10 types of Link SPAM you better avoid, or it will rank down you site
Building links is the favourite activity of any Search Engine Optimizer from around the world. But, what if you realize that by building links from sites this way, you are just spamming the web. Link Spam is what has brought down huge sites like WPMU and those others, with thousands of links identified as link spam by google.
That is enough to give anybody a shock. So, here we are listing the 10 different types of Link SPAM that you have been doing (mistakenly). After Link Spam penalty by penguin, you can’t even think of doing it again with those bad links!
It have been many times also that you will see domains with thousands of links pointing to them and are in the resellers area. That is because all those links are spammed up and you know how much google hates spam. The webmaster who built links for those domains just couldn’t get any profit from that domain as google doesn’t help spam sites.
Penguins don’t dig SPAM Links. If you’ve been around for some time. You would have realized the furious panda update. That update just threw the links that were built through spam bot submissions into the garbage. And i think that is where all of it belonged.
So, it will be good for you if you avoid link spam on all costs. Here are the ten types of link spam that you might have been doing for a really long, long time.
1. Redirecting Spammed domains a.k.a. Domain Cleansing
Might not be said as Link Building, but a form of spam. This might be something new for you (if you are white hat) but for Black Hat SEO’s. This is like the easiest way to stay in the game, even after being banned for lifetime. This is how it works. First, spammers build spam links to a domain about an anchor keyword. Then, they let it stay awake for some time. Even, when the domain gets neutralized by Google through sand-boxing. These spammers simply 301 that domain they worked for to their new house. This kind of Link Spam is the most in practice, and to be avoided the most.
The new domain now have all the links. It is like transferring black money to international bank accounts overnight before being caught. Easy, isn’t it ? No! Now, with the Google Penguin Update. These kind of 301′d domains got 404′d overnight. So, if you do this, even unintentionally. Google might think that you are manipulating links. Hence, why not avoid it.
2. Guest Blogging & Blog Networks, in a wrong way
Whoa, Whoa! I am not concluding Guest Blogging in Link Spamming. But, i am simply saying something else. Please don’t be mad. Actually, guest blogging is the only way we can retain our white hat link building. But, it is now in the eyes of those black hat link builders.
Guest Blogging is a White hat Link Building technique. And it will be always, but there are thousands of blogs with really bad text to link ratio on their pages. There are blog posts which contain 300 words and 50 non- important, irrelevant links in them. This is where spam shows up. Any modern search engine while viewing those links will move them in the SPAM vault.
The simple way to avoid this is build links to different pages with different keywords and good articles. Good blog networks won’t care how long the post is, if the blog post is useful . There are also those blog networks who ask members to pay and get links. Stay away from them.
3. Hey, I do Article Marketing. Is it Spamming?
Yes it is. Article Marketing is the biggest spam technique that SEO’s ever used. And Google hated it. Those who are new in the industry actually know that your sites are not yet ranked if you don’t have links from good sites. And that seemed possible with that old article marketing technique which requires no time at all and submitted your spinned articles. And it is the oldest link spam technique.
That is when Google Farmer Update a.k.a. Panda update entered the room and made those losers run. After this update, it started paying little to no attention to the sites that had low quality, un-humanized articles in their directory. That is when sites like ezinearticles, suite 101, and hubpages lost a big part of the market. So, it will be wise for you, If you try attracting links not from these article directories.
4. Web 2.0 Blogs a.k.a. Blogs with a single post
These blogs are actually operated by cheap SEOs. What these people do is write one or two pages on that blog on a wordpress or tumblr subdomain and then provide too much social bookmarking for them(of course themselves). Now, that it is all done. They get a link from these blogs to their clients domain.
Google doesn’t have any problem in removing these good for nothing pages from its index and uncounting the links.
5. Paid links in the footer
It is true that these links are today also brought and sold. But, for your own good. You might not afford doing this kind of link SPAM. Actually, it is the type of link spam in which you spend against yourselves. Everyone know that each of the link in the footer is 80% unuseful and just a waste. In other words, what is the easiest way to say that you don’t want your readers to know about that link. It is just put it in the footer.
Why links here?
Modern Search Engines have educated themselves to it. That is why Google counts less for these type of links.
6. Link Wheels or rotating link juice
Actually, there is not so much ways to detect the bad nature of links. But, the SEO’s and webmasters aren’t that stupid either. They use new and more informative ways to upgrade their knowledge and prepared this way of rotating link juice. This is how they do it.
Thus, different sites rank to each other. You still can’t think of trust in such a way that you will get links for linking. But, i think that Google, in the upcoming time will update its algo and then you may suffer badly for using Link Wheels.
7. The Same Old bad(paid) Directories
There were days, golden days, when sites were used to found through relevant directories and the links from those directories carried a great value. But, then there were those directories that started to link to sites for their money. This is when it all went wrong. A site indexed by a directory is usually much more relevant rather than those directories where you have to get links through money.
This video explains it well. You can also go to the post.
Today, none of the good search engines use those directories to rank. They might….but not that much link juice is provided to those sites. Actually, it all starts getting nerdy when you have to pay for being listed. Also make sure that this directory is not containing spam sites in it. Why disturb your rank for the link that’s not worth it. You know that Google have started deindexing link directories.
8. Forum SPAM
These is the worst of all SPAMs. People head to Forums to collect more knowledge and info. Besides there are people who just start creating profiles and linking to their root domains through those forums. You might not ever know how much you are offending these forums by doing that. There are many forums which are lying spammed up, even the Bing Webmasters Forum.
9. Profile SPAM , Comment SPAM and much more
It is common for you to see profiles on different sites which just aren’t by real names but by keywords. Profile spam is so widely floating around the net that you can see these nerdy profiles with names like GPS Car navigation and other stuff. These are mostly links which are completely followed and the people who do that just don’t know if it will even add value to their link graph.
So, there is no need for anyone to do this. Profile links are indexed by google in a different way. They don’t trust them as a official vote to your content. Nor does it matter to them what keywords you are placing there! But it still makes some people happy to get a link somehow.
As you sail through the net, you will keep seeing comments from car batteries, vehicle insurance and other non-living stuff. You will also see pages with 2000 comments. Pages from edu sites which have comments enabled are the best fashion on the net to spam around. While you make your search and do the same; what will you get? Blue marked text which is a hyperlink and has no value! So, there’s no need to do that.
10. Redirecting the domain just after buying and changing content after Link Bait
Yes, it happens in the online world. People purchase domains and simultaneously redirect them to their pages for better juice. It’s surely not worth it. This post will explain…. Now, it will be better if you buy a blog rather than a site and then get link from it. Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz loves it.
The later explained strategy works a lot. If you buy a blog. Your link will have more authority due to the good content on it.
Why even do Link SPAM?
Link Spam is the most unproductive work by a SEO. Your site will get low ranked by it. Maybe not today…..but surely tomorrow. We SEOs have the time to build links but unfortunately there is no way we can deny links through the net that are pointing to us. These links can be a downvote in the future.
There are many other happy alternatives to Link Spam such as Link Baiting. Why don’t we try it against Link Spam! After all, you will never get hit.
For better SEO, your post should not look anyhow that you manipulated it or created it yourselves. The more random it looks the better it. And always pay attention on the work you do and the link you get for that work. Any mistakes, please tell me. Anyway, please comment! Let’s hear what you have to say about Link Spam!
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