Link popularity is terribly important for ranking better with the search engines. But SEO expert Joel Katona warns that search engines are much more sophisticated than people give them credit for. He says to avoid damaging your web site’s link reputation on the search engines by staying clear of counterproductive link popularity building methods.

The key I would like to emphasize here is achieving and maintaining “lasting results”. If your want your website to do well on the search engines even five years from now, it’s imperative you play by the rules and gain as much understanding about safe and effective link popularity building as possible.

Considering the sophisticated ranking algorithms used by especially Google, it’s very easy for inexperienced webmasters to do irreparable damage to their sites by using spammy on-page optimization and link popularity building techniques that Google frowns upon.

In this article Katona sheds light on some of the link popularity building techniques that will produce very limited results or worse will get your website banned on Google. He assigns a “Danger Score” to each of the techniques to better illustrate the risks associated with each method. A 10 will most likely result in a search engine ban while a zero will have little or no negative effect. The weakest links in link popularity building are:

• Website links in forum posts signatures used to be a favorite method but it’s not an effective link popularity building method anymore if you try to rely solely on a website link in your forum post signatures. (Danger Score: 0)
• Blog comment spam involves posting comments to blogs with a hyperlink pointing back to a website using a well targeted anchor text, usually automated by scripting languages and bots. (Danger Score: 7)
• Large number of inbound links from no Page Rank or low Page Rank pages can send a sign of low website quality or link manipulation to Google. (Danger Score: 2)
• Large number of links from the same C class IP block indicates the website is most likely involved in inbound link spamming. (Danger Score: Eight)
• Large number of links from unrelated sites suggest a link manipulation scheme since the website may lack unique content to attract links naturally. (Danger Score: 7)
• Link farms and web rings are setup with the sole purpose to manipulate link popularity by using a central database, automated scripting and a network of websites. (Danger Score: 10)
• Interlinking your own websites is a similar linking scheme to getting links from the same C class IP block, but in this case the WHOIS website registration information may be also used by the search engines to link the owner to all the websites involved in the link network. (Danger Score: Eight)
• Co-op Ad networks such as the Digital Point CO-Op Ad Network are used to automatically interconnect websites involved in the network by inserting a small piece of code on their web pages. Google recently took a much harder line against sites using these type of link networks and the risks of getting banned has increased. (Danger Score: 9)
• Paid links is a very controversial subject in the SEO industry. Google is using both human power and automated tools to detect paid text links. When a website it identified as a known seller of text links, the link popularity benefits are no longer passed on to the target website, while the website owner continues to pay. (Danger Score: 2)
• The automated link exchange services using server side scripts are sure way to loose your search engine ranking or get your site de-indexed by the search engines. (Danger Score: Eight)
• Identical anchor text used in a large percentage of inbound links are unnatural and can be picked out by the search engines very easily. (Danger Score: 5)
• Run of site links are placed in the footer or side navigation of a website that is repeated on every page using a server side include or other HTML scripting method. These can also suggest the use of paid text links. (Danger Score: 4)
• Despite what many people think, three-way link exchanges can be easily identified by search engines and if there are a large number of these types of links are present, it can result in a ranking drop or ban. (Danger Score: 3)
• Low quality directory links could give a decent ranking boost to a website a few years ago, but that is no longer the case. (Danger Score: 2)
• Inbound links from sites which are heavily optimized without contact information, phone number or a physical address imply a website that was created with the sole purpose of getting higher ranking. If you can’t find contact information on the web site, only a web form, it’s most likely a low quality resource. (Danger Score: 1)
• Inbound links from new sites under 1 year old will not pass as much link popularity score as older domains. The fact is Google favors old websites in its search results especially for very competitive keyword terms. (Danger Score: 1)
• Inbound links from affiliate or Google Adsense sites are relatively poor links due to the fact these sites contain very little unique content. Most of these site solely exist to generate ad revenue from Google’s Adsense program, or affiliate relationships. (Danger Score: 2)
• Inbound links using Javascript or other redirect methods are sometimes used but most search engines can only follow static links to your website and therefore any type of redirect to your website will not result in link popularity vote that can be recognized by the search engines. (Danger Score: 0)
• Adding too many links too fast is a sure way to get noticed by the search engines for the wrong reasons. Inbound links appearing too fast especially from unrelated websites can result in a ranking drop or complete ban. Slow and steady, natural link building is the name of the game. (Danger Score: 5)

Katona has more to say about each of these weak links as well as related topics. He concludes that “Fixing link popularity building mistakes is hard work and can take a long time to correct. Before you start your search engine optimization project, learn all you can about effective and safe link building methods that will guarantee your web site’s long term success.”

Source: Joel Katona. “The Weakest Links in Link Popularity Building,” Mainstream Webmasters 09/18/06.

Related Post: “What’s the Key Element in SEO?” EBT Blog 09/18/06.

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