards,
Mal.
As usual, fantastic info, each time I watch a video, I make a change to my site. It's great motivation for 1. making the changes, 2. knowing that the changes made should bring some results.
this first link property is very interesting term. I have used linking internally, but did not think it was such a big deal. How did u know that linking internally is worth great weight? Great insights Leslie!
West Coast Vinyl
Great info, you Stomper guys are awesome. Off to make some changes on my internal linking!
Thanks!
I have to say that you guys at Stomernet Rock. I got STSE 2 and my rankings did improve. With the extra traffic I was able to double sales. Thanks.
Great Video Leslie. As always you guys at StomperNet are pushing the envelope with great information. Looking forward to the next installment.
Do you know if these videos will be made available with The Net Effort subscribers?
Thank you Leslie and your amazing team. I'm learning so much from you guys. I just need another 10 hours each day to keep learning and then 10 more to implement it!
Looking forward to GN6.3
Kathy
Hi Leslie
Great video!
Thanks
Harley
Just not sure how to confirm if my topic, reputation and confirmation are working on my site..my google ranks are coming up…I just linked all my galleries, any other suggestions. I love your videos…so interesting.
I have learned alot in stomperNet, and your video is right on. I have no problem with ranking at the top for some of my key words along with city names like table top glass phoenix. Leslie, How can I rank well with my other services like auto glass repair and then each of the citys? Mesa, Chandler and so on with out making it look like spam?
Thanks
Steven
http://www.desertbreezeglass.com
I never miss any of the StomperNet videos. Great content (and I love the expression "anything can be overdone") with precise, sensible, easily implementable suggestions! Great delivery – what a master you are in creating these videos. How much time it must have taken to produce one video of this kind with superb editing! And giving away all this for free is just unimaginable. No wonder StomperNet members also get a lot of google love because of the good reputation StomperNet has established for itself. Finally, as a retired teacher I appreciate the way you can translate complex concepts into easily swallowable capsules that get absorbed in others' systems with immediate effect.
Great stuff, Leslie.
So, after watching this, who is now the King of SEO?
Content
or
Links.
It is an interesting discussion, because I understand the value of large sites, but I think one-way inbound links may soon be the new king…
Yeah,Great video!!A better way to Rank higher. Thanks
I just think StomperNet information is incredible. We're a small New Zealand registered not-for-profit trying to sell The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better® multi-media resource online. Over the past 4 years I've been learning about internet marketing and StomperNet has helped so much. It's still taking us time to repair mistakes, create more websites that are more keyword specific to this vast topic called pregnancy/childbirth … but we'll get there.
I just want to thank everyone at StomperNet. The next thing I want you guys to do is help me and others develop more online course for resources such as ours. We supply it both in hard copy and digital download but the material would take very well to online course presentation.
Thanks
Wintergreen (yup, that's a name)
http://www.thepinkkit.com
http://thepinkkitforpositivebirth.blogspot.com
Wow, I love it when I find something simple but straightforward that helps me with my websites. Thanks so much! Keep up the great work. I'm going to send everyone to see this! Elisabeth at Creative Wealth
Leslie, great information! You and the Stomper group are always pushing the free line … thanks, joe
You lads are fantastic.
Thanks for the info, video and all.. It's just awsome!
Any easy way to check a site for ranking? Like what page are on Google-page #x
Thanks,
Peter
Leslie,
I have given a similar presentation many times via the whiteboard and how you managed to pack all that information in to 20 minutes is pretty impressive. Side note: we tell our clients all the time to build internal links. It is one of the most often missed yet powerful rankings factors.
Arnie
If the video had cut out half way through I would have already had a full list of notes to get me started on my site revisions. You guys do a great job with the quality of information and I wish I could download these videos to my iPod so I could review them on long flights. Great work!
You guys had me all worried for a minute with what you were going to say after the LSI video. I am right in the middle of redoing my internal linking to conform to teachings you guys have already posted, and I thought – Oh No! – Leslie is going to tell me a new way of structuring my internal links that are hot off the press!
But I can breathe again as you've reinforced the direction you've been preaching for awhile. But this is the best explanation I've seen of the teaching. Thanks.
Thanks,
Cliff
Does footer links still matter. I have seen lot of people discussing about Footer links devalued by various search engines. But I am not sure. Here is link to a post
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/footer-link-optimization-for-search-engines-user-experience
Any testing you have done about footer links which proves what you said in video. I have seen many places talking about only FIRST link is counted on a page. So say that link is in left navigation bar and then you put say 3 words link to same page in footer, that might not count.
This video is shows me things I never knew before. A lot to take in so a few showings is in portant I think. I will follow the ideas in my own business.
Definitely blow out all the mysterious Google rankings and SEO. I always follow you guys and look forward to your next nice professional video and …
Non stoppable StomperNet!
Excellent video Leslie. The best clear & concise video I've seen to date! I have a question regarding the # of page links one should include in the template footer (bottom bar of the website); Would you recommend having links to as many pages as possible? or keeping it to the high level pages only and including the rest on a sitemap page? Google webmaster guidelines suggests having no more than 100 links on any given page. Are these navigation links a part of that consideration (i.e. top, left, and foot navigation?) Thanks in advance for your reply. All the best,
MissyK
Missy,
Linking provides two functions, one for humans so they will stick around on your site to find what they want and second to control Link Reputation and Google PageRank.
For humans, we want to provide lots of navigation options whereas for Google we will likely want to narrow the linking we use so a to more effectively control the allocation of PageRank within our site.
If you find the need for lots of footer links, it is likely that your PageRank Sculpting is far less narrow than would be most beneficial for your business. I use only as many footer links as I actually need and need is based on the two requirements that (a) I am following a link to the page and (b) the link I am following is incomplete due to layout limitations. This should generally not be a large number of pages.
Thank you lots of excellent information..
Sending Smiles:)
Margie D
Very interesting video..
I'm just getting into the SEO world, wanting to know more and this stuff's really helpful..I can't believe I hadn't found it before.
I was wondering, what if a site uses all images to link to it's other pages, does that completely defeat the purpose of internal linking?
Thanks Mike and that's a great question.
Image linking is certainly not the best because it does not include the visible text that both humans and search engines use to access the meaning of the target page — what is called "Link Reputation". There is some preliminary evidence that the image alt attribute will in some cases substitute for link text, but the experiments on this have not been consistent.
Dan and Jerry and I explain all of this in detail in StSE2 and the TNE.
In fact, the next video will show folks how they can run some of these tests themselves.
Since being an NetEffect subscriber, we have gotten some great stuff from you guys! We are seeing great ranking results for some of our sites. Thanks for this beefed-up dramatical performance as "confirmation" of importance to these strategies
One of the best videos I've ever watched! Usually I'd much rather read something than watch a video but this was excellently done, no fluff, clear, beautifully presented, great graphics. A masterclass not only in the subject but also in how to present.
A great follow-up to the original video!
What's your take on the idea that certain areas of a page are discounted in terms of the link "juice" they pass? In particular, the somewhat recent notion that footer links are less effective than they used to be or that site wide links are pretty much ignored?
Thanks!
Dan and Jerry and I are constantly running experiments and discussing our results on this sort of thing and so far have not reach unanimity on these two items in particular (they interact, so it is really one issue involving several cases). In general, it is my opinion that location on the page does not matter, though there is some evidence that the first link to a given page gets priority and that auto-detection of templated links, if active at all, is not a factor at all.
This recommendation might change. I am running a large statistical study now that I hope will answer these questions definitively. In the meantime, because of the unsettled nature of this question, we explain "First Link Priority" in StSE2 module 4 and provide specific recommendations for how to avoid it entirely as a risk factor.
Great video and perfect explanation.
All the information that we receive from Stomper members, is invaluable.
You are really a complete faculty team, very clear and understandable.
Thanks for all these lessons.
carlosvasconc@gmail.com
http://www.seo-top-10.com
State of the art video graphics! I much prefer this technique of learning. I'll bet it's got Andy Jenkins's fingerprints all over it : )
Leslie should be the voice on "This Week in the NFL".
Thanks for Raising the Bar for the Industry,
Glen
The first time we see the REPUTATION column slide its refered to as an OFF-Page factor… but the second time when its explained in detail as "internal linking", that clearly is ON-page and CONFIRMATION is the OFF-page factor.
?
Linking between pages on your site is still off-page, but on-site. The linking from off-site is what I am calling "Confirmation".
Remember that Google ranks pages, not sites, so the linking between pages, even when occurring within the same site, are off-page and count very strongly to the ranking of your pages.
This whole sites vs. pages thing is easy to get confused so thanks for your question and the chance to clear that up.
info rocks can we have more please
Great info, I need to apply some of this to my other sites, simple but powerful changes.
WOW! Thanks Leslie for putting this together. Of all of our sites, our largest has the least amount of external links but we have used the internal site linking structure you describe in this video and it has served us very well. Where can I see the first video in this series?
Hi there – you can see Part 1 here on our blog – you can use this link as a shortcut. Enjoy!
I really enjoyed this video.
I still have questions about how to balance optimizing single pages for single phrases versus varying the keyword phrases on those page with different spellings and modifiers. I have product names that can be spelled different ways and various modifiers that mean the same thing, etc.
For example, pig roasters, pig cookers, hog roasters, hog cookers (plus the singular versions of these). Then you have gas, propane; charcoal, wood; etc.
I would appreciate your input or maybe more videos to address this.
Thanks again.
Lavern Gingerich
??? Yes I share the confusion!
Video #1 states that "google does not use LSI"
Video #2 states that its a three step process and step one "is identical to LSI" its then compared to a kinda LSI on links before returning results.
Many people use LSI to THEME websites with the belief that Themeing and siloing will/can increase rankings???
QUESTION: Can LSI applied to, THEMEING a website, and supporting a webpage's target keyword with semantic words actually result in higher rankings for fewer backlinks?
???
Step 1 in nearly all indexing algorithms is the same. The difference is in the later steps which is highlighted in the video.
As to the use of the various definitions of themes, truth is not what I believe, it is only what I can measure, and try as I have, I have never found any "cross-page topical effect" — which includes themes as a special case — to have any influence on ranking.
Moreover, the very distinct search results for words that are closely related semantically is clear indication that semantically related words indeed do not influence ranking.
Leslie,
This is the first in the series that I have seen and all I can say is Brilliant! This is like taking a college class in SEO. You are the first person that I have heard mention the importance of using the footer in the process. I cannot wait for the next video!
This was the best information That I have found as to just how google determines how a site will rank for a key work great job and thanks for the info.
Excellent stuff once again. Being relatively new to all this, my Easter weekend is going to be taken up with studying, LOL!
Thanks
Peter
Wow! I love this video and explain so clearly about optimization and Google ranking stuff! I'm looking forward for another!
Great Stuff! Keep bringing us more stuff for SEO. Thanks. Matt
Leslie – Great stuff. Looking forward to even more
At last a structured and clear way to present the "Topic", "Reputation" and "Confirmation" concept in SEO. Marvelous job, Leslie.
Nice Work Leslie, Thanks
If we can not fit all of the text link in our nav bar, but can place the entire text link in our body or footer, would you then place a "nofollow" tag on the text in the nav bar?
Also, how important do you consider silo sites?
Thanks,
Steve
To nofollow the nav bar or not in this case is a bit of complex area because of some on-going study and we do touch on it in StSE2.
I posted a lengthy response on siloing in the comments for the first video so do please look there for a more complete treatment. In general, siloing is a very powerful technique when used with Link Reputation and PageRank Sculpting in mind.
Leslie… I have to admit that between you and Jerry West, there are no others I have learned more form when it comes to SEO. Great video, great explanation… and damn… great video graphics!
Bravo!!!!!!!!!! a perfect ending
We have been doing this since 1999 by mainly using Leslie Rohde's optilink/optispider programs. A must have for any SEO expert out there.
On a separate topic, but one that seems not to follow the rules in this video… I have been looking further at the recent "big brand" effect and the lift that the big brands have been getting on some search results. (more at seobook*com/google-branding)
Leslie, I would love to hear your opinion on this "big brand" effect…
Thanks for the feedback and the great plug
To your question …
Eric Schmidt's comments, and all this "brand noise" can be traced to that one source, are both non-technical and forward-looking. Considering these as done and implemented is premature at the very least. Also, I really only see this effect for navigational queries, which we believe are handled through specialized algorithms and manual cleaning. A more generalized brand effect that is not cued by the domain name is simply not in evidence as far as I can find.
Moreover, the only thing the brand commentary has ever implied is the brand would rank for the brand. Fine. Let'em have it. Meanwhile, the big office retailers rank for their names, but not for any of the items they sell.
To paraphrase … we don't need no stinkin' brand.
Thanks for the reply to my question.
How do you explain the big brand sites showing up for some high traffic KW's that are not their brand but highly converting general KW's?
Most of these big brand sites were very far back 100+ SERPs and now on the 1st page…
I look forward to your reply.
I agree… we don't need no stinkin' big brands on the 1st page
Wonderful. Internal links is the way to go and the fastest too. Thanks for the reminder. I learned this from STSE2.