Do Backlink Advertising Networks Really Work?

Written by Ben Stewart


When I first heard of backlink advertising networks, I have to admit I was more than a bit skeptical. Of course backlinks are probablyrepparttar most important tool inrepparttar 145542 search engine optimization kit, but buying or acquiring backlinks in an unnatural way has always been something Google and other major search engines do not condone. I took a look at a few networks hoping to find some answers.

The first network I looked at was DigitalPoint's Coop Advertising Network (http://www.digitalpoint.com). DigitalPoint's network allows you to create either banner or text ads that will then be displayed on various websites inrepparttar 145543 network with an active backlink. Websites receive a "weight" which determines how often they appear on other sites, although it wasn't exactly clear on how a site gains weight. Further reading explained that certain factors such as Alexa Rank and number of pages showing ads may contribute to weight. It was even possible to target your ads by category. I was very impressed withrepparttar 145544 setup. So, I installedrepparttar 145545 ad network on a few websites and, sure enough,repparttar 145546 system started to churn out backlinks.

After testing outrepparttar 145547 network, I decided to read what others were saying in their forums. Sure enough, my worst fears were realized. As I suspected, churning out links can have a negative impact on search engine rankings. Various sites complained of being completely dropped from Google or Yahoo's index. The problem, it seems, was that links were not permanent. DigitalPoint's network rotates links as you reload a page so you have no permanent backlinks. I immediately removedrepparttar 145548 links from my sites, and moved on to analyzerepparttar 145549 next network.

Web site copy…Forget the trickery, it’s all about you.

Written by Julia Hyde


Here’s a question for you: What arerepparttar most important words on your web site? Do I hear you shout, “ keywords of course.” Well if you did, you’d be wrong.

Forget your keywords for a moment because what you should have said is “you” and “your”.

Overrepparttar 145164 years web surfers have endured many unpleasant trends – flash and animation, blinking text, pop-up windows, purple text on black backgrounds and much, much more. These days, however, they’re subjected torepparttar 145165 subtle, yet still unpleasant practice of “let’s stuff as many keywords into our web page copy as we possibly can” syndrome.

Known as “keyword stuffing” this practice stems fromrepparttar 145166 notion that if you place a huge amount of keyword phrases on your web page you’ll miraculously be elevated torepparttar 145167 top ofrepparttar 145168 search engine results and sell more of your product or service. Of course, fromrepparttar 145169 visitors’ point of view this doesn’t work too well because repeatingrepparttar 145170 same phrases over and over again onrepparttar 145171 page won’t persuade your visitors to do anything much except hastily leaverepparttar 145172 site.

So sneakily, just to make surerepparttar 145173 repetitive, parrot-like copy doesn’t cause a complete exodus of potential customers, some web site owners and developers hide their keyword phrases sorepparttar 145174 search engines can see them, but human visitors can’t.

I idea is this: place your keywords inrepparttar 145175 same color as your background and make them invisible torepparttar 145176 human eye, but not torepparttar 145177 search engines. The search engines, readingrepparttar 145178 text, indexrepparttar 145179 site as relevant for that particular keyword phrase and rank it higher inrepparttar 145180 results. Problem is, not only is it unethical, it doesn’t actually work. Well not for long anyway.

Unfortunately, this practice seems to be proliferating like locusts. And while it’s impossible to spray or swat them, I can draw your attention to it inrepparttar 145181 hope that, (a) you’ll refrain from using this tactic on your own web site, and (b) I’ll shamerepparttar 145182 offenders into removingrepparttar 145183 offending words from their site.

Leadingrepparttar 145184 pack inrepparttar 145185 keyword-stuffing department is an unlikely pair: churches and lawyers. Yes, you heard me right, but it bears repeating: churches and lawyers. Why that is I can only imagine, but just in case you don’t believe me, I’ve put together a kind of rogue’s gallery… well two actually because finding them is a time-consuming process that involves typingrepparttar 145186 same word a lot. Please note that to seerepparttar 145187 keywords you’ll have to hold downrepparttar 145188 “ctrl” and “A” key on your keypad. Please also note thatrepparttar 145189 owners ofrepparttar 145190 web site may be unaware this practice has been used on their site.

1.The US-Attorney & The Law Office: http://www.the-office.com/lawofc/. Keyword = lawyer. Hold down ctrl and A and scroll right down torepparttar 145191 bottom ofrepparttar 145192 page. 2.The First Baptist Church: http://www.lakeshorebaptist.net/hycws/. Keyword = church. There they are right down atrepparttar 145193 bottom ofrepparttar 145194 page next to you know who.

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