Google Puts an END to Fancy Link Schemes
Aug. 16th, 2007 by ShaunA lot of bloggers, webdesigners and site owners like to trade links with each other to increase their Google Page Rank. Link exchanges and link trains have proved very beneficial for giving websites more exposure. However the “Big G” sometimes likes to update its webmaster guidelines and in a heart beat will change all of the rules just like that. Directly in the new update it says that reciprocal linking is a form of a link scheme which is now against the guidelines of Google.
Google states that:
The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:
- Links intended to manipulate PageRank
- Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
- Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
- Buying or selling links
In the new update Google basically said that buying and selling links is forbidden. What will happen to companies like Text Link Ads? Heck TLA isn’t even on the first page of the term “text link ads” when you type that in Google. Other companies like Text Link Brokers, Live Customer, and Text Link Ads will basically bring no value to websites if they don’t have an effect on your Google Page Rank.
These link exchange companies might not go out of business just because of this Google update. They will still be effective in driving traffic to other sites but when it comes to increasing page rank nobody will be interested in these companies anymore. How will webmasters get around this new update? Any ideas from you guys? Click here for full details on the Webmaster Help Center update.
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August 16th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I’m happy you keep up with this stuff because I’m bad about it and I would have never known if you hadn’t posted this!
I think Google personally is going too far. Buying and selling links has been around since forever. It is not just about SERPS, it is a form of advertising that webmasters have done to get extra income for their sites and to send visitors to other websites, typically related to their website. Now this new one about no link exchanging. That toooooooooo has been around since forever. Before Google to be exact. I think it is sad that they cannot fix their own backend to calculate these things so instead they make a million rules and expect us to not violate any of them.
Both of the issues I brought up above can be abused, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us that do things fairly should be shut off too. Wish they would go about this differently so that normal link exchanging could continue as it always has on the Internet. I wonder what will happen with all the past things we did that ‘now’ violate this rule. Do we have to go back and reverse anything that looks like it might violate their new rules? I’m concerned thats for sure.
Basically we are to just post content and wait for people to link to us. But I wonder how those people are to see our content in the first place? Only through Google SERPS I guess? Not through other websites, not through text link ads? Or only their Google ads? Seems bit fishy to me folks.
Sorry no ideas from me, just a blabbering webmaster wondering why Google keeps poking at us like this.
August 16th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I totally agree. there is nothing wrong with participating in a few link exchanges. it shouldnt have a negative impact on our search results, link exchanges can be used for more than increasing someone’s search engine results, it can be done as a favor for a friend by sending a few extra visitors to their site. thanks for the comment!
August 17th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Shaun, this is a great development. Anything Google can do to weed out the cheaters is lauded by me. I wrote quite a bit not too long ago about those who utilize Viral Link Tag spam and how they’re gaming Technorati and Google.
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2007/06/technorati-needs-to-stamp-out-viral-tag.html
August 17th, 2007 at 1:13 am
Thanks for the update Shaun, I think Google will have a tough job finding out when links are paid and when they are not. I’m sure there will be ways that people will get around these checks, just give it time !
August 17th, 2007 at 3:02 am
This has been expected for some time now. Google has been hinting at this for quite some time. As to TLA, they won’t suffer too badly since advertisers who use TLA do it for increased exposure and not for pagerank.
Coincidentally, have you guys heard about the advisory council of Google AdSense? They’ve been emailing high-earning publishers to join. There’s a post about on Problogger.
August 17th, 2007 at 10:45 am
@becky: no problem !
@Louis thanks for the post very helpful
@brownbaron no i haven’t read that but I will look into it. if you can send me the link to that post that would be very helpful
August 17th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Cant really say why google has taken this decision. People have lost money because of this. Google hasent given any valid reasoning for that
August 17th, 2007 at 8:20 am
I don’t see how google can tell that your link is part of an exchange or that you’re paying for links, unless you tell it. Webmasters will have to become a little more sneaky :)).
Simon
August 17th, 2007 at 9:01 am
[...] Shuan is keeping us updated on Googles newest rule(zzzzzzz), no more fancy link schemes. [...]
August 17th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
While I’m hopeful that this will put an end to these (in my opinion) annoying linktrains, Simon has an excellent point about how Google’s supposed to know the difference. Could it possibly be that they’ll look for keywords like “link train” or “link exchange” in a post, and disqualify just the links from that post?
On the other hand, should we be changing how we do things in response to, for the lack of a better term, external changes?
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
August 17th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
In my opinion, thats exactly what will happen, we will have to stop calling them link trains and sponsored links, and look for more creative terms.
Simon
August 17th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
We’ve been preaching to our own users for the past seven years to make link exchange decisions based on what benefits the end user and not for search engines.
The trouble with link exchange is full duplex link exchange softwares and services that force linking without any editorial discretion taking place. Such services are easy to spot.. they guarantee links and they make offers such as “$50 for 500 links overnight!”. Avoid these softwares and services like they are the plague.
If you use a software to manage link exchange, make sure it is EDITOR BASED. That is key in insuring your actions won’t get you into trouble with search engines. You don’t want some software or service forcing you to link in a manner that affects volume or causes you to be linked to sites irrelevant to yours. Maintain editorial discretion, always.
The second key is to watch volume. That means don’t excessively link exchange with just any site.. keep your criteria focused on what benefits your own site and your own end user’s experience.
Ask yourself.. does this site I am about to link with benefit my end user’s experience? If you aren’t sure, don’t do it. If you are sure, GET THE LINK regardless of pagerank or other metrics.
Link exchange has been a very useful method for branding websites (especially for small business) since the dawn of the http://WWW. Google is rightfully doing what it can to quell the flow of webmasters who resort to full duplex linking schemes. Avoid full duplex and maintain editorial discretion on making links. Keep volume low/natural and you will enjoy long term success.
Finally.. remember, you are who you link to! So don’t worry if junk sites link to yours.. maintain control over your own links on your own site.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Excellent point, very well said.
Simon
August 17th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
very well said, but now the question is what is classified as reciprocal linking? Lets say I linked to one site and they have already linked to me in a previous post, does that classify as reciprocal linking? I like to constantly link to other sites so if the sites I am linking to already have a link to me i might get penalized for breaking googles new rules. it seems kind of stupid to me.
August 17th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
any time you link to a site and they link to you, that’s a reciprocal link. Google links to billions of sites and many of those sites link back to Google.. guess what those are?
August 18th, 2007 at 4:58 am
I suspected this was going to happen. I follow Matt Cutts blog very closely and some of the statements made in past post made me suspect this was around the corner.
When I started paying attention and became more active within the blogosphere (May) I participated in link trains until I found out what they could be considered “gaming” so I stopped using them.
I can see how it would be annoying to webmasters that don’t participate but they see websites that might not be as good but are ranked higher simply because they have participated in link trains.
I must admit it has me confused. You see on a weekly basis I have a “movers & shakers list” I mainly focus on new bloggers I have seen during my blog visits and I also spotlight posts that I’ve seen in my blog visits that I think my readers would enjoy.
I didn’t start it to receive something in return I did it because I honestly like the websites and I know my readers would like them also. I guess I wish I had clarification on this issue.
I wonder if Google will ask people to turn other webmasters in? I know they requested that people do this with spam websites.
@Joel
Well you know Google, they doesn’t always follow the *rules* they create.
August 18th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I participated in 2 link trains and I think that was enough for the next few months here. It doesn’t really bring any value to your readers altough they are fun to see your ranks shoot up lol. That would turn really ugly if Google asks people to report or “turn in” people that participate in these link trains. Personally I can see exactly why they don’t want people to participate in link trains but reciprocal linking has been going around forever and it doesn’t increase someones PR too much. thanks for the comment Opal!
August 18th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
I agree the link trains didn’t really hold value with my readers (at least the ones that comment.) I stopped those very quickly. I didn’t want to turn them off. They seem to love the shout outs that I do. Perhaps because those start and end with me?
The majority actually visit the people I recognize and leave comments on their blog. I really like that. I’m not trying to boost my rankings since I’m not tagging anyone to keep the ball rolling. I’m just saying these people are cool check them out.
I think too many people were bragging about how many links thanks to the link trains and other schemes that were created to boost rankings I even heard a few pro bloggers that weren’t happy about it. I read what they were saying on Matt Cutts blog. They pull in a lot of money for Google. Anyway it got the big G’s attention, lol.
Also I started seeing spam sites participating in link trains. I’m at the point where I have some spam site scraping my content at least a few times weekly. It’s annoying.
You know I still get a ping from the last link train I participated in. I believe that was late May or early June. I wish I could get my name off the list!
You learn from your mistakes. My newer websites receive links, not as quickly, but my Alexa has dropped and I’m receiving natural links from people I know nothing about.
It’s a great way to meet new people and I bet my other websites will receive more traffic than Vegan Momma because the links are more “natural” actually one of my newer websites actually beats Vegan Momma in traffic per day and it is only four months old, not bad! I also get paid more per click, with Adsense, from that website. I talk about everything on Vegan Momma. I only became interested in SEO this past May when I thought about monetizing my websites.
I really liked this post.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:00 pm
That was a nice and helpful information. but how did you learn all those stuff. I had read about the new google page rank system too in some other sites and even read all those stuff that are buzzing around are all hoax. I can’t believe it. I don’t know which one is misleading information.
sagunrai
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I have read that the page rank system might be replaced by a “webrank” and I’ve also heard a bunch of other rumors. i don’t really know what is true. Google updates their webmaster guidelines every once and a while and that is where I found this info. You can read the guidelines here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769 .
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
[...] Google Puts And End To Fancy Link Schemes: All those “link trains” may not help you any. [...]
September 11th, 2007 at 12:09 am
[...] -Link trains or viral link exchanges: This is a system that involves a bunch of websites or blogs that create a system that intricately links each site involved in the link train with each other. This system greatly increases the amount of inbound links to your site. Google had no rules against these linking systems until just recently. You can check out full details of Google’s attempt to stomp out these link trains here. [...]
September 18th, 2007 at 12:17 am
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June 8th, 2011 at 5:34 am
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