Link Building for Hilltop
by: Andy
Hagans
Hilltop is one of the major
concepts underpinning Google's search algorithm, yet its workings and
implications are often misunderstood. After the infamous Florida Update,
many webmasters were aghast as their rankings plummeted; and again, when
the mysterious "sandbox" was implemented, some webmasters could not get a
Web site to rank well, period. Part of the reason that some Web sites get
shuffled out of the SERPs when new algorithmic features are implemented is
that those sites never gained authority in the eyes of the search
engines--that is, they were not sufficiently meshed into their local
topical communities.
This concept of authority
was one pioneered in a paper titled "Hilltop: A Search Engine based on
Expert Documents," written by Krishna Bharat and George A. Mihaila. The
full text is available online at
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~georgem/hilltop/.
(Note: Google has obviously
not implemented Hilltop in its pure form, but rather uses the principles
of topical communities and authority in its algorithm. Likewise, other
search engines such as MSN and Yahoo! are not using Hilltop per se, but
rather similar algorithmic features. Thus when I mention 'Hilltop' I am
referring to not just the specific paper published by Bharat and Mihaila,
but also to the fundamental theory upon which any authority-based link
popularity algorithm is based. This theory applies to Topic-Sensitive
PageRank, etc.)
The Basics of Hilltop
Google's PageRank formula
revolutionized search, but it has a major flaw: it gives each page an
absolute measure of importance. Recognizing that a page's importance
should be interpreted in light of a given query topic, the Hilltop formula
uses the link structure of the topical community related to the query
topic when determining relevance.
For a given topic query,
some pages are considered to be "expert documents," and others are
"authorities." A page is an expert document if it "is about a certain
topic and has links to many non-affiliated pages on that topic" (this type
of page is also sometimes called a hub). A page is an authority "if and
only if some of the best experts on the query topic point to it." To
summarize: hubs link to authorities; authorities are linked to by hubs.
The Challenge for New Web
Sites
The nature of the World
Wide Web dictates that it will take time for a new Web site to get links
from within its topical community. Many hubs such as resource lists or
niche directories are only updated periodically with new links. Still
others are static pages that will never be changed.
Then there is the "human
factor." It takes time for a Web site to be recognized as valuable, and
for webmasters to trust it enough to link to it. Older authority sites and
hubs also tend to link to other older authority sites, creating a sort of
self-perpetuating authority set (Mike Grehan refers to this phenomenon in
his article "Filthy Linking Rich," available online at
http://www.e-marketing-news.co.uk/Oct04/RichLinking.html). This
all adds up to the fact that it is very hard to make a new Web site an
authority in the eyes of the search engine, which begs the question: How
can a new Web site become entrenched in its topical neighborhood more
quickly?
Break Into Your Topical
Neighborhood
To make your Web site an
authority, you should first seek to obtain links from topical hubs.
Obvious hubs might include any niche directories or resource pages about
your Web site's topic.
One way to find less
obvious hubs is to do a backlink search on authority sites in your topical
community. Finding authority sites is easy--they are the sites that rank
highly for a search for that topic. Once you find an authority, search "link:http://www.theirsite.com."
Go through the backlinks, and find pages that link out to multiple sites
within your topic; a page that links out to multiple authority sites is
probably considered a hub by a search engine.
Aside from hubs, it can be
quite helpful to get links from the authority sites themselves. I have
seen many Web sites get a significant boost after obtaining just one link
from a top authority. It is implied that an authority site will link out
less than will a hub, and therefore it is possible that these links are
even more valuable in terms of rankings.
Obtaining links from
quality hubs and authorities is easier said than done. One can however use
certain methods to get links quickly. These methods include but are not
limited to: offering to swap links; submitting a relevant, well-written
press release; submitting a relevant, well-written article with your Web
site's URL hyperlinked and embedded in the copy; offering to buy or rent a
links; and, of course, writing a lot of great content (it will get
noticed, sooner or later!).
Conclusion
Obtaining links from
reputable sources within your Web site's topical community is necessary in
order for that site to be ranked highly in today's search engine
algorithms. Getting your Web site entrenched within its topical community
would be a good idea anyway, even if search engines did not exist--which
is a pretty good litmus test for a strong, long-term SEO method.
by-http://www.andyhagans.com |
