Top Affiliate Blog

Like many of you I’m seeing a Google Page Rank increase across most of my websites with this last update.  I’m noticing many of my WhyPark websites also gaining some PR.  But you know what? 

I really don’t stress over PR as the end all be all like a did back in the day when it was launched.  It sure is nice to get another site listed in Text Link Ads though. 

SEO professional Andy Hagans stated in a previous article

With each new Google update, it is apparent that PageRank counts for less, while other factors (trust, age, authority links) count for more.  "Really, the importance of the green pixels is now negligible, aside from a very rough indication of a site’s link popularity and assurance that it isn’t banned in Google. But as long as Google continues to show PageRank in the toolbar, it will never ‘die’ in the public consciousness.

I couldn’t agree with him more.

However, if PR does keep you awake at night, for some strange reason, then here’s the most productive White Hat link building methods:

1. Shift your linking focus to getting links from relevant sites that are in DMOZ and Yahoo! directories.  Some may argue and that’s their perogative but Google does still place a fair amount of weight on these links because they are generally of higher quality.

2. Focus on unique content building.  No brainer on that one right!  Build a solid relationship with reporters, writers, press release firms and above all write some unique articles.

3. SEARCH WITH ALL YOUR POWER for the highly prized .gov and .edu links.  Hmm…maybe you should go back to school and take one college night class somewhere in something you always wanted to learn about.  Besides enhancing your education you’ll also usually get a free web page under the .edu domain upon registration.  I wonder how many enterprising college kids are selling links off their websites to make some weekend money?  =)

Whatever you do please don’t set up a link exchange on your site that’s focused on real estate and exchange links with a site themed on antique cars.  This really seems like a no brainer but I still see many webmasters exchanging links with every site on the planet.  That’s backwards, it’s quality over quantity so be selective.  Remember, Google only wants to see your site linking to other websites if they truly offer something of value to web surfers.

Best of luck to you in your link building campaign in 2007!

[tags]google page rank, page rank, link building, link exchange, pr, text link ads, content building[/tags]

I’ve been doing some SEO tweeks here and there on Top-Affiliate.com for the past week and it appears my efforts are paying off.  Although the ALEXA ranking constantly fluctuates from day to day Top-Affiliate.com is currently ranked at 19,207.  Not a bad way to start your Saturday!

A rumor from TechCrunch shows that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is thinking about bidding for YouTube.  An article in the Wall Street Journal indicates Google is in talks to acquire YouTube Inc. for roughly $1.6 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. There’s nothing solid yet and this could all dissolve overnight…but there’s talks.

YouTube was only launched in Feb 2005 and commands more than 46% of the total U.S. online video site traffic.  Pretty impressive numbers for a site still in it’s infancy.

YouTube has a been a brilliant viral marketing platform for many savvy marketers.  It also is a search engine optimization machine.  With thousands of people posting videos a day the search engines crawl through the site regularly and index almost everything. 

No doubt Google wants to break into the social networking scene.  Not too long ago Google was prepared to pay $900 million for MySpace but that never panned out.  If they acquire YouTube they will have some well established web real estate that will put them far ahead of their rivals (i.i MSN, Yahoo! etc.).  In addition, Google will be able to effectively monetize YouTube, which is something the current owners have had difficulty conceptualizing.