Blogging competition - risky link acquiring method?
-
We are planning to launch a competition where bloggers can blog about our products and about our company. One winner will be selected to win a gift card to our web shop.
In order to participate the blogger has to put a link to the blog post that points to our front page or into one of our product pages.
Does Google have a guideline against such "link acquiring" methods?
-
It is against Google TOS to ask for a link, so the best way to do this, as Dejan SEO have said is to cause a reason to link back to the competition page o the home page.
There are various methods of this, and the best has been mentioned - include a code snippet on your contest page, perhaps with a blog footer like so:
This post was for a competition hosted by Company Name, promoting Product. Visit their website for more details on this competition
(With links in obviously). This will trick a lot of people into thinking that it is necessary to include that footer following their post to keep their entry legitimate, and will obviously be gaining you the contextual link you're after, to multiple pages if you'd like.
The other method is via profile badges, or a specific badge for that competition. Encourage users to add your badges to their sites/blogs/individual posts, and make it as easy to do so as possible.
One final thing, make sure you give out badges to the finalists, again, linking to your pages. If they're winning something they'll feel obliged to use the badge!
Hope all of this helps EuropeanSEOguy!
-
I had a similar idea for my site. It involved giving away free product in return for a link. Some have suggested to me that this could be black hat. But personally I don't see how this is much different than other methods such as gaining links by sponsoring a local event.
-
-
Hi
I like this idea. Do you have an example of such widget ? How to get started?
-
A suggestion: make a "blogging competition widget" that each blogger must embed. You get your link back and this sends traffic to all the other blogs who are taking part and further promotes the competition while looking less dodgy
ps, make sure every blogger wins a nice badge / honorable mention button
S
-
I agree with Dejan SEO's reply (his way of getting backlinks ) but i don't think that your strategy may invoke penalty of some sort. You are not buying or colluding with webmaster for it.
-
It will not pick it up automatically, however if you go massive with it or somebody reports you and you get a manual audit then you could be in trouble. There is a way of getting links without asking for links - and that is to create a need and reason for linking. For example you can provide them with optional code snippets that would save them time explaining the rules of the competition (T&C?) and other handy devices which would save webmasters time.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Are press releases that could end up being published with duplicate content links point back to you bad for your site ?
With all the changes to the seo landscape in the resent years im a little unsure as to how a press release work looks in the eyes of Google (and others). For instance, you write up a 500 word press release and it gets featured on the following sites : Forbes Techcrunch BBC CNN NY Times etc ... If each of these cover your story but only rewrite 50% of the article (not saying these sites wouldn't re write the entire artcile, but for this purpose lets presume only 50% is rewritten) could it be negative to your backlink profile, ? Im thinking not, as these sites will have high authority, but what if once your press release is published on these sites 10 other smaller sites re publish the stories with almost no re writing, either straight from the press release or straight from the article in the mainstream news sites. (For clarification this Press release would be done in the fashion of a article suggestion to relevant journalists, rather than a blanket press release, via PR Newswire, mass mail out etc. Although i guess the effect with duplicate content backlinks is the same.) You now have c. 50 articles online all with very similar content with links pointing back at you, would this have a negative effect or would each link just not carry as much value as it normally would. By now we all understand publishing duplicate content on our own sites is a terrible idea, but dose have links pointing back to your self from duplicate (or similar) content hosted on other sites (some being highly authoritative) effect your site 's seo ?
Content Development | | Sam-P1 -
How many categories should you have within a blog / Wordpress Site for SEO?
Hi Guys I am just wondering whether or not for SEO purposes it is better to have a small number of categories for your blog posts to fit into as opposed to numerous ones. The reason I ask is that I have one site which is fairly new to the search engines - 8 months old which has 7 general categories within the blog for instance "rail contractors", "railway construction" "airport construction" etc I have another site which is 10 years old which has built up 25 different types of categories for instance brand design, brand development, brand management (i guess you could put all these under 1 category "branding"? We've been writing lots of press for both sites... yet the younger site is getting more coverage on Google page 1. Would this be because the blogs / press are more concentrated under a specific category as opposed to being spread thinly throughout the site? Any help would be appreciated. Debs 🙂
Content Development | | lethalmarketing0 -
BLOG, Sub-Domain or NEW Domain???
Hi, I have one online store using 2 differents domain: http://www.filtrationmontreal.com ( french language) http://www.furnacefilterscanada.com ( english language) A language switch at the top right of the store, give you access to a different language when shopping. I had to do this because, my shopping cart does not offert the possibilty to have a multyi-language store! Now I want to create a blog. What is my best option: 2 blogs with sub-domain. ex: http://www.BLOG.furnacefilterscanada.com and http://www.BLOG.filtrationmontreal.com one multil-language blog with a new domain linking to my online stores I would appreciate your advice on this. My goal is to increase traffic, rank better and increase sales by providing solid content on a blog. I will use Word-Press self host. I will buy a premium theme. I purchase themes from theme forest before. Do you have a favorite theme to suggest? Thank you for your help a support. BigBlaze
Content Development | | BigBlaze2050 -
Blog Benefits
I read a very interesting answer by Andy Solo to a previous question in which he replied: "Use your blog to create some Tips & How-To's, optimize those blog entries for the long tail keywords and soon enough your blog will be the gateway into your website. Learn how to target longl-tail keyword searches and how to analyze keyword competition to find the right niche blog posts to create". With my own company site, www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk which has a long-standing blog attached, www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk/blog I always felt that the blog content greatly aided our top positions in Google.co.uk. However, over the last 12 months we have slipped right down page one and I wondered if the blog is still helping our site or if the emphasis/value has switched and Google is looking at a lot of other factors where we score badly? Colin
Content Development | | NileCruises0 -
Name Some Ecommerce Sites That NAIL Blogging
Have a few favorites but would like to get some other people's opinions on some ecommerce sites that are doing blogging RIGHT. Who is supporting their online marketing with an amazing blog? One of my favorites is Backcountry.com's The Goat (http://thegoat.backcountry.com/) Let me know!
Content Development | | GManSEO1 -
Best places to get pictures for blog posts?
Well I'm really sick of reading people questions saying "help my sites been affected by penguin" So I thought I would ask something about blogging, where is the best place to find and buy pictures for blog posts? I already use Wikimedia commons. But I'm interested websites that have a bigger range that aren't too pricey. What do you recommend?
Content Development | | charles10 -
How to get a blog into Technorati
Hi This again is probably a naive question, but here goes anyway. I've searched around a lot to find out how to use 'Technorati' with my companies blog posts, i.e.extend their reach. I have discovered, from lots of querying, that WordPress does an automatic RSS feed which 'Technorati' will automatically pick up on once it has been told of an update to the blog by WPs automated Ping. In a WP forum I found a discussion about the problems of getting your blog into 'Technorati'. http://wordpress.org/support/topic/tags-do-not-update-technorati/page/2?replies=52 In it basically it states that you blog post should be there. If it isn't it is due to errors in coding on an individualized theme. I ran a W3C validater suggested, that did pick up 90 errors for my 'home' blog page. The link even explains in practical terms how to correct the errors. However, the designer is not convinced this is the problem. As a novice I don’t know if this is the reason for definite. Does anyone have an opinion on this problem?
Content Development | | catherine-2793880 -
Blogging for an ecommerce site
Hi There, Where would you install the blog? mydomain.com/blog/ blog.mydomain.com mydomainblog.com regards
Content Development | | Jvalops0