SEO Backlink Strategy And Risk

[masonworld]

Backlinks are good for SEO and there are lots of ways to get links. There are natural links (people linking to your content in the normal course of business), web directory links, article directory links, link trading two way links, automated 2-way links, links from social networks, fully automated links, black hat, gray hat, white hat, and on and on.

Lots of the automated strategies leave a footprint that is detectable by Google and other engines.

From and SEO standpoint, this is really and issue of managing risk versus gain. Is the SEO gain that you get from using a strategy justified by the risk that you accept?


What do you use?
What do you think?
What is safe, OK or dangerous?


This thread is for an open discussion of this topic as brought up in the weekly SSWT webinar.

Regards,
Mark

[retta719]

Mark, thank you for posting this from the Tuesday webinar discussion about the same thing. I have shied away from using automated tools because I am afraid of Google and other search engines stomping on me for using them. Anytime I do anything online anymore I always think Google Ninjas are going to come repelling through my windows.....

[masonworld]

Well, I have used a lot of them -- especially the Leger tools. I am considering using some on the open case study site in the private forum.

[retta719]

I have a few Incancsoft products that I am considering using to help make life easier for a few things. I've been putting it off, because I'm a big chicken -LOL- but the sound of having a few things automated for me, or even just semi-automated sounds so very cozy and stress-free.

[masonworld]

Well, one fun thing that you can do is buy a domain that targets a long tail of traffic that you would like to divert to your site. Put up a small (10-15 page) site and test the generator there. Then, if you burn the mini-site, who cares? If you get traffic, you can divert it to your money site.

[retta719]

That makes total sense. I was reading another discussion (at Warrior Forum I think it was) where they were using tools to push traffic through an article site to their site. Pointing links towards their article on GoArticles.com or Squidoo.com and then pushing them through to the main site from there.

[AlexNewell]

Mark I'd really be interested in a case study. I think there is too much fear in the online marketing world - fear of Google being a major case in point.

Lots of sites are doing really well with automated systems - good programmers like Leger do not leave "foot prints".

Every body has their own line on this and Google is not clear either. They say, "get other webmasters to link to you" without specifying "how".

At present I use

(1) article posting in a small number of directories
(2) blogging - which syndicates my feed to lots of feed aggregator sites
(3) web 20 sites backlinking
(4) structuring my blogs to optimise my on-site links
(5) blog commenting
(6) forum commenting

coming up soon for a new product release - Press releases

[masonworld]

Lots of sites are doing really well with automated systems - good programmers like Leger do not leave "foot prints".


I tend to agree with you -- Jon is very strict and very careful. But all systems leave footprints (however tiny). So, it is just a matter of risk.

You can bet that if Jon made Matt Cutts mad that Matt could find sites that were in Jon's networks and slap them. Unlikely, low risk, but possible.

Note that I use all three of Jon's networks.

[Lynn Terry]

Good topic - aggressive vs conservative in SEO and link-building.

I fall in the conservative group. I have friends that are very aggressive marketers, and they do very well online. They are usually ready and waiting for a slap or penalty, and have a recovery plan.

That is a lot more risk and time than I personally want to take with it. I prefer passive and simple.

That said, we're all out to manipulate PageRank in some way or another. Even when I go out and get legit links in conservative fashion, it's for the purpose of getting better rankings and more traffic.

It's also fair to assume that I do more than I say or teach - simply because there are a lot of "newbies" following along that might "quit their day job" over a few good months in a row... only to lose it all in a penalty in month 4 with no income to fall back on. Some of us can afford the risk on additional sites - some are not seasoned enough to realize it could kill their income overnight on their one money site. Know what I mean?

It's a higher level game.