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Friday, December 15, 2006
Late in November we were atSES in Paris,
where we had the opportunity to meet some of the most prominent figures in the French SEO and SEM
market. One of the issues that came up in sessions and in conversations was a certain confusion
about how to most effectively increase the link-based popularity of a website. As a result we
thought it might be helpful to clarify how search engines treat link spamming to increase a site's
popularity.
This confusion lies in the common belief that there are two ways for optimizing the link-based
popularity of your website: Either the meritocratic and long-term option of developing natural
links or the risky and short-term option of non-earned backlinks via link spamming tactics such
as buying links. We've always taken a clear stance with respect to manipulating the PageRank
algorithm in ourQuality Guidelines.
Despite these policies, the strategy of participating in link schemes might have previously paid
off. But more recently, Google has tremendously refined its link-weighting algorithms. We have
more people working on Google's link-weighting for quality control and to correct issues we find.
So nowadays, undermining the PageRank algorithm is likely to result in the loss of the ability of
link-selling sites to pass on reputation via links to other sites.
Discounting non-earned links by search engines opened a new and wide field of tactics to build
link-based popularity: Classically this involves optimizing your content so that
thematically-related or trusted websites link to you by choice. A more recent method islink baiting,
which typically takes advantage of Web 2.0 social content websites. One example of this new way
of generating links is to submit a handcrafted article to a service such ashttps://digg.com. Another example is to earn a
reputation in a certain field by building an authority through services such ashttps://answers.yahoo.com. Our
general advice is: Always focus on the users and not on search engines when developing your
optimization strategy. Ask yourself what creates value for your users. Investing in the quality of
your content and thereby earning natural backlinks benefits both the users and drives more
qualified traffic to your site.
To sum up, even though improved algorithms have promoted a transition away from paid or exchanged
links towards earned organic links, there still seems to be some confusion within the market
about what the most effective link strategy is. So when taking advice from your SEO consultant,
keep in mind that nowadays search engines reward sweat-of-the-brow work on content that bait
natural links given by choice.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eSearch engines, particularly Google, are actively combating link spamming and manipulative link-building tactics to ensure genuine website rankings.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsites engaging in link schemes or buying links risk losing their ability to pass on link-based reputation and may face penalties.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eBuilding high-quality content that naturally attracts links from relevant and trusted sources is the most effective long-term link-building strategy.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEngaging with Web 2.0 platforms and building authority through valuable contributions can generate organic backlinks and drive qualified traffic.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003ePrioritizing user experience and content quality over search engine manipulation ultimately benefits both website owners and their audience.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Search engines have refined algorithms to discount non-earned links, penalizing link spamming tactics. The focus now shifts to earning natural links through high-quality content. Strategies include creating valuable content, link baiting on Web 2.0 platforms (like Digg), and building authority on sites like Yahoo Answers. The emphasis is on creating value for users, as this drives qualified traffic and natural backlinks. Search engines prioritize content that naturally attracts links over manipulative tactics.\n"],null,["# Building link-based popularity\n\nFriday, December 15, 2006\n\n\nLate in November we were at\n[SES in Paris](https://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/paris06/index),\nwhere we had the opportunity to meet some of the most prominent figures in the French SEO and SEM\nmarket. One of the issues that came up in sessions and in conversations was a certain confusion\nabout how to most effectively increase the link-based popularity of a website. As a result we\nthought it might be helpful to clarify how search engines treat link spamming to increase a site's\npopularity.\n\n\nThis confusion lies in the common belief that there are two ways for optimizing the link-based\npopularity of your website: Either the meritocratic and long-term option of developing natural\nlinks or the risky and short-term option of non-earned backlinks via link spamming tactics such\nas buying links. We've always taken a clear stance with respect to manipulating the PageRank\nalgorithm in our [Quality Guidelines](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies).\nDespite these policies, the strategy of participating in link schemes might have previously paid\noff. But more recently, Google has tremendously refined its link-weighting algorithms. We have\nmore people working on Google's link-weighting for quality control and to correct issues we find.\nSo nowadays, undermining the PageRank algorithm is likely to result in the loss of the ability of\nlink-selling sites to pass on reputation via links to other sites.\n\n\nDiscounting non-earned links by search engines opened a new and wide field of tactics to build\nlink-based popularity: Classically this involves optimizing your content so that\nthematically-related or trusted websites link to you by choice. A more recent method is\n[link baiting](https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-linkbait-and-linkbaiting/),\nwhich typically takes advantage of Web 2.0 social content websites. One example of this new way\nof generating links is to submit a handcrafted article to a service such as\n[https://digg.com](https://digg.com/). Another example is to earn a\nreputation in a certain field by building an authority through services such as\n[https://answers.yahoo.com](https://answers.yahoo.com/). Our\ngeneral advice is: Always focus on the users and not on search engines when developing your\noptimization strategy. Ask yourself what creates value for your users. Investing in the quality of\nyour content and thereby earning natural backlinks benefits both the users and drives more\nqualified traffic to your site.\n\n\nTo sum up, even though improved algorithms have promoted a transition away from paid or exchanged\nlinks towards earned organic links, there still seems to be some confusion within the market\nabout what the most effective link strategy is. So when taking advice from your SEO consultant,\nkeep in mind that nowadays search engines reward sweat-of-the-brow work on content that bait\nnatural links given by choice."]]
