Bad Links – Sorry it isn’t you it’s me – Link Devaluation

There has been a lot of talk lately about bad links having a negative effect on websites.

I am more inclined to think it is due to link devaluation rather than a bad backlinks effecting rankings.

As I have said numerous times over the years, when it comes to SEO a page is a page and a website is a website, but where the water gets muddied with that statement is that a strong website has strong pages.

I have had numerous strong websites over the years and quite often found that when adding new pages to these sites the new pages would rank almost instantly in high positions, which makes perfect sense if it is a strong and trusted website, but, and it’s a big but, the new pages still ranked high even when they were totally unrelated to the website!

I think most SEOs would agree that the reason they ranked high was due to the overall strength of the websites and the fact the sites have good navigation systems and good linking structures which provide a flow of strong link juice through the websites and to the new pages

The question is though – Why should new pages on a strong website rank better than they deserve just based on the power of the website?

Why is a rubbish article posted on a strong website with numerous internal links pointing to it more highly ranked than an excellent article on a less popular website with a poorer internal links?

Why is the homepage of a website with numerous internal links pointing back to it better than the homepage of another site with an inferior linking structure?

If there is one major thing Google could do to stop this it is devalue links, but not just any links, the sites own internal navigation links.

Are webmasters and SEOs missing the obvious when looking for bad back links and links that have been devalued.

Rather than assuming external links have been devalued is it not time to start thinking that possibly the websites own internal linking structure has been devalued?

I think most would agree that Page Rank and links are still important in SEO but is it more important now that these need to be genuine 3rd party links rather than the internal links provided by a well structured website with a good internal navigation system.

Let’s face it, there is no reason for a new page with 50 good internal navigation links pointing to it to rank any higher than one which hasn’t. likewise there is no real reason why a websites homepage should rank higher just because all the internal pages on the site point back to it.

Could this be the real reason why websites lose ranking?

It’s not other peoples links that have been devalued it’s your own internal linking structure

Sorry, it’s not you it’s me!

Internal Link Devaluation

Internal link devaluation is where a website that has unnaturally high search engine rankings primarily due to the fact that pages are strengthened by internal navigation links are returned to their natural position based on the assumption these internal links have been devalued.

Why should the content on websites with numerous internal links pointing to the content page receive an unnatural ranking boost based on these internal links?

Can internal link devaluation level the playing field for smaller websites and create search engine rankings based on the merit of the content page rather than the linking structure of the website with multiple internal links pointing to the content page?