Hi -- I have a photography site (mysite.com) of PR 5 and a links.html page of PR4. I was approached by a Link Manager who wants me to put a link to competitorsite.com in exchange for mysite.com being listed in two paid directories: http://www.directorysquare.com/category/Arts/Photography.html and http://www.webdirectorysquare.com/136/Photography/ I don't really care about linking to competitorsite.com because we're in different markets. BUT... Will google get mad at me for participating in this? Will I get flagged as being in a link farm? Are those directories link farms? I am just concerned because I don't want to get my site banned or anything like that. I just got banned for a few weeks for spamming my alt tags and I'm rather scared about messing with anything right now.
From Wikipedia: On the World Wide Web, a link farm is any group of web pages that all hyperlink to every other page in the group. Although some link farms can be created by hand, most are created through automated programs and services. A link farm is a form of spamming the index of a search engine (sometimes called spamexing or spamdexing). Other link exchange systems are designed to allow individual websites to selectively exchange links with other relevant websites and are not considered a form of spamdexing.
Think about it like this. Why doesn't he just use the two directory links for his own site? Your own links page could be more valuable than what he's actually offering (two links in directory).
Yup. Most directories degenerate into meaningless link farms, so there is always the risk of your dir links depreciating over time. Tread carefully!
A link farm post large amount of unrelated links on their site. Link farm sites and the links that the site provides are pretty much useless and not worth adding links to. (aka FFA - Free for All). In other words linking to other unrelated sites.. to get more links...
im currently weeding out non-reciprocating links in my resource pages, and ive realised it's fun,. kinda like cleaning out your room or doing the laundry. those link farms have got to go.
Yeah, so what do you all think of this direcory square link directory i was mentioning? i am trying to get the web master to just have the site he's pimping link directly to me but he keeps saying now it's got to be a 3-way link with the two photogrpahy sites and the paid directory. ?? what can i do?? just go for it? or avoid it?
It wont make a difference if its 2 way or 3 way as Google have the means to determine who is linking to who. If it was me I would look carefully at the two exact pages where your site will be linked from and determine the quality. Looking them they do look good and for one thing the 2 directories are not full of crap links so I'll guess the owner is focused on running a quality directory. One thing that I do make sure on is that the site I'm linking too is 100% relevant to my own niche and will also be a benefit to my visitors. If you feel your outbound link to his site is relevant and will benefit your visitors I say go for it.
Not true. Visitors are always seeking information and links to click on, that's the nature of the internet.
That would be my definition also. There will usually not be an editorial process either: the links have not been checked by a human being on how interesting they are.
GOOGLE WILL HATE YOU that's the same as a paid link, sure today the google nazis may not come after you for this, but don't worry they will soon enough.