In the competitive realm of SEO, honest business people are often tempted to resort to less-than-honest forms of internet marketing. We’ve all heard the rumors about competitors clicking on your PPC ads thousands of times to drive up your fees and we’ve all seen the spammers who post content on any blog post they can get their hands on just so they can post a link.
Could This Possibly be a Sponsored Link? Hmmm...
Not only is this NOT the way these tools were meant to be used, but you also run the risk of being reported. Good news – there’s a better way! Although link building is a key component of SEO, you don’t have to resort to “black-hat” methods to prop-up your site.
In a recent blog, Matt Cutts listed several methods of link building that are not only effective, but good for the community. Cutts discussed methods such as social media, blogging, original research and much more. Basically, it all boiled down to creating something noteworthy that people will want to share.
Consider social media. It’s not uncommon for people to spend hours a day on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It makes sense to create interesting and interactive pages or posts for your business. People are already there on the site – if you give them something they WANT to see, they WILL look at it and share it and link to it. Also, Digg is a great resource if you have something special, humorous or outlandish to share.
The same goes for blogging. If you have information that other people want to know, all you have to do is blog it and then it’s out there for everyone. As a business person, you will most likely have a stronger knowledge of your product/service than your consumer.
Sharing that insight through a blog on your site is a great way to attract those who are most likely to buy from you. If your target market is visiting your site to get information, there’s a strong chance they will also visit your site when they’re ready to make a purchase.
Links are designed to show relationships among sites – the more links a site has, the more relationships it has with other sites, and the more respected it is in the online community. Think of a paid link as buying your friends – it may work for a while but, eventually, you’ll realize that it’s better to have a few real, quality friends, than a lot of superficial ones.
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Hi Jeffrey,
How do you feel about blog commenting? By spammers I presume you mean those people that go to blogs and post comments like “nice post, I enjoyed it”?
Do you think actually adding a proper comment that adds to the discussion and then leaving a link is ok?
Justin
Hi Justin:
The take is really (1) when they leave a spammy name as the anchor and (2) generic nice post! comments that do not add value or (3) are completely way off topic.
One quick way to identify spam if you are uncertain is to (1) copy the comment (2)open a Google search (3) paste the comment “wrapped in quotes” to toggle phrase match and see if any copies appear.
If you see multiple instances of that phrase, then you have been duped and someone is either (a) automating spam or (b) extremely lazy and sloppy.
We are going to start deleting anyone using anchor text in their name from this point forward, there is not enough time in the day to go through each comment that is questionable.
So, really it boils down to if it is relevant and useful to others as well as respects the relevance of the post.
At least in my opinion…
Thanks Jeffrey,
It must get extremely annoying and time consuming to delete the spammy comments.
I wasn’t referring to this blog when asking about how you felt about blog comments by the way, but rather as a method of link building overall. I read a lot of opinions about it but my own thoughts are that it’s ok, so long as a person adds relevant, unique and useful comments when leaving a link. Some people (especially on forums) believe that any comment that has a link in it is spammy, even if the comment is useful and the link is at the end of the comment, eg:
*Useful comment*
Justin
URL
I guess what I’m wondering is whether it’s ok to do that or whether it’s a bit grey hat.
Thanks for your insight, much appreciated.
Justin
Hello Jeff,
First, I hope you don’t mind me using a website as a name… Anyways, I’d also like to say that pretty much all of the statements are true. Nowadays, the common trend of seo nowadays is what some would say as ‘interaction’, a reason why social media sites like facebook and twitter became a target for those people aiming to gain alot of traffic. Also, I don’t think that buying links is a wise choice as I have read in one blogpost that it is against Google’s terms(I am not really sure about this but I think it’s alright if one doesn’t get caught!lol). Have a good day!