Avoiding Spam When Building Strong Backlinks Part 2

Last we spoke of the dangers of building backlinks through spammy techniques.  Here are examples of those dastardly techniques and the proper methods of replacing them when dealing with blogs.  Saturday we will discuss the manners of building strong directory references without being spammy. You will need to first download the SEOmoz toolbar for Firefox.  This toolbar has a function that shows “No Follow” tags on page links.  Using this tool will allow you to determine which blogs are worth commenting and interacting with for links and track-backs. Most everyone with a blog has visited or even pursued Tecnorati… (if you haven’t you will after reading this.)  Within Techgnorati, you have access to blogs that are separated by category and relevance.  There are other blog index sites that maintain a strong list of blogs by content, but Tecnorati tends to be the most reliable for the search engines. Once you are on the site, search for a blog that resembles the topic of whatever page you wish to link to.  If you are choosing to link to your main page, choose a blog that is closely associated with the Keywords of your entire site.  If you are using the link of a specific page, search for a page that has that specific topic.  Tecnorati has a ranking system that allows the user to comb through different levels of relevance. Obviously, you want to get links from the most relevant site to the topic being covered. Using this method, you’ll want to start by performing a “Time Honored Blogging Tradition” RTFA!!! Read the article people.  Seriously, if you don’t know what the topic is, it will show in what you’ve written. Once you read the article, then it’s time to interact. Make sure that the comment you leave is more than the following junk: “nice post” “I agree with the points you made” “good thoughts but I take issue with your points” These comments are common and quite annoying pieces of spam.  These statements will likely be caught in any filter and removed from any site that cares about their relevancy.   It would always be suggested to be Part of a conversation.  If you’ve read a post, use enough of the material within it to make a valid statement. Here’s a list of other rules that will avoid negative treatment for blog comments:
  • Only leave comments that are a full, comprehensible sentence.
  • Sign up for updates on future comments.  This can ensure many links and a future relationship between your site and the site you are commenting on.
  • Leave only on link on the site, the one in your name description.  Leaving tons of links in the content of your comments makes it strongly resemble an unwanted communication, leaving many to list your comments as spam.  If your site links or email addresses becomes associated as spam, it’s very likely that your future comments on other blogs will be filtered as well.
  • Leave the auto commenting software to those who don’t mind being banned from the search engines.  It’s just not worth it.
  • Read the articles!!! There will always be a better exchange of ideas when you do and you’ll likely receive more convertible visitors to your website if they believe your communication to be respectful.
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Ensuring Quality Backlinks For Your Website Part 1

This is the first of three post that will be added over the next few days.  There is very little chance that the thoughts will stay completely congruent, but there's just far more than one post within this topic... While linking structure has always been an important piece of the SEO equation, it seems that a more intuitive linking structure is becoming more and more necessary for modern SEO development.  The day of submitting to random directories or commenting on unrelated blogs is long gone.  Spam comments and unrelated directory listings cause damage to website relevance and search engines are constantly looking for ways to counter their effects. That being said, there are highly effective methods of getting related backlinks, they just require more work than the spammers and scammers are likely to give. If you’re wondering, “is Christian about to rail on the Spammers again?” the answer is always, yes!  Spammers not only made the system harder for all of us, they’ve caused themselves to become endangered.  Yes, you can still find tons of affiliate websites offering their “Link Building Software”.  This software is usually some form of Blog Spamming software.  While these sites can be found all over the place, they’re owned by only a small group of spam-jockeys who and are becoming marginalized by people becoming more aware of affiliate scams and MLM’s.` Ok, now that we got that out of the way, blog backlink software is going to do nothing for your site but possibly get it banned from Google.  Not only is the software disastrous for your reputation with the SERPS, they almost always have a very short and mitigated list of sites to choose from.  They claim that their program makes searches through Google, but this is only a half truth, they are most often pre-rigged with a select amount of search criteria.  The resulting searches leave the user with the same tired group of blogs that were used 1,000’s of times before by other Spammers. Most of these sites and pages that have been bombarded by spam are already flagged by Google.  Add your link to this page, and you risk being considered spam as well. That out of the way, the question of how to get the quality links and avoid being all spammy is going to be asked.  Unfortunately, the answer will have to wait until tomorrow. We're out of coffee.
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“Map Spam” Revisited

Many have responded and commented since the last posting on "Map Spamming by Lead Generation Services".  Some of you have asked me to go into further detail about the structure that such a group would have, and why Google doesn't chop them off at the knees for all of the spam There is no easy answer to this question.  The best answer is that Google is getting to big to police itself even though it continues to change tactics. The average location can search the term "Flood Damage" on their map right now and you'll encounter a group of fake "24 Hr Response groups" that have the same pictures and the same coupons on all of their listing pages.  Worse yet, they only exist(and I use the term "exist" lightly) on the map at locations that have never heard of them.  This specific group has fake "flood damage cleanup" companies across the entire country. In Naperville alone, we can find at least 15 such locations that are completely fake.  In the Chicago area, there are over 1,000 different map locations that are complete Spam.  Again, while it is important to report them to Google, don't be surprised if it takes a while for anything to be done about them.  Google sells ad space to some of them and doesn't seem to want them to go away to quickly. You may ask, why is this such a big deal to Naper Design?  It is a good question, and one that deserves a proper answer.  This group was formally asked to remove their fake listings from one City area in Norther Illinois.  A client of our was having issues with being seen on the map.  Rather than immediately go to Google with the complaint,we called the company and made a simple request to have them pull just these 4 fake locations.  Instead of being ok with our request, they began harassing us with unlisted numbers, and would call in the middle of the night with claims that the were from the mob(as if a mob member would ever make that claim).  It was pathetic, but should show you just how much they value this business.  They make quite a fortune off of the small businesses who have to purchase the leads back from the people who stole from them. In the case of these Carpet Cleaning and 24 Hour Flood Damage Cleanup Companies, they like to take their scam to an even higher level.  Having been caught by Google before, they leave fake identifying logos on their site.  They claim to be members of The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), but the fuzzed picture is an obvious fake.  This is a common tactic of those who are wishing to Scam the consumer, "claim you're certified in something". While Google has been made aware of their fake sites, this can take some time.  There are still several sites within this thread of Google's support blog that pay mention to companies that have yet to be removed. The frustration is there because Google is still slow in responding to people who are playing by the rules.  The fakes and spammers out there have caused for contractors here in Naperville, Chicago, Michigan, California and New York to completely go out of business.  Worse still is the upcharge that these lead generation services add to the price of the work to be performed.  The mark-up can be hundreds of Dollars just to reach the guys you wanted to contact to begin with. While it may not be to kosher, I do support Re-Spamming.  Several of us have begun looking up these fake companies and leaving negative comments to let people know they are Scammers and Spammers.   We don't see this as negative or even spam since we are leaving legitimate feedback on these profiles... Unlike the fake ones they leave for themselves. With hope, this will clear the map in the Naperville and Chicago area and allow for local contractors to conduct business more effectively.  The last thing we need during a recession are all of the lead groups steeling business from local contractors hidden links
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