How to Identify Bad Link Exchange Transactions

Now that more emphasis (to get better ranking in SERPs) is put on quality of links rather than quantity, I will try, in this article, to identify signs that may be precursors of bad link exchange transactions.

1. Quality of content

   I try to make sure that my links come from pages with original content that are not sourced from an affiliate program or duplicated hundreds of times on Internet. I want links from websites that someone seemingly to have taken time and effort to put together. In addition, it is steer clear of ecommerce sites that is only recently launched and heavily SEOed.

2. The links page

   Check what links pages are like. Definitely avoid links pages that have over 50 links, or use dynamic URLs, or are not ind exed by search engines.

3. The links page should be too far from home page

   Search engine bots are unlikely to go more than three levels deep on any website. So links buried deeper may not be found. When looking for quality links look for websites that provide links as close to home page as possible. Even a massive site like BBC News has a rule that every piece of content must be available within three clicks of News home page.

4. The topic

   Unless links page of site receives a large amount of traffic or that they have a high PageRank, stick to sites about same topic as your own. If your site is about widgets, I usually look for sites that are about widgets, widgeting, or anything widget-users would find useful.

5. The request email

   When I receive link request emails, anything that

   • Has a generic subject line (i.e. attn webmaster, link request, We linked to your site! etc)
   • Makes ludicrous claims (ie.e we believe ...)
   • Doesn't use personal names (i.e. Dear Site Owner -- you want a link from me - find out my name!)
   • Resembles an automated form email from bots
   • Contains excessive grammar/spelling mistakes
   • Are long and tells me how good links are for me etc etc etc.
     
     

Smartpages - Legitimate SEO Or Spam?

Smartpages are highly optimized pages which draw stampeded of search engine traffic to your website....or so sales blurb goes. The fantasy is that smartpages are push-button answer to online success. The reality is quite far removed from that.

In world of online marketing everybody is striving to gain any advantage over competition. To that end some people are willing to go to any lengths to gain a foothold online. When smartpages first appeared they seemed answer to every search engine optimizers dream. Feed in a list of keywords and out comes thousands of highly optimized pages for you to upload.

One small problem. Smartpages are nothing but redirects. The pages generated by these programs are filled with hyperlinks and Heading tags that "fool" search engines into thinking these are actually relevant pages of content. Therein lies problem. If you're out to fool any search engine then you're looking at short term benefit and long term problems for your business.

Let's make this clear. Smartpages offer no true value to search engine or web surfer. They are designed for one purpose - to send traffic to sales pages. The unfortunate fact is that any dummy can assemble a list of keywords and upload their smartpages in just a few minutes. Yet again search engine results are skewed because they constantly have to filter these junk pages from their indexes. I wonder did creator of these products ever pause and take account of damage they've caused to search engine results worldwide? Not one of them has ever stepped forward to speak up on this matter.