Tag Archives: long
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?
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?
Importance of Ethical Link Development
There are many webmasters that will accept any inbound link in the erroneous belief that it will improve their search engine results and traffic stats. And there are link building companies that service webmasters who are more than happy to take advantage of their “link envy” by using shady or spam like tactics to build those links for them.
Ethical link development is the practice of only seeking out quality long term inbound links in a manner that is beneficial to the website in question and stays within the rules and guidelines set forth by each of the search engines.
Blindly hiring just any company to build links for your website is asking for trouble. Many of the so called link building services out there use a one or more of a combination of actions that can get your site penalized or banned by the search engines.
Practices such as buying links in bulk and reselling them, automated programs that blindly submit your link to thousands of sites with no page rank or who themselves have been banned from the search engines and the practice of submitting to link farms despite its well known negative effects on your search engine rankings.
Any of these practices can be considered spam by the search engines and your websites ranking will dramatically go down even though you are seeing more inbound links.
A truly quality website that prides itself on terrific content should be looking for quality links that can withstand the test of time. In the race for high search engine rankings an important thing to consider in your link building efforts is that quality beats quantity.
Any website should be looking for links that are trusted by the search engines to help organically grow your inbound traffic and search engine rankings over the long term. Manually building links takes time and effort and it is often hard to stay focused especially when there are so many “shortcuts” out there that can supposedly automate the process.
Add to this the fact that it sometimes takes weeks for your inbound links to show any results and it is often easier just to give up.
Outsourcing is definitely an option. If link building isnt your strong point as a webmaster then hiring an outside link building service can serve you well if you make sure that they do not engage in any of the negative techniques mentioned above.
Be sure that they are manually pursuing inbound links on your behalf in a manner that is consistent with the rules and guidelines set forth by the search engines and that they are building only quality links with a long term positive effect in mind.
Make sure whether you do it yourself or hire an outside company that you set realistic goals early on in your link building campaign and be discriminating when it comes to where you want your inbound links to come from.