To read this content please select one of the options below:

The impact of web site structure on link analysis

Thomas Mandl (University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany)

Internet Research

ISSN: 1066-2243

Article publication date: 10 April 2007

869

Abstract

Purpose

This web mining paper aims at analyzing whether the number of links pointing to a web page is biased by the structure of web sites.

Design/methodology/approach

By web‐design mining methods, two collections of web pages are extracted and the in‐links counts are determined by querying web search engines.

Findings

The paper finds that the structure bias and pages on a higher hierarchical level are likely to receive more links than other pages.

Research limitations/implications

The links are set by web page authors whose behaviour is not yet fully understood and which requires further research.

Practical implications

The paper shows that the structure bias of in‐links should be considered by link analysis measures used in search engines. Potential consequences are presented.

Originality/value

The number of links toward a web page are considered to be an indicator for the quality of that page. This measure is biased and cannot be solely trusted as a knowledge source for the quality of a page.

Keywords

Citation

Mandl, T. (2007), "The impact of web site structure on link analysis", Internet Research, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 196-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662240710737040

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles