Category Archives: RSS / Link Popularity
Linking With Integrity – Avoid Being Labeled a Link Spammer (Page 1 of 2)
It’s just as important to know what not to do when executing a website linking strategy as it is to know what to do. With inexpensive linking software and services so readily available, there’s a strong temptation to take shortcuts when it comes to getting quality links. Avoiding these traps will help your search engine placements rise naturally and stay that way for a long time. In this article, I describe two ways that you can help yourself avoid being labeled a link spammer.
Link Farms
What is a link farm? A link farm is any website designed and set up for the sole purpose of getting search engine spiders to crawl and index web pages. These websites provide absolutely no end user utility or benefit.
So how do you recognize a link farm? First, you need to ask yourself, is this site heavy laden with links? Most link farms will have a “farm” of links with little to no content. As for an explanation of the site’s existence, it’s usually missing too.
The next question you need to ask is, what does the URL of the site itself look like? Most of the time, link farms will have long, hyphenated URLs (i.e. our-great-linking-directory.com). This is a generalization so not all link farms will have these types of URLs. Many of these link farms are generated using software. The software will go out and find a domain name that contains specific keywords even if it settles on something with several hyphens and numbers. You may still consider a long, hyphenated site for linking purposes but make certain you conduct more research before you submit a link.
Next, look at the domain name extension and note if it’s .info or .biz. In order to sell these extensions, many domain name registrars offer a one-time, deep discount. I know of several registrars that sell .info domains for 89 cents per year. These cheap domain names allow spammers to generate thousands of sites at a huge discount.
The next criteria I use to help identify a link farm is what I call the “cheese factor”. Although some link farms will look professionally designed, most are either 1) generated with software or 2) are designed with the same cookie-cutter, non-altered templates that fill search engine results. This is especially true with blogs. Spammers and Internet newbies will not take the time to brand their websites or blogs. These are commonly referred to as “pump and dump” websites.
Another question you should ask is, does it look human? That is, does it look like someone hangs around and takes care of things? You should also be able to contact the webmaster either via web form or e-mail. If there’s no contact information available anywhere on the website, be very afraid.
If it’s a directory site, check out the links in a few of the main directory headings. Are the URLs hyphenated just like the main URL? If you visit one of these sites, does it look the same as the site you just came from? Are there more URLs crammed onto one page than anyone could possibly visit in a lifetime?
Blogging for Links (Page 1 of 2)
Blogging is a great way to get quality back links. It’s simple, well recognized, and quick. In order to implement a successful blog linking campaign, you must first understand a few blogging rules. Once you understand these rules, it’s just a matter of gathering your content and posting to your blog.
If the content you write in your blog is relevant, informative, and helpful, your chance of getting back links rises considerably.
Four Important Blogging Rules
1. Write your blog posts just like you would any other article. The temptation is to stuff your keywords in your posts and overdo it. Google is looking for quality sites maintained by real people. Blogs have been abused so much in the past that it’s a very important you post your own content that you’ve created. I don’t recommend using free content that’s so widely available or even private label content.
2. You need to offer something of value to anyone who visits your site. Remember that you’re the expert on your topic. Not everyone knows what you know about shoes, landscaping, or whatever else you’re writing about. A good technique is to review other products or websites and offer something of value that can help someone in a pre-purchase decision. I also don’t recommend putting RSS feeds in your posts since this is a common technique that blog spammers have used in the past.
3. You need to make your blog unique. Give somebody visiting for the first time a reason to come back. Make sure you have a way for readers to subscribe to your content. This is usually done with an RSS reader button somewhere on your page. This is also a great place to put an opt in newsletter box where people can sign up and get free articles or free e-books.
4. Whatever you do, don’t neglect your blog. If you keep your blog updated and offer new posts on a semi regular basis, you will increase your back links and visitors to your site. The worst thing you can do is start strong and simply let your blog die out. We’ve all seen the blogs with 4 or 5 consecutive posts on successive days only to have ZERO posts the last few months, or years! This can actually hurt you in the long run. If visitors see that you can’t maintain your own blog, they might assume that you can’t provide a good product or service. So make sure once you start your blog that you continue to maintain it.
Getting Links
Getting back links from a blog is a natural process. You can put links from your blog to your own website. Make sure you don’t put links that only point to your website. Add resources, information, and other directories and sites where people can go to if they come to your website.
The natural progression is that somebody will visit your blog read your article and hopefully click a link to go your website. Or even better, someone will like your post and link to your post or link directly to your website. The benefit to blogs is that your posts will be syndicated to other sites and directories almost immediately. While syndication is a benefit, it also means your content will become stale faster.