The Times: Linking To The BBC Will Boost Your Google Ranking
O.K. I am going to pick on The Times because it is funny. On Sunday they published an article entitled Searching to get to the top of Google.
Most of the article is O.K. and it is nice to see SEO getting mentioned in a major newspaper, however some of their facts are a little off.
On the 3rd page of the article it says the following:
“As well as using appropriate vocabulary, a website also needs to be well-networked to gain traction. Links to esteemed websites such as the BBC or a national newspaper act as advocates for its content, boosting its ranking with Google.”
There is a common miss-conception that linking to authoritative websites can boost a website’s rankings in the search engines and I have spoken to many people who have thought this before. This is of course not true, linking to a website can improve it’s rankings, linking out from one cannot.
This has got to be great linkbait for the BBC and the all of the National newspapers, I can just see all the Sunday Times readers going out and linking them now.
David, I think it’s also worth pointing out that linking to the homepage of our site can also improve a site’s search engine rankings 😉
FAIL. Well, actually, only sort of.
I regularly talk to journalists about how to incorporate SEO into what they do, and I regularly recommend linking out.
Now I’m not suggesting that doing this will have an immediate impact on your rankings, but linking out is certainly a good way of becoming more networked and therefore makes it more likely that you will end up on a blogger, or suchlike’s radar, and receive more inbound links in return.
I’m not for a second going to suggest that this sort of tactic is likely to work with the beeb though!
I also happen to think that it makes it less likely that a user will quickly click back from your content to search for the things you mentioned, but didn’t link to, and, as popularity/historical data becomes more important in ranking, is likely to have a long-term benefit.
Linking to web sites with ‘Conversation’ in the URL can also boost your rankings.
For now, I won’t charge anyone to link to me. This deal ends soon…
Further to Nick’s comment I’d just like to mention that linking to my site (the delightful http://www.seopscentre.com ) will not only improve your site’s SERP positions, it will also make you look really cool, reduce your carbon footprint and bring about world peace.
(I can see these comments turning into an arms race of outlandish claims – sorry Dave 😉 )
BBC is so tricky, i think it press this article in order to publicize itself.
@mybaiaogu – err, the BBC & The Sunday Times have absolutely no connection whatsoever. One is a state-owned broadcaster, the other is a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch.
And tricky? Really? Compared to what?
To further this discussion. Linking to my site will not only increase your rankings in the Search Engines, but will also make you better looking in at least 10 different body parts, make your floor clean itself instantly, and will result your article going hot on Sphinn.
In fact just the no-follow link to my site from the comments section here will probably cause this post to go hot.
Well look…it just did.
🙂
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Linking to authority sites does boost my ranking, also linking to bad neighborhoods hurts it. Both are quite interesting.
Linking out to authoritive sites WELL help. BUT the site being linked to must be on topic with the page housing the link.
Google ranks pages built for users above those built for SE. Common sense should state that Google users don’t give a damn about SEO and care ONLY about good unique, quality content where they can find the information they seek.
Being an SEO Executive here in Pakistani SEO Company here in the Asia, I personally agree that the article published by SEOCO.co.uk was true and it surely helps you boost your rankings and a genuine traffic to your websites. It is a quick easy way to get the best PR while linking to the top esteemed websites e.g. BBC, CNN, Discovery, Skysports and all.
Thank you SEOCO.co.uk for adding this article for the new companies and clients, this should have helped many of the human beings worldwide.
Regards:
Tina
I would point out linking to our site http://www.lifecote.com will increase your google ranking within 3 months!
Linking to authority sites does boost my ranking, also linking to bad ones tend to hurt it. Both are quite interesting.