Panda Update: Isn't a link still a link?

[Francisco_Meza]

I was doing some link building and some SEO's said that the Panda update affected many websites. I am going to use eZineArticles.com as my example. EzineArticles was affected by the Panda update and does not show up in the SERPs as much as before. But they still have doFollow Links coming from the articles I am submitting.

QUESTION: Regardless if EzineArticles was affected by the Panda Update, isn't a "Follow Link" still a "Follow Link" OR am I completely wasting my time on this devalued website?

Edit: Yes I know a PR 0 page is not as valuable as a PR 9 page. I am asking from the standpoint of the affected Panda Update domains overall.

[seoseoguyguy]

I agree with you 100%.

[RyanKent]

Shawn, I agree with you that EZine Articles are crap now and I would not desire a link from that site. I look back now in horror at my response from early 2011, but Google has changed a lot over the past year. For quite some time, Ezine Article links held value and helped sites to rank higher in SERPs. Those days are gone.

[seoseoguyguy]

Ezine Articles is now looked at as a trashy, spammy website, and the links from the "author bio" area hold no value. I have seen first hand, these links destroy some of my clients rankings. After I emailed Ezine and had them remove all the articles for that client, they ranked well again. This is an example of how lame links from article directories are. They offer "platinum" and "diamond" statuses to entice the author to write more articles for status points. This is all propaganda, and should be ignored. I would not waste any time in the ezinearticles.com domain. Just an SEO professionals opinion though.

-SEO (Shawn Eric Olson)

[dignan99]

Hey Mike,

While this might be what it is meant for, it has been more often used for the backlinks in the author profile area.  The more articles, the more links.

[EGOL]

Where were you when I was selling diamonds?

[MBayes]

EGOL,

I know how Google values a link.  Leave 1 billion dollars in unmarked bills in the public parks waste basket at 1:00  A.M.  and I will send the exact method to you...

Or...  just pay me $129.00  a month and we will guarantee you the FIRST PAGE of Google.

[MBayes]

Good discussion. I have a time crunch, so right to my 2 cents.  Isn't the real point of publishing on E Zine is to have a well written article republished on other sites, and therefore the juice is not from e zines but the sites that pick up the article?

[EGOL]

If the pages where those links exist are in the Google index then I am betting that some value will be passed - even if the pages currently register PR0 on the toolbar.  The question is how much value and what type of value.

If they are indexed then each of these links will pass a tiny amount of pagerank.  However, we know that pagerank in itself does not rank a website.

If you believe that Google passes some measure of trust with a link, then I am betting that the trust associated with a link from Berkeley will be nice but that Ezine will past almost nothing.  This is because Ezine links to crap but Berkeley mainly links to quality.  Lots of people might disagree with this idea of "trust"... but, just saying here my opinion of the relative value of these links.

[Francisco_Meza]

EGOL, let's take this scenario. I have one link with PR 0 coming from Berkeley.edu and the other link with PR 0 coming from EzineArticles.com. BOTH links pass zero Page Rank. I don't get the link juice from the DA 86 from Berkeley nor the 91 DA from Ezinearticles.com. Assuming everything is equal, neither link hold value, right?

PS. 100 drunks voting for me would be awesome, but a link blessed by the Pope would be better.

[dignan99]

What about 100 drunk Popes?   Good analogy.

[RyanKent]

EGOL,

I agree with you that I would rather have the link from Berkeley based on their reptuation. But your comparison of 100 drunks vs one Pope seems completely unfair.

EzineArticles is the 161st most popular site in the world (Alexa ranking) where Berkeley ranks 1829. EzineArticles also has a lot more (40k+) linking domains when compared to Berkeley. A link from EzineArticles will be seen by more people, while a link from Berkeley will be seen as more credible.

Most webmasters are not in a position to get a link from Berkeley, where they can from EzineArticles.

[EGOL]

The domain authority on EzineArticles is an impressive 91.

That domain authority number is blind to some important factors.  One is Google's opinion of the domain.  The domain authority of berkeley.edu is about 86.  Where would you rather have a link?

Which is worth more?  100 drunks voting for you or one Pope?

[RyanKent]

Isn't a "Follow Link" still a "Follow Link" OR am I completely wasting my time on this devalued website?

Yes, a follow link is still a follow link post Panda.

All links are not equal. A link's value comes from the authority of the source. The domain authority on EzineArticles is an impressive 91. The page ranking, relevance, anchor text and other factors will play an important role in the link's value.

EzineArticles is a source of information. They are linked to be 200k+ domains. They offer exposure for your site. You have an opportunity to reach out to an audience who otherwise might not find you. I would suggest publishing an on-topic article once per quarter would be a positive experience for your site traffic. Google and other search engines will agree and rank the links accordingly.

[dignan99]

It has to do with the severe decrease in value and trust that Google once gave article sites like ezinearticles.com.  Once beloved, Google chose to recalibrate their level of importance.  Once this occurred, the value of the content, links, and everything related to such sites plummeted.

While I do not want to go as far as calling them a graveyard, in which if a link of yours is found in them you get demoted, it was and is extremely close.

Links from quality sites are still vital, however the strategy has changed.  This should be a lesson to anyone who puts their eggs in one basket, doesn't diversify their link building, or treads in areas that may one day be considered suspect by the big search engines.

[Theo-NL]

Yes, a followed link is still a followed link. It was like that before Panda and it is like that after Panda.

However, not every followed link has the same value. For example: a link from CNN.com has more value than a link from buy-viagra-online-now.info, this holds true both before and after Panda.

What Panda did was decrease the value to you that a link from eZineArticles.com has. Whether you're wasting your time is up to you to decide. Given that you know the article submitted to eZineArticles will only generate a low-value link, is that a wise task to spend your time on, or is that time better spend elsewhere?

[EGOL]

Nobody knows for sure how google values a link.

However, the links that you are talking about can be acquired by just about anyone, much of the content used to get these links is garbage, the articles fill search indexes with duplicate content and Google through their actions has confirmed that these are not favored websites. So, you can only hope that they are worth anything at all.

If I was the boss at google these links might carry negative value because they are so often used for manipulation.

I would invest my time elsewhere.... but, that is just an opinion.