Stupid people & stupid link schemes Every so often I get an email from someone who thinks that he's invented the best thing since sliced bread as far as blogs, WordPress and SEO go. In most cases, they call themselves "contextual partners", "related websites" or something else that already gets my spam senses tingling. Then, they'll start telling on their sites how their wonderful system helped sites get from PageRank 0 to 5 in one month, or helped increase Google rankings. Just how stupid do you think Google is? Or, for that matter, the competitors of the people whose ranking you're boosting? For god sake, they even give examples of sites that are using their plugin, and add in a link to their own plugins page. How much of a footprint do you want to give Google? How much time do you think Google will need when they get only one spam report, to WIPE OUT your entire network? So, if you're considering using something like this: DON'T. If you're running a network like this: start searching for a day job, this won't work for long. Start reading about the Digital Point COOP network, and how Google cracked down on that, and draw your own conclusions. Huge sites were completely removed from the index for taking part in it, this COULD happen to these sites as well. I usually don't write about stuff like this, but when I saw, when looking through it, that even John Chow had a post on how this was great stuff, I just wanted to let all of you know that it's NOT a good thing. Don't do it, ever. It's not worth it. CommentGoogle indexes SVG1 comment  According to the Google Webmaster Blog, Google is now indexing .SVG, (Scalable Vector Graphics) presented as an alternative to Flash. But who besides wikipedia actuall...... read more
Semetis develops its rich media ...0 comments
BRUSSELS,
1 September 2010 – Search and web analytics agency Semetis today announced the
launch of a new interactive marketing concept, a premiere on the Belgian
market.
Semetis channel on YouTube is fully dedicated to video
content related to search marketing and web analytics. In the past, Semetis had
already posted more than 20 videos with useful information and tips. As from
now, Semetis will post video tutorials on a weekly basis on its YouTube brand
channel.
Startin...... read more
Google combating cowboy agencies4 comments  Google today announced they are changing the rules on how their partner agencies are to be working with AdWords accounts/advertisers. In order to combat non-transparen...... read more
Google Grants Belgium looking fo...1 comment 
Brussels, Tuesday 20
July 2010 - David Gillain, Agency Manager at Google Belgium launched today an
appeal to all Belgian Search agencies looking for volunteers i...... read more
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Comments (8)
What really frustrates me is the scripps network I would be very interested to know when that would be taken out. Even the press have done posts on them saying that they are actively searching for links and even who the clients are...
Massive fail about to happen there
Vr 12 jun 2009, 11:59
Nice! Every now and then it's good to get a rant out of the system.
Been wanting to do something similar myself this week. Client's sending emails recieved from SEO companies claiming to be responsible for Amazon, pitching hard on forum posting for links, the list is endless.
It still baffles me that there are companies out there still trying these tricks and the sad part, people also fall for them. Could even compare it to 419 scams (yeah bit far off there Brett)
Vr 12 jun 2009, 12:14
Can they really harm a website though? The links would be ignored at most I think, but harm? My have to drop some client's competitors into a network to see ;)
Vr 12 jun 2009, 14:06
Joost, I would like to invite you to my new contextual related sites program, all you have to do is write a signed letter to Google with the words "I am a spammer" on the envelope, then you get free entry into...
Okay that joke went on long enough :)
Za 20 jun 2009, 13:38
LOL - Joost well said - this IS stupid stuff - in fact I haven't seen such ignorant people for a while.
By the time I write this I'm sure the Google Quality team has "flagged" all those sites already.
Regarding John Chow it's pretty obvious to me that that IS a paid blog post that blog network bought from him for exposure and link juice. Stupid thing to do but you can see how "paid blog posts" (spreading stupid ideas/products for money) is something bad in Google's eyes.
That's also the reason for the recent crackdown on paid blog networks in the last months - I'm sure John Chow is on the blacklist too.
Well, anyways - if everyone would know the golden rules of white hat link building the competition for some of our clients would be a LOT stiffer *ggg*
Cheers
Christoph
Za 27 jun 2009, 11:29
Why am I bad? 100% Opt in. Relevant. Balanced on traffic.
Many 1st tier sites are doing similar both domains and subdomains.
Zo 12 jul 2009, 07:50
and if I could have actually talked with JC (or his editor) prior to the review I would have asked for no-followed links.
I did the review for exposure not for links.
Zo 12 jul 2009, 08:00
I think the big difference here is relevancy and value to the reader. <a href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=e n&answer=35769">Google's webmaster guidelines</a> say, "Another useful test is to ask, 'Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?'"
I don't think you could answer yes to those questions regarding Digital Point's CO-OP network.
I don't know if I would answer yes to those questions regarding the Contextual Partnership. I think I might say yes because it seems the writer chooses the links editorially.
The Blog Traffic Exchange is definitely a yes to both those questions. I would argue that it's preferable to AdSense as far as being useful to the reader.
I really think that if Google were to take action against these sites, they'd open themselves up to a lot of negative publicity for punishing people for following the very guidelines they print.
Zo 12 jul 2009, 21:19