Have anybody thought about "what if" one day the co-op stop operating (for whatever reason) and all the links/ads stop appearing on the other co-op sites. Where would your SERP in Google/Yahoo/MSN be? 1) Return to where it was before you join the co-op? 2) Stay about the same? 3) Lower than it was before joining the co-op? I would think it *should* return to where it was before joining the co-op. But.. hey, who knows what the SE's algo will do to your SERP when all of sudden all the links disappear.
ive stopped a few ads, and rankings did drop a little, but not nearly as much as I thought they would. I suspect that it takes a while for all the link effects to disappear. Being said, new ads I've created are far less effective than old ads. Almost as if google is filtering the links out these days (cuz they are buried at the bottom of most people's pages?)
"dropped a little" from the ranking before you joined the co-op? Yes, I've noticed that too. some of my new keyword, no matter how much weight I put on it. it doesn't seem to improve the rankings much any more? A few month ago, my ranking would improve from 100 to 10 in just a few days with only a little weight.
From my short experience of the COOP in MSN and Yahoo my ranking has jumped to first page, for a very new domain that was only launched in January 2005. If I took off the links to the site, then I would imagine that it would drop over time. Google is completely different though, who knows what goes on with that search engine anymore. I'm pretty sure that even SEO specialists are scratching their heads lately!
no dropped a little post coop. Still improved ranking from before I joined the coop. Glad iI wasn't the only one who was noticing that. I kinda think weight should include as part of the equation where the COOP is on the page. Higher up = higher weight, lower or on the bottom = lower weight.
This is why I use the co-op as temporary cast. I build back links for the keywords the co-op gets me ranked on. That way, I can take my site off the co-op and rotate to a new kw set. My analysis tell me what my back link needs are and I just go from their. This is how I would recommend using it to anyone. If you're using it as a permanent ranking solution, well, your not using it to its maximum benefit and short changing your sites. Plus, your future rankings are subject to adverse algorithm changes. Lose a spot, throw some weight in and take it back, then build some more back links. If you use the co-op in the maximum way, you really can't lose rankings for more than as long as it takes for a little "Weght" to be thrown at a kw. GOD you just can't beat the advantage it gives you. Cheers