PR not important to guestbook and ffa posters.

Perhaps not everyone cares about Google PR.

[Cinciguy]

Hello everyone, I’ve been reading the discussions in the past. In particular, the discussions that had to do with posting a URL to a guestbook. It seems there are a lot of people that have posted their site to guestbooks. I’m not talking about a few here and there; I’m talking about the ones that somehow automated it. From a Google perspective, it may or may not be a good idea, correct? I believe it was determined that it may not help ranking, but may not hurt it either; perhaps in fear of a competitors site being abused in this fashion. Of course, the same could probably be said for FFA sites and the like. My guess is that these particular webmasters really don’t really mind where they rank with Google. Perhaps they just want a lot of visitors in hopes that their site will ‘sell itself’. I generally associate FFA and guestbook spamming with sites that have one goal, and that’s to sell a product one time per person. If they post their site to, say 100 guestbooks, there’s a good chance that at least 100 people will visit. Of those 100, a site that looks ‘convincing’ may generate a lot of income; and Google had nothing to do with it. If anything, there may be more traffic than there could have ever been with Google; just for the simple fact that it can take months to build a halfway decent ranking.

Please don’t misunderstand this post; I love Google and everything it offers. As a matter of fact, it’s my personal favorite and used more often than any other. My point is that many others may not really care. They may be after a quick sale and expect nothing further. They may not care if the buyer returns; they’ve made their money. Forgive me if this post was out of topic, and inform me of such to prevent further interruptions. Thanks for listening to my two cents!

[mrguy]

That said!

If a webmaster really does not care about a Google SERP, then there is really no reason not to post away! It probably will generate untargeted traffic to your site.

Although, with the weight Google carries in terms of daily searches, I don't see how a Webmaster could not care! A well placed site can generate a lot of very targeted traffic which typically converts a lot better than untargeted traffic.

If you do care about a Google SERP, then I suggest you think twice about mass guestbook posting as I have recently seen a site that was very heavy in Guestbook postings drop their PR by 4 points and fall from some top spots.

[korkus2000]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Cinciguy,

IMHO Most FFAs make their money not from any traffic they receive, but from harvesting emails from webmasters. You won't get very much traffic from FFAs because of the amount of links. Plus nobody really goes there except for webmasters looking to add a link. Guestbooks are quickly being eliminated of PR by Google. You can still find some that do have PR, but they are working to remove those. What kind of traffic would you expect from a guestbook? It would be highly untargeted and are almost a waste of bandwidth.

People adding links to FFAs and Guestbooks are either building PR with little none places that still do have PR or they just don't know any better.

[WebGuerrilla]

Cinciguy,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld

I would agree that there probably is a chunk of gustbook signers who don't understand or care about PR. However, those are not the people running automated signing programs.

In the big picture, it is one of those activities that probably won't help or hurt. The sites that get banned for what appears to be guestbook abuse, almost always have some other type of content on their site that Google considers a violation of their guidelines. Sites with thousands of guestbook entries aren't going to get banned based on that info alone.

If they did that, I'd have a program running against some evil competitors as we speak.

[Cinciguy]

Good point about the targeting. A SERP is *generally* targeting a specific audience while FFA and guestbooks do not. As for FFA, I agree it's most likely not in a webmasters best interest. Probably the most value would be in owning an FFA and taking advantage of those who do believe in them. At least that way, you could have an auto responder sell your product/service for you. In all seriousness, I have decided to purchase a 'test' domain name or two, and run some PR testing. I know the Google PR system changes at times, so results wouldn't be very helpful. At most, I may learn more about how the Google guys plan their results. By the way, I was told that Google had a cartoon on their site that changes each day? Rumor? Thanks!

[rfgdxm1]

>If a webmaster really does not care about a Google SERP, then there is really no reason not to post away! It probably will generate untargeted traffic to your site.

Unadulterated rubbish. You obviously know zilch about spammers. If what you posted above were true, then how do you explain the 50+ e-mail spams that I get every day? Spammers *don't* care about targeted traffic. It is like media advertising: broadcast the message to as many as possible, and some who get it will be the customers you want. Guestbook spamming is no different than e-mail spamming.