Would linking to another site (that ranks for same terms) from my site increase that sites rankings?

by massam
4 replies
  • SEO
  • |
For a pretty competative search term a site we are working on ranks 6th in the organic rankings, which in itself has a local 3 pack above it. So you could say our 6th organic ranking is actually more like a 9.

Our site ranks 6th for the search term, but is also linked (nofollow) to in the first line of a page on a major news site which ranks 3rd for the competitive search term.

We get roughly equal traffic from the referrals from the major news sites article and organic search. What id like to do is try and increase the rankings of the major new sites page, so that we will benefit from the increase in traffic from their page ranking higher.

My plan was to link back (followed) from our site with some strong anchor text to the major news sites page. Is there any danger in doing this and would it work ? My thought is that a site linking to another site that both rank for the same term would increase the linked to sites rankings on the basis that its a highly relevant link from a "peer site" in the same search term.

My fear of causing damage would be down to some how eroding the ranking capability of our site by doing this. Something like causing their link to be reciprocal (not sure how as the link from the news site is already nofollow, is there anything to worry about here ?)
#increase #linking #rankings #ranks #site #sites #terms
  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    Imagine if you had one or two sites of your own you could use to link to the page that's ranking!

    For your link to have umph, it would have to come from a page with a good amount of good backlinks (or, at least from a page that's linked to from such a page).

    There's no danger.

    Long term strategy, start a few sites of your own and have them link to whatever page you want.

    You sell insurance in Dallas, have a site for home insurance in Dallas, one for business insurance in Dallas, one for workman's comp insurance in Dallas, one for car insurance in Dallas.

    Than have a site that's only information about insurance.

    You can rank pages on these sites and your main site for the same keyword. You can link from one to another, from your homepages.

    Yes, it's PBN. If you implement well (as in don't create crappy, thin sites but actual sites that will help your business), it's a win-win-win-win-win for you.

    What do you know about silo structure for SEO?

    Originally Posted by massam View Post

    For a pretty competative search term a site we are working on ranks 6th in the organic rankings, which in itself has a local 3 pack above it. So you could say our 6th organic ranking is actually more like a 9.

    Our site ranks 6th for the search term, but is also linked (nofollow) to in the first line of a page on a major news site which ranks 3rd for the competitive search term.

    We get roughly equal traffic from the referrals from the major news sites article and organic search. What id like to do is try and increase the rankings of the major new sites page, so that we will benefit from the increase in traffic from their page ranking higher.

    My plan was to link back (followed) from our site with some strong anchor text to the major news sites page. Is there any danger in doing this and would it work ? My thought is that a site linking to another site that both rank for the same term would increase the linked to sites rankings on the basis that its a highly relevant link from a "peer site" in the same search term.

    My fear of causing damage would be down to some how eroding the ranking capability of our site by doing this. Something like causing their link to be reciprocal (not sure how as the link from the news site is already nofollow, is there anything to worry about here ?)
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi massam,

    There are many was to influence your web page ranking in SERPs, PageRank is but one of many signals.

    What you are asking about is a technique commonly referred to as reciprocal linking. While Google frowns on this practice if done for the purpose of PageRank manipulation, if you do it just once or twice it isn't likely to have any penalty applied. However, if Google detects a pattern of reciprocal link exchanges you may get your web page de-indexed.

    You may want to consider linking to highly relevant and useful pages for the purpose of increasing the utility value of your web page. This technique can be very effective in boosting your SERP rankings. This technique is commonly referred to as building a web hub. Users love highly useful web hubs and Google recognizes what users find useful.

    My advice to you is to link to the external web page if it adds utility value to your page. Do it because it makes your pages better for users, you will be safe, and Google will likely reward you for it.

    HTH,

    Don Burk
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      The answer could be yes or no,depending on how you link and the value of that link. It makes no sense to link to another site unless you get paid. If you can't answer the question, then why would anyone want to come to your page?

      Originally Posted by dburk View Post

      You may want to consider linking to highly relevant and useful pages for the purpose of increasing the utility value of your web page.
      Yeah. Sure. Um. So people have to waste time surfing in and out of my site....to get where they should have ended up in the first place? And you call that useful? I call that a complete waste of time, and a complete waste of webspace.

      Paul
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      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        Yeah. Sure. Um. So people have to waste time surfing in and out of my site....to get where they should have ended up in the first place? And you call that useful? I call that a complete waste of time, and a complete waste of webspace.

        Paul
        Hi Paul,

        Obviously you don't know about hub sites. I suggest you do a little research and testing on web hubs and how they influence SERP rankings.

        Perhaps you have heard of a simple little website called Google.com, or Drudgereport.com. probably not though, because who would ever want "to waste time surfing in and out of" those sites, right?

        Many of the most successful websites are hub sites that exist solely to have people surf in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible, but hey those sites only get a few billion visits each month so lets not try to emulate that piss poor performance, after all no one would ever waste their time visiting those in-and-out websites, right?

        Or... maybe... just maybe... they have caught onto an idea that is useful enough for people to surf in-and-out and not consider it "a complete waste of time, and a complete waste of webspace." I guess we'll never know because such websites don't actually exist, and if they did they wouldn't have billions of people wasting their time. eh hmm.

        Something to think about?

        Don Burk
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