Importance of Reciprocal Links Declined in Google’s Search Result
Anyone can go out and buy thousands of reciprocal links, as it had become a lucrative deal, because there are businesses that could accomplish the feat within a few days time. To curb this onslaught, Google came up with a rule where reciprocal links will have to be a gradual process and if sites become linked with thousands of sites overnight, which is possible, there will be a red flag that will affect their rank inadvertently. One way to get around this hurdle was to do it slowly, but steadily so that when the robot visits it will always encounter an upward moving effort.
Recently there was a buzz among companies who are in charge of Search Engine Optimization (SEOs), because of what is known as “Google Dance” was underway under the name of “Jaggar”. Those who are insiders with SEO know what this means and it is a seasonal adjustment of the algorithms one of the powerful search engines Google uses to update its search criteria. What it means literary is it is possible that new algorithms could be introduced and it could be disastrous for SEOs whose business is measured by the rank a site gets through their guidance and preparation the site goes through, known as Web site optimization.
Customers will not pay if they do not see their site attaining a good rank in the search results, which means repeat business or paying for upkeep will go out the window. It is not only that every Web site will have to be updated so that it will not lose an already attained rank because of a change in the algorithm, which is not only time consuming, but it should be done at the expense of the SEO companies as explaining it to the big number of Web site owners could be difficult in most cases, where the exception is they could pass the cost to their customers.
Based on that, through the recent dance known as Jaggar, Google made one of the most effective means of attaining a good search result rank, more or less, irrelevant, because like it was mentioned above most of it is being done without having much relevance with what particular sites are doing. The focus always was to have reciprocal links of all kinds in addition to similar Web sites that more or less do the same thing, so that the site would look popular for the visiting robot.
However, if the relevance is there, still incoming links have detrimental importance in search result ranking. It seems that Google had a problem of controlling this runaway problem in its earlier algorithms, but now unless that relevance is vividly present, reciprocal links are not effective anymore. The problem had always been it could be difficult to have thousands of reciprocal links that have relevance with a particular site. This relevance could be upped by simply having similar keywords, but similar content is said to be one sure way of beating the algorithms.
The other SEO factor that the algorithm treated not favorably, according to various sources, is indexes where a site is submitted need to be relevant with what the site is doing, which makes most of the free index sites no more a factor in page ranking. Some reports had even gone as far as saying that all free index sites have lost their appeal or relevance to the new Google algorithm.
What had not been lost provided that the relevancy issue is there is linking with high ranked sites, which had been proven over time to give a good boost to a rank of a site in the search results and the relevance issue here is not very much stressed. Overall, the whole thing comes back to content where sites that are doing the same thing should be interacting with each other, which could again might have an adverse effect in the general genre of what is taking place. Google itself, somehow, must have overlooked the fact that WWW itself came into existence because of its varied nature where so many interconnected material interact with each other and are dependent on each other. It is every Web site that is out there that will add to this interconnectivity by creating some kind of linkage, whether it is through advertising or free link exchange, and people should not be made scared of being limited to the secular world of what they are doing.
What this means is that connectivity could be obtained only through Web sites no matter what they are doing, and surfers should be allowed to encounter so many interesting things while they are doing other interesting things. Otherwise, how are they going to know the existence of other interesting things, an issue especially Google’s algorithm could be overlooking or overstepping by forcing Web sites to identify with their own kind only, in order to be found through search engines like Google. The effort might end up being that if someone wants to buy a book, there is no chance that he or she will be informed about an interesting music, movie, medicine, car offer, lower interest rate mortgage etc., which could have been of interest for the surfer.
This issue could make a number on Google’s algorithm effort and if we come to think of it there is not going to be stumbling over something interesting haphazardly, be it offerings or otherwise, because of what the giant search engine is enforcing. Because it has the power to decide who should be found or not in the first handful of pages of search results by simply restricting them on what they put on their site or whom they link with.
The best way to go might be for the search engine to harvest what it wants and give a certain standard based on that, and once that is met it has nothing to do with what a Web site is doing or linking with. The fact that search engines started enforcing the linking up of sites with each other was applauded, but now they seem to be categorizing them into their own kinds, which will make their being found difficult across the board.
The other sector Jaggar came down hard on was on those who are using the AdSense program by using auto contents or auto link generating technologies. It is a known fact that there will always be some who will try to beat any system especially if it dipenses out money for simply clicking through it. Even here there is something wrong with Google’s perception, because no matter what is implemented, as long as it is not infringing upon a certain legality the effort could end up generating traffic that will click through the ads, that being the whole arrangement. The only instance Google should worry about is if the click through is faked somehow, otherwise it could be stepping on the toes of a perfectly normal way of doing business, and webmasters do not have to put their own content which could be limiting or they do not have to pay for content when there is enough content that generates huge traffic.
Blogs also have received the same harsh treatment by Jagger if they do not meet certain criteria that requires focusing on a given regiment of subjects or if they are not well run and maintained. Here again Google is trying to dictate what blogs should be doing even if most popular blogs, more or less, rotate around a given interest or topic. The search engine might have directed this particular measure at those that are dealing with general subjects, which, nonetheless, could end up attracting a big number of participants that are good for the AdSense program.
Consequently, what others think, and what the algorithm does are two different things. Which means webmasters will have to play ball with Google’s algorithm in order to keep or improve their rank even if that does not mean what the giant search engine is doing is always the right thing. It could have kinks that it will recognize on the go that need to be ironed out. The good thing is even if Google has the biggest share of the overall search, not all search engines are using the same criteria or implement the same approach toward search that will save the day for everyone including the WWW, which can only remain interconnected if there is diversity in what Web sites are doing or putting on their sites without being penalized for not meeting certain criteria.
