Ask a Website Design Company ^BETA

23 January 2009
Hi Rachel,

First of all, Page Rank is a link analysis algorithm used by Google, developed and patented by Stanford University. Stanford University sold exclusive rights for its use to Google for a number of market shares.

Knowing that, having links from web sites that are similar to yours that have a higher Page Rank is a really great way to help increase your Page Ranking. Page Ranking is an algorithm that is kind of like a link voting system.

If a web site with a high Page Rank links to a page with a lesser Page Rank, it helps the web site with the lesser Page Rank improve its Page Rank. Web sites with a lesser Page Rank that link to a web site with a higher Page Rank just help validate the continued importance of the web site with a higher Page Rank.

Whew! That all sounds confusing, but it's like asking a homeless person what his or her favorite restaurant is, versus asking the President of the United States what his favorite restaurant is... one would assume that because the President is better traveled and of course has resources that would allow for finer dining, he would have a better opinion, or higher Page Rank.

You can do a simple search for Page Rank and you will find many sites that offer a free simple tool that will allow you to check the Page Rank of any site. So, what you can do is find several sites that you think you would like to have your link listed on, check their Page Rank, and if the Page Rank is higher than yours, try to submit your site for a link. Obviously the higher their Page Rank, the better for you if you get listed.

Page Rank is scaled from 1 to 10 10 being the highest. You want to be careful not to list your web site on other web sites that are nothing but link repositories, chances are you will not benefit from these types of sites.

Many SEO companies offer this service, but of course they want to charge exorbitant amounts for the service. With a little time and effort, and in some cases, a little monetary investment, you can have your web site listed on other web sites with a higher Page Rank that will eventually help you out.

Remember too that links from other web sites is only one step in good SEO, you still need to consider your web site architecture, quality content and well thought out titles, and meta information, (descriptions and keywords, if you use them).

I hope this information helps. Good luck to you in your SEO efforts!

Cheers,
Mark Cloyd
Mark Cloyd Designs

24 January 2009
Hi Rachel,

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon can be useful for marketing, they are particularly useful for driving additional traffic to sites such as blogs. I think it depends on the type of site you're planning to promote and whether this topic/subject will be of interest to the average users of such sites.

Essentially these sites work on a voting system, so once a page/article/story is submitted to a site say for example Digg, visitors get the opportunity to read the summary about the link, then check it out, if they like it and find it interesting they'll 'digg it' - pushing your link up the rankings on the Digg site.

You'll need to think about whether your site will 'fit' with the kinds of links and stories of interest these sites run, for example I know there's a specific site for design based links called Design Float which would be much better for me over Digg or Stumble.

I hope that helps in someway!?
Greg

3 February 2009
If you are considering improving your visibility on Social Networking sites, you may want to include this little widget from "Add This" (I am in no way affiliated, so don't pass suggestions for improvement to me folks):

http://www.addthis.com/

It in essence allows you to add a button that includes the option to bookmark your website with multiple social networking sites, the added benefit is that it provides stats for your button and which links are clicked and all this is free (assuming you're happy for them to hold this sort of statistical information).

I find this a useful tool for some of the sites I build.

- Kurt

1 April 2009
This can be done, however you must research the social bookmarking sites to see if your content fits the community. Don't try to force your content onto DIGG if people won't find it helpful