Wed 23 Jul 2008
Are You A Considerate Link Love Blogger?
Blurb by Shaun Anderson (Hobo)
As of today I am going to be a lot more careful how I link to people. It’s a pet hate when you see somebody talking about you on a blog and not linking to you properly, or at all, just ask linkbait coach and pal Lyndon Antcliff.
I’m going to make an effort to make every link count.
So when I am linking to people, I am going to follow W3C recommendations stringently;
Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. Top Ten Accessibility Tips
I’m going to do people a favour and link to them in a way I think they might want, and hopefully people will remember me and do the same. Lyndon ranks for his name, so why bother linking his name? If I am looking to link to Andy at his niche marketing blog, Jeff at Toronto seo company Search Engine People, Paul at his seo company in Ayrshire, or DaveN at his search marketing agency I will be lending them a hand pro bono. It takes a second to look at a title tag and determine what someone wants to rank better for. A bit of decent co-citation for those guys too probably.
I’m a onsite seo – I think if your anchor text is accurate that’s a good thing.
On a granular level, the most valuable commodity on the net is ‘rich anchor text links’. Its ironic, because they are free to make. I’m going to use mine a) wisely, b) accurately and c) extensively. Anchor text make sites rank higher in Google, and make people money. They make jobs.
Are you a considerate link love blogger or webmaster?
- No, I link out messy – sue me.
- No I am a retard and only link internal to my own pages in an effort to boost my internal link power. I might say “Shaun at Hobo Web said this….” but the link will be to my internal page because I am a retard.
- No I work for the main-stream media and I don’t have a f&^*ing clue who you are, who I am or what f&^*ing day it is never mind what a f&^*ing anchor text link is. Oh, it’s the words that actually make a link a link…ah I got it. Who am I.
- Yes, I link to you with the terms……
nearly
Next time you link out throw a guy a f&^*ing bone. I will be.
Hat Tip to David at The SEO Company for his article How Good Is The Mainstream Media At Linking Out?
Takes a bit of time but better for the soul than reading a-list bloggers’ piss and moan hissy fits.
Did you know when you link to a Hobo SEO post we have search engine friendly links back to your site if approved? Our comments are also search engine friendly you know (once you've commented on a few posts)! Do you need any more encouragement to get involved in the conversation ;)
but don’t you feel that sometimes because we are seo’s you feel you need to link badly because of the powers that be in google may think it’s p/p or a client ..
DaveN
Sure it’s a concern. There may be the odd link in a post I have written going to a client, but generally speaking I don’t link to clients in articles I write on this blog and after the recent page rank massacre at the end of last year, I think I have removed all links to clients in articles although I encourage them to come to the blog and comment as this is a dofollow blog unlike yours
I have a clients and advertising agency blog on the site where I publish articles for clients but that section is nofollowed. And it’s a test bed at the moment to see if I can publish articles for clients on this relatively trusted blog while staying within webmaster guidelines. It’s not my fault if scapers scrape those links.
I’m fortunate in that we are 99% a seo company, not a link-building company. I don’t have that much to hide. I have never bought or sold a link for this blog or for client sites – not even Yahoo yet (for Hobo).
I watch I don’t link to just anybody on this blog. I don’t even mention our biggest clients anywhere on line. In my seo tips for instance I don’t focus on what you can do to fool Google, I try and show how anyone can get more out of Google long term, not screw it for a short time.
Our only clients are ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses with (when we’re done with them) better sites and a couple of IBLs. As far as I am trying to position the business is we’re helping Google. We’re not running any aggressive link campaigns at the moment as I just don’t want to get involved at that end.
Maybe I am being naive – but (especially after talking with Quadzilla at SEO Class) I think Google has bigger fish to fry than pulling me up for linking out CORRECTLY and DESCRIPTIVELY.
I would hope Google would view what we do as non disruptive. We’re trying to get quality sites to better positions in Google. If we were to get penalised, I’d be very disappointed and would immediately review my entire business plan.
Too naive?
I agree it shouldn’t but there is Google watching us all the time
DaveN
Isn’t it ridiculous that we have to worry about linking, I mean it’s not as if people have ever abused linking for personal gain. Er, ok so maybe it’s all our fault, lol.
But when a system says, “do this and you will make more money”, what’s a dude to do.
Mmmmm. I see the only people with a view here are the black hats lol.
Google wants to protect it’s index from spam and sites that don’t deserve to be in the top ten.
I’m OK with that and will gladly help out.
I won’t optimise a piece of garbage to get top ten rankings because what is the point of ranking on links alone (long term I mean) or do it so far above the raider it’s remiss of Google not to slap you about lol Lyndon.
When I link to sites I do so because they are quality in my opinion. I don’t link to sh*t I won’t vouch for in some way, so I aim to link out descriptively to maximise the benefit to EVERYBODY involved.
I am not a Google hater, and they don’t seem to have much against me either…. so far any ways. Maybe I am being, as I said, a bit naive – maybe not.
Is linking to a client bad? I don’t think so – depends on the cient site I suppose and the intent…. is linking to a page from every page on your site ie to a portfolio page, and then linking to a client manipulating PR, yup, so I wouldn’t do that now.