Link Juice
There, I said it. You can say it too. Have yourself a giggle.
Now that the Internets have evolved to a state where my mother sends me Youtube videos and the average webmaster understands that links are good, I have actually heard other people talk about link juice. And most of the time it is like listening to someone talk about pigs, pork spending and lipstick.
Since non-SEO people are at least talking about linking and link juice, the unfortunate focus has been on acquisition. The tendency is to hoard, possess and keep it all for themselves without giving back. Because “giving back” is often mistaken as “losing link juice”. As an example, I recently heard someone suggest that they link to a related group of websites but they wanted to secretly put “no follow” tags on the links to keep their site from losing link juice. That’s kinda like saying, “hey, thanks for the good time, I’ll call ya”.
Oh, man.
I once wrote a blog post about whether Google would monitor prostitution in regards to buying and selling links, so I might as well be consistent. Giving and getting links naturally is a lot like free love. Actually, it’s more like having multiple partners, but with some discretion. It’s a two-way street, an openness to sharing. You link to sites that you like. And sites that like you link to you.
Essentially, if you have a good looking site with a great personality you tend to get lots of links. If your site is on the ugly side and not very compelling, well, you will likely not get much link action and might be tempted to buy some. Of course, in Googleland, buying links is against their terms and regarded much like buying love in the real world. And if you link to (pass link juice to) every single site you come across you just get a bad reputation and Google won’t love you.
Often, the road to success starts with giving. Pay someone a compliment, say something nice, link to someone without expectation. Reciprocal linking is really not the best route anyway. But if you participate in your greater community, you will make friends who will link to you. And if you come across a site you admire, share with others by linking to them. Don’t hoard.
….oddly enough, I just saw a post from Aaron Wall where he calls this hoarding of link juice an “SEO black hole“.
