SEO Isn’t a “Fair” Game – Get Over It!

And as you seem to know your stuff, may I ask if a homepage link actually means “Effectively you are boosting your own websites SEO efforts at a detriment to your clients.”

If so, could you explain (or point me to an article which explains) how this is?

Thanks.

I disagree with the premise. however:

the comment by another poster (not mine) that you are quoting is not an seo-based detriment. These inbound links are earned and legitimate. I think the person may have meant that the detriment is “value” being given to the link target, without a full realization of the value. Others might argue the link is free advertising on a site that was paid for, so why does the developer/designer also get a link? Lastly, the issue of level of professionalism (seems only small businesses and small shops engage in this practice, though it is a common practice).

The other thing to note is that while this practice may or may not have SEO value, is not to say that it never had any value — IT DID — but no longer does, AND the links definitely have value as a way of building awareness and driving traffic, search engines or not.

Dawn, I think you are hung up on the “honest” thing. Why do you care so fervently about this topic? please share!

I was merely answering the question what are honest ways… I even put quotations around “honest” because I question the the premise in this discussion of honest and dishonest.

in an earlier comment I replied that this kind of footer linking no longer has much if any seo value anymore, but it has awareness and traffic value, where both parties agree to it it has no detriment, and it is an seo legacy best practice that once did work which some may not want to stop doing.

You said: “monthly fees seem excessive if they are not doing any buying/begging for links – which is work, if a little underhand”

any fees for any services need to undergo the rigor of cost-benefit analysis. If there is no return on investment then I don't know why anyone would pay. Some companies have different economies of scale, production, marketing, efficiencies, etc., that enable them to offer a better price, a higher quality product, faster and cheaper shipping, etc. These companies might be able to spend more and still realize a positive return on investment. This is — and always has been — an inherent NON-level playing field in the world of business. It is inherent in life itself.

furthermore, sometimes you may find yourself too busy to do everything you need to do in life and need to delegate; not that you couldn't do it if you had to, but someone else might be able to do it better, or you might simply not have the time.

Sure, you could find an article online that tells you that a leaky faucet might simply need to have a washer replaced. You can follow instructions, take apart your faucet, go to the hardware store, purchase the right washer, install it, clean up, put away your tools (assuming you have the tools of course, can get to the hardware store, can find the how to article online, and have confidence you can do, and aren't afraid of flooding your house by touching the plumbing). MOST people just call in someone else to do it for them, like a plumber, handy friend/neighbor, or landlord/super. It is called delegation.

If there is a positive cost-benefit to delegating link building, then why in the world would anyone not hire someone to do it for them so they can spend their time and energy doing what only they can do, and maximizing the return on their own unique contribution to society. It doesn't seem to me to be the highest and best use of a people's time “doing everything themselves” just because they can.

You said: when you back-link check on sites that are doing better than you and they have lots of unnatural links, do you not feel this is an un-level playing field or part of the game?

This question makes me chuckle. I am mostly concerned with steady and consistent measurable performance improvement. That is the focus of any campaign I work on whether link building, on-page seo, paid search, social media, etc. What the competitors are doing or not doing, is not a major consideration.

That said, competitive information is useful as a) benchmarking, and b) “lighting the path (getting tactical ideas).

I use it to gauge the “opportunity” potential. for example, if none of the client's competitors is ranking in the top 5 for a major keyword, and all I see are huge, established publishers like wikipedia, about.com, and other information sites, I set expectations that the campaign will not move the site into a top 5 ranking because that is unlikely to ever happen. Conversely, if I see a direct competitor in the 4th position, I think it is possible for this kind of a site with this kind of information/service/product/offering to be able to achieve a #4 ranking, and I begin to analyze the site's on-page and off-page seo to determine the site's seo strengths and weaknesses, to inform my campaign's strategy to attempt to get into #5, if not eventually overtake the direct competitor by usurping them in #4 or higher position. Looking at competitors sites in this way is what I call “lighting the path.” You see this all the time in business with #2 companies following #1 companies, for example in electronics, pharmaceuticals, technology, and even in the packaged goods industries.

The problem with competitive research is that doing what they do will inherently only ever put you 2nd to them. In link building I call these “me too links” — once you evaluate the competitors links and discover which ones actually add any value, you try to get as many of them yourself so you can even the playing field a little bit. But you also need to get some unique links they don't have if you ever hope to be seen as “more” than them algorithmically speaking.

What competitive information is not, is an ideal to become, or match. When you were a kid, did you ever see a friend get dropped off in a fancier car than yours, or wear an item of clothing you coveted, or have prettier hair, or hit a ball harder, or run faster, or have more friends, or get better grades? If you spent your life trying to be this person, you would lose out becoming yourself, you'd never actually accomplish your goal, and you'd be miserable. And the sad truth is that this other kid may have the fancier car, clothes you covet, or more friends, etc., but they may be no happier than you are, and likely jealous of someone else.

Most of the time, competitive back-link analysis for my clients yields very little because no one is doing much, or it yields and over-abundance of link spamming, which is also not very useful because I am not seeking link spam. With every major update to google's algorithm in past years, the sites hit the worst are the ones with long lists of link spam. If I ever got a client with a long list of link spam I would first advise them of the long-term risk (they are sitting on a time bomb that may or may not ever blow up, but if it does they will lose nearly all their organic traffic), and spend my link building efforts trying to UNDO the link spam. Knowing the risk of link spam, I don't worry about it too much when I come across it in competitive research because it simply means that in the long term, my client has a better chance of outranking them when their time-bomb goes off.

you use the term “unnatural links” and that would require some clarification/definition.

If you mean link spam, then as mentioned above, I don't worry about it. If you mean that the client has spent time to get listed in legitimate directories, get reviewed by legitimate bloggers/reviewers, gets added to “best of” lists, etc., then “unnatural” becomes a semantics game. 100% pure natural links are ones that happen on their own, when someone discovers your site, and you do nothing to ask for the link, or even to make them aware of your site. Being in SEO for over 10 years, I used to believe this was the only REAL way to get VALUABLE links for the kinds of clients I work with (when I would make link requests I would be asked for incredible amounts of money by early web pioneers wanting to cash in on the free money of the late 90s internet environment. This put a bad taste in my mouth and left me ignoring this important part of seo for a long time until my friend eric ward got me into again, taught me what he knows, and we collaborated).

The trick in making link requests is simply to find sites that seem to link out naturally, but may have overlooked your site in their list, or when they made the list your site did not exist and the list is out of date, or any number of reasons, but the fact remains there are tons of webpages out there with collections of websites around a specific topic that may or may not include yours. A little public relations effort, writing them a note, letting them know about your site, asking them to include your site in their list, etc., is simply adding a little elbow grease to get things moving faster and better than before — as they say, squeaky wheel gets the grease. Big brands promote awareness through tv, print, banners, paid search etc., and get their products mentioned in the news via public relations, and included in tv shows with product placement etc. Is that “dishonest” or “unnatural” — well, the product placement and news pieces you could argue “YES” but you could also argue that tv shows need props and money so there is a practical reciprocal relationship there, and that journalists are being helped by PR by having a constant source of interesting possible article topics brought to their attention (which is easier than having to figure out what to write about and then go research and write, all with a tight tight deadline).

So, you can talk about unfair, uneven playing field, unnatural links, etc., all you want, but business is business, and its going on all around you. if it makes you mad, rather than inspires you, and gets you frustrated rather than better, then you need a new line of work, or a good therapist.

“I think the person may have meant that the detriment is “value” being given to the link target, without a full realization of the value. Others might argue the link is free advertising on a site that was paid for, so why does the developer/designer also get a link?”

Can you qualify this “value”. Do you just mean the advertising value of it in people seeing the advert and clicking through or anything else?

I work with small businesses, so an advert is useful to me as I do find that people ask for work after liking sites that I've built in their field.

I suspect large companies simply aren't going to work like this (they'd instead get a pitch from many large agencies), so there is no point in advertising in this manner.

To be honest, I've never had a client who wouldn't tell you if they didn't want a link on their site. People generally do want every detail of their site to be perfect, so if they don't want a small ad, then they do say.

We specialize delivering expert search engine marketing and customized social media solution. SEO Greeks are able to setup a tailored social media strategy that can help you engage with your customers on a personal level while increasing your site traffic and sales revenue through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more. Read more: http://seogeeks.co.uk/