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I've heard (can't remember where) that Google penalizes or at least looks unkindly on links from message boards to a website (possibly to discourage people from putting their company links on websites?).
Is this true?
If this IS true, how does Google know that the link is on a message board. In other words, how do the spiders know what kind of website the link is on?
[edited by: HitProf at 10:35 pm (utc) on May 26, 2003]
#1) Google has no way of knowing who posted those message board links.
#2) Many message boards have no problem with people having sig files with links to their own sites, as is common practice on Usenet. There is one message board where I have such a sig file link that I post on. Has nothing to do with spamming; in fact my site is on the same topic as this site. Since this is common practice on many website boards, if Google spiders them they should just ignore the links. As for identifying message boards, this should be trivial for Google.
I was just reading the guestbook thread. Same thing. How does google know it's a guestbook?
One reason I'm asking about penalization is because I'm reading about spam filters that are supposedly coming, and since users of my service will be posting links to messages on my site (for other message board users to hear) that google might interpret this as spamming (especially considering that many of the links will look the same except for the last 10 digits or so).
Should I be concerned about potential spam filtering?
:concerned:
This doesn't mean you will get penalized - just that the link won't count.
Thanks!
They couldn't, because they have no way of knowing who is posting the links, or for what reason. Also, it is common practice on many boards that the person will post the link of whatever their site is in their .sig, regardless of whether the topic is related to that board. Think here for example of someone having a link to their personal site about dog breeding which the have in their sig file on a site devoted to political discussion. Many message boards use the same custom as on Usenet regarding such things. I have a .sig on Usenet with a link to my main site. That .sig is used in every newsgroup I post to, even if the topic is totally irrelevant to the topic of the site in my .sig. Usenet custom and tradition is that so long as a .sig file is less than 4 lines long, *anything* is acceptable in that .sig. Many website bulletin boards aren't all that particular about what people post, unlike say Webmasterworld. In fact, a number of website bulletin boards are totally unmoderated.
This kind of applies to one of my other sites, too -- where I have some funny images and videos that people on message boards like to post to.
We'll see!
Sounds like pure Spam to me. Hope you do get their express permission first. As many forum owners (like me) have gone out of their way to make sure Spammers can not post their URL's on the board, I doubt you will have many takers. As most forums have other pages, I am sure they would want to link to you from them if your content was worthwhile.
Regarding the automatic posting, that would be only if the message board operator had chosen to use the service in the first place so no concerns there. Just don't want Google penalizing me if there are a lot of links from message boards to content on my site that is relevant to the board/topic.
But thanks for your concern!
:)
