What is the danger in offering giveaways in exchange for links?
-
In this Whiteboard Friday video, Rand says there is a danger in offering products for blogs to give away, simply requesting a link to your product or website in exchange for the giveaway. Could someone elaborate on what the danger is?
Is this also the case with offering products for review?
-
The answer is - it is risky ground. Some say it is good marketing, but there are examples of this backfiring - so the best advice is to be aware of the risks and tread lightly. Technically when you really look at it - it is good marketing, but it is also an alternative to paying cash, and Google doesn't like this type of link building
Giveaways and even offering a discount in exchange for a link can land you in hot water. Take the whole Overstock penalty for example, they were getting links on EDU sites by offering discounts to students and faculty. Good marketing or shady link building? Debatable. Would they have gotten caught if they weren't such a big name? Who knows...
To be on the safe side, my recommendation is to host a giveaway, but make no mention of "linking back" to your site. You can probably say "please share this contest with your friends and family" but "sharing" isn't necessarily asking for a link. Any links obtained out of interest in the contest are earned through good marketing/content.
Edited to add:
You also have to consider FTC disclosures when giving away any product for a review.
Also, I can't find it right now, I will continue looking, but I think remember reading something from Matt stating that if you are giving away a product you have to ask them to no-follow any links.
-
In my situation I am doing this for introducing my brand. I give them a product to review and I have a giveaway / prize every month. The link will always stay but may be to same or different page of my site. I also want to do it for many sites.
I appreciate to hear from SEOmoz staff also
Thank you for your response
-
They get the giveaway and then remove the link!
-
This was my question yesterday and I got completely
different answer!!?? I wish we would get more response. I understand both sides of arguments.http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-it-a-good-idea-to-participate-in-review-giveaway-bloggers
-
It can constitute a link scheme. When a search engine finds out, they could determine that the links you've received aren't legitimate and may subject you and the sites linking to you to a penalty.
It also technically counts as buying a link. You are essentially trading something that has value for a link to your site. Absent following one of these suggestions you run the risk of being flagged for buying links.
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
-
If I disavow bad links on "disavow link webmaster" will they still show up on my moz reports?
We recently found out we have a lot of bad links linking back to our website from spam sites, I disavowed them through the google disavow link webmaster. On my moz report it still shows the links, is that normal?
Link Building | | Ryan.Cruz0 -
Outgoing links
Hi Guy's, We have a website with no outgoing links (only Facebook). Is this a good way to score better in the SERPS? Or is it better to have some outgoing "relevant" links for a natural linkjuice? Thanks!
Link Building | | Happy-SEO1 -
External Followed Links
Hello all, I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have been inputting links for a few months on various different sites but it doesn't seem to be generating links on Open Site Explorer. Does anyone know a reason for this? Thanks in advance, Beth
Link Building | | cmuknbb0 -
Does This Link Have Value?
Hi Mozzers, A client paid to publish a white paper, thinking that the link to the web site is beneficial. The link does redirect back to the web site, but is in a format that I've never seen: http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001YdyyLrzOQJxM87SJZkJYVbQKSdCmFpwqg1fuX3yqVqpGboUjdSaHv9IdW5HsQpgmvwOrg5N4T3DNHYV8e1UVe_YCua_XQCFykoSJvu1HzDyb-3x-aFcPU-ER-vwWxq4- Does this link have any value?
Link Building | | waynekolenchuk0 -
Inbound Links By Date
Hi, Trying to discover some link building opportunities Is there any way to use the moz pro tools to get a list of a competitors inbound links based on the date they were discovered?
Link Building | | tvfoodmaps0 -
Websites where you can offer a service in exchange for a blogger reviewing it
Are there sites aside from blog link up where you can offer a free service to a blogger in exchange for a blog entry reviewing the service?
Link Building | | ilyaelbert0 -
Using an SEO Agency to build one-way links for you via link exchange
There are a number of SEO agencies which offer link building as part of their SEO offerings. I believe they build one-way links to the client site, by offering another link in exchange to the liking site. So, if the client site is "C", and link is being requested from site "A", the site "A" owner is offered a link from site "B" in return. Is this a good and/or recommended practice?
Link Building | | thinkvidya0 -
How long until links kick in?
Hey, We just got a bunch of great links on sites like TechCrunch and similar, but our SERP rankings and related remained unaffected. How long does it generally take for such links to "kick in" and help the website?
Link Building | | Malarowski0