Entries from Search Engine Roundtable tagged with 'link building'

Last week, we ran a poll asking if you should risk linking to competitors. The specific question we asked was, "Do You Link To Direct Competitors?" Not sure if you are surprised by the results, but after receiving 140 or...

Posted on October 22, 2009 9:02 AM

A HighRankings Forum thread has discussion on how useful the breadcrumb trail / navigation is for your SEO strategy. Most people agree that having them from a usability standpoint, makes total sense. So, for users, it makes sense. But does...

Posted on October 19, 2009 8:29 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has an interesting conversation about linking to competitors. In this case, the webmaster is considering giving his competitor a banner ad direct link (not through a redirect or nofollow) but without an alt text, in exchange for...

Posted on October 14, 2009 8:48 AM

A Google Webmaster Help thread has one webmaster who runs a home construction resource complaining that his rankings tanked. After some back and forth, Googler, JohnMu came in and said: I browsed your site's reviews a bit and most of...

Posted on September 24, 2009 8:47 AM

There are hundreds of SEO tools out there, we have covered just a few. I recently saw a short thread with a person complaining his site has been removed from the Google index. In the Google Webmaster Help thread, a...

Posted on September 4, 2009 8:25 AM

I have been tracking the WebmasterWorld thread on the July Google changes and a lot of people are now discussing how Google is treating location specific queries differently. By that I mean, the consensus in the thread is that there...

Posted on July 22, 2009 9:03 AM

Earlier this month, we polled our readers asking how addicted are you to links. Well, we have about a 150 responses now, and it shows that not all SEOs are addicted to links. 32% said they hate links, while 21%...

Posted on July 17, 2009 8:56 AM

Link exchanges: The poor man's SEO from CNET discusses the pros and cons of link exchanges. The article isn't bad, overall. What I personally find funny is that CNET quoted Evan Duffield after Evan emailed CNET with a link exchange...

Posted on July 15, 2009 8:42 AM

Earlier this month, we polled our audience asking how important is DMOZ to your SEO strategy? As expected, most SEOs take the philosophy of "submit it and forget it." Why? Simply because to many SEOs, it is not worth them...

Posted on July 14, 2009 9:10 AM

Every industry has their addiction. Wall Street is known for their speed addiction, Hollywood for, well - can't list them all and so on. The SEO industry may have an addition to link acquisitions, mostly Google's fault :). In any...

Posted on July 6, 2009 8:53 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if DMOZ is still relevant in 2009? DMOZ is a legendary web directory and has a ton of history. But is it still a critical or what it ever a critical part of your overall SEO...

Posted on July 3, 2009 8:24 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has new conversation on branded links. By that, he means, getting links to your web site for your brand name. For example, if you link to this site with the anchor text Search Engine Roundtable over something...

Posted on June 30, 2009 8:33 AM

Ann Smarty at Search Engine Journal has a nice short piece on link building worksheets. These spreadsheets help link builders keep track of their link building efforts. She links to three worksheets, including: Ontolo's worksheetKalena's blog postYour SEO Plan In...

Posted on June 24, 2009 9:02 AM

WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, created a thread at WebmasterWorld on the topic of "stingy links." In short, he said he was watching to a presentation by a Microsoft engineer about improving the SALSA algorithm for link structure analysis - and I...

Posted on June 23, 2009 8:39 AM

I found a fun thread at HighRankings Forums that discusses what he calls "unintentional reciprocal links." What I find funny about that name is that, if you think about it, an unintentional reciprocal link, but definition, is a natural link....

Posted on June 11, 2009 8:39 AM

There is an excellent thread at WebmasterWorld on the topic of web directories. Moderator, incrediBILL, runs directories and he goes off on how many of the submissions are not able writing your titles and descriptions to be click worthy, but...

Posted on May 21, 2009 8:24 AM

The topic of link building is a very popular subject here. One recent WebmasterWorld thread asks how can one create a value proposition compelling enough to encourage someone to link to their web site via an email request? The webmaster...

Posted on May 12, 2009 8:19 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long does a link pass link juice after the link was removed from the web page? For example, a web page has a link to your page and then that link is either removed or...

Posted on May 11, 2009 8:02 AM

There are rumors that the incredibly popular magazine and website, Consumer Reports is sending out link exchange requests to webmasters and SEOs. A WebmasterWorld thread has a Senior Member, MichaelBluejay, saying that he has received, what he considers, deceptive emails...

Posted on May 6, 2009 8:45 AM

I ran a poll a couple weeks ago asking, do you use interns as link builders? The 120 plus responses are in and most of those who responded said yes, they use interns as link builders. 74 of the 120...

Posted on May 1, 2009 8:20 AM

For over three years now, I and others (including Danny) have been trying to get information from Google on how they handle passing link value from domain names, specifically in cases of expired domains and domain name transfer of ownership....

Posted on April 21, 2009 9:17 AM

The summer is coming up and that means there are plenty of college and high school students looking for a couple months of work. Typically, you can hire these college or high school students at extremely low rates. It is...

Posted on April 20, 2009 8:19 AM

We recently wrote about getting PageRank without getting links, it turned out to be a fairly popular thread we covered. In any event, Brett Tabke started a timely post on that at WebmasterWorld. He named the post, Hot Top 20...

Posted on April 17, 2009 8:52 AM

A week ago, we ran a poll asking when is the best time to send out link requests. We know, we don't recommend bombarding people with link exchange or request emails, but if you had to, when would you do...

Posted on April 15, 2009 7:41 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion on the topic of link building. This link building topic is different then the average thread. In this thread, the member asks if there was link building before Google became popular. The link building market,...

Posted on April 9, 2009 7:33 AM

A few weeks ago, we wrote a story on how e-commerce sites can build links through offering customers a discount on orders, if they link back to the site. It is a neat way to get links but we wanted...

Posted on April 9, 2009 7:32 AM

The topic of link requests is not new to this site. We covered it many times. Personally, I mark all link exchange or link requests emails as spam - I simply don't play that game. Not that I think it...

Posted on April 7, 2009 8:20 AM

Danny Sullivan's Analysis: Which URL Shortening Service Should You Use? has an excellent overview of the various URL shortening services available. In Danny's write up, he goes over about 15 different services and rates them based on how they handle...

Posted on April 6, 2009 8:22 AM

A HighRankings Forum thread asks how does one distinguish between a good and bad web directory. Web directories are often the first step for many link building campaigns. The obvious directories that come to mind to submit to are dmoz.org...

Posted on March 26, 2009 5:10 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around the topics of building links from foreign web sites, in different languages. For example, if I run a web site that is in English, focused for US users - what happens if I get...

Posted on March 25, 2009 7:01 AM

There is an excellent WebmasterWorld on the topic of getting a "second tier link," as opposed to the link you really want. Wheel, the moderator of the forum, posted that it is not always easy or possible to get the...

Posted on March 20, 2009 8:31 AM

One of the most challenging jobs for e-commerce sites is to get people to link to them. Over the years, we have posted many link building tips but we never posted about this one. Why don't e-commerce sites offer a...

Posted on March 19, 2009 8:35 AM

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Australian communications regulator said you can be fined $11,000 per day for linking to sites that are on their banned list. This is going to begin shortly, even though there is a lot of...

Posted on March 17, 2009 8:51 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has tips from senior member wheel on how to get links from .edu pages, even when they might not be .edu pages. Wheel said that many professors have web sites that might not be on an edu...

Posted on March 16, 2009 8:50 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks an interesting question. If you have a space in the nofollow link attribute, does Google consider it the same as having no space? Let me explain. A standard syntax for the nofollow attribute looks like this:...

Posted on March 13, 2009 8:43 AM

The other day, we polled our audience, asking should URL shortening services pass link value? We now have 168 responses and I thought I share them with you. The response was overwhelming yes. 75% of the respondents said, these URL...

Posted on March 12, 2009 8:44 AM

A Sphinn thread has discussion around a "quick" study done to test if URL shortening services like TinyURL and others pass any link value. Clearly, all the time you and I spend on services like Twitter, makes this question something...

Posted on March 3, 2009 8:55 AM

I am a paid supporter of WebmasterWorld and to be honest, I don't often use the paid only rooms. But for the thread I am about to discuss, I can tell you, the small fee I paid to have access...

Posted on February 23, 2009 8:44 AM

Marie Claire wrote at David Harry's blog a technical piece named Hunting for paid links; a technical review. In that piece, he goes through some of the ways a search engine may detect paid links. As many of you know,...

Posted on February 9, 2009 8:14 AM

A newish patent application from Yahoo named Identifying excessively reciprocal links among web entities was filed on January 8, 2009. The patent inventors include Priyank Garg and Tim Converse of Yahoo, both well-known search engineers at Yahoo. Of course, we...

Posted on January 13, 2009 8:28 AM

An article at E-Commerce Times talks about a recently-filed lawsuit against Boston.com, a NYTimes company, that is being sued for its linking practices. According to the article, the simple presence of a link has prompted the suit, but from CenterNetworks,...

Posted on December 30, 2008 9:55 AM

Link building is going to happen whether I like it or not, so I better accept the 949394 emails I get per day. A WebmasterWorld thread asks link builders how they ask for links via email. Some tactics include putting...

Posted on December 30, 2008 9:16 AM

Since there's a huge war on paid links, is it true that you should avoid link buying at all costs? That means even using sites like press-release distributor service PRWeb. Perhaps -- but PRWeb's goals are obviously not in the...

Posted on December 26, 2008 9:07 AM

Senior WebmasterWorld member, Wheel, posted a WebmasterWorld thread explaining how now, the holiday season, is a great time to get quality links. How should you go about it? Well, people love to give now. It is really the season of...

Posted on December 24, 2008 8:08 AM

A couple weeks ago, we ran a poll asking SEOs and link builders where they would prefer their external links show up on a page. Well, the results are in and as expected, most SEOs would like that link in...

Posted on December 23, 2008 7:46 AM

Michael Gray has written a great piece at Search Engine Land on how stories promoted in a social media site have actually translated to higher rankings. He takes a bunch of unpopular domains (e.g. not Forbes, Jalopnik, or other known...

Posted on December 19, 2008 9:37 AM

A Google Webmaster Help thread asks, can Google read links in Flash files or JavaScript? The simple answer is yes, they can. But it is not that simple. Some people want to know the answer to this question because they...

Posted on December 19, 2008 7:52 AM

I think I am missing something, but a bunch of well known members at WebmasterWorld are participating in a thread named "Where do you want your link?" The thread asks, where in a specific page's layout, would you optimally want...

Posted on December 11, 2008 8:10 AM

A Google Webmaster Help thread shares a sad story of one person who built up a site on a members.aol.com hosted service. Recently shut down their AOL Hometown, which is the host space for these sites and this person's site...

Posted on December 8, 2008 8:27 AM

Wiep Knol has written a great link building premier for 2009 and offers 69 strategies. He breaks them into categories: internal link building tactics, easy link building strategies, old school link building strategies, places to submit your URL to, ways...

Posted on December 3, 2008 9:37 AM

I've been in the "SEO industry" for a long time, relative to the industry. Over time, the industry and the perception both externally and internally, has changed. I guess that happens with all industries, but quicker in more evolving and...

Posted on November 25, 2008 7:44 AM

On the Microsoft Office Live Small Business Blog (and even in a second post), Senior Product Manager Skip Chilcott writes that link exchanges are a "popular way to generate more links." Blogger Saad Kamal has a problem with this. Citing...

Posted on November 21, 2008 9:44 AM

I often try to stay away from talking about all these heated link debates, but sometimes, the discussion around these debates are so important to our industry, that I find myself having no other choice to write about them. That...

Posted on November 20, 2008 8:29 AM

Link building is a big part of search engine marketing, and as such, there are always questions surrounding the best kind of links. Most would say that highly relevant links from authority sites are the cream of the crop. But...

Posted on November 10, 2008 9:58 AM

Everyone wants links. But how do you get them if you are faced with doing things offline -- or rather, if you want to be unconventional and gather links in person, how do you do that? A WebmasterWorld thread discusses...

Posted on November 7, 2008 9:19 AM

At the Web Build Pages blog, Jen writes about how link building is like picking up women. She explains the parallels: * The opening line is everything -- not much else needs to be said. * That the right circumstance...

Posted on October 29, 2008 9:35 AM

Raise your hand if you're a religious SEO. I'm sure you've faced battles and challenges that were hard to overcome, especially since your site is religious in nature and the traffic and links don't appear to be there -- for...

Posted on October 28, 2008 9:13 AM

What would you prefer: * A pretty website that has no content * An ugly website that has a lot of content If you were building links, which kind of site would you prefer to link to? In a WebmasterWorld...

Posted on October 21, 2008 7:27 AM

What would you prefer: * A pretty website that has no content * An ugly website that has a lot of content If you were building links, which kind of site would you prefer to link to? In a WebmasterWorld...

Posted on October 20, 2008 7:27 AM

We all know about Google's latest change to the webmaster guidelines, where they removed directories as a good source of links. Having seen that, SEOs and webmasters ask themselves, if seeking links from directories is worth it anymore. A WebmasterWorld...

Posted on October 13, 2008 10:28 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread shows how a webmaster is sad that his competitor out ranks him. This webmaster is upset because he feels his competitor is outranking him due to the number of complaints his competitor has. Since he has so...

Posted on October 8, 2008 7:40 AM

Last night, Google update their Webmaster Guidelines to remove a single line that reads: Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites. In fact, I was...

Posted on October 3, 2008 8:20 AM

When your business plan calls for a strict e-commerce site, you may be in a rut when it comes to building links. One WebmasterWorld forum member says that his service is superior to his competitors at half the price --...

Posted on September 30, 2008 8:46 AM

A WebmasterWorld discussion (paid subscription required) touches upon the fear of penalties with too many inbound links. As many people realize that original content and original research really does help garner those inbound links, sites that provide exhaustive information can...

Posted on September 24, 2008 9:26 AM

Buy links, trade links, sell links, request links, links, links, links - what does an SEO or webmaster do? You can't live without them, you can't live with them. A WebmasterWorld thread has a fun thread that somewhat sums up...

Posted on September 18, 2008 8:00 AM

Ever ask someone to add a link to your site as part of some link building strategy? Most people have encountered link building requests every so often in this sphere. Have you ever asked? Have you had success? Wiep Knol...

Posted on September 12, 2008 8:20 AM

On a Cre8asite Forums thread, a forum member is looking for the ideal link building strategy. If you had to choose one kind of quality link, which would you go for: a relevant site with a high PR but not...

Posted on September 11, 2008 8:57 AM

As forum moderators with years of experience behind them can attest to, there are a lot of spammers on the interwebs. As Roger Montti of WebmasterWorld says, there are three different types of spammers from noticeable ones to the not-so-noticeable...

Posted on September 9, 2008 9:30 AM

Back in the day when reciprocal linking was useful, some webmasters were trigger happy and aimed to link to everything that would link back, even if there was no relevancy from site to site. Over the past few years, many...

Posted on August 25, 2008 9:28 AM

You and I see it all the time, webmasters or link builders emailing link exchange offers or posting comments or threads with link exchange offers. But a link builder had the audacity, to post a public link exchange offer in...

Posted on August 18, 2008 7:29 AM

Michael Gray writes an interesting post about that teaching advanced link building and PageRank will never die. In the article, he explains that everyone who learns about optimization techniques are at different levels; some are more advanced and may consider...

Posted on August 14, 2008 10:08 AM

A week or so ago, I wrote a piece named Are Links From Blogs As Valuable These Days? In short, some SEOs are now against buying or obtaining links from most blogs. They feel that Google may be devaluing the...

Posted on August 7, 2008 8:37 AM

In May I ran an informal poll asking Would You Buy a Link With a NoFollow Attribute? In short, a nofollow attribute is an HTML attribute you add to a hyperlink that tells the search engines that you do not...

Posted on August 6, 2008 8:27 AM

Recently, I have been hearing a lot of buzz on the topic of links from blogs. Some are suggesting that blog links don't have the 'oomph' they once had. Now, I suspect when these people are classifying "blogs," they mean...

Posted on July 30, 2008 8:58 AM

Shimon Sandler wrote a controversial post about the options available to sites who cannot actually make code changes to optimize their site. He explains that you can build links, and that's perfectly legitimate as it's called "off site optimization." The...

Posted on July 29, 2008 10:15 AM

Would linking to your landing pages be bad for your organic rankings? This is the question posed on Cre8asite Forums, where a webmaster wonders the benefits of possibly linking to a completely different type of page (in terms of layout,...

Posted on July 25, 2008 10:27 AM

There is a newish WebmasterWorld thread that is just getting started on the topic of tips on outsourcing link building to India, South America or other countries outside of your local region. Here are the initial tips this SEO learned...

Posted on July 16, 2008 7:40 AM

Recently I have been reading and hearing a lot of webmasters complain about a huge drop in their Google traffic. There are just too many threads to reference, so I thought I reference one valuable post by JohnMu of Google....

Posted on July 15, 2008 8:01 AM

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread asks whether SEOs perform their link building inhouse or if they outsource the link building efforts. Only two people answered the poll but both said they do it in-house. It's no surprise, really, since...

Posted on July 10, 2008 9:48 AM

Google's sitelinks, which we have covered extensively are the little links you see under a search result in Google, typically between 4 and 8 sub-links. Here is a picture of our Sitelinks: A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion about the importance...

Posted on July 10, 2008 7:49 AM

The small folk wonder how the bigger brands succeed at their link building efforts. In a big corporation, it would take jumping through a lot of hoops to get the correct managers to sign off on link building approval, especially...

Posted on July 9, 2008 10:00 AM

Let's face it. Link building is all the hype in the search sphere. Google loves good kosher links. People like good relevant links. Whether or not there's a debate about paid links or links to bad neighborhoods, links are simply...

Posted on June 26, 2008 9:32 AM

Google has been updating the link reports in Webmaster Tools more frequently, so I stopped reporting them. But Google also removed the download this table feature from those reports back in February of this year. It was at that time,...

Posted on June 26, 2008 8:25 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if there is a way to prevent Google Bowling. Google Bowling is known as a method of using links to hurt your competitors. While Google still denies it, most SEOs believe this is possible can this...

Posted on June 20, 2008 8:07 AM

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks if Google "hates" .info or .tv domains? The answer is simply no. This question was brought up at least three times last night in the Google Webmaster Live Chat event, which I documented and not...

Posted on June 20, 2008 7:54 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if it is normal to see a downgrade in rankings soon after conducting a link building campaign. In other words, a webmaster builds links to a site that ranks average. The next few days, the webmaster...

Posted on June 19, 2008 7:57 AM

WebmasterWorld moderator martinibuster shares some valuable link building tips in what he calls the "Link Theme Pyramid." In his post, he gives his opinions on some link building techniques that have worked for him. Roger says that anchor text should...

Posted on June 18, 2008 10:05 AM

There is no doubt that Most SEOs Believe Competitors Can Hurt Your Google Rankings specifically with using link building tactics. But when the topic was raised recently at a Google Groups thread, Googler, JohnMu, pretty much denied it. Let me...

Posted on June 18, 2008 7:48 AM

In a very interesting interview, Eric Enge spoke with Matt Cutts on link building. What's good link building? In many cases, Matt thinks that the best links are those that are original research and provide value to readers in the...

Posted on June 17, 2008 9:32 AM

Chris Boggs featured a WebmasterWorld thread when I was away. Chris focused on sharing some of the theories behind Google's trust factors. I wanted to possibly highlight this thread one more time and ask for you to chime in. We...

Posted on June 13, 2008 8:30 AM

Search Engine Journal writer Ann Smarty talks about how exploration of competitors' backlinks can give you an idea of your competition's link building strategy and help you with keyword research among other things. She provides some tools for how to...

Posted on June 10, 2008 9:20 AM

On Thursday, we broke the news that the Yahoo Directory had no PageRank via a WebmasterWorld thread. Matt Cutts of Google quickly commented saying that the Yahoo Directory has a PageRank of 8. Matt was referring to the home page,...

Posted on June 8, 2008 3:34 PM

Just a few weeks ago, people started noticing that the Yahoo Directory lost Google PageRank. Well, not the home page of the Yahoo Directory, but the inside directory listing pages. The pages that link to your site and, in the...

Posted on June 5, 2008 10:28 AM

Search Engine Journal's Loren Baker reminds us that if we're building links, the basic rules of SEO should not be overlooked or forgotten. Even if you have hundreds of thousands of links, SEO basics are critical to achieve better rankings....

Posted on May 30, 2008 9:32 AM

A WebmasterWorld member was desperate for improved rankings, so he bought links. As a result, his rankings tanked and he was wondering if there's a better way to buy build links. Really, if you're trying to buy links, the recommendation...

Posted on May 27, 2008 9:23 AM

A Google Groups thread has a very interesting discussion that is almost complete. The discussion takes you through the life cycle of a 301 redirect. Site owner moved from domain.com to domain.info, on a domain name sale, but wanted to...

Posted on May 27, 2008 5:56 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion about how one should handle inter-linking a network of sites. You said interlinking a network of sites! In some cases, it make sense to link a property of sites to each other. For example, IAC,...

Posted on May 19, 2008 8:00 AM

A High Rankings Forum member talks about how he has a variety of sites that are all networked on the same server with the same owner. They're not related topically, but there are some subpages where adding links may be...

Posted on May 12, 2008 9:58 AM

A WebmasterWorld member wants confirmation if getting multiple links would cause a penalty in the SERPs. He notes that very popular sites which rank on the first page of Google have a lot of links, including those from "shady" places....

Posted on May 9, 2008 10:03 AM

A Google Groups thread has a long discussion on how Google defines what a link farm is or is not. I have decided to isolate a Googler's comment, because who can best define what Google feels a link farm is,...

Posted on May 7, 2008 7:55 AM

Remember when I reported that we saw Google Sitelinks in position 60? I said then that it seems Google is admitting to the minus 60 penalty: What I do find very interesting is that Googler, JohnMu, tells the webmaster to...

Posted on May 5, 2008 7:58 AM

Forums have been buzzing and buzzing about the possibility of a competitor being able to hurt your Google ranking for the past few years now. We have covered this topic time and time again, just see here for some of...

Posted on May 5, 2008 7:52 AM

As the link building strategy becomes more and more difficult (at least by some), people are seeking out alternatives to the standard two-way linking practice. In a WebmasterWorld thread, a member is looking at a triangular link strategy which wouldn't...

Posted on May 1, 2008 9:18 AM

A newish term, named SEOicide, caught my attention via a WebmasterWorld thread. The thread discusses how an SEO has the opportunity to buy 70,000 links from a PR7 site for a great price. He asks if it he should do...

Posted on April 29, 2008 8:14 AM

Over at WebmasterWorld, users are discussing the potential value of a link from social bookmarking site StumbleUpon. Is it worth trying to submit to or is it completely not worth the effort? Well, it depends on the content. Is it...

Posted on April 28, 2008 9:27 AM

Googler, JohnMu, has some basic linking advice in a Google Groups thread. In short, John explains that logic behind who you should or should not link to. I'll quote John: In general, if you can provide relevant links for users...

Posted on April 21, 2008 7:05 AM

Some link builders spend a significant time just trying to build up some sort of rapport with other webmasters. Eventually, they may feel that the pool is drying out. With so many link requests nowadays, you can't blame but feel...

Posted on April 11, 2008 9:57 AM

I was doing my forum research this morning and I spotted a HighRankings Forum thread with the title "Link Unbuilding." I love it! The new link building, for some, is link unbuilding! Here is the SEO's concern and this concern...

Posted on April 10, 2008 8:23 AM

Face it. Sometimes you can exchange links for free, and other times, you just have to buy a link. But is there a minimum toolbar PageRank number that you should go by before buying that link? Obviously, this isn't a...

Posted on April 9, 2008 9:05 AM

On February 20th, I asked our readers if they thought a listing in the Open Directory Project would have a major impact on a site's Google ranking. The response was split down the middle. We only had 58 responses, which...

Posted on April 9, 2008 8:30 AM

Should you save wads of cash to buy link building software that contacts hundreds (or thousands) of webmasters for you to give you some links? Wiep Knol says no. In his recent blog post, he explains why link building software...

Posted on April 4, 2008 9:18 AM

A WebmasterWorld member has been applying regular search engine optimization and link building techniques and is noticing that the traffic hasn't improved as substantially in the latter months of the campaign as it did initially. Is this something normal? Actually,...

Posted on April 4, 2008 9:02 AM

In Search Engine Land's weekly column about link building, Eric Ward tackles a question about link building best practices. Is there such a thing? Guess what? The answer is no. He explains: The problem with link building best practices is...

Posted on April 3, 2008 9:39 AM

Adam Audette wrote a brilliant piece on the fundamentals of link building on his blog, and he's right on the money. His core message is that links reflect value, so your linking strategy should focus on finding that valuable link...

Posted on March 31, 2008 10:19 AM

A WebmasterWorld member asks how to find local directories for link building purposes. One member suggests that you search with "directory + [your local area]" on Google or Yahoo to find some really targeted local directories. There are also some...

Posted on March 24, 2008 9:48 AM

A month ago I wrote, Google's Matt Cutts Replies to -60 Penalty Thread at Google where I summarize how Matt said some links are hurting a particular site. At that point, I decided to poll our readers and see if...

Posted on March 24, 2008 8:06 AM

Anyone who knows the Google Web Spam team well, knows that they all have a huge distaste for link manipulation. In my opinion, it is more than just a distance for some of the web spam team members, specifically Matt...

Posted on March 21, 2008 8:33 AM

SEOmoz posted results from a study he did where he concluded that only the first anchor text on a page is counted by Google as the anchor text for that link. For example, let's say you have a two links...

Posted on March 18, 2008 7:42 AM

Ann Smarty poses an interesting question on Search Engine Journal. As blogs are communities, it's useful to comment and leave your thoughts. But what if you add your link to the comment? Is it spam? There are numerous tools that...

Posted on March 13, 2008 8:20 AM

Three recent link building articles have appeared on Sphinn that are worthwhile for link builders. I'll walk through each of them and explain why they are important. In Squeezing the [Link] Juice out of Low Hanging Fruit, Bob Massa talks...

Posted on March 13, 2008 8:00 AM

When a webmaster was looking at his site data in Google Webmaster Tools, he noticed that one of the "Pages with external links" was linking to his IP address and not his site. He's pretty baffled about why that would...

Posted on March 11, 2008 11:38 AM

The results are in, and SEOs voted on which link they would prefer. 65% of SEOs said they would prefer an old and aged link over a fresh and new link. 35% said they want the newer fresh links over...

Posted on March 11, 2008 7:50 AM

Pole Position Marketing did an excellent writeup on some link building secrets from 12 link building type people, including Rand Fishkin, Hamlet Batista, Jim Boykin, Debra Mastaler, Bob Gladstein, and Michael Gray and published the findings in a 24 page...

Posted on March 5, 2008 9:55 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread touches on a simple topic, the topic of link pages. Many sites have them, a page that contains links to link partners. Some of these pages are labeled "resources," some are labelled "partners," some are "directory," and...

Posted on March 4, 2008 7:57 AM

A WebmasterWorld member is in a bit of trouble because he feels that there are no relevant sites for his ecommerce shop. Obviously, since search engines like relevant links, this is a bit of a challenge for those who can't...

Posted on March 3, 2008 9:31 AM

Mid January I asked An image link is worth what percentage less than a text link? The question was probably not clear enough and I honestly don't blame the respondents. It is a hard question to answer, because there are...

Posted on March 3, 2008 8:21 AM

Taking you back to the -60 thread I blogged about earlier. The thread is at Google Groups and it shows us a little of something that may be obvious but should be spoken about. Once you are penalized in Google...

Posted on February 27, 2008 9:34 AM

A Google Groups thread on the -60 penalty at Google (there are so many of these now, -6, -10, -250, etc) now has several responses from Matt Cutts of Google. Matt replies specifically to the nature of the posters site...

Posted on February 25, 2008 7:32 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has a Webmaster saying that a site of his recently was removed from the ODP. He said, soon after he noticed his rankings drop in Google. He wants to know if it can be related to the...

Posted on February 20, 2008 7:53 AM

If you've been following the paid links debate and related linking news, you're probably wondering what to do next. A webmaster says that he's ruled out reciprocal linkings for two reasons: he's seen people get penalized and he's also aware...

Posted on February 19, 2008 9:57 AM

A Search Engine Watch Forums member asks what kinds of people you should seek for link building opportunities, what pay they should receive, how to evaluate their performance, and other related questions. Most people agree that the best thing is...

Posted on February 12, 2008 9:33 AM

Eric Lander wrote a piece at Search Engine Journal named NoFollow: An SEO Red Flag? which sparked some interesting debate over in a Sphinn thread. The question at hand is, does using a nofollow attribute on many of your links...

Posted on February 12, 2008 7:59 AM

Many people need links. It's what you do to gain favor in Google's eyes and get ranked higher. I get hundreds (?) of link requests every day. Most (all?) of them are completely junk. A WebmasterWorld thread goes into these...

Posted on February 11, 2008 9:25 AM

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread asks whether it's useful (or detrimental) to vary your anchor text. Should anchor text be differentiated? The answer is yes. As AussieWebmaster says, "always vary your anchor text." Is there a sweet spot? Not...

Posted on February 8, 2008 9:14 AM

Branko at SEO Scientist wrote an excellent post named Tapping into Unconventional Link Attributes. The post was so good, it made the hot list at Sphinn over the weekend. Since I am out on vacation, I'll do a quick quick...

Posted on February 4, 2008 3:19 AM

SlightlyShadySEO wrote an interesting blog post about how you can look at things that no longer work in terms of SEO and use what you've learned to avoid making mistakes that will cause penalties. Here's what he's found from his...

Posted on January 29, 2008 9:48 AM

A SitePoint Forums thread asks, as links get older, to they loose their power? Here is the exact question: This is something I have noticed couple of times in the past - it "feels" that old backlinks expire or loose...

Posted on January 21, 2008 7:32 AM

A short WebmasterWorld thread asks if links from logos or images give off any link popularity amongst the search engines. WebmasterWorld Link Development moderator, pageoneresults, replies that although text links are preferred, "you are getting the next best thing which...

Posted on January 18, 2008 7:51 AM

Link building is a crucial aspect for SEO. SEOs have and continue to try everything to build quality links quickly for their sites and their clients. Often, the topic of buying a an expired domain - to leverage the links...

Posted on January 15, 2008 7:46 AM

Wiep Knol wrote an interesting post on how to build links for crappy websites. I'm sure many of you have been there: your client has a website that has no real value and you want to build links to it....

Posted on January 14, 2008 10:10 AM

Eric Ward wrote a wonderful piece at Search Engine Land about the fallacies of link building beliefs. The summary, as written by Chris Sherman, is as follows: Many of you have had your entire portfolio of clients blown up because...

Posted on January 8, 2008 10:05 AM

Getting the Most out Of Your Anchor Text: It’s not as Simple as you Think from Slightly Shady SEO goes through how one should vary their anchor text used in their link building campaigns. As described in the blog post,...

Posted on December 18, 2007 7:49 AM

On his own blog, Wiep collected data over the past few months from many esteemed link builders and presented his own link value factors. How important is the anchor text? How important are the number of links? What about the...

Posted on December 11, 2007 9:00 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long might it take for a search engine to discover new links and then have those new links impact your search results. For example, let's say you write an awesome article and you get 50...

Posted on December 11, 2007 7:07 AM

There is no doubt that link builders love to get links from sites on edu TLDs. But those are not always that easy to obtain. We have covered the topic several times here, including: Finding Some of Your EDU Links...

Posted on November 27, 2007 7:53 AM

A Cre8asite Forums thread goes into a debate about the nature of link swaps or link exchanges. EGOL, forum moderator, sparked the debate by saying: Link swapping is manipulation. Now, you and I know that he did not mean that...

Posted on October 23, 2007 7:35 AM

We recently had the October 2007 Paid Link Debate which recapped the discussion around Danny Sullivan's Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google. But will SEOs and Webmasters stop buying links? That is the question...

Posted on October 16, 2007 6:35 AM

WebmasterWorld members wonder why link building has become more difficult. Years ago, it would be easy to ask a webmaster to create a link on his/her site to point to your site. But now, everyone is requiring reciprocity or they...

Posted on September 20, 2007 9:20 AM

A WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums thread discusses how some publishers are now applying the nofollow attribute to ads they had already sold without the nofollow attribute on them. One publisher actually was accused of "breach of contract" over applying the...

Posted on September 11, 2007 7:28 AM

A Cre8asite Forums thread has a story of an SEO who got himself in a mess. The mess is that he has to get his client 20 PR6 links all for the price of $475. Yea, read that again. The...

Posted on September 5, 2007 7:05 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if sitewide or "run of the site links" help or hurt a site do well in Google and other search engines. We have covered the topic in January 2006, where we quoted Ammon Johns as saying:...

Posted on September 4, 2007 7:53 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if there is a way to tell if a particular site or page is able to pass PageRank. In more global terms, is there a way to check if a particular site or page is able...

Posted on August 31, 2007 7:57 AM

A very interesting discussion has emerged on WebmasterWorld about link equity from images or text links. What's better? Do image links pass PageRank? Do they imply trust? According to moderator pageoneresults, both links pass equity, but image links are not...

Posted on August 29, 2007 7:14 AM

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks if Google counts the links from YouTube videos. The simple answer is no. If you look at a YouTube video that has a link in the description field, you will notice that in the code...

Posted on August 7, 2007 7:24 AM

When you have to reach a quota of building links (particularly on forums), the job can get inundating and frustrating. In a Search Engine Watch Forums, one of the members has been assigned by his company to do just that....

Posted on July 18, 2007 9:17 AM

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread asks how Yahoo's image hosting service, Flickr, can be used in your SEO strategy. I am a big fan of Flickr so I thought I give some examples of how it can be used...

Posted on July 3, 2007 7:14 AM

A webmaster asks WebmasterWorld if hyperlinking terms on a single page to link back to that page is considered spam. His argument is that it shouldn't be construed as spam if it's only being used for emphasis. However, the majority...

Posted on July 2, 2007 11:05 AM

There has always been this perception that links from domains with a .EDU TLD is better than links from .COM, .NET, .ORG and so on. Chris Boggs covered the debate with Are Links From .edu and .gov Domains Really "Better?"...

Posted on July 2, 2007 7:05 AM

Google has updated Google Webmaster Tools with a link update and I suppose other data updates as well. There is currently discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and two threads at WebmasterWorld. Here is a look at our top pages, by links...

Posted on June 15, 2007 7:33 AM

We asked the question in the past, Can an Email Address Be Counted as a Back Link? Well, maybe the answer is yes. I was looking at Excel Diamonds backlinks in Yahoo! Site Explorer for fun and found that Yahoo!...

Posted on June 1, 2007 5:40 PM

A WebmasterWorld thread talks about how they noticed how the Yahoo! Directory pages are showing a PageRank score that is typically lower than what they showed in the past. A member says based on that, "Looks like that $300 link...

Posted on June 1, 2007 7:22 AM

When you have good content but people aren't linking to you, what options do you have? What can you do safely without penalty? A Search Engine Watch Forums webmaster asks this very question: A few days ago a colleague suggested...

Posted on May 9, 2007 9:45 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread revisits an old topic and debate on if SEOs should request from their clients a site credit link. You know a link that says, "services provided by Company ABC." We covered this topic in November 2006; Should...

Posted on May 8, 2007 7:57 AM

Is it useful for your search engine optimization efforts to focus on building directories? Which directories are optimal? In a Cre8asite Forums thread, these questions are discussed. EGOL writes in with a very valuable piece of information: If it is...

Posted on May 7, 2007 9:54 AM

On a Cre8asite Forums post, a member says that he has about 185 emails asking to reciprocate links and wonders how to handle them, if at all. I just wrote about Google Hell last week, and that was the first...

Posted on May 7, 2007 9:38 AM

A Cre8asite Forums thread comments on a V7N Blog post named Excess pages polluting your website? In short, John Scott of V7N, explained how he decided about a month ago to remove a large number of pages from his site...

Posted on April 23, 2007 7:03 AM

It is 2007 and we have yet to have the big debate on paid links this year. Matt Cutts of Google has changed that with his dual post on how to report paid links and hidden links. Let me quickly...

Posted on April 16, 2007 7:53 AM

An interesting WebmasterWorld thread discusses whether a paid run of site link (ROS) is benefital or not. The thread points out some variables that may impact how the search engines will react to the ROS link. Age of site Size...

Posted by goodroi on March 13, 2007 9:21 AM

A Cre8asite Forums thread asks "But Is The Traffic Any Good?" Meaning, is Digg or social media traffic, quality traffic? Administrator, projectphp, explains that it is a huge benefit for a site selling ads based on a CPM basis. I...

Posted on March 1, 2007 7:28 AM

A Cre8asite Forums thread reports that Wikipedia has added nofollow attributes to all the links within the English Wikipedia. Joost had the scoop sharing that due to the most recent SEO contest, the founder, Jimbo Wales, has ordered that the...

Posted on January 22, 2007 7:13 AM

Last year we had our Traffic Building - Link Building for 2006 and I have spotted a thread that asks about link building strategies for 2007. The thread is at Search Engine Watch Forums where link building queen, Debra Mastaler...

Posted on January 3, 2007 7:09 AM

There are two recent threads that I found at forums I typically do not cover much on the topic of pay per post reviews. The posts are at HighRankings Forums and at SEO Refugee Forums. I am going to pull...

Posted on December 27, 2006 2:04 PM

Cre8asite Forums moderator EGOL created an excellent thread at Cre8asite Forums saying, he has seen on a relatively small sample, that sites with an equal number of inbound links but different number of pages on the site itself makes a...

Posted on December 21, 2006 7:36 AM

A slow but very interesting WebmasterWorld thread asks, "Is Googe Devaluing "Social Content" Links?" Tedster, WebmasterWorld Admin, said; It's not a big secret. Webmasters looking for a ranking boost have been using "web 2.0" tactics for quick link building. Even...

Posted on December 20, 2006 8:04 AM

The eleventh edition of the Search Pulse has now been archived. We were able to discuss in detail about half of the topics I wanted. This week, we had on Eric Ward to discuss one of the most discussed topics...

Posted on December 20, 2006 7:01 AM

A late Friday post at the Google Webmaster Central blog named Building link-based popularity sparked a ton of discussion over the weekend at WebmasterWorld. The WebmasterWorld was named "It's Official: Google Discounting Reciprocal Link Exchanges" by martinibuster to spark some...

Posted on December 18, 2006 7:23 AM

The rel="nofollow" was introduced by the search engines back in 2004 (I believe). Since then we have not had a clear understanding on how exactly each search engine treats them. Some speculate that the rel="nofollow" means that the search engines...

Posted on December 11, 2006 8:26 AM

The popular Microsoft bCentral directory has announced they closed their doors to new business. As of November 15, 2006 Microsoft will no longer accept new sign-ups for select Microsoft Online Small Business Services. This means that those who were in...

Posted on November 28, 2006 7:18 AM

A featured WebmasterWorld thread has tips on what things to look for when purchasing links. I thought I pull out 10 of them to make a top ten list: Relevancy to your page Alexa ranking Site popularity in niche PageRank...

Posted on November 14, 2006 10:04 AM

There are two threads, both the same exact subject, one at Search Engine Watch Forums and the other at WebmasterWorld that asks if it is wise to use one Google Account for all your sites in your Google Webmaster Central...

Posted on November 1, 2006 6:59 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long on average would you guess that it takes Google to find good links and act on it? Let's assume that this site gives off "good links" when I link to someone. For example, I...

Posted on October 27, 2006 7:55 AM

Cre8asite Forums has a thread on how to best find those paid links that are most valuable in helping your search rankings. BlackKnight, Ammon Johns says it best, "Publicised paid links are only worth maintaining if they actually drive traffic."...

Posted on October 16, 2006 7:08 AM

I basic thread at Search Engine Watch Forums describes once again the importance of making your brand and/or site popular to have top rankings in Google and other search engines. The thread creator says; I was just thinking about which...

Posted on October 16, 2006 7:00 AM

This morning ShoeMoney.com (be careful visiting that site now, may have malicious code on it) was hacked, I reported it over at Cartoon Barry. ShoeMoney.com currently looks like; View Large Image Just do not go to the site, it will...

Posted on October 12, 2006 9:19 AM

An interesting thread has been started on the SEW Forums regarding a paragraph in the Wikipedia External Linking Guide. It discusses the possibility of sharing link spam data with Google (and presumably other interested parties) in order to monitor and...

Posted by evilgreenmonkey on October 11, 2006 5:53 PM

In a WebmasterWorld thread, Adam Lasnik of Google can be quoted on what types of outbound links can and cannot hurt you. Let me first quote Adam; It's unlikely that your outbound linking is causing your pages to be listed...

Posted on October 2, 2006 7:54 AM

A Cre8asite Forums thread discusses the importance of obtaining links for ranking well within a specific geo-specific search engine. For example, you want to rank well for in Google Canada, you can try to (1) host your site in Canada,...

Posted on September 28, 2006 7:07 AM

The Google Sandbox - what it was on day one, i.e. New Sites = Poor Results in Google, from when it was coined the Sandbox Effect to when Matt Cutts confirmed the Sandbox after much debate over the Sandbox, if...

Posted on September 25, 2006 12:11 PM

The third edition of the Search Pulse has now been archived. In this show we covered the Live.com launch, AdWords tests, Yahoo!'s marketing blitz, Google & Intuit's partnership, Google's supplemental command, the Belgian court ruling, OneBox spam, Adam Lasnik on...

Posted on September 20, 2006 1:19 AM

It has been a while since a Googler knocked on buying links in a while. But recently, mini-Matt, Adam Lasnik, of Google, wrote in a WebmasterWorld thread saying; Advertising's fine Buying links for PR: bad Google senses much ;) So...

Posted on September 15, 2006 8:38 AM