Welcome to Link Popularity Guide
Search Engine Link Popularity Article
This is a selection made from among articles on Search Engine Link Popularity. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for future reading, click here.
Link Popularity and the Myth of the Guestbook Link
from: Eric Ward - Link MenschYou have probably been to a site that had a section called a "Guestbook". Many sites ask you to "sign their guestbook", and many of these guestbooks also permit HTML code in the guestbook comments, meaning you or I or anyone can visit guestbooks on web sites all day long and systematically create links back to our sites from hundreds of other site's guestbooks.
Naturally, some web marketers (probably the ones that think exit pop-ups are useful) think that by signing guestbooks and adding links by the hundreds they will improve their link popularity scores at search engines. Before you get excited and do a Google search on the phrase "sign our guestbook" (1.9 million BTW) and head off like a link monkey, here's my take on the whether guestbook links are valid, ignored, or penalized, and if they have any impact on the success of a web site's link popularity.
Guestbook links are really no different than FFA links, if you think about it. FFA (Free For All) pages are pages where a link can be obtained by anyone (even a script) without human intervention, meaning no person even looks to see if the requesting site has any decent content. Such link lists are obviously useless. Ask yourself when was the last time you went to a FFA link list to find a useful web site. How about
never?
And since ANY site owner could do the same thing--sign a thousand guestbooks--how much credibility can such links truly have? None. If I run a site that sells snake oil I can spend my days signing the guestbooks of the best sites on the web and leech some link popularity from them? Nope.
The real question here is do search engines know about this scam yet, or do they count guestbook links as additional links for poplarity rankings? My hunch is that since guestbook links are not in any way an indication of content quality, then they do not matter at all.
If ANY search engine currently gives any credit or rankings impact for guestbook links, this impact is only because the engine hasn't yet figured out the guestbook trick, and soon will. In fact, since the majority of guestbooks pages have the word guestbook
in the URL string, it would be absurdly easy for the search engines to simply ignore any link that appears at any URL with the letters guestbook in it.
And I'll bet you if they don't already ignore them they will soon.
My last point is more philosophical. If the reason you are seeking a link is because
a). The link can be obtained automatically or in bulk numbers and b). You are trying to inflate links for SEO purposes, then the bottom line is it's all bullsh*t, and no matter if the engines figure it out today or next month, the tactic is based on a lie and shouldn't
be done.
Until next time, I remain,
Eric Ward,
EricWard.com - The Link Mensch
About the Author
Eric Ward founded the Web's first service for announcing and linking Web sites back in 1994, and continues to offer related services today. His client list is a who's who of online brands, including Amazon.com, The Link Exchange, Microsoft.com, Rodney Dangerfield, WarnerBros, and Discovery Channel. His services won the 1995 Tenagra Award For Internet Marketing Excellence, and he was selected as one of the Web's 100 most influential people by Websight magazine in 1997.
 |
 |
Search Engine Link Popularity News
Link Building Company Announces an Increase in the Search for Keyword, 'Link Building Services'
Link Building Company ( http://www.linkbuilding.org ) Announces an Increase in the Search for Keyword, "Link Building Services" (PRWeb May 16, 2012) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/linkbuildingcompany/linkbuildingservices/prweb9515748.htm
Read more...Link Building Company Announces an Increase in the Search for Keyword, "Backlink Building Services"
Link Building Company (http://www.linkbuilding.org) Announces an Increase in the Search for Keyword, "Backlink Building Services"Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 14, 2012 LinkBuilding Company, a firm that provides directory submission services and helps clients climb the search engine rankings using organic SEO methods, announced today an increase in the search for keyword, "Backlink Building ...
Read more...What Is Search Engine Ranking Authority?
Next month, I will speak at SMX Advanced as a member of the authority panel, so it makes sense to discuss authority in my column this month. Authority is a term that has been around as long as I can remember, probably longer than the term search engine optimization itself.
Read more...Google’s Matt Cutts Talks Search Result Popularity Vs. Accuracy
Google’s head of webspam, Matt Cutts, posted a new Webmaster Help video today, discussing accuracy vs. popularity in search results. This video was his response to a user-submitted question: Does Google feel a responsibility to the public to return results …
Read more...Blinkx Plc - Final Results
18 May 2012 BLINKX PLC ANNOUNCES RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED31 MARCH 2012 Revenue grows 73% year-on-year to $114.4M, outpacing the growth of the online video advertising market by over 80% blinkx's year ...
Read more...