Creating profiles just to get a link is black hat?
-
Hi, i have a competitor that is creating profiles in sites that passes ranks in links and putting some links with good anchor text in the bio field. This can be considered a black hat seo? This competitor is getting good rank up with these pratices and i dont know if i can use these same sites too. link to profile: http://interact.webstandards.org/member/89166/ There are a lot of more sites with profiles with no content and just a link to the site. Thanks in advance, Denis
-
Can you link to the webinar you mentioned? I'll keep an open mind, but from everything I've experienced in the last five years, links that don't get clicked still work pretty darn well.
It would be hard for Google to track which links are getting clicked. In addition, the links boost the site's ranking and so they will gain traffic organically. (Maybe I misunderstood you)
I don't consider forum profile links to be spam or even grey hat when used appropriately. If you are using a tool like Dripfeed Blasts, then of course that's another story.
Much of grey hat SEO and a moderate portion of black hat is still in effect. I still see competitors from two years ago sporting a large number of links from terrible neighborhoods, and still ranking incredibly well. I've reported them countless times to no avail.
It almost seems like you have to get a competitor featured in a New York Times article for Google to do anything substantial.
Cheers.
-
I would say that this type of link building is more like a gray hat area. For me, everything that wasnt created naturally by some user and is abused, even in a low level, enters that area. Ex. Lots of blog commenting, fórum profile linkback, lots of directory submit, lots of bookmark, etc And, to be black hat i would say all the above but with automated programs + lots of proxys to massem all, creating a really big distortion from reality. (and, of course, some other methods)
-
It can definately help if you get links from high authority domains if its done in a non spammy way to a domain with some authority. If you blast out hundreds using automated software to a brand new domain, it's less likely to be effective.
-
As a note on forums, I've found Google does like these links, especially links in the signature that appear will all a user's posts. If that particular forum has strong trust and domain authority, this will surely impact a young site's rankings. To emphasize the importance of forums, Google even added a search option along side images, videos, shopping, etc. called discussions, where users can limit searches to forum posts and other discussion boards. Even SEomoz values forums, as we all get rewarded for posting and generating useful content.
-
I tend to agree with Steve. I think eventually the degree to which these profiles contribute to the quality of your site will depend on how well the account is utilized. Sooner or later (sooner) this will begin to reflect poorly on them.
-
I'm going to take a stab at this one and try to stay as unbiased as possible. First thing to consider here is if those sites hosting these profile pages have noteworthy domain authority. I'm not sure how many reputable sites really allow link juice to flow in profile pages as you mentioned, but if this is the case, then it's reasonable to assume this link will count as a followed linking root domain. This has, indeed, been noted as one of the most important factors in search ranking, but there are other forces at work that limit the benefit of this kind of inbound linking technique. I wouldn't call this black hat per se, put I wouldn't focus my efforts on chasing this competitor on these sites either.
Watch some webinars here and you'll learn that links that never get clicked aren't contributing a lot to your ranking or the linking site's domain authority. And a sudden massive increase in linking root domains without an increase in traffic raises red flags that someone is trying to manipulate the system, ie. engaging in black hat SEO activities. Also note that Google loves fresh content, so I'd rest easy knowing that these links will go stale at some point in the near future, especially with no good copy to entice visitors to click the link.
So instead of worrying about your competitors who are focused on short term rankings, write some good articles about your products and services and start getting the word out; build trust and extend your brand. There is so much more you can focus on that will get people to visit your site and spend money, which is the whole point of having your Internet business. So I would try not to worry about cheaters. Even if these competitors are ranking higher for the time being, I'm willing to bet they are probably not putting much energy into selling.
-
I didn't think profile links were worth so much anymore. Not from within forums, etc... anyway. I don't know if it's black hat but I wouldn't have thought it would be white hat either, bit of a grey area I guess. Unless of course it's done by spamming loads of profiles at random with software, rather than going for profiles that on sites that are relevant.
-
It shouldn't be. I just recommend not to over do them or over optimize them. Try to open relevant profiles from useful channels, such as Google profile, etc... Rand discuss great places to do this tactic on his last webinar Future of Link Building
Hope this helps.
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
-
How can a slight brochureware website with little content or keywords be getting DA 96, PA 59 and linking domains of 50.5million?
How can a Facebook page get domain authority of 96, page authority of 59 and have 50million linking domains? I come across websites that feature crappy video clips in serp features in google searches, the website.
Link Building | | DavidLandManager
It's surely black hat tactics. How do they get away with this? The website has zero content beyond light brochureware.
Screenshot 2021-07-23 at 06.59.45.png0 -
Link Building where link building is dead. Latest tactics in a land of content.
Hello, What is your latest link building techniques considering manual link building is basically dead, and you should really build good content to drive results. Link building has really become less important. It seems to be much more 10X content now. What would you recommend for basic link building considering this besides the 50 first Links video by Rand, which is excellent. Thanks, Bob
Link Building | | BobGW0 -
Relaunching a site that has had thousands of posts linking to the same 20 articles. How to properly setup internal linking?
I'm in the process of relaunching a music news site (www.prefixmag.com) that once did quite well in search (over a million monthly search visits in its prime). The site got crushed by Panda, etc. and we stopped updating it. I'm starting to do more research but one thing that I noticed was we have modules in the right rail (desktop) that are found on all of our article pages that point to the same posts. (Edit: Added attachment. The links in the right rail under Editor Picks, Features, News, Media, etc. are found on every page of the site). In other words, we have thousands of posts that all link to the same 20 or so articles. Should we not do this if we're not trying to emphasize these posts in Google? Assuming this is the case, what is the proper way to do internal linking? Do we simply setup a sitemap and link to it? I'm hoping to have the thousands of articles we've published over the years have a chance to rank in search again. Also, we have a number of posts that are thin in content should those pages not be submitted in the sitemap? Thanks in advance! 2KmX0
Link Building | | leggo0 -
Internal Link Building and Link Juice Quality
Hi There! I manage the website for a law office that covers many geographical locations. For very specific niche content, we would prefer to create one piece of content and link to the various geographic locations where we would handle that topic instead of posting multiple variations of the same content for each specific geographical area. If we put a button on these pages that has links to each location, will that have the same "link juice" effect to the pages we're linking that linking directly in the text would? (example: the Where can we help you? button on this page : http://www.zdfirm.com/volkswagen-recall/) Thank you!
Link Building | | ZDAdmin0 -
Why Links from Top Level Domains doesn't Pass Link Equity?
Hello, I have a doubt about Equity-Passing links report of OpensiteExplorer.org According to Sam Weber http://moz.com/community/users/432678 links which pass value from one page to another including followed 301 and Meta refresh links are under Equity-Passing links. I am surprising after looking at the links report generated by opensiteexplorer.org. Most of the article and directory links which have low DA and PA are under Equity-Passing links. Whereas websites like EzineArticle or Articlebase which have good DA and PA are not found in either Equity-passing links or under only nofollow category. Please suggest me if the report of Opensiteexplorer is not good enough or the links from the site like Ezine Article doesn’t pass the link equity. Thanks.
Link Building | | TopLeagueTechnologies0 -
Nasty links
Hi My first q on here (hoorah!), and it's about links (boo!). I've got what appears to be a handful (but worryingly, increasing in number) of links pointing to my site like this: http://condos.mrgulffront.com/florida-condos-for-sale/320-scenic-gulf-drive-miramar-beach-fl-32550-mls-567591/ I've made contact with the sites concerned, and had only one positive response who flatly denied all knowledge of it. The issue (as far as I can see) is that as in the above example the links (on the bottom right in the grey box) are forever changing so not always visible. Can anyone offer any guidance as to these kinds of nasty links.... I'm right at the v beginning on this "path of seo understanding" so please don't assume prior knowledge! Thanks in advance.... tom
Link Building | | T-J-I0 -
I want to design SEO link building strategy for my website? Is wordpress.com, squidoo, tumblr, blogger, typepad - Good option for link building?
I am currently concentrating on 8 keywords, for e.g (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H). I will be writing blogs with 2 of any related keywords present in it. I am thinking to post 5 blogs on 5 different platforms as (wordpress.com, Squidoo, Typepad, Tumblr, blogger) respectively. I am thinking a strategy as: Monday: Keyword A,B on Wordpress/ C,D on Squidoo/E,F on Typepad/G,H on Blogger/ A,C on Tumblr. Tuesday:C,D on Wordpress/E,F on Squidoo/ etc.... and will rotate these keywords through out the week and the cycle restarts on Monday. The URL for every keyword will be different and relevant to that keyword. I need quick suggestion on this topic..Please..
Link Building | | Christain0 -
Back Links
Hi there, I have been guest posting on blogs trying to build some back-links into my website, which so far is going not too bad, however I was wondering when writing these guest posts should I limit my post to let's say 2 back-links per guest post? If 2 back-links are going to different pages on my website, does the first back-links in the guest post have more value than the 2nd back-link? Kind Regards,
Link Building | | Paul780