Comments on: Is There Such a Thing as a “Virtual” Backlink?

By: Benjamin Wingerter

Benjamin Wingerter — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:06:46 +0000

Yes, that seems to be a logic factor. I have seen this by the process of indexing images. If images get linked they got some points in ranking in the google image search. But if this counts like a recommendation for the page or the whole site.. no idea.

By: Fábio Ricotta

Fábio Ricotta — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:00:01 +0000

I agree with Frank when you talk about image hotlinks. I think this is another factor but I think it is not a hard signal as “non-virtual” backlinks.

By: raj

raj — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:09:59 +0000

As defined here, yes I’ve benefited from virtual links. I wrote numerous posts for a once extremely popular site, A, where I could not post diagrams/ screen snaps. So I had one of my own domains where I posted the images. My domain’s site, B, only has a few articles, but possibly because of the virtual links from A to images on B (but not visible on site B), and because of the numerous links to my articles on site A from other places, I seem to benefit from a little extra traffic than I’d have thought (though nothing really significant).

By: Chase Granberry

Chase Granberry — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:19:59 +0000

I definitely think they do this. There are tons of cues you could use to pass authority from one website to another. Google’s ‘brand update’ hints to this. How do they establish what exactly a brand is vs. just another website? A mention of a brand can act as a “virtual backlink” for sure.

By: Frank Marcel

Frank Marcel — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:33:37 +0000

Though interesting, I don’t believe “form links” would count as a ranking factor. Using hotlinks for page ranking is kind of clever, but maybe, not really meaningful…