One of my sites is Myspace related Free Myspace Layouts I have also been running a topsite on the same domain http://www.getonmyspace.com/topsites/ which is/was getting a lot of backlinks to my domain. Until recently all is well I thought. But after the latest G update my site dropped from PR5 to 3 and the inner pages....some went from 4 to zero. I dont buy/sell links etc etc and I also notice the number of indexed pages and backlings on G has fallen dramatically. Do you guys think that the latest update has penalised me for the topsite by classing it as a link farm? Thanks MK
Myspace backlinks are no longer direct, they go through a proxy URL. This would cause a drop in PR and SERPs.
When I ran a top site it seemed to help my main site out a whole lot! And both moved up the search list.
Ok, i figured out what the top site thing is...smells alot like a link farm to me. I would get rid of that crap ASAP.
This has been going on for a long time.Other sites in the same niche have been left alone so I think this argument is only slightly,if not at all, valid. Mine too. But that is what I am now wondering with G's new algo etc.
I own a couple of topsites (as their own domains) and I participate in quite a few "relevant" topsites, and I've found that both are effective in bringing in traffic, in increasing backlinks, and helping my SERPs. Although the topsites themselves have only limited pages, some will argue that it provides other relevant sites in those topics. Subscribing to topsites is a free backlink, and only requires a tiny snippet of code. Plus it adds a bit more look and feel to your site, and offers visitors a place to look for other relevant sites. Ultimately, it's up to you what value you look to get out of a topsite. It's worked for me.