Outbound Linking and SERPS - Where is the PR Leakage?

A common theory amongst SEO's in discussions today is so-called PR Leakage. This theory claims that the more outbound links that you have on a page, the more Google PageRank is leaked away as a result.

Even though this concept cannot be found in any of the papers that have been published by the Google founders, it is still gaining wide acceptance amongst experts in the field.

PageRank leakage aside, how does outbound linking affect SERPS at Google? According to a study conducted by John Ricerca, it improves your rankings. The results published were very conclusive; they showed a direct correlation between higher totals of outbound page links resulted in higher SERP rankings for those same pages.

Ricerca says, "The SEOs touting the PR Leakage theory are simply wrong."

While the study shows a direct correlation between higher totals of outbound links and better SERPS, it still does not disprove the theory of PR leakage. On the other hand, it does show that there's no direct correlation between PR and SERPS.

Google has dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of search on a daily basis. While PageRank continues to provide the basis for web search, it stands to reason that they would also be improving upon PageRank also. What was published eons ago can no longer be used in evaluating the web today.

Pages of higher PR mean nothing if they don't match the user's query. Google's sophisticated algorithm does more than comparing the PR of the page. They also examine many aspects of the page's content besides the pages that are linking to it; they are examining the pages that are linked out from that page as well. Ricerca's study substantiates this fact.

Therefore by analyzing a page's inbound and outbound links, Google can determine what a page is about. A page with outbound links will provide Google with more information about that page. This information is taken directly from the off-page content that you are linking to.

Hiding links in an effort to stop PR leakage can actually work against you; it will eliminate a very important piece of the puzzle. Providing outbound links that are relative to the content will actually help in the analysis process -- it can also provide you with higher relative search result rankings.

The question of PR leakage becomes a moot discussion and should not be stressed over. It is not a question of whether it exists or not, it is a simple matter of it having no effect on search results at Google.

Discuss this post in Does PR Leakage Affect SERP Rankings?

MicroSoft Issues Blocker for Windows XP SP2 Update

I thought this was so damn funny, I just had to pass it on.

Microsoft has issued a blocking utility to prevent you from automatically updating your Windows system with XP SP2.

"To download and install Microsoft's free XP SP2 Blocker Tools, just hop on over to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=33517 and download Microsoft's free "XP SP2 Blocker Tools." These free tools will temporarily keep Windows Update from installing XP SP2 onto your computer for 120 days."

See Avoid Automatic Windows XP SP2 Update at the Band of Gonzos forums.

You Got Gmail

Google makes another move into MicroSoft's hallowed ground -- the Windows Desktop -- with a utility that resides in your System Tray. The utility will alert you to new mail in your Gmail account.

Coming with the Gmail Notifier is audible notification configurability and setting Gmail to be your default mail handler.

See Gmail Notifier at the Band of Gonzos forums for more information.

Googlebot Crawling AdSense WebSearch Pages

A recent post at The Forum Zone stumbled onto a little tidbit that Googlbot is crawling the AdSense new product WebSearch pages. The poster, ForumJunkie, thought originally that Google was reporting backlinks from the regular JavaScripted AdSense ads.

"Adwords in and of itself is a great tool to help drive additional traffic to your site, but I recently noticed another added benefit.



It appears (and maybe this is common knowledge and I'm just behind the times) that if the Google bot hits a page that happens to be displaying your ad it will treat that add/link just like it would any other. I've noticed links (or at least 'contains the term') to some of my sites that are directly attributed to Adwords.



Has anyone else noticed this, or have I just had too much coffee this morning?"

Maybe a little too much go-go juice FJ! Upon further investigation of this however, it comes to show that Googlebot is actually crawling the WebSearch pages and reporting what it finds there. Cached pages are indeed showing the ads with the complete text including descriptions -- they are not javascripted.



The cached pages will show the "go to www.domain.com" in the actual AdSense ads, as well as, the SERPS that are listed on those pages. The AdSense ads are not javascripted and are coming directly from the adserver at Google, which includes the adserve click link as well. That link does contain the Url of the domain inside the 'href' portion of the anchor element. That url is not a valid one though, it is used in combination with some other javascript ... in other words it is a useless link.



Here is one example that was turned up. If you look in the upper right there is a link labled What is this page? which identifies the page as a WebSearch plus AdSense for search page.



Interesting little find here. How will the links in the SERPS portion of these pages get reported? I would think that it is entirely possible that Google will be reporting them as possible linkbacks. ForumJunkie actually saw the link show up -- but is a little guarded over this:

"When I first posted this thread, it was being picked up as an actual link, not just in the "contains the term" query. That may have abeen a fluke that was quickly corrected."

IBM Offers Cloudscape DB Code to Apache Server

In a Reuters article, IBM offers database codes to the open source. IBM said that current programming code of Cloudscape, a database product written in Java programming language, will be given to nonprofit Apache Software Foundation that spearheads open source projects.

"IBM estimated the value of its contribution to be about $85 million (45 million pounds). The open source project will be called Derby.



Software written in Java can run on computers with Microsoft Windows as well as other operating systems.



'Our whole motivation is to accelerate more innovation,' around Java, said Janet Perna, general manager of IBM's data management business. She said IBM uses Cloudscape in more than 70 of its products. 'If we found this useful,' others would also find it useful, she said."

Groklaw was a little guarded about the donation but went on to say:

"I am not positive about the *whole* motivation part, but any way you look at it, it's a lovely gift. Cloudscape has more than a half a million lines of code."

Indeed, this is a nice gift to say the least.



But there also appears to be some confusion over the licensing of Cloudscape. According to IBM, Apache will hold the licensing and intellectual property rights for Cloudscape ... yet a NY Times article has quoted IBM as releasing it to the "public domain". Groklaw states that they cannot have it both ways according to the Apache Licensing pages. Apache is not (never has been) part of the GPL in essence.



I have been a little busy of late, so I am slow on picking up on this bit of news (Aug. 3rd). But to date there has been no mention of the gift at the Apache Software Foundation.



Thanks to Mushroom, a fellow BoGGer, for calling this to our attention.

The Ultimate Blog Template List

Angie McKaig has put together the Ultimate Blog Template List on her design and geekery blog. The list has some of the more notable such as BlogDesigns, BlogSkins for Blogger, and EyeForBeauty (templates for your journals) as well as a whole slew of others to browse through.

"Want to blog but can't design? The ultimate blog template list features dozens of sites with weblog templates for your use. Some are paid, some are free, still more are linkware... get blogging!"

New Remote Preview Plugin for Html-Kit

If you are a user of Html-Kit for Html authoring, then you may find the hkRemotePreview plugin of value for making it easier to preview files opened from remote FTP servers through a web server while editing.



This new plugin will undoubtably be useful for those who do not have a local server running on their design machines while developing web pages that use SSI or PHP scripting for includes or other functions. Without the server, your pages do not render properly in the design preview. This plugin is just the ticket.



Features:

• Previews files opened from remote FTP servers through a web server specified in plugin preferences.
  
  
• Ability to maintain up to 3 different web servers for previewing.
  
  
• Editor Preview tab or the plugin button can be used to invoke the remote preview.