How to Explain The Danger of Link Networks

[waynekolenchuk]

A client of mine has been approached by a company that sets up one-off private link networks like this:

Main site: http://www.klausparking.com/

Network sites:

http://www.carparkingtechnology.com/
http://www.carparkingsystem.com/
http://www.victoriaparking.net/
http://www.reginaparking.com/
http://www.torontoparking.net/
http://www.multicarparkingsystem.com/
http://www.carparkingsolutions.com/

The company doing this actually promotes this as a patent-pending feature they call "silos". How do I explain the real danger to my client?

[DennisSeymour]

ouch that's going to be hard unless the client is really open to talking to you and actually wants to trust you.

They usually are guaranteed something when it comes to "services" like that vs traditional seo where you offer audits, "long term", "outreach" and words that tell them that it's going to **"take time" **

What I would do is just tell them that it is their decision if they want to go with them and you as a friend, would like to ask him to check out these (then name articles about it penguin or penalties)

Ask them if they are willing to change their domain in the future once they get dropped by google.

And if their site gets destroyed by google, then they will have to pay you 4 times the amount to help them recover which isn't always guaranteed.

Worked for me, should work for you.

[Carson-Ward]

Link networks have been slammed time and time again. Here's one I wrote specifically about one of the larger private blog networks:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/unnatural-link-warnings-blog-networks-advice

The problem with these sites is the either don't have any link equity - and thus their links count for nothing - or they get link equity from spammy sites. It only takes one site to get the entire web of sites caught. Google might move slowly on link spam, but they have shown they take strong and unforgiving action, as witnessed by Penguin and similar updates.

Just think about the opportunity cost of using these link networks rather than pursuing a legitimate means of promotion. If you get caught, all your work is gone. Worse, you're in a far worse position than when you started.

I have personally been approached by large brands using link networks who were then penalized. One online company people know came to us having invested heavily into link networks. They lost all that work, they were losing hundreds of thousands each week in sales due to penalty, and it cost them tens of thousands to fix.

I would only try link networks for brand new sites in certain highly-competitive industries  - casinos, adult, etc. For anyone else, it's not worth the risk and opportunity cost.

[jake372]

Wayne,

I am a small business owner.  I have done my own SEO, hired consultants, and worked with SEO firms - the whole gamut.  I have a lot of personal experience in this area and bottom line it just isn't worth the resources involved, mainly the money, in my opinion.

I can guess who this company is based on what you said at the end...sort of rings a bell.

Any gains that are made will be short term and typically won't last.  Google WILL eventually sniff these sites out.  No matter how crafty they are, not matter what they tell you, Google will find it and a) deindex the site or 2) devalue the link from the site.  The footprint and/or quality and content will get you.  In your examples, almost all these sites are set up the exact same way.  Google can smell that a mile away.

I have done this myself as well as paid different companies to do it for me.  I have gone through hurdles (and I guarantee you more than they company they are paying will do) to ensure I have virtually zero footprint and to keep good content.  I have over 70 now and very few are worthwhile.

At the end of the day, to continue to be worthwhile these sites will need QUALITY content.  The amount of content and effort it will take for these sites to provide any sort of SEO boost for them would be better served on their own site's content, viral marketing, social signals, etc.

I am not trying to be pessimistic or paint too broad of a brush stroke but think of it this way.  In the above example there are 7 network sites.  The cost will really start piling up.  Registration fees, hosting, the content (and it won't be quality all the time) and the ongoing cost to maintain these sites get big. So your client has piled all this money into a short term solution that can literally be snatched away overnight.

Spend the money on substance, quality of quantity.  I am sitting on 70 worthless sites that I have spend thousands on.

[ollan]

It sounds like you are talking about "doorway pages". This practice can get their website penalized, or even de-indexed from Google’s search results.

You can send them to this link on Google Webmaster Central, which explains it all:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2721311