Are These Ethical SEO Techniques Or Not? #2

[Sharon & Roy]

Are These Ethical SEO Techniques Or Not? #2


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Here is an SEO Technique we found that says it's a ... Solution to Building Link Popularity ... So is this SEO Technique ETHICAL or not?

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We see a lot of discussions about "artificially inflating your link popularity" and we'd like your opinions and comments about the following SEO Technique.
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US $xxx for 25 GUARANTEED links
US $xxx for 50 GUARANTEED links
US $xxx for 75 GUARANTEED links
US $xxx for 100 GUARANTEED links

• We search for the best link partners for your Web business on the major search engines, directories, vertical industry portal sites (vortals) and discussion lists.

• We develop an HTML page listing each of these key sites. This page is programmed so that each link will actually open in a separate window, ensuring that your site visitors will always return to your site. We will deliver this page to you for easy uploading and seamless integration with your Web site.

• As soon as you have posted this page online and sent us the exact URL, we complete the process of notifying your link partners about your site. Through eMail contact we detail exactly why they should reciprocate with a link from their site to yours.

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[ihelpyou]

Yep, it sure is a "link farm" thing. They probably use the software "Zeus" to scarf up email addresses and then send a site an email asking to link up. I would definitely stay away.

[Mel]

I'm not so sure from their description that they are doing anything more than researching link sites for you and then sending an email on your behalf, much as most do when looking for links.

IF that is the case it is hard see that they are doing anything unethical, but although they use the words "Guaranteed Links" all they promise to do is to find the sites, make up a page for you to copy with the links inside, and then send an email. NO guarantee there will actually be a link returned.

So my Vote is probably not unethical from an SEO standpoint, but a dubious business proposition

[Alan Perkins]

They have a very clever description for their service that can be taken how you want to take it (hence Doug's and Mel's differing reactions). I tend to think that such very clever descriptions are usually written by those with something to hide. This sets the tone for the rest of my reply...

Creating a links page solely to get links in return is pretty spammy. In most cases I would think it would fail this basic test:

If search engines didn't exist, would you do it?

Links to related sites should already exist naturally elsewhere on your site. It's OK to gather those together onto a links page too. But to generate a links page solely to increase link popularity benefits no-one.

Finally, if you are still tempted then ask yourself: will I personally check out each of these links to make sure I am happy with the sites they link to. And if I am not happy, what recourse do I have?

[JuniorHarris]

Spam!

[Never Enough]

I agree.... spam.

I wouldnt touch it.

[Mel]

Hi All:

I suspect that we may be talking about the same group as in this thread (http://forums.spider-food.net/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2314).

If so there is a response form the CEO of that company which might change the viewpoint some.

S & R can you tell us if this is the same site?

[Alan Perkins]

It doesn't look like the same site to me...totally different concept, but similar pricing structure.

I've just done a phrase search and I believe S&R's site is here (http://www.linkagexpress.com/)

S&R, you probably should have pointed us directly at the page, rather than edit bits out, but my earlier comments still stand. Here's how I read the offer:

You pay {company X} a lot of money to find related sites to your business by looking at directories, etc.
You then have to check each site they come back with to make sure you are personally happy with it (or you are a chump)
You then publish links to the sites you are happy with, building their link popularity and driving your traffic their way
{company X} then sends an e-mail to all the sites you have linked to.
An indeterminate time later, those sites may link back to you. Until then, your total investment in time and money is not repaid in any way. In fact, you are driving your traffic away.

Sounds great! Where do I sign??? :)

[Mel]

Hi Alan:

Yes I would agree with you it looks like the site you found is the one that S & R are referring to but in any case my comments above still stand - maybe not spam but a very dubious business proposition.

In the meantime Webseed.com has a similiar offering, but they are going to find relevant pages on their network of over 70,000 published pages to link your site to.

This is a gray area IMO, in that it is being done strictly for Linkpop (and money!), and would definetly fail Alans "Would you do this if there were no search engines" test and would likely fail most other spam tests.

What do the rest of you think about this second site?

[SubmissoR]

from Google's Don'ts:
Participate in link exchanges for the sole purpose of increasing your ranking in search engines.

Google calls it spam

[Alan Perkins]

<:)> SubmissoR </:)>

I tend to agree that the site referred to by S&R is engaging in spam tactics, albeit soft-core spam. A "natural" links page would be a collection of every external page you have linked to from elsewhere on your site.
As for what Google says, I would say that anything done for the sole purpose of increasing your ranking in search engines is spam. In fact, I think that's the definition I'm going to use in the next release of the White Paper (http://www.ebrandmanagement.com/whitepapers/spam-classification/)

Mel, the Webseed thing sounds v. "interesting". I haven't looked into it yet...but will.