What is considered relevant?

[baldidiot]

I was thinking about this today. It's widely accept that relevant links are better than non relevant links, but what defines a relevant link?

1. Does the entire site have to be relevant, Eg: a site about blackjack linking to another site about blackjack or,

2. Does just the page and/or section that the link is on have to be relevant? Eg: a page about blackjack on an encyclopedia style site.

Any SEO experts in the house with some knowledge?!

[ddm]

relevance is semantic relevance

if ur site has 1000 pages w/ "betting" related keywords and you post an article on cheap holidays, it aint relevant. If you post an article about footballers WAGs then it's relevant b/c of the link between football and betting

U can of course boost the authority of your cheap holidays page on ur betting site by acquiring links from relevant third parties (holiday sites etc), to build some onpage authority, but your site won't be deemed a holiday site (when u use the related: operator on G) until you have a significant proportion of your site pages actually covering holiday related stuff, for example.

another thing to note is that you can get an real old authority site and easily rank for anything which is NOT semantically related due to the site authority..Eg buy an old pr6 site about black shoes, add some pages about poker, get some inbounds and suddenly you rank well for a poker term which u wouldnt be able to do w/ the same content and inbounds on a newer site.

bottom line, if your site is superstrong (authority wise), you can rank it for anything pretty much, with a few good links, if it isn't superstrong, slowly build up your relevance for new topics by [slowly] adding content related to your new topic, and building some good inbounds


have a look at google's wonder wheel tool, it will give u a clue as to what they terms they feel are inter-related.

hth

[universal4]

If you have a page about blackjack, getting a link from another page about blackjack is better than getting a link from a page about roulette....but the roulette link would be better than getting a link from a travel page....

If you have a link about blackjack strategy, then getting a link from another page about blackjack strategy is better than a link from a page about general gambling...

Anchor texts should also be relevant to the page they are linking to and from also....

Some disagree with this theory and would take a pr 6 link from a travel page over a pr1 link from a relevant page, but in my opinion if all you are trying to do is raise the toolbar pr then the pr6 might be better temporarily, but the relevant link will help you rank better for the terms on the page than the travel link....

Rick
Universal4

[Nandakishore]

Eg buy an old pr6 site about black shoes, add some pages about poker, get some inbounds and suddenly you rank well for a poker term which u wouldnt be able to do w/ the same content and inbounds on a newer site.
hth

Question: If you add some pages about poker to a pr6 site about black shoes, is it possible that google considers this addition as irrelevant to the pr6 site, marks this addition as spam and consequently degrades the site?

[ddm]

nah ppl are doing it all the time, just keep building the relevant links and increasing the content that u want to shift the site focus to.

It's an old SEO trick and still works well today. PM Me and I'll show u some gambling related examples if u like.

[universal4]

So you think it's ok to use triicks?

I never wear black shoes while gambling.

Rick
Universal4

[ddm]

So you think it's ok to use triicks?

I never wear black shoes while gambling.

Rick
Universal4

Well SEO is about manipulating ranking factors to your benefit.. the "best" site never ranks #1 organically in this vertical.

these "tricks" are what separate good SEOers from amateurs. I don't think it's very BH personally as long as your new site offers value and relevance.

FWIW the whole of the gaming industry, finance and travel SEO landscape is built on Gray/BH, not that I am endorsing BH, but it's certainly true.

I wonder if you consider buying a site ranked #1 for blah and redirecting it to your other blah site BH or do you consider it cashing in on your knowledge and Skillz.

imo SEO = onsite, offsite and technical "tricks"... Tricks doesn't naturally equate to dodgy tricks.

my .10c

[Nandakishore]

Well SEO is about manipulating ranking factors to your benefit.. the "best" site never ranks #1 organically in this vertical.

I have to agree although I don't like this. SEO is a tool for selling goods. So it is as much tricky or dirty as any other means used for selling goods irrespective of their quality.

But if we accept this as a fact in our daily life, then we should also stop distinguishing BH from WH, which is then IMO nothing but hypocritical.

[Aaron@Jackpot-Games]

Even with a domain that isn't overly associated with a term, if you surround the link in relevant copy it's gonna help its power. But, yeah, ideally look for link partners that share a common context. Not easy, because they won't be keen on giving their authority link juice to a competitor...I think someone mentioned it earlier, but the key then becomes finding people with contexts that are somewhat related, say someone optimised for "casino promotions" linking to your bonus site using the hyperlink "casino bonus".

Good luck with it all!

Aaron
Jackpot Games Affiliates

[universal4]

I agree Aaron, somethines it is difficult to find partners that are willing to link out from pages that fit certain themes, but I personally don't have a problem with it.

I like having a few links linking out with the appropriate keywords since it provides value to the visitor "linking to" other pages and sites with content that matches the theme of a page.

Rick
Universal4