The Internet Marketing Challenge Blog

I was asked a question via PM on the warrior forum which asked me how to make backlinking transparent in the yes of Google and whether the latest trendy link schemes like Angela’s backlinks, linkwheels etc are a good idea in Google’s eyes, here is what I wrote back below.

It’s a really good question and quite difficult to answer for certain. In Google’s world they would like to believe that all backlinks from site to site are there because those links add something to what the visitor is reading, listening to or watching.

A backlink is seen by Google as one website publisher giving a vote of confidence to another web publisher’s site, or page on that site at least. Obviously the higher the page rank of the site giving the backlink the more Google will trust that backlink because they believe in their puritanical world that any site with pages that have high page rank has a high page rank because of the trust Google has in them… Pheww… I hope that makes sense!

Anyway, as we all know as marketers, the temptation to find loopholes and manipulate Google’s algorithm is very tempting and the truth is, any link building scheme could be seen as trying to manipulate Google’s algorithm from Angela’s backlinks, 3 way links, paid for links, 2 way link schemes, linkwheels etc.. linkwheels are nothing new by the way they have been around for years. I used to know them as mininets. Many marketers would shoot me down in flames for daring to say that. There is a flip side to this though and that is that these techniques undoubtably do work. The real question is, will your site last in the indexes if you use these techniques? They might last forever but of course as we have all seen, they might not.

Does that mean therefore that we shouldn’t be involved in these sort of link building techniques? If you wanted to play it completely safe and go for the slow build by getting backlinks the natural way (other sites recommending yours) then it might take 10 years to get anywhere. The reality is that a little bit of everything is fine with the exception of 3 way links in my opinion. The problem I have with 3 way links is that they are so blatantly trying to deceive and are getting easier for Google to spot that I wouldn’t take the risk. Linkwheels do work and are more difficult for Google to spot. Angelas links do work also but I wouldn’t solely rely on them.

I still believe the best way of building links are to do good article marketing, non-spammy blog commenting, submissions to good directories DMOZ etc.., Genuine link exchanges, press releases, persuading trusted sites to post your content on their sites. The bottom line is, that there has to be a reason for the backlink to exist to be transparent in Google’s eyes. Social bookmarking is also fine, so long as you don’t overdo it and mix it up with other people’s sites as well.

A backlink from an article placed in article directories is transparent because you wrote that article and the backlink from that article to your site is there for further reading. Blog commenting is transparent because you have added something to that discussion on that blog and to confirm your interest in that subject you can show them your site in return as a backlink. DMOZ and other quality directories is there as a simple directory to show relevant sites on various subjects. Press releases are there for easy access to newsworthy stories and the backlinks are there for people to read about the source of the news story.

I hope you understand my point, the link has to have a reason to exist to be transparent and valid in Google’s eyes. This opinion of mine is not popular among many people and the are many who can say the have been doing 3 way linking and various other link schemes over the years and have seen great success from doing it. I don’t doubt that, but for every person who has success you will find someone else that sees their site disapear from the SERPS overnight. It is a risk, and one that you should make your own decision over.

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