Okay, so what is the distinction between "getting links" and "buying links"? I have a friend that was buying links like crazy. Within 3 weeks he was dropped from the Google index. As far as we could tell, that is the only thing that was changed for that particular web site. I am not saying that "buying links" was the 100% reason for the drop from the index, but it certainly was coincidental. Any words or wisdom on this?
IM not sure I agree, depending on your website the amount of back links could hurt your site could it not? IF you target a general audience (ages 1-100) then skies the limit. But if you and your website target a certain segment, ages: 40-50 with a household income of $100,000 would it not be better to limit the back links to websites only associated with your type of demographics. Let me know if my thinking is off base!
Buying PR8 and PR7 site-wides and pointing them all to the same page with the same anchor is the biggest mistake I see people making.
This is exactly what he did. So, based on that - I could knock a competitor out of the Google index very easily (given enough money) by buying up a bunch of PR8 and PR7 site-wide links pointing to the competitor. I would not have believed it a month ago, but now I do!
You can't be penalized for having site-wide links to your site. If you could then all I would have to do is link to my competitors from every page on my site and knock them out of the rankings.
Okay, not just one site, but this was 20-30 sites all PR7 and PR8 - several thousands of dollars. Within two-three weeks of getting the bulk of these links, his site was de-indexed from Google. So, based on what I saw - in a very competitive market - it could be worthwhile for a competitor to simulate the "buying links" pattern by buying up 20-30 site wide links pointing to the competitor until they are de-indexed from Google. By the way - he was getting about 50,000 hits from Google every day before being dropped from the Google index. I agree with you Web Gazelle - it shouldn't happen and 30 days ago I would not have thought it could happen, but this one has left me scratching my head...
No - no reciprocal links. This was a business man trying to advertise his site - he didn't have time for reciprocal links. A possible indicator seems to be a large number of PR7, PR8 and PR9 backlinks (sitewides) appearing to a website. BLAM - de-index. A polite email to Google has had no response from Google - not even an automated response. Perhaps they are looking into it. But, now you have me curious - you have seen instances of reciprical links causing de-indexing?
And what about the coop? With it I get about 20 links per day! And that number is only going to go up as I gain more weight.
I don't believe that he is telling you the whole story. I will stake my reputation (which isn't much 'round these parts) that you cannot be banned/dropped from G for having links point to your site. Search engines aren't out to get people, they are out to return the best results. Like everyone knows, if you could get a site banned by buying 100 PR9's in one day, then everyone could get together and get any site banned...heck, why not get G banned from it's own search engine...it is backwards thinking.
I agree - it seems crazy. I am thinking of doing an experiment to see if I can get a site de-indexed. Anyone have a PR6 site they don't want anymore?
You can get banned for what is being talked about here.. 20-30 site-wides PR8, and PR7, all pointing to the home page with the same anchor.. this will get you banned.. Now, no one will actually spend the several 1,000 dollars required to do this, and point it at a competitor. This would never happen. Plus the guy will probably get taken to court by the competitor.. so you loose money on the links, and get a legal battle on your hands. The likelihood is very low.. so Google can continue banning people for this.
And what would the competitor say in their complaint against me? Spending thousands of dollars advertising their web site?? No logic here - either Google bans sites for this or they do not. I agree with you - spdude - in regards to Google banning web sites that purchase PR.
I have seen where linking to blackhat sites has hurt you. So doing sitewide links to blackhats should hurt you too.
Spending thousands of dollars to hurt their website.. and remove 80% of traffic from it by deindexing it from Google. Case or no case, you'd have to defend yourself. If someone was to go out of their way, and I actually do this to a competitor, that site would get banned IMO.
The semantics’ on killing competetor sites is a mute point! All is fair in love and war. Do we not everyday try to rank our competitor below us on google, msn, yahoo and others? Is not the point of seo to out rank another weather or not our site is the best. You either can 1. Play fair and provide a better service and succeed 2. Build a better website 3. Reevaluate what your doing wrong 4. Or play dirty and spend lots of sleepless nights lying awake riddled with guilt
If it is possible to do then you know people are going to try it. There are lots of unethical people out there who let money make all the choices for them.