Why does this work?

I constantly read from people like Jill Whalen about content is king as well as some of her biggest critics that Inbound Links (IBLs) are the answer. No matter which side of the "fence" you reside, it is interesting to see results.

That brings me to this:

I found a thread (different forum) pointing to the results of searching for "trip" or "the trip" (without quotes) on Google and finding www . thetrip . com high in the results. Now, I realize these are not the most highly contested search terms. It is still interesting to me to see this site get ranked at all (considering the content on the page as well as Google cache showing nothing not on page such as more content which has since been removed)...whew!

I would be very interested to learn the thoughts of others on this and if you have seen something to contradict what this looks to be (e.g. IBLs are THE deciding factor).

 

538 backlinks pointing to the site (probably most of them using The Trip as the anchor text). So....IBL are THE deciding factor. Well, ANCHOR TEXT of IBL, is probably THE deciding factor.

 

VSEO, there IS no fence to be either side of. A balnk page can be made to rank for almost anythig, as there is nothing to water down the anchor text. Sod all is going to happen when you get visitors there though lol.

For long term success and stability you need good content, good all reound on page SEO, and lots of relevant links. Relevant meaning links from relevant content pages, to pages of content on your site that match.

Sure you can bomb anything to the top for anything. If you had a page with the single work of 'black' on there, you could bomb it to the top for the word 'white' with enough anchor text 'white' links.

IBL is a short term strategy, NOT because you are using inbound links, but because you are making your optimisation one legged. Long term = all round SEO, Content, relevance of pages linking, & Anchor text of IB links.

Thats my take anyhow.

OWG

 

That is said often, and I would like to think there's some truth in it, because if there isn't then Google is even more barin-dead than it seems.

But what definite evidence is there that Google, or any of the SEs, really has a simple "relevance" measure that they can apply to a link from Page A to Page B? If I have a site about how to paint red cats blue, and in passing I use the phrase "Are we having fun yet?" and in parentheses provide a link to the "Zippy the Pinhead" site--is that a "relevant" link or not? By what measure? By the measure that cat-painting has little to do with the Zippy comic strip, it isn't (well, considering Zippy, arguably anything is relevant to it, but you get my drift). By the measure that I have quoted a phrase now famed enought to be found in most dictionaries of quotations, then linked to its attributed source, it is relevant.

So what is relevance? And if it is as indefinite as I for one believe it is, wouldn't applying any measure of it to weight the significance of links be doing a severe disservice to many of those links?

 

Google is using clustering technology to decide upon hubs and authorities within groups of interlinked sites. In London Matt Cutts clearly stated that more weight is giving to relevant pages than non relevant pages.

My guess is that they run some sort of Semantics comparison when they assemble the clusters. So, you end up with clusters of sites that either are/are not relevant to ach other, and links from those clusters being given more weight. Just a theory though.

 

While SE robots are blind to good content, a well designed website with good copy is important because:

1) your clients/customers are human, and most are persuaded by good copy, relevant content and a well designed website. The same reason why you do not want to hand out a badly designed and cheaply printed business card.

2) the more discerning human editors at DMOZ/yahoo! are able to appreciate useful content!

3) you're more likely to get an unsolicited link from a webmaster - if you have useful relevant content.

Item 1) above is likely to increase your site's revenue, and 2) and 3) give you high quality inbound links.