12 replies to this topic

[1dmf]

I was reading the latest email from WebProNews, which has an article about link building in Bing and has a list of things NOT to do to gain rankings in Bing.

One of the Dont's which was supplied by Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center

4. Receiving inbound links from paid link farms, link exchanges, or known "bad neighborhoods" on the Web

Is this true, Bing have officially announced that putting links to your competitor sites in these 'bad neighbourhoods' will adversley affect their rankings.

I thought the whole point of IBL's not hurting your site is because you have no control over who links to you or where they link from, but according to Bing (if this article is for real), you can now destroy your competition rather than beat them.

Is this article a hoax? http://www.webpronew...s-dos-and-donts

[Alan Perkins]

Is this true, Bing have officially announced that putting links to your competitor sites in these 'bad neighbourhoods' will adversley affect their rankings.

It could certainly be read that way. However, I think it more likely that IBLs from bad neighbourhoods will do no good, rather than will do harm.

[1dmf]

Well as they specifically say... and I quote

things that you should avoid in your link building efforts, if it is a good Bing ranking that you are after

That certainly implies to me, that if you do this, you will get the opposite to good Bing rankings, which can only mean 'bad' Bing rankings can't it?

[Alan Perkins]

It's rarely a good idea to tear this stuff apart semantically. It's not worth putting more effort into deconstructing a sentence than the original author put into constructing that sentence in the first place.

But, if we do play that semantic game, then "things that you should avoid in your link building efforts, if it is a good Bing ranking that you are after" could simply mean that links from bad neighbourhoods won't help in your quest for good Bing rankings. It doesn't specifically say that they'll harm.

[1dmf]

But if we are playing semantics... they say 'YOU should avoid', seeing as 'YOU' have no control over who links to you or how, again the sentence is complete phoey!

So I certainly agree with your sentiment

It's not worth putting more effort into deconstructing a sentence than the original author put into constructing that sentence in the first place.

It does seems as though they are making ridiculous off the cuff remarks without thinking about what they are saying.

[rolf]

To be fair (and somewhat pedantic) it says the 'do nots' ...

will get your site reviewed more closely by staff

which to me doesn't necessarily mean your site will suffer, just that it may get some attention from a real person rather than just relying on their algo.

It's fair to say that if someone is doing something that they would rather keep off the radar then this could be unwanted attention, but I don't see how someone adding a number of nefarious links could harm an otherwise legitimate marketing effort as all the other metrics would surely point to the true approach of the webmaster, no?

That's how I read it anyway. JMHO

[1dmf]

Well you would certainly hope so wouldn't you rolf!

It also doesn't take into account that as there is no official list of 'bad neighbourhoods' for webmasters to check, how do you know if you are placing a link somewhere that you shouldn't?

Proving intent and culpribility is surely near impossible?

[Jill]

What's all the fuss about? Isn't that very similar to what Google always says too?

Anything search engines say always needs to be taken with a grain of salt since they have very specific motives in mind when they say stuff that relates to their algorithms.

[1dmf]

But it is interesting Jill, as I've seen many people ask the question, including me when I first came here, do IBL's hurt you, HRF has always had the opinion 'NO', and for good reasons as we all know, it's something you cannot control.

Does this sway your opinion in any way, is the answer to the question no longer 'NO' , but 'IT COULD'

It would be rather ironic if someone's viral marketing campaign or link baiting exercise was so successful, it attracted to many links, too quickly and from the wrong crowd and it killed their rankings.

[Jill]

My answer has almost always typically been, "no but it could."

If all your links are of the bad type, then yeah, it will probably hurt you.

But if you're a well established site with real links pointing to you, your competitor can't knock you out by adding you to crap places.

[Randy]

Well, if Bing allows this to happen you won't have to worry about optimizing for them at all. Because their index would be overrun with really crappy sites so quickly that nobody in their right mind would use it.

[1dmf]

If all your links are of the bad type, then yeah, it will probably hurt you.

So it looks like you can kill your competitors then. Especially for new sites and business starting out with out many links initially.

As soon as you see a new site / competitor, link build for them in all the wrong places, before they know it, they will have far more bad links than good.

But if you're a well established site

Well that's all well and good for those established companies, so much for entrepreneurship and helping new businesses, especially considering the current economic climate!

I really feel sorry for all those companies that don't even know what SEO is and just have reasonable rankings simply because of their market place, be it niche, specialised or just not much competition, if someone new with a bit of SEO savvy comes alone, this poor ole, oblivous company is going to see their visitors dry up and the rankings diminish and won't have a clue why!

I like your thinking Randy , if that happens and Yahoo is taken over by Bing, that really will only leave G! left, I'm sure G! won't mind if that happens!

Though I'm even more cinical than most, I think that half the time the SE's make stuff up , just to cause a stir and a buzz or reitterate their brand awareness. Plus what would these SEO newletter staff write about if there weren't any soundbites to quote!

Like you say Jill pinch of salt, but if it isn't phoey, then it's more like salt in wound!

[hotate ikura]

Brett Yount from Bing Webmaster Center says:

having lots of bad backlinks can hurt your site, but a few high quality links pretty much nullifies the bad--and gives you a better rank.

http://www.bing.com/...00.aspx#9560000