Link Farms/Exchanges

[minestrone]

What is thje general opinion of these things as a device to get you up the SERPS? Anyone had a good experience with one.

One of my sites is getting little footfall, despite doing all the needfulls (keyword research, dmoz, google directory etc etc ) which have worked for my other sites this one just remains a problem, it has a pagerank of 4 as well so is hardly a basket case.

I know the problem is that the site sits in a very big online market space (thousands of competitors) so I am thinking of going to the next step to see if I can improve it.

[Jog On]

2 way link exchanges aren't very effective, although a few relevant ones won't hurt.

I'd stay away from link farms and 3-way link exchanges. You can get links form article marketing, blog commenting, forum posting, directory submissions and asking other websites to link to you. All of this can be outsourced fairly cheaply.

Then there's social media as well..

Oh yeah - and SKA

Google "market samurai" if you're looking for a good tool

[eek]

search for angela's backlinks Angela’s Backlinks Update… | Shane Brown

[northernladuk]

Even when I was doing web/seo work 3 years ago working with link farms was asking for trouble. Fell in to the black hat SEO for sure. Link farming and keyword stuffing were the sure fire way to disappear of the rankings altogether for a period.

Swapping links with similar sites wasn't such a bad thing as long as it wasn't on a page title 'Links' and had related anchor text. I would think with the amount of abuse this was getting a few years ago I can't imagine google rates link swapping at all with the emphasis on one way now.

[minestrone]

search for angela's backlinks Angela’s Backlinks Update… | Shane Brown

That's interesting, he seems to be quite sure they worked for him and quickly but I have heard all the info about how google might downgrade your site if you use them. I just cannot see that being the case though, shirley you could set up some other site on a link farm and bugger them over.

I'm OK with throwing $100 at it for a few months and seeing the reply. Also the site states this which goes against everything I have read on SEO.

"Don’t the links need to be related to my keywords or niche?
Not at all. What you are talking about is Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), and the search engines just do not have the ability to tell if a site is related to the link’s keywords. Google does not know the difference between a “cold” that makes you sick, the freezing temperatures that make you “cold”, and a “cold” icy stare you get from your wife when you forget her birthday. “Links must come from related sites to have any SEO impact” is a complete myth."

[NickFitz]

Link schemes - Webmaster Tools Help

Are All SEO Marketing Experts Completely Insane?

[minestrone]

I personally do not believe google on what they have written on that page.

If that was the case there would be a market for placing competitors sites on link farms and I do not see much of that.

[minestrone]

I also read something in an SEO book last year that google can hardly bugger you over for buying a set of links when it sells links itself.

[Spacecadet]

I also read something in an SEO book last year that google can hardly bugger you over for buying a set of links when it sells links itself.

they can do what they want, it's their search engine.

[minestrone]

they can do what they want, it's their search engine.

That's funny, I think microsoft said pretty much the same thing when then gave their browser away for free. Doughball.