5 replies to this topic

[miketurner]

Hi,
I have just joined the forum but have been browsing for a while now, and would like to take this opportunity to say what a great forum. I have been doing SEO for a while now and this forum has been really helpful with picking up new tips, now I have subscribed I hope to play a more active role.

I do have a quesiton - I have a customer who has had some SEO work completed previously on their site however no longer wish to use that particular company any more - I have been checking their links and have noticed they have several links into their sites from blogs - they are not comments but listed on a sub menu and a heading "blog roll" The link name has been optimised for a key word and has a direct link to the site not a blog - almost as if the previous SEO company owned the blog, but their are loads of different blogs and none on the same subject, so I have a few questions 1. How did the previous company get these links? Or is it just one of their own many blogs? 2. Are these benefical to SEO and am I missing out on something?? 3. if they are bad could they be hurting the ranking??

Mike

[Michael Martinez]

Based on the very limited information you provide (and I am NOT asking for more), it could be interpreted as paid links. Blogrolls have often been used to mask paid links among legitimate links. I would not assume they are helping. If the site isn't penalized then they are obviously not hurting.

[PatrickGer]

Based on the very limited information you provide (and I am NOT asking for more), it could be interpreted as paid links. Blogrolls have often been used to mask paid links among legitimate links. I would not assume they are helping. If the site isn't penalized then they are obviously not hurting.

you assume that links in blogrolls are not helping?(just asking).

How about links embedded in blog posts? ...or are links from blogs (in your opinion) simply not that valuable in general?

this got me curious..because I remember trying to figure out which kind of links you meant, as this is a point you brought up multiple times...google having de-valued many types of links...and you were not (exclusively) really talking about the obvious ones - e.g. directory links, reciprocals, etc. when you said that right (the obvious ones that dont count according to popular belief...no idea if its true or not)?

[Michael Martinez]

you assume that links in blogrolls are not helping?(just asking).

I think "assume" is a bit strong. Let's just say I'm skeptical of the value of Blogroll links versus ...

How about links embedded in blog posts? ...or are links from blogs (in your opinion) simply not that valuable in general?

These I like. Links embedded in content. But quality varies from blog to blog for any number of possible reasons.

this got me curious..because I remember trying to figure out which kind of links you meant, as this is a point you brought up multiple times...google having de-valued many types of links...and you were not (exclusively) really talking about the obvious ones - e.g. directory links, reciprocals, etc. when you said that right (the obvious ones that dont count according to popular belief...no idea if its true or not)?

I think Google has begun hinting in various ways that their link filtering is no longer as crude as it once was. That leads to wild speculation but, frankly, it's probably time the SEO industry rethought its position on links anyway.

And, I am happy to say, I am seeing just that on some pretty major SEO blogs and in recent conference reports.

[qwerty]

Links embedded in content can also be paid links, and in some cases, it's pretty obvious. If you sell shoelaces and you've gotten some blogs about shoes, athletic footwear, and even general sites about the fashion industry to write about you, you're probably fine. If, however, a blog post about shoelaces that links to you is surrounded by posts about clock radios, car parts and cell phone accessories, it's going to be pretty easy to see that you've purchased links from a network that didn't happen to have a property that spoke directly to your audience, so they threw you in where they could.

I want to believe that the search engines can see this as easily as I can, and that such links end up being a waste of money.

[Michael Martinez]

Links embedded in content can also be paid links, and in some cases, it's pretty obvious. If you sell shoelaces and you've gotten some blogs about shoes, athletic footwear, and even general sites about the fashion industry to write about you, you're probably fine. If, however, a blog post about shoelaces that links to you is surrounded by posts about clock radios, car parts and cell phone accessories, it's going to be pretty easy to see that you've purchased links from a network that didn't happen to have a property that spoke directly to your audience, so they threw you in where they could.

I want to believe that the search engines can see this as easily as I can, and that such links end up being a waste of money.

The problem with your hope is that anyone can write a personal blog that rambles on about every topic on the Web and it would (algorithmically) look just like all those promotional blogs. I had a personal blog a few years ago where every article was about a different topic. I suspect algorithmic science hasn't yet progressed far enough to be trustworthy as a judge of what may be promotional content.