Artificially increasing link popularity
Link spam in general has one goal: Increasing link popularity in search engine through employing various tricks. Usually increasing the number of links on the net, or the number of search terms in anchor text.
If you are tempted to use techniques of that sort, whether it’s Free For All, blog submitters or spamming, keep this in mind:
Artificially increasing link popularity may get you penalized in Google.
Have a look at their webmaster guidelines.
They have an open ended set of rules. One that includes common sense. Basically, if it’s too simple, too good to be true, or too sneaky, chances are good Google will condemn it as search engine spam. That could result in the backlinks not counting, weighted link rank (sinking a couple hundred places in the serps), or banning of the domain, subdomain or folder name (They can take out individual blogs or sites on an otherwise non-banned domain).
Basically, if you care about being in Google, do not do any aggressive off site SEO. Organic link building is the key. That means no automatic tools of any sort. If you comment on forums, blogs or other interactive places, do it in moderation, on topic and with class. That’s the key to long term off site SEO.
And one more thing: Us bloggers tend to remove links to spammy looking sites, even if your comments are on topic. I’ve been known to keep the comment and remove spammy looking links. Many of us frown on sites that are built with the sole purpose of earning money without having any intrinsic value, because we see them as polluting the web. If it’s trash, we trash it. That simple.
Fabulous info, and nicely phrased. I’ve recently started some collaborative websites for other creative people, and I’ve been trying to explain (badly) that some SEO advice is not only worthless, long term, but it’s potentially damaging to our domains. It’s great to have a post such as yours, to refer people to. You’ve said it very well. Thank you!
Informative and nicely written post. Nice site too. Fighting referrer spam is a never-ending battle. Just when I had most of it nixed with mod_rewrite in my .htaccess files, the bleeping morons have found away around that and are trashing my (completely private) access logs again — big time. They are accessing my wp/comments-popup.php file in WordPress, not even trying to leave a comment but leaving a spammy referrer instead. I have no idea why that’s bypassing my .htaccess file even though all the links have banned words like poker and casino, but it is. Aaarrgh!
After hunting around I discovered why the new referrer spam trick was working. The apache mod_rewrite module doesn’t affect any page calls using the POST method, only those using the GET method. So, referrer spammers are using the POST method to get around this common blocking method. To fix this problem you need to use SetEnvIf or SetEnvIfNoCase to block them. I tried that and the reffy spammers are not getting 403s again, just like the good old days.
It is wrong of Google to suggest that (Artificial) Aggressive Link Building is Spammy.
The only valid consideration should be the RELEVANCE of the Keywords that the site is pushing
It must be remembered that the average Joe - can NOT compete with the large pockets (and PR firms) , of some competitors - but it does NOT mean that their products or Services are any the LESS Relevant.
With a lack of Cash - sometimes - these aggressive tactics can be the only way to compete.
Ironically, it could be deduced that a company which is VERY aggressive about promoting RELEVANT Keywords - may in fact be a more certain bet to do business with.
But if intelligent and helpful posts are made frequently and aggressively on Blogs Forums Etc. - SO WHAT if they are done without moderation?
The bottom line is that…
THEY ARE HELPING PEOPLE !!! -
if the posts are NOT helpful - then JUST DELETE THEM -
if they are -
IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW FREQUENTLY SOMEONE “HELPS”!!
in fact, this is in someway a VALIDATION that the posts are still there
especially on quality site (popularity of links)
One’s MOTIVES for contibuting time and expertise is no one’s business.
Of course, something should be mutually gained from these endeavors.
In fact, Google itself is to blame for not anticipating and addressing the inherent inequities in their LINK POPULARITY theory as they were growing in popularity .
And when a couple of years ago - they were responsible for 80% of the Search engines SERPs - they were indirectly responsible for this overreaction by some people.
BTW:
Google is now adding three Sponsor Links at the beginning to their SERPs for some keywords -
ALSO, Look at the MANY (business Ethics) lawsuits they are fighting that have NOT been dismissed
Maybe they should look more at themselves before looking outward
Google looks at artificial link building as spammy.
That’s something you can feel however you want about. It doesn’t change their position.
What Google freely gives, they take away just as freely.
Posting tons of links to sites in comments or elsewhere on other people’s sites is not helping them or their visitors. It is only helping the poster’s PageRank. And in doing that they are burrying legitimate comments in so much garbage no one will see them. Many page owners can’t deal with the large amounts of spam they recieve so it never gets removed.
Search Engine Kickstart - A clean start for beginners
The traffic from search engines is the major key to success with a new site. Here some hints and tips, how to find a clean start!
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Does it negatively affect the spammers? I’ve got my own message board where I allow public comments and I’d like to punish all the spammers if possible. I believe google’s nofollow tag just discredits the spammers for that one particular page instance. There shouldn’t be a need to automatically punish all commenters by generating nofollow links on legitimate posts as well.
Here are a few ideas to build links without too much effort
1. Write press releases.
2. Write articles on the theme of your business (These articles can fetch you many links)
3. Submit to paid and free directories (DMOZ! and yahoo are a great start)
4. Design a tool or free product with your link on which when people download to their site provides you with free link.
5. Submit your articles to article submission websites
6. Create a blog on another domain and link to your main business website.
7. Buy advertising (i.e. links or banner) to you website
8. Write a newsletter, and publish it on your site - if people like the content, they will link to it.
9 . Write an e-book and publish it on the net. Keep it for free download till it gets the required traffic.
I was not aware of anchor text counting for google search. Currently i have a website which features repeating images with anchor text on every line they have the same name i hope google doesnt see this as spam.