Google, Yahoo, and Ask have a much different take on link buying than do the SEMs. Chris Richardson of Murdok sat in on this Q&A at SES 2005.
Has the search engine position on link buying made you rethink that practice? How has link buying helped your firm? Tell us what works for you on WebProWorld.
Chris starts us off with his overview of the Search Engine Q&A On Links:
“This panel was devoted to a Q and A session around the concept of links and link building campaigns. What was interesting was this track, which had reps from Google, Yahoo and Ask, followed directly after (if you don’t include the break in between) the link buying session, which was featured speakers from the world of SEM. The differing opinions delivered by these separate parties was most interesting. The two worlds don’t necessarily see eye to eye to say the least.
“Another interesting segment from the Q and A concerned the admonishment of excessive inter-linking of sites (linking to sites you own). The search engine reps all advised against doing this, to which an audience member asked Tim Mayer of Yahoo why his company had a link to almost every property they owned on their index page.
“The response didn’t really clarify the situation in my mind… Tim mainly indicated it was because these properties were part of the same network, although I’m not sure how this is any different than a site owner linking to his stable of Internet properties…”
Kaushal Kurapati, Product Manager for Search Technology, Ask Jeeves, advised site owners to be cautious of reciprocal links. (Chris: The search engines never say why, though.) Kurapati says there is always a risk that the reciprocating site won’t return the link, or could even use the ‘nofollow’ attribute on it.
Kurapati further emphasized the need for site owners to focus on their business and content, and try to become as much of an authority as possible on their subject. Improve and refine that content, and use sitemaps on the site.
Yahoo’s Mayer discussed a new Yahoo property, siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com (doesn’t seem to be available at press time), a new SEO-related tool that shows which pages Yahoo has and hasn’t indexed. Yahoo prefers natural links, like most search engines do, as it wants to cut down on link spam.
Matt Cutts, Software Engineer with Google, went on to reemphasize the need for useful services and unique content as the best way to earn links. Cutts suggested implementing multiple sites like blogs, forums, and reviews as ways to earn links. Keep those sites updated by placing a new article or blog entry online once a day. Competitors will have a hard time matching your earned links with their bought links.
When asked why the engines don’t provide an accurate, comprehensive backlink check, no one could provide a clear answer on the topic. Mayer did say Yahoo’s new tool would be very comprehensive, but still not include every link.
Chris makes this observation:
“The engines have never given a satisfying response as to why they don’t show all the backlinks. When you consider they show all the results related to a keyword query, why won’t they show all the backlinks. What do they have to gain?
“The interesting thing about this session as opposed to the link buying session is the diametrically opposed views concerning buying links. the engines strongly suggest staying away from this practice and I would agree if you are buying a bulk amount, but buying a link from a noted leader in the field you target will not result in your site being punished.
“The SEM side of the fence recommends this practice and in fact, they consider it a good business strategy.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
