Top Web Hosting Reviews
Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month:
Top Web Hosting
Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review

>> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // SEO - Search Engine Optimization  


Does The Number Of Links On A Page Affect Ranking?








Lots of research has focused on inbound links to a site, but little has focused on the number of links actually on a page (outbound or to other parts of a site). Many SEO gurus have recently been talking about something they call "PR Leak" which seems to be a theory that the more outbound links you have, the more your page rank on Google "leaks" away. That concept isn't found in the academic papers published by the founders of Google, but does seem to be accepted by a majority of SEOs. I decided it was time to take a look at the number of links present on a page and how that number correlates with ranking.

The methodology: I gathered the results of the queries that were naturally performed last month by myself and three associates using the two leading search engines and analyzed them. I counted the number of links on the page (references to "href") and tabulated the results against the ranking of the URL in the search results. The tabulated results were finally converted into a normalized "ranking correlation." The results for each of the two leading search engines were kept separate so that we could discover any differences between the two leading search engines for this factor.

The resulting graphs show the results for groupings of number of links normalized into a number between -100 and +100 showing the likelihood of being ranked higher/lower. A value of +100 shows that all 10 rankings were in the proper order to show that pages of the studied value ALWAYS rank HIGHER than pages of another value. A value of -100 shows that all 10 rankings were in the proper order to show that pages of the studied value ALWAYS rank LOWER than pages of another value. Numbers in between show the varying likelihood of rankings proportionally between -100 and +100.

That is the number you see on the Y-axis. On the X-axis, we have the number of links found. They are grouped into sets of 10 in order to increase the statistical significance with the amount of data we had available to analyze. Here are the graphs for the two leading search engines:

http://www.SearchEngineGeek.com/graphs/dey01.gif

http://www.SearchEngineGeek.com/graphs/deg01.gif

(Note to webmasters: Feel free to hot link to the above graphs or copy them to your own site if you publish this report. Feel free to remove this note as well.)

The number of links were grouped in this way in order to increase the number of data points available. Unfortunately it also reduces the precision of the results. One is able to see that 91-100 links rank much higher than 1-10 links, but you are unable to see if 77 links rank differently than 79 links (for example).

The result is very conclusive. Both leading search engines rank pages with more links much higher than pages with fewer links! Once again, it appears that the SEOs touting the "PR Leak" theory are simply wrong. If their theory held any weight at all, we should see the exact opposite. Pages with more links should rank lower on average.

Notes:

1. There was no exercise to attempt to isolate different keywords. I merely took a random sampling of the queries performed by myself and three associates during the month.

2. This is merely a correlation study, so it cannot be determined from this study whether the leading search engines purposefully entertain this factor or not. The actual factors used may be far distant from the factor we studied.

Copyright 2004 Jon Ricerca

About The Author

Jon Ricerca is one of the leading researchers and authors of the Search Engine Ranking Factor (SERF) reports at SearchEngineGeek.com. For access to the other SERF reports, please visit: http://www.SearchEngineGeek.com


MORE RESOURCES:

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)

Seopath.com offers SEO Packages for Quality Search Engine Optimization
BigNews.biz (press release)
Keeping this thing in mind Seopath.com takes part in fulfilling the SEO needs of a website that is newly launched to face the ongoing competition with other ...
SEO Satisfaction SurveyOnline PR News (press release)
It can be daunting but it's necessarySEO Consult - SEO News (blog)
Announcing The Most Affordable Most Powerful SEO Services From This Search ...PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)
Earthtimes (press release) -Promotion World (press release) -DirectNews
all 41 news articles »


PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)

Areas to watch out for in SEO
SEO Consult - SEO News (blog)
Search engines, when it comes down to it, sit in opposition to SEO. While a search engine's purpose is to guide the viewer to the most appropriate site for ...
Cheers to SEO: How It Pays To Be OptimizedSearch Engine Land (blog)
SEO Ranking Expert Introduces SEO Services for Small Static & Huge Dynamic ...PR.com (press release)
Domain names without Latin characters will broaden SEO impactBrafton
BigNews.biz (press release) -OfficialWire (press release) -PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)
all 80 news articles »


Be In Control of Your SEO Venture With Web Analytics
SEO Consult - SEO News (blog)
Web analytics is a crucial part of an SEO campaign. In simple terms, web analytics is a tool used to measure, collect and analyse data. ...
The Benefits of Web AnalyticsSEO Consult - SEO News (blog)

all 2 news articles »


Caspio Introduces Breakthrough SEO Technology for Cloud Database Apps
Reuters
Cloud Computing Database Applications Can Now Be Fully Indexed by Search Engines Using Caspio`s New SEO Deployment Model MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. ...

and more »


Little things are important to SEO
SEO Consult - SEO News (blog)
There are so many things to remember when it comes to SEO. You need to keep abreast of rule changes and techniques, track keywords and keep an eye on what ...



Business Daily Africa

Social Search Google's newest Lab experiment – Webmaster & SEO News
Kingpin Webmaster News
We mentioned Google's new social search in a previous news post, however now we feel we should go into more detail for our readers, as this seems like a hot ...
Future Twitter trendsBlogstorm (blog)
My budget is tight, what's the best bang for my buck getting more traffic to ...SmartCompany.com.au
Teaching the Facebook GenerationBusinessWeek
ClickZ News
all 93 news articles »


Brafton

Groundwork for SEO could get tougher with encrypted browsing tool
Brafton
Catalan researchers at Rovira i Virgili University say that they have developed a way for internet users to prevent search engines and websites from ...

and more »


website Auditor Enterprise 1.8.5 (Windows)
ZDNet
website Auditor Enterprise is a quick SEO tool that lets you make effective web pages and provide your SEO clients with stunning onpage optimization reports ...



Caspio Deploys Cloud-based SEO
Editor & Publisher
But limitations surrounding SEO for dynamically generated pages has hindered the ability to fully exploit data. Caspio provides a programming-free way for ...
Caspio SEO technology for cloud database appsCIOL
Caspio Releases Version 6.5 with Advanced Data Import and Publishing CapabilitiesPR Web (press release)

all 6 news articles »


New IT Jobsites to Focus on PHP Jobs and SEO Jobs Launched by CV Screen
PR Web (press release)
CV Screen launch niche IT Job Boards to attract candidates to new PHP and SEO Jobs in the UK. (PRWeb UK/PRWEB ) November 7, 2009 -- Specialist IT ...

and more »

Google News





 
 
 

© 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts
Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others.
Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info.

Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting