What is an Authority Back Link?
Simply put it is a Back Link pointing to your site from a page on another website that could be described as an authority source. In most cases these are News and Media sites, Govt forums or discussion boards and then last but not least sites of academic and scientific research such as Universities or Colleges.
In the case of News and Media Sites plus other Commercial Authority sites then the domain suffix is primarily .Com followed by .Net but nowadays do not be surprised to see the odd link coming in from Media sites with a .TV suffix.
In relation to Government sites whether they be Local or National then the domain suffix is by and large likely to be .gov in the US or .gov.uk in the UK. Elsewhere in the world Gov sites are usually prefaced by the three letters gov but then ended with the national identity suffix such as .au for Australia. So Australian Govt sites are by and large .gov.au
For Academic sites, in the US the domain suffix is .edu and again internationally this is by and large a convention that is maintained such as in Australia where the Academic suffix is .edu.au. In the UK the convention is different where the domain suffix is ac.uk.
What makes a site an Authority Site?
Primarily an Authority site is one that specialises in a discipline or Research that is primarily non commercially driven so therefore making any information, links or pronouncements very much “information lead”. Leading the way here are either University or Academic sites where the main driver is research or the dissemination of information. Government sites where the main driving forces are the provision of information for local, national and international consumption therefore primarily non commercial.
Lastly Media and News sites fall into this category where the main “sphere” of operation is the dissemination of news and information primarily for information sake.
What is not an Authority Site?
Contrary to popular belief, an Authority site is not one whose apparent net worth is defined purely in terms of its Site or Page Rank as determined by Googles Page Rank calculation. Just because it happens to have secured an apparent Page Rank (real or otherwise) of 6 does not necessarily make www.imagreatguyandnoconman.com an Authority site. However information from the Clinical Excellence Research Centre (http://cerc.stanford.edu/ ) at Stanford University could be deemed an Authority source despite its apparent lowly Page Rank of zero.
How can a Link from an Authority Site help?
A link from another web site whether contextual or merely by reference i.e. from a footer or trackback is seen as a vote for your site and by inference, in the eyes of the Search Engines, a positive one at that. Such a link frm an Authority site carries much more weight in the eyes and ranking algorithms of the Search Engines.
Whilst it cannot be accurately calculated (outside of the offices of the likes of Google, Yahoo and Bing) a link from an Authority site would indeed carry much more weight and influence than a conventional link though by what margin it can only be estimated through pure assumption, login and deduction.
What Influence can Page Rank have on such links?
Page Rank as a metric was introduced by Google after first appearing in a Research Paper in 1998 authored by the founders of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) and was developed accordingly. As a metric it is widely accepted to no longer have the influence it once had and now ranks as only one of 200 independent ranking factors in Googles overall Ranking Algorithm.
As such it is openly questionable as to whether it has much life expectancy left in it as there have been innumerable incidences of inconsistencies within sites as to whether the Page Rank is real or genuine. Add to this the growth in services set up to purely “game the system” and you can see why Google are perhaps no longer the strident advocates of the system they once were.
Page Rank as a metric was set up originally as a calculation between zero and 1 and not as has been illustrated between zero and 10 on the little green toolbar displayed in Internet browsers.
Perhaps a better way to understand the concept of the effect of Page Rank is to accept that it bears more in relation to the overall worthiness of the page more in terms of how often the page is visited by GoogleBot and its contents analysed. The logic being that a link on a Page Rank 6 page is much more likely to be found and assessed more quickly by GoogleBot than perhaps the same link on a page of much lesser Page Rank.
Does the amount and worthiness of the Page Rank of the originating page get transferred as much? That is not the remit of these FAQ’s but perhaps the reader should bear in mind the recent (within the last 12 months) publications from Google as to Page Rank Deprecation and Page Rank Sculpting and the implications thereof.
In short it is the view of the site owners here that Page Rank is not the metric it once was and that the Amount of “rank” that is transferred from one page to another is considerably less than most web site owners and Search Engine Optimisers estimate if indeed ay is transferred at all.
How can I get an Authority Link to point to my site?
The answer to this question is perhaps much easier than most people think. If you engage in a positive and constructive dialogue with the owner of the web site or Blog that you seek a link from and when you comment upon their site you do so in a meaningful and constructive manner then you are extremely likely to gain their trust and as such get a link to point to your site.
Blog owners aren’t always or necessarily looking for complicated treatises and theories that would grace the pages of a prestigious Medical Scientific Journal. Rather they want to know that you have read their content, understand fully what they are trying to say and what ideas they are promoting and as such wish to comment accordingly.
If you are seen to contribute positively and meaningfully to the “overall food chain” in terms of web copy then you are much more likely to get your comment approved ad that all to important link pointing back to your site.
If your comment on their site is flippant, not on topic and obviously from the viewpoint of someone who obviously has not read their copy then you are extremely unlikely to get your comment allowed and even worse it could positively harm you with regards the resources that Web Owners now have at their disposal such as the anti spam service and database Akismet.
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