Comments on: How Links in Gmail Might Be Used in Google Algorithm

By: michaelj72

michaelj72 — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:21:39 +0000

i occurred to me that perhaps that quote from Cutts means that only if the link is actually clicked on will google then register it. if it merely is sent in an email and sits there unattended, google won’t be indexing it.

to me this whole idea really raises privacy issues regardless of how people want to parse it a search engine in my opinion has no business reading/indexing etc personal email. but maybe they do since to them it’s all just data.

By: David Leonhardt

David Leonhardt — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:59:32 +0000

Ann, I tend to agree with you that oogle uses this information in some way. It makes absolute sense, and I see no way it violates privacy if no data is collected about who clicked or sent which links (such as rating the trustworthiness of users, or the frequency that a particular user sends a link). From a day-to-day perspective, this means it’s worth sending links for several pages in your emails — which is good for users, too, so it can’t hurt even if we take Matt Cutts at face value on this.

By: Djerba

Djerba — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:13:08 +0000

Nice Idea :)
But I don’t think that Google can apply a such algorithm without users authority !

It would be may be a secret algorightm :)

I really discovered backlinks from Google account details. You can target your favoured links when editing you Google profile.

By: Aqeel Bilal Malik

Aqeel Bilal Malik — Mon, 11 May 2009 07:38:43 +0000

Well i believe, that Google would not be giving links from any private data of user. If that was the case we might have seen thousands of links for a single website which is being marketed via Email Signatures. Or in footer message of a mail sent on one Gmail Address to another or even on third party Email Services.

By: Derek Kean

Derek Kean — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:16:02 +0000

The one thing I encounter alot are people clicking links in their Gmail to get to the site, you can see it all over Analytics. However, while this does lead to increased traffic (As an email marketing campaign should), it doesn’t seem to be making a big impact on new links. Of course will keep eyes open ;)

Derek

By: MelayuBoleh

MelayuBoleh — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:38:43 +0000

Very interesting.
I’ll be trying out a few tests to see if this effects our site

By: J U Hasan

J U Hasan — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:10:59 +0000

Once I sent a demo site address to my friend using gmail and I’m sure I never published that link anywhere. But I was shocked to find that link has been indexed in Google search result.

By: Dropship

Dropship — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:30:28 +0000

I believe this is correct I have noticed too on my analyctics that Google has gave my site hits directly from gmail as well. I believe Google uses every form they can to their advantage when considering rank placement.

By: blogmoneymania

blogmoneymania — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:42:58 +0000

That’s very interesting. It is worth taking the time & researching/testing to find out if it works.

By: Richard Beane

Richard Beane — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:15:06 +0000

Last night a friend told me that every employee in their company was told to search for their website for a specific term and then to click thru for their company website because this would influence search engine ranking – and it seems to be working. Their rankings have shot up. Therefore, that fact that Google might use links in email would not be to much of a surprise.