IncRev SEO Research
Published November 3, 2025 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Best backlinks for SEO - Trust Propagation and Link-Type Decay: A Quantitative Model of Distance from Seed Sites_David Vesterlund – DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17510854

Authors/Creators

  • 1. IncRev

Description

Search engines propagate trust from human-curated seed sites to neighboring nodes in the web graph. While this principle is established in patents such as US9165040B1 and mentioned in several testimonies in the public disclosures and testimony from United States et al. v. Google LLC (2023–2025) and cited in the Hobo Strategic SEO 2025 report. The relative value of dofollow, nofollow, and brand mentions (implied links) as a function of seed distance has lacked a quantitative open model.

We propose an exponential decay framework with link-type weights and an implied-link proximity term. We highlight an open uncertainty: whether brand mentions originating directly from seed sites carry full trust at d=0. This question is an interesting topic for experimental studies and more quantitative research.

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Best backlinks for SEO - Trust Propagation and Link-Type Decay- A Quantitative Model of Distance from Seed Sites_David Vesterlund – DOI- 10.5281:zenodo.17510854.pdf

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Additional details

Related works

Cites
Conference paper: • Gyöngyi, Z., Garcia-Molina, H., & Pedersen, J. (2004). Combating Web Spam with TrustRank. (Other)

References

  • Google Patent US9165040B1 (2015). Search result ranking based on trust.
  • Google Patent US8682892B1 (2014). Ranking search results based on entity associations (Panda patent).
  • United States v. Google LLC, No. 1:20-cv-03010 (D.D.C. 2023–2025). Trial Transcripts and Remedial Opinion.
  • Justice.gov (2023). Remedial Opinion: U.S. v. Google LLC.
  • • Increv.co (2024). Academy: Google TrustRank and Seed Site Theory. https://increv.co/academy/google-trustrank/
  • • Vesterlund (2025) https://zenodo.org/records/17369057 (Link building in Sweden - Why Google needs thousand of seed sites in Sweden alone and how it effects link building strategies DOI/ 10.5281/zenodo.17369057)
  • • Vesterlund (2025) https://zenodo.org/records/17340116 Why Google Needs Thousands of Seed Sites for Efficient Web Indexing
  • • Vesterlund (2025) https://zenodo.org/records/17504977 A Negative Proof for the Existence of Seed Sites for Google's Ranking System – David Vesterlund