Traffic Building Information |
|
Ethical Link Exchange, You be the Judge
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:
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. Lew Newlin is CTO of Information Solutions, Inc. that operates SiteRecon that specializes in email monitoring and web site monitoring for businesses.
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Secrets to Free Website Traffic You have just uploaded your web-site and it looks great! 5 Unique Ways To Get More Free Traffic Ok so the first way to get traffic is not particularly unique. But the fact is that you will get lots of traffic by writing articles. The traffic won't come immediately but it will come. Articles will also bring link popularity. I wouldn't be doing my job if I wrote about free traffic and neglected to mention articles. Traffic Generation Tutorials - Article 1 of 10 Bi Weekly Articles This article will be continually updated with your feedback and updates will appear http://www.its-brilliant.com/0001.html. Please See Contact and Reprint details at end of Article An "In Depth" Look At How To Create an email discussion list If you find this information valuable, please send it on to a friend Link Building That Makes Sense: Who To Link To When you are building links to increase your link popularity, who do you link to? The question of where to link to increase ranking can be confusing. Logical thinking is needed to achieve link popularity in a natural way. Seven Red Hot Tips for Linking 1. Vary the keywords in your link 'anchor' text 5 Illustrious Strategies To Explode Your Web Site Traffic Are you spending hundreds of dollars on advertising campaigns, only to find out that you have earned a very small profit or none at all? Here are 5 illustrious strategies that will help you explode and create viral traffic to your web site. Why Resources Added to a Web site Increase Revenue! There are literally billions of Web sites online now offering all types of products and services. Some succeed brilliantly, while others fail miserably. How to Increase Web Site Visitors For Relevant Terms Using Your Less Relevant Listings Completely by accident and through no effort of my own, besides the effort to get my site spidered by Yahoo's Slurp Search Engine Spider and Google's Googlebot Search Engine spider, I've seen an accidental increase in the visitors to my web site. Finding and Managing Quality Reciprocal Links: A Tutorial for The Newbie All of us want to increase traffic to our web sites. It helps our search engine rankings, and is a very cost-effective way to provide us with potential new customers. One of the best, and certainly least expensive, ways to do that is by exchanging links with sites similar to our own, or that contain content our own visitors are likely to find interesting and useful. It is important to restrict our exchanges to such sites because if we indiscriminately exchange with everybody and anybody we become what is known as a "link farm" and wind up being banned by the search engines. Winning The Hit Exchange Game "How do I get more traffic to your site?" That's the eternal question. Or to be more precise, "How do I get more targetted traffic to my pages, people who are going to be interested in what I have to offer?" A Disturbing Trend in Reciprocal Linking In the world of Internet Marketing, and Web site promotion, nothing changes faster than the parameters that rule good Search Engine rankings and placement. Free Traffic Programs and How to Use Them I try to use as many free traffic programs as I can to increase traffic to my web sites. But does this traffic actually make sales for me? Probably not directly but indirectly they can. 7 Great Tips on Driving Targeted Traffic to Your Website We all need traffic. It's the life-blood of an online business. But what are the best ways to drive targeted traffic directly to your website? Here are 7 great tips to help you decide. How to Drive Traffic to Your Website Everyone wants to know the big secret to driving traffic to their website. Every day I see an article or an ad talking about driving people to your website. Driving traffic to a website has become the "holy grail" on the internet. People are realizing that 'if you build it, they won't come... unless you give them a reason'. Website traffic just doesn't happen by itself. Your website is just one of many millions on the web and people rarely just stumble upon your site by accident. Baxter Grabber - Advanced Landing Page Strategy What you are about to read is the strategy for an advanced landing page concept called the Baxter Grabber. You will read what elements comprise the landing page as well as the one element that allows the Baxter Grabber to excel above and beyond any other landing page concept in existence today. Buying Links for Free Traffic - Is it Worth the Price? The debate rages on forums all over the internet-should one buy text links to improve traffic? Website Traffics: 10 Sizzling Hot Secret Phrases To Ignite Your Website Traffics For many months after I put up my new website, my traffic was low and sales almost zero. The Only Traffic Secret Youll Ever Need For Your Home Based Business So what is this all important secret? It can generate you 1000's of free visitors to your site plus hundreds of links and sales. The Art of Link Exchange Before you start reading this article I must warn you - everything that was written here is my own experience in link exchange. This article should not be referred to as official advice or proven techniques. I only want to share the experience of the helpful methods I used. A Simple Guide to Analyzing All Those Web Traffic Ideas - Part 4 Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this topic outlined some of the so-called "secrets" of website traffic being offered on-line and what you might expect for your money. If you missed any of these three parts you will still be able to "pick up the thread" of this subject by clicking on the links appearing in the resource box at the end of this, Part 4. |
home | site map |
© 2005 |