Hi I wanted to clarify whether what I am describing is a link wheel and is this black hat ?
-
There is a SEO company that is creating a page on each of their clients' sites called 'pages of interest' or 'links' they then list all their other clients websites - using a variety of their keyword phrases as anchor text as well as a brief description. But then in the footer of these sites the SEO Company are also putting a link back to their own website using a variety of keywords such as SEO, search engine optimisation,link building etc and linking to their home page. At the moment the SEO company are ranking really well for their search terms. I thought that this was really quite 'dodgy' as the only two things that link all the clients are -(1) that they are all clients of this one firm and (2) all the websites come from the same country - no theme, or related industry at all. The clients that I have spoken to were not even aware that the company had put the link back to their site in the footer which in itself is pretty sneaky
-
I agree Mat, but it's difficult to tell who is who. Client worked with a big name in the world of digital marketing. They checked references, put in place a carefully worded contract (phew!) and (thankfully) I had the knowledge to identify a well-hidden blog network, and secure link takedown. The SEO industry needs an aggressively policed quality standard, in my opinion.
-
That's like not trusting builders, or cab drivers, or in fact anyone because there are bad ones out there.
There are plenty of agencies that don't use such tactics. There are others who will use tactics from across the spectrum, but ensure that the client is able to make informed choices based on risk v reward.
-
Exactly the reason I don't use (or trust) SEO agencies. I've seen this, I've seen blog networks. You name it...
-
It's not what I would call a link wheel. However it certainly does demonstrate the intention of building a network of sorts. Sadly quite a few SEO firms (including some quite large ones) do this. What is really bad is that they don't tell the clients that they are effectively abusing their websites for them either. Really underhand tactic if you ask me. I don't think that the "white hat / black hat" thing is particularly useful. It's over simplistic and makes our industry sound childish. However these are not links that have editorial merit, so you would think/hope that they don't pass authority. It is also a clear case of trying to manipulate pagerank, which is against google quality guidelines. As such it would seem to be putting the host sites at risk. Oh... it's really damn easy to spot as well.
-
Totally agree, even if they seem to be getting results at the moment it's not sustainable and will likely do far more harm than good in the long term. Give this SEO company a wide berth!
-
Send the PM - I'm curious - I want to analyse their site. Plus what are the sites you are comparing i.e. yours and their clients....
-
Thanks for the response I really thought it was. What gets me is that they are continuing to rank highly at the expense of their own client's who really don't know the first thing about Seo.. Will pm the name
-
Dodgy and risky as hell!!! If the sites have nothing in common and link in time it will all fall apart. At this stage I think it's risky but probably getting away with it....
Go on rat on the company or at least private message me the name... I'm curious
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Internal Linking - Post links vs Side Bar Links behaving differently
Hi, I have a question regarding the internal linking behavior. My website is www.hindimeaning.com which is approx 3 years old. I have approx 450 posts. Now i have a widget on right sidebar "Popular posts". A widget below my posts "Related Posts". And a simple html CSS menu above the posts (I removed menu around 6 month before so currently it will not show.) I crawled my site with moz crawler (same are the result from google crawler as well) and it shows menus links as internal links. While sidebar widget "Popular posts" and "Related Posts" are not showing as internal links. If we talk theoretically what i learn till now is "every link on a page behaves as internal link". Then why the widget links are not showing as internal links. Thanks, Mahesh Kumar
Link Building | | chaudhary04890 -
Questions About Link Building .
Hello Moz Community, I am about to hire a SEO firm for my website ranking. I have few questions about their link building plan. http://priceperlink.com/SEO-Link-Building/ Their link building plan ! I have purchased package 4. I have noticed they will use same article and PR again and again . Is that acceptable ? This plan is not authenticated to me. I hope google will catch me for duplicate content. Anyone can clear it please ? Another question is , If i provide unique articles , will that plan be helpful ? Still i have confusion. As I read few days ago, google don't give any value to article submission and press release distribution without any news ! So, help me quickly and suggestion as well. Will i continue with them or not. Thanks
Link Building | | businessowner0 -
Does nofollow link has any effect on link building
I recently read some article on noflollow link and the author says that nofollow link does have some effect on page rank. Can anyone explain the effect of nofollow link on website ranking?
Link Building | | petwho0 -
Multiple Links from High Ranking Site Vs. Links from Multiple Domains - What's More Important?
I understand it is important to get links from many quality domains. Currently, I do have links from top domains (PR, Trust) and it I can get more from (high rank) pages on these same domains. Would it be better to focus on expanding my reach (find additional domains to link from) or to continue to build links from the current domains I have a connection with? What is weighted more? I realize doing both is important, but trying to figure out how to best use my time. Thanks! David
Link Building | | DWill0 -
Link exchanges
I have quite a few legal clients and 90% of my clients top competitors are doing 1:1 link exchanges and they have been doing it for years. Other industries Dont seem as prevalent. I am just boggled every time someone says link exchanges don't work, will get penalized, or value is not passed. Its been working for my competitors....Legal SEO's seem to focus heavily on link exchanges. I have yet to do link exchanges, but am about to get started with a resourceful directory of local businesses on my clients site. Some will be linking back, but not all. Fear of penalization is lurking in my mind. Does anyone have any real data on this? Does anyone have an example of doing this properly and an example of how not to do it? I appreciate any feedback you can give. Thank you,
Link Building | | waqid0 -
Too many external links vs linking root domains - good or bad?
Hi guys, After the latest Linkscape update, we noticed that our website have 424,671 external links with 4,395 linking root domains, so roughly 100 links/domain. Does Google consider this to be a negative thing or we do not need to worry about it. Many thanks. David
Link Building | | sssrpm0 -
.edu links
Hi mozzers, I've had some great success reaching out to many .edu webmasters. Often they are professors and such. My question is, i'm guessing during the summer holiday period, reaching out to these webmasters won't be so fruitful. I'm not in the US and was wondering when the US Summer holidays are for universities over there? Also, does anyone have experience outreaching to these webmasters over the holidays? Peter
Link Building | | PeterM221