Ok, Part 2 of the SEO Linking Interview continues. Here are the rest of the questions with my answers.. If you missed Part 1 and or would like to get in the conversation over there, here is that link http://www.dorifriend.com/seo-linking-interview/.

(4) If you could choose a link on a lower authority page that would provide a moderate amount of targeted traffic or a link on a higher authority page that would provide absolutely no traffic – all other attributes being equal – for ranking benefits on the site you’re developing links for, which would you choose and why?

Dori answer: If the goal is to rank, I would absolutely choose a link on a higher authority page. It is authority that RANKS the site it links too, not traffic.

(5) Do you feel that you can conserve pagerank or that it’s still worth the effort to sculpt your links, by limiting the number of links on a page, creating them with JavaScript, passing them through a blocked page or using nofollow?

Dori answer: I don’t believe it is as affective as in years past, but I still do it, I still link to inner pages to let PR stream through. Just makes for a better rounded natual site.

(6) Please discuss what link deprecation is and what impact it may have on a link building campaign.

Dori answer: In my world, it is a couple of things.

a. link rolls off the front page of the blog, or
b. link comes from site that loses authority or get’s deindexed, or
c. link is removed from site

It is my experience that the first two do not have much affect on my rankings (believe it or not, I know, strange) so the impact it has comes from my clients who count links instead of rankings.

But, I do believe in defending rankings which in mid-range keywords it takes a continuous flow of new links coming in. But for long tail, old tired links still get the  job done.

(7) Do you think search engines are trying to find a way to depend less on link popularity and more on other algorithmic/social media factors?

Dori’s answer: I did here that Face Book is creating a search engine based on users clicking the “like” link, but I think, if we were going to see an algorithmic change based on social media factors, I think we would already of seen it. And I could be totally wrong.

(8) How much do you stress internal linking on your own or clients’ sites? Do you have a quick rule of thumb or strategy to maximize the effectiveness of internal links?

Dori answer: If this page is about on-page/on-site factors, then I don’t touch it. But I do stress geting external links TO interal pages and let it rip on through the site. No official rule of thumb, but the more the better.

(9) What’s a successful link development strategy many overlook or dismiss?

Getting links from low pr sites or sites NOT in Google’s index and also using the URL as a keyword.

(10) What have you been most WRONG about over the course of your link building/SEO career?

For a long time I thought links had to come from authority sites with good PR to rank for mid-range keywords,  and have found out over the last year or two that that is not the case. =:0

And that links had to come from themed sites with original content. What baloney that is!