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Home::Link Popularity
Ethical Link Exchange, You be the judge....
Author : Lew Newlin
Webmasters understand that quality and relevant inbound links
can increase site visibility; your search engine rating; and
with any luck increase your traffic and revenue.
While working to locate relevant links for our site, we
discovered a disturbing practice apparently being used to
increase link popularity and search engine ranking. The
following are the sorted details of our journey and discovery.
1) Most webmasters understand the hunt for quality relevant
sites is, like most things of value in life, a time consuming
and difficult task. Being limited on time, we first tried to
hire a leading SEO expert to locate relevant links. When the SEO
expert did not return emails, we tried a few link exchange
sites. While a few good quality links were unearthed, the link
exchange sites simply did not offer a large quantity of good
relevant sites. After all, our competitors had hundreds of
thousands of inbound links and we had less than 900. While
tempting, we skipped over the advertisements for traffic as our
desire was for prospective customers not traffic.
2) We finally decided on the DIY approach. First step, check
current reciprocal links page to insure all was well. A few
sites no longer linked to us, so our webmaster links page
required a few updates.
3) Next we chose to use Link Popularity Check to locate links
that our competitors have, that we perhaps missed. The first
thing we noticed was hundreds of inbound links a competitor had,
all coming from a few specific sites. Upon visiting the sites,
we noticed that one was a "directory" and several others were
normal sites that contained very little content. In short, the
directory and other sites were nothing a competent webmaster
could not create in a day or two.
4) We found it odd the inbound sites all have the same visual
look, color scheme, and navigation. Our competitor's site was
also listed in the "Related Resources" area on each and every
page. The light bulb suddenly switched on! The inbound sites
appeared to have been created for the sole purpose of increasing
link popularity and therefore the competitor's search engine
ranking!
5) Ping the four sites to locate the IP addresses. Four
different addresses, not in consecutive order. Perhaps we were
mistaken.
6) A few mouse clicks to see who owned the domain names of the
four sites. All the sites are owned by the same company, are
housed at the same ISP, and have the same email address listed
for the administrative and technical contact names.
7) A few mouse clicks at Alexa.com to review traffic patterns
show the sites have very little traffic, yet all have a PageRank
score of 6 or higher. Site traffic is increasing for each.
Nope, it does not appear we were mistaken. It appears a
competitor actually created web sites for the sole purchase of
increasing his/her link popularity and search engine ranking for
their primary business site. To recreate such a process:
* Register a domain name that is tied to your primary sites
keyword list. For example, if your primary site sells widgets
and has a domain name of Widgets.com, something like "Widget-
Directory.com" would be ideal;
* Setup a new hosting account with your ISP, using a different
IP address, for Widget-Directory.com;
* Create a few pages that use the keyword list from Widgets.com,
then setup a link system that invites webmasters to exchange
links. Remember, no need to get carried away with content as the
purpose of Widget-Directory is really keyword tie-in and link
exchanges;
* Now, code every page of Widget-Directory with a link back to
Widget.com;
* Sit back and watch. As webmasters enter their sites and
subcategories into Widget-Directory, the results will increase
the link quantity and apparently your search engine ranking of
Widget-Directory AND Widgets.com.
We were curious to see if this was an isolated incident or a
rampant practice. While not rampant, it did not take us long to
find others companies utilizing this technique. Is this ethical?
I am sure some would argue this is a savvy internet marketing
practice, while others will view the practice as repulsive.
Ethical or not, this technique is simple, cost effective, and
apparently will increase your search engine ranking. One thing
is clear, I will never look at directory sites or link exchange
pages the same.
Hopefully, the search engine will adjust their algorithms and
nullify this practice. In the interim, for those that take a
negative PR and/or link exchange hit, remember that honesty
builds longevity and lasting relationships. Remember the SEO
expert we previously tried to hire? We went back and checked his
site, and yes he utilizes the same technique. Odd thing however,
his sites no longer enjoys top ratings on the major search
engines. Perhaps, the search engines are starting to figure this
one out.
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