Does this link building actually work?
-
Doing a small SEO project for a local dermatologist and when reviewing competitor link profiles I found one site that was earning a TON of links from other doctors throughout the country.
From what I can tell, it looks like this web development company builds medical practice sites, then puts a page on each site that links to all other practices they created site for.
Does this actually work? What would the name of this be? Recipricol links? Link farm?
http://www.raleighsportsmed.com/ypo-showcase.php
Thanks!
Ricky
-
Does it work? Yeah, probably. For now.
Should it work? Probably not. I obviously haven't seen the sites, but if they're hosted on the same hosting account with the same IP address, then it wouldn't surprise me if this was eventually hit. And if it was reported, it definitely would not pass a manual review by the Google spam team IMO.
As others have said, it's super risky. Just a few weeks ago I didn't let someone join my platform to provide local SEO services specifically because they are doing this sort of thing as their main link acquisition tactic for their clients, and while it works right now it's definitely very grey hat and will stop working at some point. I've spoken with people who used to operate Personal Blog Networks like this, and they always get hit eventually.
I'd also hate to be the SEO brought in to clean this sort of thing up and get the clients that this company loses ranking again. Lots of small businesses sound like they'll be harmed because of this, unfortunately.
Hope that helps!
John
-
That SEO consultant or agency is buying all the tickets for a penalty.
Too old school, too early 2000's
-
Wouldn't you hate to be the SEO consultant who had all his clients penalized at the same time? Sheesh!
-
Oh man! That looks reaaalllly dangerous.
I am confident that this type of approach has been on the Google Spam Team's radar for at least a decade. I will be surprised if Google has not at least devalued these links, if they have not demoted some of the sites in the organic rankings - but I don't know what type of negative impact this would have in the local search results.
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
-
No-follow Links - Do they work for SEO?
Seems like some of the big sides only give no-follow links now are they still useful for building link authority? Do you have any experience? Thanks
Link Building | | seoman101 -
Would it be a valid "link building' strategy to pay youtube video owners, to link to our company website in the decription of a certain video. ( For popular video's that are relevant )
I was wondering if it would it be a valid "link building' strategy to pay / work out a deal with youtube video owners, to link to our company website in the decription of a certain video they posted? ( For popular video's that are relevant to our business. ) Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance! Steven
Link Building | | RockyMountainFlyboard0 -
How to link build?
Hello all. I've been having intense conversations with an experienced SEO, who has told me that the only way to get consistent links to your website, and to build you business through the web is through blogger outreach, and then paying the bloggers to put your appropriate content on their high Page Ranking website. To me, this may well be right. But it sounds dull as anything. Any thoughts? William
Link Building | | wseabrook0 -
DA vs PA when building links
When building links to your site from other sites, what is more important or what weights more heavily? Say a site has a DA of 20 and PA of 34 for that page I want a link from. Say another site has the revese, a DA of 34 and a PA of 20. All things being equal, which site's link to me would be better? The one with a higher DA or the one with a higher PA for the on the specific page I would get a link?
Link Building | | studio35design0 -
Drowning In a Sea of Link Building Advice
You can visit one SEO forum after the other and 50% of the folks will say 'do this' and the other half will say to do something else. It's always black hat vs white hat and then you still get the grey hat in between. So what does really work? Leon
Link Building | | leonfrancois0 -
Should I optimize/link build all my pages at once?
I'm currently starting to optimize about 30 area specific pages for a property maintenance company and was wondering, what's the best way to link build multiple pages at once? Should I link build for all of the 30 the pages at once, or maybe focus on 5 individual pages - get them ranking well, then focus on the next 5 and so on?
Link Building | | guy_andrews0 -
Supplementary outsourced link building
Can anyone recommend an outsourced link building service they have used with success in addition to their own higher effort link building? (I'm not talking about 1,000 automated directory link submission services.) Thanks.
Link Building | | WCR0