Link building the easy way.

[geester]

There are several ways to build backlinks, one easy way for me was to create a wordpress theme, then at the bottom I added an anchor text and I submitted it to 100 theme sites.

Resulting in 100 backlinks in less than 7 days, awesome for SEO!

[davek17]

Hi Geester

Nice one I love the way you think!! Have you seen a definite impact on your SEO?

I'm actually having some themes designed now and could do this myself. The only question I would have is the relevance of the links to your website content but I guess if you're not silly about where you submit it then it shouldn't do too much harm as a template site should be quite neutral?

Do you have any examples of where you submitted the themes?

[DanHarrison]

There are some issues with this, so you should not rely on this technique. This is because some people link to your site do so from an unrelated niche, which will damage your reputation in the eyes of the search engines. Additionally, you create something called anchor text spam, which is where you have too many links to your site with the same anchor text.

Dan

[geester]

Dan,

I don't wish to appear rude, but you are talking rubbish, I have 4 websites and using this I have managed to be number 1 on google for 3 of the sites. This is not the only tool I use...

As for keyword spam, 100 keywords is nothing, Google is looking for far more - beleive me I know...if for example I only have 100 backlinks to my site all the same that does look odd, but I DON'T.

Dan, you claim to be an expert, however I do question your expertise, just check the backlinks for 99.9% of companies that are ranking #1 and you will find that their anchor text is either their company name and could be classed as keyword spam according to you, so why are they #1??

I know my method works and it works well.

It is the way I create the the theme so that when people click on it, it is designed to be ultra specific, with the header and footer encrypted so no one can change anything. This eliminates anyone using it in a "bad neighbourhood".

Only someone "relevant" to my niche wil use it. Dan, I tihnk your post was nothing but a blatant advert for your services.

[DanHarrison]

You are entitled to your own opinion, that's fair enough. I am not advertising my services whatsoever. I don't even provide link building services. All I'm trying to do is to help. The site in my signature is not even my business site.

The point I was trying to make is that you can't rely on this as the only link building technique. If you only have 1 type of link to your site, it will be identified by search engines such as Google. If you have lots of different types of link to your site, then fair enough.

I do know that Google devalues sitewide links (which Wordpress footers are), and I have known plenty of sites to get a penalty as a result of sitewide links, including one of my own. If you have lots of sites linking to your site using the same anchor text, this is what's usually considered anchor text spam (I wasn't clear on this before, sorry). The solution is to use different anchor text for each theme.

Lots of companies use questionable link building techniques, and they work for a short period of time. Sometimes these companies get away with it. However, in the long term, something usually bad happens. A few of my friends do SEO full time and usually have to fix issues created by other 'SEO companies', usually from bad link building.

The trouble with templates is that you can't control who uses your template. Therefore it's pretty difficult to control what links are shown in the footer unless your template calls home (i.e. checks with your server) to determine what links to display. This means you can end up in bad neighbourhoods pretty easily. However, if you've created themes that suit a specific niche, you can influence the type of user who uses them. So that works fine.

Just to re-iterate, just using one type of link building technique alone is not enough for good and longer-term results. I wish it was, but sadly it's not.

For example, you've created something valuable (your themes), and therefore you'll get links from sites that link to your site where people can download the theme. This is called link baiting.... i.e. doing something where people want to link to you.

In my experience, the links from themes will disappear over the next 12 months as people change themes to newer ones, or their site gets deleted. The solution to this is to keep releasing themes or re-promoting your existing ones.

There are a few other troubles with footer links. But hey, I'm apparently wrong, so I won't bother sharing them.


All I'm trying to do is offer the benefit of my experience. That's all

[OldWelshGuy]

Cmon gents let's keep it professional :)


The answer to ensuring thisdoesn't bite you back is, as stated (I think) to make sure your themes are HIGHLY themed eg. if you have a golf site, then produce a golfing theme. This ensures all your links are on topic :0

I think Dan has a point but missed a little word out. maybe if his statement read 'don't rely on this method ALONE' then it might have been received better.

[DanHarrison]

Cmon gents let's keep it professional :)

I'm trying not to react to the criticism. :)


I think Dan has a point but missed a little word out. maybe if his statement read 'don't rely on this method ALONE' then it might have been received better.

Yup, that was the point I was trying to make. However, re-reading my post, I didn't make it that clear. Thanks for the refinement.

@geester (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=22042), I just re-read my posts, and it does sound like I'm criticising you. This really was not my intention, and I apologise for that.

Dan

[geester]

I think anyone with some SEO experience know, that there is no 1 way to build links that will guarantee results. You must add this to your arsenal of tools to dominate google.

Yes, I agree, rotation of keywords is essential Dan, for 1 site I have over 14,000 keywords, they break down to 12 actual keywords that are rotated for the niche on relevant sites.

You must also do blog commenting (dofollow), do not use software, do it manually. Forum posts (but it appears you get penalised here for putting any active links in your sig - nice email from mod asking for money, as active links are only for paid memebers...) Build squidoo lenses, hub pages, write articles and submit them to the top directories and many more.


I am talking from experience, as I have built 2 businesses up and used the Internet to market them, selling 1 in 2008 for £274,000 (not bad in the height of a recession) and 1 in Jan 09 for a similar amount. Both businesses were only 3 years old. Sold them to concentrate on a new project - start again!

What always frustrated me was when ever I asked the local business agencies I knew more than them, when I offered a free internet and SEO seminar for local businesses they turned me down - go figure.:cool:

[DanHarrison]

Fair enough. It sounds like you've been very successful!

Unfortunately, lots of people claim to be experts and are sadly not. Makes it harder for the rest of us to stand out, especially if a potential client has had a bad experience.

Dan

[DesignsOnline]

Dan,

I don't wish to appear rude, but you are talking rubbish, I have 4 websites and using this I have managed to be number 1 on google for 3 of the sites. This is not the only tool I use...

As for keyword spam, 100 keywords is nothing, Google is looking for far more - beleive me I know...if for example I only have 100 backlinks to my site all the same that does look odd, but I DON'T.

Dan, you claim to be an expert, however I do question your expertise, just check the backlinks for 99.9% of companies that are ranking #1 and you will find that their anchor text is either their company name and could be classed as keyword spam according to you, so why are they #1??

I know my method works and it works well.


Couldnt agree more, links dont "Have" to be on relevant sites, that just effects how they score in the eyes of the Seach engines, a relevant targetted link may score highly and a non relevant untargeted link may score low, but get enough unrelated links and they start to become powerful, look at all the viagra adverts splashed everywhere, it works for them....

These sort of links do have their place, not everyone can afford top end SEO services, and so alternative routes may be welcomed.


http://www.get-listed-in-google.co.uk/build-backlinks-service.html

[DanHarrison]

Couldnt agree more, links dont "Have" to be on relevant sites, that just effects how they score in the eyes of the Seach engines, a relevant targetted link may score highly and a non relevant untargeted link may score low, but get enough unrelated links and they start to become powerful, look at all the viagra adverts splashed everywhere, it works for them....

These sort of links do have their place, not everyone can afford top end SEO services, and so alternative routes may be welcomed.

There are changes to the search engine algorithms all the time, but there is a lot of work done and being done to exclude irrelevant and low scoring links. I can see why people are seduced by low quality links, as they are easier to get.

My personal link building technique is very cheap, easy to do, slightly time consuming, but very effective. I now rank page 1, result 3 or 4 for my chosen keywords on Google using less than 40 links. These links are 1-way, from 100% relevant sites.

If you want to know more, research "guest blogging".

Dan

[davek17]

Inbound links continue to be a highly weighted page rank attribute and I still get seduced by link farms etc, especially the ones who have Wordpress plug-ins and things like that. Believe me I am a cautious guy when it comes to SEO and I would probably not advise this to a customer but I do see so many sites getting on with it, using these farms and succeeding when all the rest suffer by being cautious!!!

You can still get focussed, genuine ones and pay relatively little money and it will aid your ranking greatly at first. However the key here is to keep your finger on the button because if those link farms get blacklisted you are in big trouble.

Getting back to the thread, the reason I was so interested in what Geezer had done here is that I had never thought about this before. Things like this usually work great until they gain weight and google reacts.

Correct me if i'm wrong people, but as long as you keep to the basic rules of SEO and aren't stuffing 100's of keywords into these themes, which I assumed Geezer wasn't, and there is just one link back to your website that isn't dead then I am struggling to find what could actually go wrong with this?

You could genuinly be a theme editor who makes a living out of it and needs to rank highly. In that case surely this idea is quite novel and robust and at the same time I can't see anyone else using it suffering unless they totally abuse it?

I think when I get time i'm at least going to test this out at some stage.

[Kneoteric_eSolutions]

"The easier it is to get a link, the lesser value it has".

[I, Brian]

There are several ways to build backlinks, one easy way for me was to create a wordpress theme, then at the bottom I added an anchor text and I submitted it to 100 theme sites.

Resulting in 100 backlinks in less than 7 days, awesome for SEO!

This is a great way to kill your site if not careful.

Sponsored Wordpress themes have been around a few years, and Google knows how to handle it.

I spoke with a Google engineering about the issue last year, and he made it plain they could potentially harm a site.

I would never recommend anyone look to sponsor a Wordpress theme of use similar links for link building purposes - that ship sailed long ago.

[fisicx]

It all boils down the relevance. If the link is relevant to both the source and target page then it has value. As always it's quality not quantity and if you read the webmaster blog posts on inbound links they make it quite clear that the sort of link the OP mentions it pretty much worthless. Maybe if you had 100,000 you would see some effects until the spam machine caught up and you got dumped.

[petera]

Am I right in thinking you do this to get links from the theme websites only, or do you also automatically get a link from anyone who uses your theme as well?

[amv1981]

It depends on how relevant your links are. A relevant link from a 'good neighbourhood' or even better authority site will give you far more 'link juice' than 100 random links.

[DesignsOnline]

I spoke with a Google engineering about the issue last year, and he made it plain they could potentially harm a site.


I disagree, if that were true then we would all be posting these sort of links to our competitors websites and eliminating the oposition, trouble is so would they, which is why Google doesnt penalize you for links, some link will get you a lot of credit and some link only a little, but links dont hurt you.

[I, Brian]

I disagree, if that were true then we would all be posting these sort of links to our competitors websites and eliminating the oposition, trouble is so would they, which is why Google doesnt penalize you for links, some link will get you a lot of credit and some link only a little, but links dont hurt you.

I'm afraid they can and do - it's called "Googlebowling". Matt Cutts this month stated that Google think they now have the process minimised, which is in effect an admission that it does occur.

The general theory is that it's all about a site's link profile - a natural link profile will contain all kinds of links, whereas one whose links contain too many from one type of source is a potential flag.

I know some people here will remain eager to try and get these "easy links" but I'm simply trying to pass on some industry experience from the past few years.

You're welcome to ignore that, but simply don;t be surprised if at best you gain no real effect, and at worse you link bomb yourself out of the index.

2c.

[DanHarrison]

I'm afraid they can and do - it's called "Googlebowling". Matt Cutts this month stated that Google think they now have the process minimised, which is in effect an admission that it does occur.

Dave Naylor (hxxp://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/) calls it a silver bullet, but the point is the same. Make it look as if your competitor is spamming, and they get penalised.

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't happening. There will always be nasty people trying to damage you. I even have that issue with one of my sites due to a jealous competitor.


The general theory is that it's all about a site's link profile - a natural link profile will contain all kinds of links, whereas one whose links contain too many from one type of source is a potential flag.

I know some people here will remain eager to try and get these "easy links" but I'm simply trying to pass on some industry experience from the past few years.

You're welcome to ignore that, but simply don;t be surprised if at best you gain no real effect, and at worse you link bomb yourself out of the index.

2c.

You can only guess at what that balance is supposed to be. However, if you encourage decent links, and avoid the bad ones, you'll be ok most of the time.

Dan

[davek17]

Hi Guys

I said at the beginning of this thread that I thought this was a novel idea and I still stand by that, I tend to be uber careful with SEO but am always interested in how clever people try and beat the system. However everyone on here talking about being careful is bang on.

The key here is that no-one really knows how SEO works with the search engines, they like to shake it up and there will always be losers and winners, people who win by abusing the system or finding new ways to beat it. There will also be completely valid businesses who suffer because they flew too close to the edge too. I think we have to remember that we need to leave a buffer so that when Google decides it doesn't like what you have done, it doesn't hurt you 100%.

I have a question though...

What happens if you make 200 posts on this forum all with links to your site in your signature? Doing this is supposed to be a positive thing for SEO but essentially it's almost the same situation?

[petera]

Dave Naylor (hxxp://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/) calls it a silver bullet, but the point is the same. Make it look as if your competitor is spamming, and they get penalised.

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't happening. There will always be nasty people trying to damage you. I even have that issue with one of my sites due to a jealous competitor.



You can only guess at what that balance is supposed to be. However, if you encourage decent links, and avoid the bad ones, you'll be ok most of the time.

Dan

I was speaking to an employee of a large SEO agency a while back, and he told me that the first thing they do when they take on a new client is to report all of the competitors on page 1 for the company's primary targeted keyphrases to Google for spamming and buying links. It's a very dirty tactic but there's big money in SEO now so i'm not surprised it happens.

[DanHarrison]

I was speaking to an employee of a large SEO agency a while back, and he told me that the first thing they do when they take on a new client is to report all of the competitors on page 1 for the company's primary targeted keyphrases to Google for spamming and buying links. It's a very dirty tactic but there's big money in SEO now so i'm not surprised it happens.

That's nasty! But not surprising. That said, Google probably gets spammed with those kinds of reports. They'd probably flag the account from which the reports are sent as being anti-competitive and assign them a lower priority.

Dan

[fisicx]

The key here is that no-one really knows how SEO works with the search engines...

A lot of people do know what works and waht doesn't. Google has published lot of information on good and bad practice and many people have tested to see if certain practices cause harm.

What happens if you make 200 posts on this forum all with links to your site in your signature? Doing this is supposed to be a positive thing for SEO but essentially it's almost the same situation?

Google simply ignores all the links except one. Forum sigs have long been discredited as an SEO tool.

The google webmaster blog has some excellent articles on inbound links and makes it quite clear that they are looking for endorsements or citations. A link back from the footer of a WP template isn't either of these and will therefore score almost zero in the PageRank calculations.

[SFD]

A link back from the footer of a WP template isn't either of these and will therefore score almost zero in the PageRank calculations.

So how come lots of web design sites have PR4/5 purely from links back from clients sites?

Example:

holbi.co.uk
eshopfitters.co.uk

[F1SEO]

To put my own slant on this if I may, and I'm going back to the original poster a bit:

In my opinion a lot of Wordpress links, from the themes, get removed by the blogger. Probably because they think everything on the net is free and the link is a cheapshot to ride on their brilliant blog.

So although you might get 100 downloads, you might only get 10 who keep the links on.

Still useful though even if you get 10, and if then that blog gets PR4 - that would be a nice 10 links.

[fisicx]

So how come lots of web design sites have PR4/5 purely from links back from clients sites?

How do you know it's purely from client sites? The PR score could come from a number of sources - one of these could be a single high ranking site.

There is however a big difference between a links to major ecommerce site from it's clients and a WP template leading to a small design site.