Linking Oddities That Ripley Would Like

Ahhh, the strangeness that is links.

This week’s column will hopefully spark some questions, answer a few others, and also point out some weird linking related phenomena, beginning with two examples:

• If this search is correct, Google indexes a little over (Use Dr. Evil voice) 1 billion pages from the Yahoo.com family of domains.
• But, if this search is correct, Yahoo only indexes 521 million of its own pages.

Can it be true that Google indexes more of Yahoo’s content than Yahoo! does, and if so, why and WTF?

On the flipside, Google indexes 4.1 billion pages of Google.com based content, but Yahoo only indexes 92 million pages of Google.com content.

This means Google’s bots are nicer.

Anchor text is my sore spot. Hate it. Overrated as on/off site signal, and always has been, especially in spammy verts with no solid IBLs. People sell anchor text linking services. Some are based in other countries. Why would I think this? Because of this search.

Over 18,000 use the anchor text “Please to click“? Really? Imagine how they’d mangle a keyword. Probably wouldn’t? Wrong. Have a look. I love this. Vigra? That’s just plain funny. Or intentional. Either way, it’s anchor text at it’s worst.

So, Google announced they weren’t going to keep throwing DMOZ a bone (below)

Google says bye bye to DMOZ

Is anyone really shocked?

With Yahoo now practically hiding it’s directory, and Business.com shutting down, what does this say about general all-encompassing Web directories when the big three aren’t considered front page properties? Two words: Vertical. Curated.

Hurricane Irene has raised a ruckus up and down the East coast. You’d think there would be lots of articles about hurricane preparedness, and you’d be correct.

And what does that search tell you about article directories? I’ve got the word “article” in my three word search term, and still, they can’t rank. Shouldn’t an article directory (if it is of any use), be able to rank somewhere when the word article is used in the search string?

But wait. Here’s another search. There they are. So the more spammy the vertical, the more crap Google will serve you? I like it. This seems so obvious as a way to vet where you submit content. Use it.

Good linking!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Eric Ward

Eric Ward founded the Web's first services for announcing, linking, and building buzz for Web sites, back in 1994. Ward is best known as the person behind the linking campaigns for Amazon.com Books, Weather.com, The Link Exchange, Rodney Dangerfield (Rodney.com), the AMA, and PBS.org. His services won the 1995 Award for Internet Marketing Excellence, and he was selected as one of the Web's 100 most influential people by Websight magazine. In 2009 Eric was one of 25 people profiled in the book Online Marketing Heroes. Eric has spoken at over 100 industry conferences and now publishes LinkMoses Private, a subscription based link opportunity and strategy service. Eric has written linking strategy and advice columns for SearchEngineLand, MarketingProfs, ClickZ, Search Marketing Standard, SearchEngineGuide, Web Marketing Today, and Ad Age magazine. Learn more about Eric and his content publicity and link building services at http://www.ericward.com