Who knew PageRank had mythological status?
I was pondering this very topic the other day: linking out to other sites in my blog posts.
Coming from the old school, I thought it mandatory to at least reference your blog post source with a link. That’s just respectful.
But here’s my dilemma. I’ve noticed several of my posts have been picked up by other bloggers. In fairness to them, they are not simply copying my posts and not acknowledging where the material comes from. Rather what I’m finding is that some bloggers take the basic content of my post and rework it.
If you put the two posts side by side, you would notice the content is similar but you would never say it was the exact same text. I guess what’s ticking me off with this is these bloggers are benefiting from my personal research and are not giving even a passing note (link back) to at least acknowledge the topic was gleaned from my initial post.
Then I stumbled upon the Link Building Blog who offers these basic tips regarding links:
“it seems that tons of people still don’t like linking out. By sharing the love and linking to others you will also get some link love back. If you want to pick up a fair amount of links add a blogroll and a handful of the sites you link to will link back. Or if you link to someone often within your posts, who knows they may link to you within their blogroll.”
Then came the big “A-HA” when he referenced this information: Don’t Be a Link Nazi.
I never realized that some bloggers think page rank gets diluted by linking out to other websites.
Here’s how Cameron Olthuis explains it:
“I may be the only SEO that doesn’t buy into the myth that your PageRank (PR) gets passed out by linking to other websites. It’s a stupid myth that I’ve never believed. Seriously, do you really think your PageRank gets distributed when you link to another website? Sillyness!
How naive I am in the world of PageRank — probably because it’s never been an objective of my blogging. I’d like to believe it is a myth. I’ll continue with my linky-love. I’ll bite my tongue (fingers) when I come across a blogger who’s not referenced my post when they’ve taken the basic content of my entry.
It’s been one of those days. Pondering, musing, a bit of arguing with a friend on the other side of the country — just one of those cranky days I suppose.
March 19th, 2007 at 12:16:18 AM
Who ME??!! :O
What did I copy?
What are you talking about?
I don’t believe you.
You know this comment is really intended for link whoring right?
Anyway…
I’m done.
Thanks!
March 20th, 2007 at 2:55:37 PM
I think that it is polite to put up a link to the source of your information. Something I always practise.
Once I had my blog reviewed and this lady criticised my ultra long blogroll. However, I don’t see anything wrong in linking to other people. SOme guys don’t link out for selfish reasons. As a guy once told me “why give extra traffic to other blogs?” Ironically he wanted to exchange links with me.
March 20th, 2007 at 4:47:34 PM
Hey bro’ — at least you and I admit to the link ho-ing. So not to worry LOL
March 22nd, 2007 at 5:47:11 AM
It could be that someone copied the text to look at and think about later and forgot where they got it and didn’t think to google to find where they found it. Or just never occurred to reference. Out of one’s hands what others do I suppose.
Cranky days make bugaboos bigger than Mighty Mouse.
Hope today feels better.
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:52:40 PM
Thanks for putting in perspective Pearl - yup some days those bugaboos just get bigger than they are worth LOL.
March 30th, 2007 at 4:32:33 PM
Larry,
This has happened before blogging even got popular. If you ever want to know if anyone is coppying, copy the first line of your post, and google it. I have caught others stealing a few of mine, and promptly pointed them out. It only happened twice.
April 1st, 2007 at 2:50:22 AM
But therein lies the problem — they aren’t outright copying the text, just taking the material, my references and then passing it off as if they came across the information. As Pearl says in a previous comment, perhaps one should just give them the benefit of the doubt for whatever reason — but it still irks me. Again, perhaps coincidence, but after this post, I checked these other sites and not a peep from them anymore with info taken from my blog.