Network Filter & passing PageRank

[L]

Not to obsess on PageRank or anything, but it still has to have SOME relevancy... That said:

I think we are most likely blocked from passing PageRank to our own sites since the 20-some sites we have mostly all link to each other in the footer (eek).

If we are being network filtered (not passing PageRank between sites), this brings up two questions for me:
1. Would this count for on-page linking in content areas between our sites as well?
2. Would we not pass PageRank to other sites?

So, I want to test this.

One thing we just did is add contextual linking between two of the sites - actual content components with two lines of text + a link to the other site from various places in site A & site B. I think the on-topic contextual linking will benefit both sites' pages (and users!), but not sure that any PageRank will be passed. Not sure how much I care about Pagerank being passed anyway, as long as contextual linking is taken into consideration here I think we're just fine I guess.

Another thing I'd probably like to test is linking our PR 9 home page to a topic-related site not within our network with a PR 4 or so & see if it boosts it or if passing PageRank for us is just kaput. Now dont go banging down my door for a link, we've already got a site in mind, should we try this test.

Another question - if we do find that we are not passing PageRank between sites or to external sites; if we unlink all of our sites in the footer, would our network filter be lifted?

Anyone have any insight on this before we start doing any testing?

[Rob]

How do you plan on monitoring the PR change? I hope not by the toolbar it's unreliable at best.

in other words the change you see now may have actually happened months ago.

[L]

Test 1: Intersite Contextual linking: we'll be looking for increases in traffic (esp converting to leads) between sites, and for any increases in overall rankings for the page types we linked to and from. PageRank - well, good question. I forgot that most of our pages dont show any PageRank at all anyway. Because of network filtering? Because of URL inccosistencies? Dont know. Guess I'm not going to monitor that, but I still have to wonder if it works...

Test 2: Its a matter of patience. Wait 4-5 months & see if the PageRank for the PR4 test site changes?

[Rob]

Are your pages static or dynamic?

[L]

The entire site is dynamic.

[Rob]

That could account for your lack of PR inheritance.

By chance do they use more than 3 variables, or variables with "ID" in the string?

[L]

Not typically. We have a host of URL problems that we're working through though; mostly inconsistencies. Many pages have multiple URLs for the same page because of these URL publishing inconsistencies. Working to fix that & then wait a few months & see if any of our pages under the home page start to pick up rank in the browser.

Most 2nd tier & deeper pages have no PageRank (in the toolbar). M.C. says PageRank isnt always shown anyway - they know whats going on over at Google, but the toolbar doesnt reflect it. So I can only know that it exists in some way, and wonder if we're hurting or helping ourselves and other sites...

[Rob]

Thats good

So back to your original post.

the footer link may be harming you - especially if the phrases that are linked on are all the same. This would indicate to Google that the linking isn't natural.

Also, the deep linking strategy you are talking about is an excellent idea to help pass link pop between domains. But as you said, you want to make sure the links are to relevant content.

So linking from blue widgets on one site to pink widgets on another site would be ok and would probably benefit both sites (and as you say users).

I like to try and keep that in mind with all my link efforts - how will it impact usability. That will help guide you.

[L]

the footer link may be harming you - especially if the phrases that are linked on are all the same. This would indicate to Google that the linking isn't natural.

Phrases are all the names of the sites.

At first I didnt think there was much harm: Most sites are PR 9 & 8, with some 7 & a 6 or two. As far as I can tell anyway. But that brings me to the same two questions: Is this network filter that I'm sure we must have hurting our totally relevant, on-topic, contextual linking on inner pages between sites + can we pass PageRank to external sites...

[Rob]

I would say yes the filter is harming the good links as well. I haven't seen a case where it isn't a blanket filter. I'm sure that will get better over time but right now it seems that the domain (and all it's pages) is by default affected.

as for the second question - yes PR flows both ways. By linking to other sites you do transfer some PR to them, but there is also something like a feedback loop in that your site can benefit from the links it makes to other sites. Conversely, a poor link can adversely affect you as well.