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white hat link cloaking

by monere
14 replies
hi

i just finished reading a report from jason potash of traffickaboom about 4 on-page SEO things we should do to improve SE rankings, traffic, and page rank of our websites.

And one of these steps was about internal linking. More specifically, the guys showed us how a typical blog (probably 90% of the blogs out there) have awful internal linking structure. Each page on our blogs links to each and all the other pages, creating a total mess (a spaghetti blog as they call it) for the search engines, therefore decreasing our page rank and probably SE rankings as well.

And the solution they gave for fixing this and for uncluttering the internal linking of our blogs was to mask (to cloak, but in a google friendly way) some of the links that provide no value to the SEs (about us, tos, privacy policy, contact us, etc.)

They showed how to do this using some javascript. While they did give instructions on how the js code should look like, and what to put where, after reading the 3 page report on this issue about 5-6 times, I am still clueless of how many lines of code to put EXACTLY where. They just said "put this line of code into the header" but didn't say the header of what. Even though I have a simple wordpress theme installed on one of blogs I wanted to optimize using their methods, there are many possible places where that code could go to (the header of the index.php page, the header of the page.php page, or the header of the header.php page).

And that's only one thing that left me wondering how to do everything. There were few other unanswered questions as well, and all of these together only left me confused and wanting to give up using javascript

Anyway, to make a long story short, does anybody have any idea how to unclutter the internal linking of a blogs so that it doesn't look like that plate of spaghetti anymore? Anything would do as long as doesn't involve interpreting things. A free plugin that can do these things would be great. Even using coding will be ok. But only if specific instructions are given, without leaving me to interpret things.

Thanks
#cloaking #hat #link #white
  • Profile picture of the author allenjohn
    Hi - You need to go into the Theme Editor and insert the code into header.php...between the <head></head> tags...

    Regards Allen
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    • Profile picture of the author monere
      Allen, thanks for the tip. For now though I am kind of sick of dealing with coding. Even if I follow your advice and insert that js code where you're suggesting, there are still other steps that I should follow but which are also vague.

      Therefore I will wait to see if there is another solution

      Thanks again
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by monere View Post

    Each page on our blogs links to each and all the other pages, creating a total mess (a spaghetti blog as they call it) for the search engines, therefore decreasing our page rank and probably SE rankings as well.
    Do they offer any convincing evidence at all that that lowers people's page ranks and/or SE rankings?

    Originally Posted by monere View Post

    They just said "put this line of code into the header" but didn't say the header of what.
    Originally Posted by monere View Post

    There were few other unanswered questions as well, and all of these together only left me confused
    But you're still changing the internal linking structure of your websites based only on their say-so?
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    • Profile picture of the author monere
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Do they offer any evidence at all that that lowers people's page ranks and/or SE rankings?
      Uhm, they don't offer any evidence at all about anything. I just trust what they're saying because it's common sense what they preach in there. Plus, since SEO is not an exact science everyone should test on their own to see if something they do is good or bad and what a better moment to start testing things than RIGHT NOW? (no shouting, just emphasizing)


      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      But you're still changing the internal linking structure of your websites based only on their say-so?
      Yes, I do that just because they said so Despite the fact that that short report about internal linking and creating and implementing javascript left me confused and disappointed, I still find those people knowledgeable about SEO. Some of the things they explain in that 4 on-page SEO report about things we can do to improve rankings and stuff I already knew and can subscribe to them as being true. Since there were a couple of things that I already knew were true, obviously that I had no problem believing in everything else they were saying.

      One of such things was about the fast loading websites. Matt Cuts himself (someone VERY important from Google) said that fast loading websites rank higher in the SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    OK, I know a lot people will hate me for this but here goes:

    I do NOT believe in all this SEO hocus-pocus BS! Especially, when it comes about WP.
    Not because - as many ignorant users would claim - it is "loved" by the big G. or because it is perfectly optimzed for SEs. Far from it. (Those are other urban myths that should be refuted all the time... but not now.)

    Fact, WP (with a properly coded theme!) has a logical and clear structure for code, content, layout etc. One can use all those in advantage compared to poorly coded plain html sites.

    However, the SEO scam goes like this:

    If I sit long enough at my computer staring at any WP installation... I could come up with some obscure theory regarding 'duplicate content' or 'weirdo internal linking' and a lot of other stuff. Now, I just have to come up with a scary scenario where these "things" would screw up the blog - and then offer an equally obscure (read: BS) solution for it at a good price. As in good for me

    Does it work? Of course. Mainly for people that are clueless about WP: they will run to buy it. [Note to myself: Self, it's time to get into this lucrative business-like activity, LOL]

    Want proof? - The OP doesn't understand anything about WP (BTW: "header" is ALWAYS the header.php file of your active theme! No, the other files you have listed do NOT have anything 'header') but he was rushing to install a JS code into his blog without understanding what was he doing.
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    • Profile picture of the author monere
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      OK, I know a lot people will hate me for this but here goes:

      I do NOT believe in all this SEO hocus-pocus BS! Especially, when it comes about WP.
      Not because - as many ignorant users would claim - it is "loved" by the big G. or because it is perfectly optimzed for SEs. Far from it. (Those are other urban myths that should be refuted all the time... but not now.)

      Fact, WP (with a properly coded theme!) has a logical and clear structure for code, content, layout etc. One can use all those in advantage compared to poorly coded plain html sites.

      However, the SEO scam goes like this:

      If I sit long enough at my computer staring at any WP installation... I could come up with some obscure theory regarding 'duplicate content' or 'weirdo internal linking' and a lot of other stuff. Now, I just have to come up with a scary scenario where these "things" would screw up the blog - and then offer an equally obscure (read: BS) solution for it at a good price. As in good for me

      Does it work? Of course. Mainly for people that are clueless about WP: they will run to buy it. [Note to myself: Self, it's time to get into this lucrative business-like activity, LOL]

      Want proof? - The OP doesn't understand anything about WP (BTW: "header" is ALWAYS the header.php file of your active theme! No, the other files you have listed do NOT have anything 'header') but he was rushing to install a JS code into his blog without understanding what was he doing.
      Hi Istvan

      Frankly speaking I don't believe in hocus-pocus SEO either But I don't think I said anything about that report (or what is taught in it) as being a magic bullet to getting the #1 spot ranking in google or something similar.

      I a, only saying that it was a short free report that I read and that I found valuable to improving the on-page SEO of our websites even more. Now, obviously the report was promoting a product/service (just like every single report out there does) but that's not the point. The point is that what was explained in the report was really valuable to beginner SEOers like myself.

      Now, to reply to your sayings:

      "Not because - as many ignorant users would claim - it is "loved" by the big G" >>>>>>>>> You are wrong. Google does love WP and I've seen it twice with MY OWN websites. Until an year ago, I was completely ignoring WP, mainly because I was lazy and I didn't like setting up one website after another, and having to deal with the frequent WP and plugin updates and the alike. Until an year ago I was using other types (non WP, obviously) of websites that were ready made (got them from a PLR membership site). While those websites were good looking, and good SEOed, they were getting indexed slower than a WP website, and more importantly they don't rank as well as other similar websites I have which are hosted on WP. So, here you are wrong Istvan. At least in what concerns me and my websites.

      "Fact, WP (with a properly coded theme!) has a logical and clear structure for code, content, layout etc. One can use all those in advantage compared to poorly coded plain html sites" >>>>>>>>>> I agree with this one


      "I could come up with some obscure theory regarding 'duplicate content' or 'weirdo internal linking' and a lot of other stuff" >>>>>>>>>>> Uhm, I don't think anyone mentioned anything about duplicate content. Anyway, I don't believe in the duplicate content myth either. In fact, each website I have and that makes me money right now (through Adsense and Amazon) has 100% duplicate content, just like I got from PLR membership sites LOL. And I've been using unspun content like this for 2 years now. Except from the fact that the PR of my websites dropped from PR 3 to PR 0 (which may or may not be due to the "duplicate content") I have no problems with unspun content. In fact, one of those websites that dropped in PR is actually making me twice the money it made when it was higher PR (that's a bit odd).

      Anyway, I don't have time to sit and spin hundreds of articles a month, nor do I have the money to outsource this task. So the only alternative is to just use the content like I get from the PLR membership sites, which I do and which causes me no issues

      But anyway, I know you didn't actually mean to open a discussion about duplicate content. You just gave an example. But since I am at the "replying back" chapter, I thought I would give my opinion on this too

      As for the "weirdo internal linking" part, I don't know what to say. I really don't. I have a hunch that internal linking is a powerful on-page SEO ranking factor, but until I isolate this case and test it myself, I will agree with you that this is just another SEO myth.

      "The OP doesn't understand anything about WP" >>>>>> I have no idea what OP means

      "BTW: "header" is ALWAYS the header.php file of your active theme!" >>>>>>>> thanks for letting me know. You're the second person out of 3 who says the same thing, so this really must be true

      "No, the other files you have listed do NOT have anything 'header') but he was rushing to install a JS code into his blog without understanding what was he doing" >>>>>>>>>> Uhm, I think that the "he" you are talking about here is me actually. I was the one who didn't know how to insert a js code into the header, not the guy who wrote the report

      That guy seemed to know how to do this for himself. He just didn't give me the full picture (or maybe I didn't get it, who knows?)

      Ok, I will end here. Thanks for your opinion
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    OP = original poster = you
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    • Profile picture of the author monere
      oh, ok. Didn't know what OP means lol

      Also, I know that I am a beginner at all this SEO stuff (I even admitted it) but I am not that sure that I don't understand absolutely nothing about WP

      Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    Uhm, they don't offer any evidence at all about anything. I just trust what they're saying because it's common sense what they preach in there.
    In other words, you believe them because it sounds good?

    I agree with Istvan, whatever they are getting at, it's a waste of time.

    A lot of SEO information floating around the net is dated, wrong or just complete BS.

    For example, blocking google from crawling a couple of pages (about, tos etc...) is not going to improve your site, improve your PR, improve your SE rankings or improve your chances of getting a date with Anna Kournikova. It's a goofy SEO idea left over from the silo structure and page rank sculpting days which went out of style several years ago.
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    • Profile picture of the author monere
      LOL! You guys are rabid haters of these SEO points of view. They might be wrong or not, I don't know yet and I will find out soon. But anyway, that wasn't the point of this thread that I started.

      All I wanted to know was if there was an alternative (a simpler one) to stopping the link juice flow to pages that carry no SEO value. That's all I needed to know, not if these techniques work for you or not.

      So, if anyone knows of a free plugin that can do this or maybe even another piece of code (but which is easier to understand and implement), please share!

      I really want to test this thing and see if it has any SEO value at all or if it's just BS, like you are all saying

      Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    That particular Javascript technique is something I have used for years and is part of a product I first sold a couple years ago.

    I still use it.

    Based on my experience I consider it extremely important.

    It's not really necessary for internal linking.

    More for external linking when you do not want Google to know a link exist. Why? Because Google might devalue your website if it appears to be a 'thin' affiliate site full of external affiliate links.

    .
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    All I wanted to know was if there was an alternative (a simpler one) to stopping the link juice flow to pages that carry no SEO value. That's all I needed to know, not if these techniques work for you or not.
    No.

    Preventing link juice from flowing to one page will not improve another.

    What your trying to do was commonly referred to as page rank sculpting. Several years ago it did work but now it's just an outdated SEO technique.

    It's not hating on those SEO points of view, it's pointing out utter crap that doesn't work anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author christopher jon
    All I wanted to know was if there was an alternative (a simpler one) to stopping the link juice flow to pages that carry no SEO value. That's all I needed to know, not if these techniques work for you or not.
    No.

    Preventing link juice from flowing to one page will not improve another.

    What your trying to do was commonly referred to as page rank sculpting. Several years ago it did work but now it's just an outdated SEO technique.

    It's not hating on those SEO points of view, it's pointing out utter crap that doesn't work anymore.
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    • Profile picture of the author monere
      Ok, I got it

      Thanks for the pointers
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