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

[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]

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.

[dignan99]

What about 100 drunk Popes?   Good analogy.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[EGOL]

Where were you when I was selling diamonds?

[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.

[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)

[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]

I agree with you 100%.