WHAT IS A GHOST PAGE IN SEO?
But, hang on, what exactly are these "ghost pages" I listed in the title? Let's start by defining what I mean by "ghost pages." A ghost page is a page that isn't explicitly linked to your site's navigation (you don't mention it on your menu navigation, and it doesn't have a parent page), but that a user can find by searching for that word on a search engine. Let's say I'm selling "Incan head masks," and I discover through the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool that there's a more commonly searched phrase (let's say "Inca masks") that I'd like to rank for. So, I could either update my main pages to fit the term, or I could leave my site as is (since I would still want to rank for the main terms I already have on my website), but build a "ghost page" that targets the more commonly searched for term. In that scenario, I could build a page on my web that only a Google search would pull up. This is a legitimate “white hat” SEO technique to use, but bear the following in mind:
·
The
"ghost website" can still be a useful resource for users. It should
be simple to use and have a clear aim (for example, direct them to a page where
they can purchase a product or contact you).
·
If
you simply duplicate a page and alter a few words, Google will flag it as
duplicate material, and you may be penalized. To prevent this, make sure that
any pages you build for users contain unique and valuable content.
·
Stop
the practice of "keyword stuffing." If the word you want to rank for
isn't important or makes no sense, don't use it too much.
If you keep those caveats
in mind, I've discovered that this technique will help you rank for a variety
of keywords that are important to your web!
DO GHOST LINKS AFFECT SEO?
You have a beautiful
website with a lot to sell, but none of that matters if you aren't getting the
traffic you want. Investing in backlink SEO is crucial. If your website has a
lot of high-quality links, Google's algorithm would consider it worthy of a
good rating. But what if good links die as a result of bad luck, but they still
have an effect on your SEO? We'll find out in this post.
WHAT ARE GHOST LINKS?
Links are often removed for
a variety of purposes. These factors could be linked to website updates, or
they could be linked to a previously existing backlink. Ghost links, also known
as link echoes, are dead hyperlinks. Since the effects of the connections
continue to echo even after they are removed, the term echo is used.
Experts thought for a long
time that a ghost connection was no longer a factor in SEO and Google's ranking
algorithm. It turns out that even if a ghost connection is no longer active, it
is not necessarily forgotten. Long after they die, these ghost links are
counted and factored into Google's algorithm. That is, a ghost connection would
have little or no impact on a website's ranking. Even after links become
ghosts, Google seems to attach meaning to them. Moz conducted an experiment in
which they compared the rankings of two websites (Website A was ranked #31 and
Website B was ranked #11). Each site was then given 22 links. Both websites
rose in the rankings, with Website A climbing to #1 and Website B climbing to
#5. The ties were then cut, and only minor changes were made. Website A
remained in its place, while Website B dropped one ranking. To ensure that they
were having correct results, the team repeated the experiment eight times.
To prove the hypothesis, we
conducted experiments on two highly competitive writing service providers, and
the findings were startlingly similar. The other question is whether this is a
temporary impact and whether Google can note the links are ghosts and change
their rating as a result. That's wrong. The websites' rankings remained stable
for months (at least four and a half).
THE VALUE OF GHOST LINKS
Nobody knows for sure why
ghost links behave in search results the way they do, but there are some
intriguing hypotheses. Google could be encouraging pages to maintain their
ranking despite their ghost links if they tend to be useful to people and there
aren't a lot of people clicking on them and then returning to the search
results page. According to Rand Fishkin, the author of the Moz report, Google
finds ghost ties to have intrinsic value. The fact that they were there in the
first place indicates that your page has meaning, even though they no longer
lead anywhere. Despite their enigmatic nature, ghost links are a useful tool
that can help your website's SEO. While we're on the topic of links, it's also
a good idea to provide backlinks to other websites, but be sure to use CiteItIn
to properly backlink to any resource. It will also help you hold backlinks to
other websites for as long as possible.
GHOST LINKS AND SEO
So, how does this impact
you and your site? Quite a bit. The position of your website on a search engine
result page determines whether it will live or die (SERP). The further down the
results page you go, the less clicks you'll get. In terms of clicks, there's
also a big drop-off from the first to the second result list, so one ranking place
can mean a lot.As a result of those clicks, you'll gain new followers, reviews,
and customers willing to pay for your product or service.We don't know how long
a ghost connection will boost the ranking of your website. It's probably better
to see them as a one-time boost. However, they can be a very useful boost since
the rise in SERP can easily lead to organic linking. While your page is being
boosted by ghost links, someone who visits it will connect to it from their
site or blog, giving you more permanent links.Concentrate on organically
improving your link profile, because Google's algorithm could shift tomorrow,
and your ghost link-heavy website's ranking could plummet. It's best to behave
as if this occurrence will occur, so that if and when it does, your ranking
will be less impacted because you've increased the intrinsic value of your site
and its links.Of course, it's important to avoid having your backlinks removed
and being connection ghosts. As a result, when you're writing new content to boost
your site's backlinks, use State of Writing and Through Writing to ensure that
your content doesn't get removed due to errors.Also, Grammarix is a good place
to go if you're having problems with your grammar.
CONCLUSION
Google's ranking system is still
a mystery, but we learn something new and fascinating about it now and then.
The unintended results of ghost connections are an outstanding example of this.
Since your website's SERP decides whether it lives or dies, you can use every
tool in your SEO optimization toolbox.
It's difficult to determine
how long your ghost links can continue to help you rank higher, so take
advantage of them while you can; think less about using temporary links that
are likely to become ghosts. The most important thing you can do is enhance
your content and try to draw organic linking, because you never know how long
your ghost links will be useful.For the great result, contact Nummero, the best digital marketing agency.
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