| |
| |
|
Traffic Building Information |
|
Ethical Link Exchange, You be the Judge
Webmasters understand that quality and relevant inbound links can increase site visibility; your search engine rating; and with any luck increase your traffic and revenue. While working to locate relevant links for our site, we discovered a disturbing practice apparently being used to increase link popularity and search engine ranking. The following are the sorted details of our journey and discovery. 1) Most webmasters understand the hunt for quality relevant sites is, like most things of value in life, a time consuming and difficult task. Being limited on time, we first tried to hire a leading SEO expert to locate relevant links. When the SEO expert did not return emails, we tried a few link exchange sites. While a few good quality links were unearthed, the link exchange sites simply did not offer a large quantity of good relevant sites. After all, our competitors had hundreds of thousands of inbound links and we had less than 900. While tempting, we skipped over the advertisements for traffic as our desire was for prospective customers not traffic. 2) We finally decided on the DIY approach. First step, check current reciprocal links page to insure all was well. A few sites no longer linked to us, so our webmaster links page required a few updates. 3) Next we chose to use Link Popularity Check to locate links that our competitors have, that we perhaps missed. The first thing we noticed was hundreds of inbound links a competitor had, all coming from a few specific sites. Upon visiting the sites, we noticed that one was a "directory" and several others were normal sites that contained very little content. In short, the directory and other sites were nothing a competent webmaster could not create in a day or two. 4) We found it odd the inbound sites all have the same visual look, color scheme, and navigation. Our competitor's site was also listed in the "Related Resources" area on each and every page. The light bulb suddenly switched on! The inbound sites appeared to have been created for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity and therefore the competitor's search engine ranking! 5) Ping the four sites to locate the IP addresses. Four different addresses, not in consecutive order. Perhaps we were mistaken. 6) A few mouse clicks to see who owned the domain names of the four sites. All the sites are owned by the same company, are housed at the same ISP, and have the same email address listed for the administrative and technical contact names. 7) A few mouse clicks at Alexa.com to review traffic patterns show the sites have very little traffic, yet all have a PageRank score of 6 or higher. Site traffic is increasing for each. Nope, it does not appear we were mistaken. It appears a competitor actually created web sites for the sole purchase of increasing his/her link popularity and search engine ranking for their primary business site. To recreate such a process:
We were curious to see if this was an isolated incident or a rampant practice. While not rampant, it did not take us long to find others companies utilizing this technique. Is this ethical? I am sure some would argue this is a savvy internet marketing practice, while others will view the practice as repulsive. Ethical or not, this technique is simple, cost effective, and apparently will increase your search engine ranking. One thing is clear, I will never look at directory sites or link exchange pages the same. Hopefully, the search engine will adjust their algorithms and nullify this practice. In the interim, for those that take a negative PR and/or link exchange hit, remember that honesty builds longevity and lasting relationships. Remember the SEO expert we previously tried to hire? We went back and checked his site, and yes he utilizes the same technique. Odd thing however, his sites no longer enjoys top ratings on the major search engines. Perhaps, the search engines are starting to figure this one out. Lew Newlin is CTO of Information Solutions, Inc. that operates SiteRecon that specializes in email monitoring and web site monitoring for businesses.
MORE RESOURCES:
Goal-Setting - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Web Site Monitoring Is A Global Necessity Bill Huang sits down at his computer. As he connects to the Internet, he glances out at the sun poking its nose above the Hong Kong skyline. Ways to Get Traffic to Your Website In the real world when you buy real estate the catch phrase is "location location". In the online world the phrase is "traffic traffic". Part 2 - Do Not Ever Link to a Site Without Doing This First! Writing LinksIn the first part of this article we learned some techniques to build a solid potential link partner list for your website. Those sites aren't any good to you if you don't use a strategy for writing the textual content of those links. How To Drive Traffic To Your Website How can you have effective results in major search engines?Banner, Link, and Traffic Exchanges really work well.How do you start?The big "trigger target" for Google appears to be links. Wacky Test Marketing: Part 3 Once again I used my wacky test marketing strategy to announce a new project and once again it worked - but on this occasion I had another motive about which I will tell you more in a moment.Downloads and confirmed sales are lower than last time around but this does not dismay me because I am addressing a looser, less well defined niche. No Cost Ways To Increase Your Web Site Traffic Promotion Web site traffic promotion is crucial in today's Internet world. You must get the word out on your website, otherwise your sales will suffer. Web Site Marketing: Discover 10 Sneaky Ways To Prolong Your Visitors Stay At Your Website The longer your website visitors stay, the more theywill get to know your business and perhaps buy fromyou.So, below are 10 sneaky, web site marketing ways to keep them longer?1. How to Cheat Traffic Exchanges There are many ways to cheat traffic exchanges and generate massive numbers of hits to your website. Some are complex and some are simple. Free Traffic Course - Day 3 This is the 3rd day of "Free Traffic Course".This day will be devoted to a very important strategy of getting free targeted web site traffic - link exchange. Free Tips to Generate Traffic for Webmasters Starting a new website and developing a traffic base if often the hardest and most frustrating part of being a webmaster. It's really an ego hit when you put a lot of hard work in to a website and don't see it perform, or perform extremely poorly. Internet Promotion: 10 Uncommon Freebies That Can Increase Your Traffic And Sales It is an open internet promotion secret that the more you give away freebies, the more you attract customersthe way honey attracts bees, because peoplelike freebies.1. 5 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Site One thing you can never have too much of online is web site traffic. If you're looking for ways to drive more visitors to your site, try these traffic generating tips?TRAFFIC TIP #1: Develop Several Pages Focused On Particular KeywordsSearch Engine specialists don't recommend using external doorway or gateway pages, since sites are being penalized for having duplicate pages. Traffic Exchange Primer Traffic exchanges are everywhere. A traffic exchange is a clever way to get hundreds or thousands of visitors to your website. Publicity Tips to Get More Traffic to Your Web Site Web sites are on my mind, since I just updated mine. Now, I am in the process of publicizing it. 7 Ways to Increase Web Site Visitors and Boost Sales Have you spent a lot of money on advertising with theexpectation that you would get many sales from the 1000sof web site visitors that read your ad?Have you poured money into driving traffic to your website, only to have no one buying your product?Maybe you have seen the ads, "Get 10,000 visitors to yoursite, for only $20" . Wow, you think, that's a greatbargain, I'll go for it. How to Get Non Reciprocal Links In this article we will look at how to get non reciprocal links.Webmasters have become paranoid with link popularity therefor making it the most popular SEO techniques that is used on the web today. A Simple Guide to Analyzing All Those Web Traffic Ideas - Part 1 There will be a lot of people unhappy about what I am going to reveal in this article. However, I think it is time somebody spoke out about what is happening on this wonderful medium we have come to know as the internet. 5 Power Tips To Double Your Online Sales "How Can I Double My Sales?" - that must be thesilent prayer of thousands of webmasters.There are two ways to do it: you can either doubleyour traffic or you can double your conversion rate. A Tip for Finding Willing, Quality Links Google might not dominate the search engine world like it did last year, but it's still a big player and can account for a lot of your traffic. It's no secret that acquiring PageRank is a big part of doing well with Google. Is There Such A Thing As LAZY Way To TRAFFIC? Nowadays there are just too many people trying to give you something of a less (or no) value at a very high price. Why do you buy it? Why do they do it? Will they succeed?And they question is not about information products.
|
| home | site map | ArticleGecko | A ClashX Production 2006 |
| © 2006 |
