Hi all, I'm new to this forum and this is my first post. Pardon any faux paus I commit. I would like to think of myself as pretty well versed when it comes to on-site optimization and I read plenty of solid SEO blogs to know how off-site link building should be approached. Nevertheless, I don't consider myself a search engine optimizer and I find it difficult to speak from a position of authority in this matter. Having followed a bunch of SEO threads at this forum, I would like to ask the real experts some question regarding link building. An SEO firm that I'm currently working with is doing what I feel like is a very heavy-handed effort at link building. They submitted the site to thousands of directories (they even sent me the list) and then they submitted a re-purposed article to thousands of content sites (also along with a list). There have been a bunch of posts around the blogosphere regarding quality directories (be it based on "page strength" or just SEO favorites) - none of which appear on the list that was sent to me. The content sites they submitted the articles to are for the most part low quality as well. I'm almost 100% sure this was done by an automated tool (which ones do people use these days?). Am I correct in assuming that this is for the most part a worthless practice? I'm not too concerned about getting penalized for it (after all, as far as Google is concerned, a competitor could have submitted these links) -- but are there any benefits to this kind of link-building? Perhaps my stance on not being afraid of penalties from this kind of practice is ill-informed as well, would appreciate comments on that as well. The company website is old, they are established and they are one of the leaders in the field. However, years of SEO neglect, has relegated them to an inappropriately low position. I'm putting together a more modern link-building strategy for the SEO firm to follow, but first, I need to dismiss their current practice as being ineffective (and I need to able to confidently back it up). Your expertise is appreciated.
Hi there, Welcome to dp, About your question on Automated Link Building, you should know how to control your link building coz SE's specially G might penalize you for spamming them, for having past link popularity. Mostly, some SEO's used manual strategy, coz not all strategies by using automated tools or whatever are not capable for some SEO process on link building, but some automated tools are useful, it is depend on you actually. If you think automated can help you and benefits your link buildings go ahead. But if not you should start to use something different.
Why not ask them to build some proper links on the sites that you consider to be high quality. You sound like you know your niche prety well and you are in the best position to know which sites its best to get links from.