I used to show up #1 in google for the name of my site: Horizon Archives. This happens to be the anchor text for my coop ad. The dp google keyword tracker says I have hundreds of backlinks. This number shot skyward after joining the ad-network. But now suddenly I don't show up at all for the search of horizon archives. What? I figured my positions would generally improve. My other terms are ranking just fine. My only guess is that the temporary nature of the co-op ads is hurting me. Anyone else notice this problem?
I'm not sure what might have caused that drop, but you'd probably benefit more by focusing your keywords on terms more relavant to your site -- and not your site name. Especially considering you're already (or were) #1 for your site name, why spend your coop power there? If ESPN is out looking for traffic, they'll be looking to drive traffic searching for sports, racing, baseball, etc. -- not people searching 'espn', ya know?
I totally agree. however, if Google is punishing temp links... maybe I don't want to spoil my 'good' keywords? Hmm. Hopefully it's just a temporary drop and I'll return soon. I wonder if because my phrase is rather uncommon... the sites that are showing my ads are getting a boost because they have my anchor text on their site. And I've heard that Google is sandboxing temp links. So maybe I'm not getting a boost for the link, but THEY are getting a boost because of my anchor text!
I don't think Google is or it is going to be penalizing temporary links. One not so good example is AdSense itself... one good example is people that buy advertisement, banners in other sites. Thats totally legal and Google should not penalize that. It is a natural thing on the internet. Focusing in the Coop Network one thing that I really like about it is that there is no way for google to see that the ads are from the coop. There is no Javascript, no special tags.... In my opinion this should not be a concern.
I was searching around for research on temporary links and I really appreciate your insight on this subject. I agree, temporary links are a natural and regularly occurs on the web every hour.