Can I get your expert opinion?
-
Hello fellow Mozzers!
I've been brainstorming about getting links for my site and thought of the following scenario, let me know if its a good idea or not.
Who we are: an IT consulting firm.
There are many tech support forums and groups on the internet including Google, Yahoo and a few other big dogs...
I thought it would be a good idea to browse them on daily basis and find questions/topics that haven't been answered or don't have any real clear good answers, or are very popular. Then create an article in the blog on our site describing the same exact problem with a solution. Then would post a response under that question/topic with a link back to the solution that is located on our site.
Hoping that this will bring in more traffic, links, and authority...
However I also thought about the possibility of getting spammed, since there are many spam sites that scrape forums and groups for web site addresses, email addresses, phones, etc...
So what do you guys think, is it a good idea or should I stay away?
Thank you!
-
"If I did that for every question that I answered here at SEOmoz, I am willing to bet that people wouldn't like it."
I think that most approaches would get treated as spam if you over-do them. Probably a good reminder that any technique/tactic that you use that includes the word "every" would probably be better turned down a notch or two!
-
I tend to agree with EGOL and Keri, I suspect you will be viewed as a spammer.
Yes, you are answering their questions, yes this makes for the internet being a warmer fuzzier place (and your answers might be the best damn answers in the world) BUT it will be clear to the forum owners that your intention is to generate a link. The trouble is you also know that the reason you are doing this work is to generate that link.
I wouldn't necessarily not do it, but I would be prepared for quite a few of the links to be removed because they will be viewed as spam (even if directly on topic). Don't get be wrong I don't think what you are doing is spam but it will be viewed by many forum admins as such.
Gary
<colgroup><col width="64"></colgroup>
-
Hi Keri,
Thanks for your response! I mostly agree with you, however I'm not talking about just dropping a link as a response to someone's post. I would provide an answer or partial answer on that forum for a specific topic and then put a link for the reference or for a full answer... I don't think this should irritate any forum admins. In the tech community people reference many sites as their answers (now I'm not sure if they're trying to do this as well or not) but sometimes its easier to post a link to an article or a video instead of providing an answer that has to describe 20-50 detailed steps for a user to follow...
-
I think that we are members of the SEOmoz community and the discussion of topics initiated on SEOmoz should remain here for community participation rather than be diverted.
There is nothing wrong with creating a post here and then refining it for use as a blog post on your own website.
-
Thank you EGOL & Mat for your responses!
I kind of see what you're saying EGOL, however I'm not talking about creating a link for every single post, as that would definitely fall under link spamming. I do want to respond to your answer about you answering that way here at SEOMoz. SEOMoz is more of a closed and tighter community than your average Google or Yahoo group. Most of the time people answer questions with very poor English, directions, instructions, references, etc... If I take my time and knowledge and create an easy to understand blog post with good content and easy to follow instructions and examples and reply to some topics (probably a few week) why would you or THEY think it would be a "sign post" and/or spam links?
-
I think there's a difference between looking at forums for ideas in general and using an aggregate of several questions to write an awesome blog posts that answers most of the questions people have about that topic, and writing a specific answer on your site to a question on another site, and going to that other site and just dropping a link to your site.
Using the posts for inspiration is fine IMHO, but as a user (or an admin) of a forum I'd quickly get irritated at a poster that is using the forum solely to link drop.
-
If I did that for every question that I answered here at SEOmoz, I am willing to bet that people wouldn't like it. They would view me as creating sign posts to siphon traffic.
Is it link spam? Maybe not in some people's opinion if a link is placed once in a while but to make that a matter of practice, my opinion is that it would be link spam. I believe that it would be abusing the SEOmoz community.
The perspective of this can be argued. People who receive the links have a whiter hat view than the community they are using.
-
Why does using people's real questions have to mean spamming? I'd agree if you only used the sites in order to drop links, but why should that be the case?
If there is a site where relevant questions frequently come up then why not use that as a source of inspiration for blog topics? Find the common questions, put together an excellent answer, when the question comes up again cite your post within the rules of the forum.
The forum becomes more useful, the user gets their answer, Igor gets a link and the internet is a slightly warmer and nicer place to be. Where's the spam?
-
This will work until they figure out that your posts are nothing more than "sign posts" to siphon traffic and spam them for links.
-
It's a good idea. I think Rand has previously posted somewhere about he has done this himself, blogging topics that have been asked about on Quora and the like.
The biggest danger in terms of spam from posting on forums is if you include you email address in the post. Publish an email address on the internet and it will get spammed (trust me - I've been using the same address for 16 years. It's an issue!). However if you don't actually put the address in the post then you won't have a problem. Almost no forums allows their members email address to be seen by other users unless they choose to.
[edited - correction, Rand had mentioned doing this on quora]
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Opinions On Resource-Page Linkbuilding
Hi, I'm just looking to get some opinions on resource-page linkbuilding. These are links you would gain from sites when you use the following type of search operators: "keyword" + inurl:links
Link Building | | Tomwindham
"keyword" + inurl:resources
"keyword" + "helpful links"
... and so on... What do you think Google's thoughts on this subject would be when a large portion of the pages returned are long lists of links - usually these will be the title of the page linked to as well as either a bare link or an anchor text link. In some instances a short description of the page linked to would also be there. Are these long-term links that will continue to be relevant and worth spending time on for linkbuilding, or are these going to be see by Google as lower-quality links and potentially unnatural ? For example, Google's page on link schemes states; "Low-quality directory or bookmark site links" may violate their guidelines. Do you think that in some cases, resource pages may be seen as somewhat fitting this description? Thanks! [Edit] I have also found this comment from a Moz post 4 years ago, but cannot find any other reference to John commenting on resource pages: "A while back, someone asked John Mueller in a hangout about the benefits of getting a link on an outdated resource page and the answer was that if it is a link that never gets clicked on then it's probably not passing a lot of value."1 -
Getting links on old blog posts
There's 100 of blogs with posts that link to my competitors, but don't link to my site.They are mostly lists. Eg: "The best Sites to get blue widgets" I was thinking about getting in touch with these blogs, and asking them to take a look at my site, to see if perhaps they would add it to the list. In fact, I started doing it and I got some links already. Now I am starting to worry that Google could consider these links as unnatural, because, you know, the algos are not exactly perfect. Anyway, the links are important for the exposure anyway. I've two questions: 1. Is there any chance I'll be penalized? 2. May I get a SEO benefit from this links?
Link Building | | elefantes0 -
Exact Match Anchor Text - How Can These Guys Be Getting Away With It?
Hi. I've noticed that some of my search competitors seem to be getting away with heavy use of exact match anchor text in their backlinks. In the UK, for the term [HR Software] the top 3 SERPs have on average: 63% of their backlinking domains using the exact match anchor text [HR Software] 50% of their backlinking pages use the exact match anchor text [HR Software] I know there are hundreds of factors at play other than just the above but to me their anchor text profiles scream "LINK SPAM". Is this normal? Have I missed something? or do I just bide my time and wait for them to be hit with a penalty? Thanks David
Link Building | | OctopusHR0 -
How to get Google to re-recognize a backlink that used to go to a 404?
I recently rebuilt my website last year, the address is enjoyparkcity.com. I used to have a great link from cnbc.com at http://www.cnbc.com/id/34977253/page/5, but when I rebuilt my website, that landing page url no longer existed (http://www.enjoyparkcity.com/search_featured.html). I recently rebuilt a page to catch that link again, and it works fine. Is there a way for Google to re-recognize it? I think its a normal do=follow link so Im guessing it should be valuable? Hoping it could help my rankings? Thanks in advance for any advice!
Link Building | | SeanMatyja0 -
How can I find all the outbound links from a website domain?
I want to find all the outbound links (basically whatever comes in <a>tag) from a domain (say www.abc.com) as well as all the subdomains under it (say abc.com/a etc). Open Site Explorer provides the inbound links from a website but does not provide any functionality to get all the outbound links from a website. Is it possible to do?</a> <a>Thanks in advance. Deepak Jain</a>
Link Building | | Deepak_Jain0 -
How is it possible that Interflora can bounce back from a Google penalty so quickly - is that normal?
As far as I understand it Interflora was removed from Google organic search results on February 20th. I guess no one knows for sure why they were delisted other than Google but I have heard theories such as giving flower bribes to bloggers in return for links 🙂 How sweet - and placing paid follow links inside advertorials within local newspaper sites. Whatever the reason for their de listing it seemed Google must have wanted to send out a strong message since even a branded search wasn't ranking. Fast forward 13 days to today and I now see Interflora ranking not only for their brand but also for flower delivery London etc etc... How is it possible that they managed to get back in the SERPs so quickly? Is it normal to get a penalty and be back up and running at position 1 in less than 2 weeks? Is that normal for a penalty? I was under the impression that being caught gaming Google to the extent where they delisted you was something far more serious and had much longer term repercussions?
Link Building | | Clicksjim0 -
How can a not so passionate subject get links? Need ideas?
Our client owns a very big pest control site. They are competing with pestmall, orkin, terminex to name a few. Almost all of there competitors are spamming like crazy. For some of their competitors it is working. They get natural links very slowly. Maybe 1 natural link every week. How can a not so passionate subject get links? Here was my ideas. Offer a tool to pest control sites for a link in return. The flaw is most pest control company owners are not tech savy and if they are they have hired it out. I just really need some ideas. Thank you.
Link Building | | OxzenMedia0 -
Can you dominate a niche with just guest posts?
Hypothetically, if your competitors in a niche have 100 linking domains from medium authority sites and you were able to publish guest posts on 200 relevant sites with medium authority, what do you think would happen? Would you dominate your competition?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0