Thread: Is Google recently devaluated Internal links ?

I believe that Google recently devaluated the internal link juice, and I would like to know if you come to the same conclusion.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I believe that Google recently devaluated the internal link juice, and I would like to know if you come to the same conclusion.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

The "Reasonable Surfer" Patent scores links based on how likely a user will click on the links. So some links will be devalued and the pages will lose rankings.

Take a look at this recent Google patent - Ranking documents based on user behavior and/or feature data

Systems and methods consistent with the principles of the invention may provide a reasonable surfer model that indicates that when a surfer accesses a document with a set of links, the surfer will follow some of the links with higher probability than others. This reasonable surfer model reflects the fact that not all of the links associated with a document are equally likely to be followed. Examples of unlikely followed links may include "Terms of Service" links, banner advertisements, and links unrelated to the document.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

I believe that Google recently devaluated the internal link juice, and I would like to know if you come to the same conclusion.

If this were true, we would see dramatic drops in the PageRank of internal pages all over the Web. There are no such changes, so it's not true.

Originally Posted by PhilipSEO

If this were true, we would see dramatic drops in the PageRank of internal pages all over the Web. There are no such changes, so it's not true.

How PR is related to SERP?

What I was trying to say is the new Google algo "mayday" gives less value to the internal linkage than before.

For example I had pages that rank #1 on Google and now there are not. These pages received new anchor links increase, and are still receiving old link power.

If it was only some pages it could mean that something else happen, but when it is on a few dozen pages just after the google algo changes, it tells me a different story.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

For example I had pages that rank #1 on Google and now there are not. These pages received new anchor links increase, and are still receiving old link power.

If it was only some pages it could mean that something else happen, but when it is on a few dozen pages just after the google algo changes, it tells me a different story.

Your page dropped from #1 to where? Or is it gone?
The google algo seems to change all the time...
Can you give specifics on what page dropped, and did it only have internal links? It could also be it had an external link that you lost, or your competitors got some new links.
Maybe google is valuing internal links less, or maybe it's something else.
I think we'll never know, and all we can keep doing is plugging away.
But feel free to post more details.

PS. To answer your original question, I haven't seen anything like this, but I don't have many pages that rank well in the first place.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

What I was trying to say is the new Google algo "mayday" gives less value to the internal linkage than before.

There's some webmaster chatter about e-commerce sites losing traffic on the long tails. I believe that this may be connected to the recent phrase based indexing patent. So some phrases that were once long tails could be returning more results for brands.

I have seen no changes in how Google values internal linking. I'm not seeing the cause and effect that you are eluding to. I'm not sure how you got from "dozens of pages lost rankings" to "Google has devalued interal linking". It's quite a leap.

I have seen positive changes for my sites, my internal pages rank well. and my visitors staying time is increased, getting authority

Originally Posted by MrToad

Your page dropped from #1 to where? Or is it gone?

Many pages dropped from #1 to #4, #5 and #6, not gone but it seems like big brands take over the highest positions. I beleive that Google gives more weight for brands, and it could be more weight on the affiliate/PPC marketing sites backlinks.

Maybe that's me, or something else is going on.

Originally Posted by bogart

The "Reasonable Surfer" Patent scores links based on how likely a user will click on the links. So some links will be devalued and the pages will lose rankings.

Take a look at this recent Google patent - Ranking documents based on user behavior and/or feature data

is this also the reason why they didn't update site PRs entirely?