So what's your question? This worries me: http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=serial+killer+london The coop is not built just to show links. The links are mostly on perfectly fine websites with useful content, built out of interest or for profit.
It depends on how you read it. The Coop is, just like AdSense, an automated technique to distribute your ads accross thousands of content partners' websites. Unlike AdSense, the coop doesn't use redirect links so a positive side-effect of it is that it turns out to benefit ranking.
Because you are misinterpreting the definition of a link farm. A link farm is a site or a network of sites set up merely for the purposes of linking and care little about content. The Coop Network is a way to advertise on 1000s of real sites with real content and real products or services. That is why the links go through an approval process.
In all honsesty pretty much SEO is a link scheme so If you want to follow the guidelines to the letter just give up seo just build a site and wait and see what happens
Well said. If we built sites and hoped for others to add links to them, we'd be waiting for a long, long time in most cases. Especially for commerical or business related sites. They just don't draw the natural linking like fun or informative websites do.
Ferrett's right. SEO pretty much equals manipulating the SERPs. Before SEOing you're #100. Change site, manipulate rankings and voila, you're now #5. We happen to know how the algo works (some better than others) and use that to our advantage. Nothing black-hat going on though. It's not like we're spamming the SE's with crap results.
The real issue is whether or not google or any othersearch engine could detect the coop network. I am not a programmer but am certain they could not, although I am sure they would like to.
How long has this network been online? My guess is longer than the last update. Come on you guys, don't you think if G had issue with this it would have been red flagged by now? I agree with most of the seasoned veterans on this forum...it's advertising...end of story. (until we all get banned ;-))
Google is not a democracy, it’s a dictatorship. It does whatever it wants whenever it wants. You can call the co-op as a “advertising†or any other nice names if you want. If Google doesn’t see it that way (ie. If Google sees co-op as another SERP manipulating tool), will Google punish us for it? I think that is the question of the original poster.
I don't think the original poster posed a question. I think the original poster is just trying to stir the pot.
The cat and mouse will always exist. To me G has developed a general reputation of being just and fair. I stick to my thinking on this 'advertising' program as long as the DP guys keep it clean. The internet is all links....some of us choose to engineer our links. What's dishonest about that?
Google can punish you for anything. If you are that paranoid then don't use the Coop network, Don't Get links, Don't increase or optimize your keyword density and meta tags, basically don't do anything. Its stupid to debate if they COULD penalize sites. Of course they can, but it is unlikely in this case.
We all openly admit that we exchange links to boost our SERP's. That is a fact. Most of us have link exchange pages. If we exchange links for the sole purpose of boosting our SERP's then that is against Googles rules. They have done nothing about it. I don't see this as a problem.
So a site sells text ads on it's pages, all internet ads are link ads, the co-op is just a barter of advertising instead of a cash sale. Adwords and Adsense are link advertisements and so are all banners. Has Google outlawed sites that run advertisements if they are bartered for or sold for cash? It seems that members have a hard time understanding this issue for some reason
The original poster had a valid point, and was spot on. I really wish people would stop deluding themselves. The coop *is* a technique to improve rankings by creating thousands of BL's. It's that simple. It's precisely what G's statement identifies, and I think it's about time ppl stopped wrapping the facts up in cotton wool. The simple facts are - if G wanted to penalise the coop they couldn't. So there's no real way to know what their views are without writing to them. At the end of the day, the only way they could implement some sort of penalty is by penalizing the sites to which the ads point. It's unlikely they'll do that because anyone can point an ad ad any site they like. The actual sites generating the weight are not exposed, so thee's no way to directly penalize them. The logic works, but of course, G is as G does. Cheers, JL
OK John, if I put the co-op ads on a 5 page website, how many links am I going to get back? Let's say each page has a PR4