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Authority Linking

Presented by: @Dixon_JonesTweet Me

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What we plan to cover• Cold Hard Facts about linking• Primary Research Sources• Links vs Entities• A New Definition of “Authority Link”

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What kind of Linker are you?

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Some Cold Hard Facts

(Date: 26 Sept 2015. Bay Area)

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Some Cold Hard Facts

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Some Cold Hard Facts

Search term:“Authority link definition site:google.com”

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Google Says CategoricallyLink schemes

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme…

…and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines…

…This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.

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What kind of Linker are you now?

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Some Cold Hard Facts• An authoritative Link has not changed• But Google’s definition an authoritative link did

at Penguin.– Changed their definition of what “counts”– Created a penalty aimed at manipulation

This presentation is not about penguin. It is about Authority

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Authority research about Authority Linking

• http://maj.to/1yZOdW5 (TrustRank Paper)• http://maj.to/1Bb1lHu (Stanford Paper)• http://maj.to/1MOT5S7 (Cornell Paper)• http://maj.to/1P9USDH (University of Toulouse)• http://maj.to/1O9mpV2 (Google Research)

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Jon M. Kleinberg, Cornell University 1999

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Jon M. Kleinberg, Cornell University 1999

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Hubs & Authorities

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Jon M. Kleinberg, Cornell University 1999

Hub

Hub

Hub

Authority

Authority

Authority

Authority

AuthorityAuthority

AuthorityAuthority

Authority

In Penguin, Google Muted the Hubs!

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Takeaways #1: Hubs are Not Authorities

• Paradox 1: – Getting a link from an Authority reduces its Authority

• Corollaries:– Google wants to be the main hub– Authority must have other characteristics

• Paradox 2:– Google still uses links in the Algorithm. Why?

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Link Decay Algorithms(e.g. Pagerank/Flow Metrics)

???

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Takeaways #2: Popular Authority

April 2nd 2014:How does Google separate popularity from authority?

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Problem: Link Decay Needs Universal Data sets

• Every signal is small• Individually prone to error or

opinion• At scale the error decreases• Confidence increases

http://info.majestic.com/universal

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Who’s page would be the Most Authoritative Link?

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Maybe an Authority is• Not a link but an entity• Not a web page but the owner

– Of the site– Of the content– Or of the brand

Can we test this hypothesis?

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The Top of the List=Brand Equity

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First articles Appear. Who wrote them?

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The first has just been charged!

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The second was Sarah Palin Herself!

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Google LIKES talking about Entities

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What if it is less about the link… and more about the authority of the linker?

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The Fork in the Road for SEOsAuthority Linking:

Start measuring the power of every page

VsChase the entity, over the link

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At Last Some new(er) research

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Now we see Google define Authority

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Wikidata is the new Freebase• Wikipedia Articles create entities• Entities point to other entities• Entities point to each other to create

Relationships

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Takeaways # 3• Links help Google to connect entities• Your Web Page / Site MAY be an Entity, but

probably part of many larger collections of objects• The more those entities cite you as a source of a

topic, the more relevent your web page for that topic

• If it ain’t connected to defined entities, it ain’t connected

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Authority is defined at the Entity Level!

• That is why Links are about Relationships. Get the most famous person in the topic to cite you– Or get arrested or otherwise make a noise– Or become connected to the authority– Or be in an Olympic team– Or in an official list– Or get elected to Senate!– Be famous, or get something famous to cite you

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My Definition of an “Authority Link”“An authority link is a legitimate citation (link) from a topically relevant web page which has, itself, considerable Topical Trust Flow in the relevant topic. That trust is a composite of both external links to the page and internal links to the page”.

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A New Suggested Definitionof Authority Linking

“Salient links to entities as recognized by Google will increase the authority of those entities, which in turn can speak (link) as an authority to salient content on the web. The Entity is the Authority. Not the Link”

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Thank You and Questions@Dixon_Jones

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