Link Farms

[bigdaddy1]

Hi all, my first post. My website was ranked on the 1st page of Google a few months ago, on the first few pages on Yahoo and MSN up until a few days ago. Suddenly, my website can not be found in the search engine rankings. I've been exchanging links, I think a few of them may have been link farms and therefore I am removing them off my site. I've done no major redesigning or programming to my website recently except for adding some content. Trying to figure out what the heck happened?

Thanks for your time.

[2by4]

You figured it out, link farms are very bad ideas, and can trigger massive drops. Check the google forums for more information, although the Jagger threads are absolutely packed with useless posts, you'll find this issue mentioned here and there.

Basically, unless you really, really, know what you are doing, if you try to improve your site's search engine position artificially, especially in google, your site is very likely to go down in the next major update.

[bigdaddy1]

Thanks and how do I know if a site is a "Link Farm"?

[bigdaddy1]

One more thing, I belong to many forums and put URL in my signature, can this affect the rankings? One more thing again, when does Google or other major search engines do this "major update" you talk about? I thought Google did theirs every night early in the morning?

[stapel]

bigdaddy1 said:

...how do I know if a site is a "Link Farm"?

If it contains long lists of links, possibly utterly unrelated, and nothing (or almost nothing) else; if the entire point of the site is "lookit all them there links!"; if you paid $49.95 to get listed... It's probably a link farm.

Eliz.

[bigdaddy1]

Ok, is this a link farm, I have these guys at the bottom of my pages, it's a link exchange banner program:

www.someexamplesite.com

which redirects to:

www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/hub.mspx

So is Microsoft involved? I'm so confused.

[edited by: trillianjedi at 10:36 am (utc) on Nov. 3, 2005]

[Marcia]

Hey guess what! The 302 thing with Google isn't fixed.

HTTP/1.1·302·Object·moved(CR)(LF)
Server:·Microsoft-IIS/5.0(CR)(LF)
Date:·Thu,·03·Nov·2005·01:11:31·GMT(CR)(LF)
X-Powered-By:·ASP.NET(CR)(LF)
Connection:·close(CR)(LF)
Location:·http://www.bcentral.com/default.asp?LID=28(CR)(LF)
Content-Length:·121(CR)(LF)
Content-Type:·text/html(CR)(LF)
Set-Cookie:·ASPSESSIONIDCSBCCSQT=FCHCHEJAKCCPHPFJINEBBEAE;·path=/(CR)(LF)
Cache-control:·private(CR)(LF)

So their URLs are listed at Google, but what's showing is the Microsoft titles and descriptions for all the categories they're redirecting to. SNEAKY! :)

Added:

BTW, are you by any chances listed in the bcentral directory?

[bigdaddy1]

Yes I'm with BCentral which I just found out is affiliated with Link Exchange (talked to MS for 40 minutes).

I don't quite understand your 302 reference and "sneaky" reference?

[Leosghost]

Hey guess what! The 302 thing with Google isn't fixed.

C'mon Marcia ..are you surprised? ..Just because their PR dept and it's blogger and a wannabee teeshirt wearer here said it would be fixed ..did that mean it would be fixed ..could've been ..but what would the result have done for "G" ..squat ..

so they saved the CPU time for some other stuff ..

the "dials" could have been turned to "clean up" ..nearly were ..and then the suits got in the driving seat and we are more or less looking at the "dials" of 2 years ago.

and what was the reason for 2 years ago ...

they are still asking for spam reports for hidden text ..FCS ..they are taking the p*ss! and some are beleiving that you cannot automate finding hidden text and one pixel gifs ...

[Marcia]

The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .EDU domains and
Registrars.

Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Registrant:
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
US

Domain name: LINKEXCHANGE.COM

[ldylion214]

I had a similae situation. My site was listed as #1 in native american jewelry for over one year. It fell off too. It's because of Jagger 3. I had no idea what this was until I freaked out over my listing. Now my keywords are getting back on track as Google finishes it up, but just as a safeguard I'm redoing my links pages too.
Nicci

[bigdaddy1]

What is Jagger 3?

[marketingweb]

Jagger 1, Jagger 2 and Jagger 3 are the 3 major algorythm updates Google's doing right now. There are smaller updates around every month.

Big Daddy, it looks like you really need to read up on some basic SEO issues. I'm just wondering how you suceeded to get your website into the top position a few months ago?..

[bigdaddy1]

Well I know about content and link exchanges/relativity. I have just started reading up on SEO. So this Jagger 3 update has impacts on rankings? How come my competitors remain exactly with the same ranking? BTW, thank you all for your time.

[ldylion214]

BigDaddy,
It hasn't affected everyone. I actually am clueless who, where and why it's affected those it has. When I found my listing had dropped drastically, I started reading and found the Jagger stuff. The one thing it has done is make me not want to be so dependent on Google. Nicci