# Why Link Back ?



## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

My friend is depressed because his NEW site has ZERO presence in Google.  

Now, he has followed the google advice, made the site user friendly, keeps it code clean, no duplicate content etc...

His links (Link-out) page is full and has a few OK value in-bound links. 


...he forgot to link back.....the one Old Established site that was (no longer is ?) linking to his site pulled the link and now the bot/spiders do not visit as often looking for content. 

Any ideas how to improve his situation ?


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## kentphoto (Jan 16, 2006)

Why link back? If the link incoming link is of value, and the other site requests it in exchange, it just a common courtesy. Maybe he/she could just let the other site know that it was a mistake, and request the link again. But before he does, send them the link of the page where "the other site's link" has been placed. 

Also, having the site link on local business listings seems to help to. 
If your friend sets up a Livejournal account, and posts regularily, this helps get a different community to the site too. 

I'm getting pretty improved ranking on Google these days. And very good with Yahoo. But more and more each day, I'm getting searches for "Burby Shirts" (from all over the place) which is what I want. If my label is what they're looking for, I always rank #1.  

I tend to sit around and do my work in coffee shops. I slapped a big Burby Shirts logo over the "apple" on my iBook. Along with the domain name. 
- People really notice this. and the decal on white matches the same theme of my site. I figured it's another empty space, and Apple doesn't need anymore advertising.

BTW can you PM me the site?


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

kentphoto said:


> BTW can you PM me the site?


BTW can you PM me the site? ...here you go, google webmasters board  

ok, so this linky-linky is making me curious so I asked another friend about this. 

She tells me (now this hypathetical and not written in stone) that when a user leaves site A to site B and ends up on site B's home page, from there the user will navigate thru site B etc.... but according to my friend the user should be able to navigate back to site A from site B if they want.

So this navigation path is something a user will remember more or less. If the navigation paths change drastically, the next time the user goes there again they will be lost and click away searching for direction. I think a bot/spider will react the same. They may even get more fraustrated than real people. 

So a link back to the site that sent you the user/visitor is a good idea.

Another thing she told me was to make sure all important areas of the site are accessible to users from every important page and always have a link back to the home page.


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## kentphoto (Jan 16, 2006)

T-BOT said:


> BTW can you PM me the site? ...here you go, google webmasters board


I don't get it...Just curious to see the site.
Must be a top secret site.


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## funtimesx (Apr 9, 2006)

I thought having a "links page" like that was meant to be a "no no" now - I thought you were meant to have contexually relevant links within content?


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

kentphoto said:


> I don't get it...Just curious to see the site.
> Must be a top secret site.


just sent it via-myspace (testing it since it broke ?).

let me know if you got it the same way if possible.

thanks.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

funtimesx said:


> I thought having a "links page" like that was meant to be a "no no" now - I thought you were meant to have contexually relevant links within content?


I agree (I think).

Link pages may not be as important.

From a main page like your home page with relevant content and not just a link per say, that may have more value to the user/visitor i would think. 

but who knows ?


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## kentphoto (Jan 16, 2006)

T-BOT said:


> I agree (I think).
> 
> Link pages may not be as important.
> 
> ...


But...but... I've read on e-commerce articles, that links on the home page, are a no-no. They're an invitation to leave the site. How often do we visit a site, click on a little link, and never go back to the original site?


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

come to think of it I've read that before too. 

So, where or what page would the link backs work best ?


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## funtimesx (Apr 9, 2006)

T-BOT said:


> come to think of it I've read that before too.
> 
> So, where or what page would the link backs work best ?


IMHO on an e-commerce site, there aren't a heck of a lot of places for them! I mean, you most certainly don't want to link to your competitors ("Hey, you like our products - here, you can buy similar stuff elsewhere!" is a bit daft). Linking to manufacturers is popular and good with computer bits, but probably not so good for t-shirts.

Probably, if your site is themed, linking would be good in information articles.

For e.g - I sell largely multiple birth related gear. I am currently working up some articles about parenting twins - at one point I recommend getting a baby carrier, this is a good place to link to a site that sells baby carriers (I don't stock them myself). Or when discussing online support for parents of multiples, link to a forum.

I am not sure I am making any sense. Just generally, as a consumer, I'm not going to go "looking" for links in a link page (to me it just says link farms and spam) - but I could very easily be seduced into clicking on textually relevant links. You also want to make sure they're in a part of your site - like the articles bit above - where doing a "sell" isn't the main focus, or you're really just showing your customer the door.

JMO.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> My friend is depressed because his NEW site has ZERO presence in Google.


The key word in that sentence is *NEW *site. With a new site, it can take some time. Months and months even.


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## The T Shirt Man (Aug 29, 2006)

I am not sure if i understand what you are asking.
What is "ok value" links? how are you valuing them?
If it is a new site then Rodney is right, it can take days/weeks/months for a new website to get indexed.
If there are links going to the new site from a site(s) which has a good PR and is indexed reguarly by google then it will be indexed faster than if it is sitting there all on its own 

He should set up a 301 redirect for the search engines on his old site.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

The T Shirt Man said:


> He should set up a 301 redirect for the search engines on his old site.


I think Its more about Link backs and consistant paths.  

example: Mrs Miller has been going to a pantyhose store for years at lunch time 2 times a week. She takes the elevator down to the mall level from her office, walks down the mall into the store, goes to the same pantyhose section off to the right, selects her Filodoro and goes to check out and goes back (LINK BACK) via her same regular PATH to the office. 

Anything that would change Mrs. Miller's path could result in a lost sale.  ...see where this is going in relation to site visitors/bots ?


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