Well, did you? Search Engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) algorithms have become and will continue to become more complex over the years. They take more and more into account and are continually refining their ranking algorithms to keep up with Search Engine Marketers and the needs of the searchers. I mean, Google didn’t become an official verb in the English language because it lacked the ability to continually progress and stay ahead of the curve. So with that said, here are 5 interesting ways search engines like Google have advanced their evaluation of Links in recent years that you may not know…

#1 – Link’s Higher in the HTML Code Are More Powerful

That’s right. The higher on the page your link is, the more important search engines think it is. Much like the front page of a newspaper is where the most popular story is found, so it is with links on a website.

#2 – Webspam Links May Devalue Your Legitimate Links

Say you have a website that sells ashtrays (stay with me) and you’ve acquired some links from Cigar Parlors and some tobacco-related blogs and forums, that’s great. Now after being inundated with emails and special offers you decide to let a poker/pornography/erectile dysfunction company advertise on your website. Google will take notice of this, and the value of your site and the other legitimate links on your site will drop. If your website has a blog or a comment section, be sure to monitor that no one leaves webspam on your website.

#3 – Links from Popular, Trusted Sites Are Given More Value Even From Less Important Pages

Let’s say your ashtray website has a link from a popular forum or blog, that’s great. But it may be even better if you had an link from an obscure, hardly read CNN.com article in the depths of their massive website. Why? Because CNN.com is “The Most Trusted Name in News”–well at least their website is trusted by Google. The lesson here is it’s better to be trusted than relevant.

#4 – External Links Are More Important Than Internal Links

In Google’s original PageRank algorithm internal links and external links were considered equal, but this seems no longer true. Google apparently decided that what others think of you is now more important than what you think of you. This does not hold well for our self-esteem and I’m not saying this is true on the playground, but it does happen to be true on the Internet. I will let all those who’ve been bullied wrap their head around this…It’s not your fault…It’s not your fault…okay enough Good Will Hunting.

#5 – Links from “Inside” a Site are Worth More Than Links from Navigation, Footers, or Sidebars

You may have noticed that links in the navigation, footers, or sidebars are often paid links. Google and other search engines have noticed this too. And as SEO experts and webmasters we know how much harder it is to get a link from the text of unique content than it is to buy a link in the aforementioned locations. Giving links from inside unique content more value is a way for the search engines to avoid spamming and rank manipulation.

We hope these tips helped today. And though we don’t actually have Google or Yahoo’s PageRank algorithms (wouldn’t that be nice?), we have done studies and taken from the studies of others to compile these theories and use them to our advantage. We hope you do the same.