What is a reference?

There are two main ways in which people can reference other people's websites:

• links from one site to the other
• clicks on buttons such as Facebook's "Like" button or Google's "+1" button.

Google uses these references to calculate the relevance of a website for the search results. The more and the better the references are, the higher your website will be listed in Google's search results.

Not all references are equal

The patent application explains it as follows:

"Not all references, however, are necessarily of equal significance. For example, a reference by another agent with a high reputational score is of greater significance than a reference by another agent with a low reputational score.

Thus, the reputation of a particular agent, and therefore the reputational score assigned to the particular agent, should depend not just on the number of references to the content signed by the particular agent, but on the importance of the referring documents and other agents.

This implies a recursive definition: the reputation of a particular agent is a function of the reputation of the content and agents which refer to it."

For example, someone who shares high quality information on a regular basis might become a "trusted agent". References of that person will have a higher influence on the referenced page than references from other people.

What does this mean to your website?

The Google patent indicates that it does not make sense to buy links or +1 clicks in bulk. Low quality backlinks and +1 clicks from people who will click the +1 button on any website won't help your search engine rankings.

If you want to get higher rankings on Google, you need backlinks from high quality websites and you must make sure that only people who like your website click the +1 buttons on your site (click here for instructions on how to add Google's +1 button to your site).

If you're a regular reader of our weekly newsletter, you know that quality is much more important than quantity. Don't fall for quick-fix SEO solutions that promise hundreds of backlinks in a short time with no work. These backlinks won't help your website and it is likely that Google might consider them spam.

Try to get high quality backlinks and encourage your website visitors to share your website on social websites. If you want to check the current optimization status of your web pages, analyze them with IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.


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