Authority links out

[sarahk]

I'm keen to see DMOZ being used to list real estate agents and associated industries and I've noticed that alot of the agents near me don't. Lots, infact, have never heard of it.

So to raise the profile, I'm in the process of linking from my links pages to DMOZ.

The bonus for me, I hope, is that by linking to high PR pages (some are PR7, some only PR3) I'll be raising the credibility of my own site.

My Idaho Property page is still showing Google Adsense ads for links rather than Idaho but it may take them a while to revisit the page and reassess the keywords. My Singapore property page is looking ok. (I've used these examples because the links are for realestatewebmasters.com members)

Has anyone else tried this?
Was it beneficial?

Sarah

[rogerdan]

Hi hi,

That's my link. Hm....you are ranked even higher than me for that keyphrase. Strange why is that so? I have more backlinks with SIngapore property pointing to me than to you. Arg...something is wrong .

[Duncan Pollock]

There's no question that getting indexed by dmoz.org counts for a lot. Google, for one, has for a long time used their listings as a primary source for their own index and still does to a significant degree.
Two points do deserve to be noted, however:
1. It can take forever (and forever) to get accepted. The exercise is carried out by human editors (not a crawler in sight) and there's invariably a backlog of submissions. It can easily take six months or longer before your site is accepted.
2. And this is an absolute fact: the rule is one site, one listing and as far as real estate submissions are concerned the only acceptable ones are those that:
a) Show the agent's name and company as the title (e.g. Jerry Hendriks, RE/MAX Garden City Realty Inc.)
b) Is submitted for inclusion in the category that applies to the office "bricks and mortar" address (e.g. St. Catharines) and no other location (regardless of where the agent personally lives or what area he/she serves).
Before you make any submission, drill down through the Open Directory project homepage until you find the appropriate regional/locations category and model your submission on the listings that are already there.
Trust me on all this. I was a dmoz editor in a previous life.

Duncan

[sarahk]

1. It can take forever (and forever) to get accepted.

It sure can, I've seen sites more than 4 years old waiting, and waiting. Easy solution, become an editor

The exercise is carried out by human editors (not a crawler in sight)

Robozilla visits every so often so dud sites get weeded out. But yes, submissions are all manual.

There's no question that getting indexed by dmoz.org counts for a lot.

But what's the impact of linking TO dmoz?

I'm going to wait and see...

Sarah

[wwhhomes]

You give a DMOZ category a higher PR, that PR is passed on to other websites in that category including yourself, but since your website is linked to that page, you would not see the full benefit of that PR than your competitors would.

I'm not sure if this is a right assumption, but it makes sense, if theres such a thing as SEO as making sense

Darren

[sarahk]

you would not see the full benefit of that PR than your competitors would.

Good thing, then, that realtors aren't my competitors!
They are all potential sales agents

Sarah

[rogerdan]

Hi Sarah,

I have noticed that my links on your site is a redirect
http://www.pcpropertymanager.com/wsn39_1display.html

It has became a redirect instead of a direct link? Could you
please help me understand? I am sure everyone in this
forum would also want a direct link instead of a redirect.

Thanks.

[sarahk]

Nothings changed. Here's the html for your link:

<td  valign=_top>
<div class="link">
<a href='/wsnlinks/link.php?id=192' target='_blank' title='http://www.dreamshelter.com.sg/'>Dreamshelter Singapore property</a> 
<a href='http://www.dreamshelter.com.sg/' target='_blank' title="Dreamshelter Singapore property">
<img src='/wsnlinks/investment.gif' border='0' alt="Dreamshelter Singapore property"></a>
<img src="/wsnlinks/templates/images/stars5.gif"><br>
Finding Singapore property is made simple. We have a wide range of properties and friendly real estate agents waiting to serve you. <br>
<a href=/wsnlinks/vote.php?id=192>Rate</a> |
<a href=/wsnlinks/report.php?id=192>Report</a> <small>21</small>
</div>
</td>

You have 2 links, one for humans, one for bots.

Sarah

[rogerdan]

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for highlighting it to me.

I don't think you are helping me.

The following code will help you in ranking well for the keyphrase.
Also, I have figured out why you were ranked higher than me for my keyphrase. This is because the following code is telling Google that you are "voting" your site for the keyphrase "Dreamshelter Singapore property", which is why you were ranked higher than me.

<a href='/wsnlinks/link.php?id=192' target='_blank' title='http://www.dreamshelter.com.sg/'>Dreamshelter Singapore property</a>

As for this link,

<a href='http://www.dreamshelter.com.sg/' target='_blank' title="Dreamshelter Singapore property">
<img src='/wsnlinks/investment.gif' border='0' alt="Dreamshelter Singapore property"></a>

This will help me in my ranking for "Dreamshelter" which is not what I am aiming for. I hope you would seriously consider changing this. Because I have no link partners who are ranked higher than me for my key phrase except you. I am not plugging this from the air, but the results are showing on Google. Anyway, Sarah, no harm done, we are all here to learn about SEO stuff. Perhaps you could advise me.

[sarahk]

I've updated your link: http://www.pcpropertymanager.com/wsn39_1display.html but am not sure about the voting thing.

I assume you are talking about the title='' attribute in the link tag?
My understanding was that they were votes for YOUR site. After all that was what the Google Bomb for "miserable failure" was all about - taking down the Bush website. I don't think you'll find the original site ranking higher than Bush.

Sarah