Guestbook links

Does google ignore these sort of links or not

[TellyTubby]

Hi just wanted to ask if anyone knows if Google ignores these links or if they still count,sorry if this has already been asked!

[dirkz]

TellyTubby, afaik guestbook links are still counted, but in the near future they will be dampened in their effect. You should always go for some real links also, if it's only guestbook links it is easy identifiable as spam.

[ogletree]

They are gone on cw right now. I have them on www.

[rfgdxm1]

I can confirm what ogletree wrote. If Google is filtering them with link: then almost surely they aren't counting for ranking.

[steveb]

For the two key sites I track I also see that they have lost guestbook backlinks, and have taken a DIVE for allinanchor. I'd want to look around more but this looks like tremendous news. Good work Google.

Now how about freeforall link anchor text, expired domains, and updating the Google Directory....

[Fischerlaender]

Yes, the same observations here. Google did remove a lot of guestbook links. Good news for users and any serious promoter.

[WebGuerrilla]

>>If Google is filtering them with link: then almost surely they aren't counting for ranking.

Just because they aren't showing them doesn't meen they don't count.

[rfgdxm1]

>Just because they aren't showing them doesn't meen they don't count.

Why pray tell would Google want to count guestbook links? I presume the only reason they were being counted before is because nobody at Google had seen it important enough to actually write and implement the code to identify and disregard guestbooks. The fact they are not showing anymore with link: is proof they now can identify guestbook pages. My guess is that it took Google this long to do something is that guestbook spamming wasn't seen as a very high priority at Google.

[keyplyr]

Looks to me like only the templated, outsourced type guestbooks (HTMLGear, DreamBook, etc) have been omitted this update. Custom GB backlinks are still visible.

[PunkJazz]

Looks like webalizer stats spamming is out now too, at list for the couple guys I watch that used to have 85% webstats in their backlinks.

[2_much]

Depends on what you mean by "ignore". It's rumored that they don't pass PR, but they do count for the ranking aspect of the algo, where anchor text is heavily filtered in.

[mayday9]

guestbooks links are useless. I have a piece of software that submits an url to thousands of guestbooks. A month ago that used to get a site spidered within 24 hours, few weeks later submitting an url to thousands of guestbooks had no effect whatsoever anymore. Sites were still submitted successfully, but google didn't even come to spider.

Darko

[tigger]

I've been keeping an eye on a site that had over 200 GB links now it's showing nothing and the PR has dropped from PR6 to PR3 :) Sweet

[d_a_v_e]

I have seen the number of guestbook links decline for sites as well. Unfortunately this has not affected rankings.

[vitaplease]

Yes a huge cleaning in guestbooks showing as backlinks - thanks - now the backlinks give a much clearer set-up of how the link-farm is constructed :)

In one case of a rather prolific signer, I had to check Alltheweb to find if the approx 7'000 GB's had accidently vanished..

Googleguy's post in this thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

So I think it's a good time to mention that guestbooks showing in backlinks does not mean that they contribute much/any in scoring. Maybe we should stop showing guestbooks in backlinks and people everywhere would feel better.

So how's everybody feeling? or do you also miss those: "Hi great site" droppings? ;)

[ralent]

The best GB line I've seen is "Great site, I'm so glad I found it. It's been very useful to me. I'll be back.

[rfgdxm1]

>I have seen the number of guestbook links decline for sites as well. Unfortunately this has not affected rankings.

Are you sure the rankings had anything to do with the guestbooks? Unlikely any webmaster would sign a ton of guestbooks unless he knew something about SEO. If that webmaster did know something about SEO, I'd figure he also between signing guestbooks would be doing other things to rank well. Such as good on page optimization, getting other webmasters to add links to their site, etc. It may be it was these other things that got the site to do well.

[Chndru]

my hunch is to expect a Blogs Tab in G soon :)

[TellyTubby]

Sorry for the absence over the weekend, i,ve just read the replies and wanted to say that its not that i,m deppending on guestbook links for my pr or my ranking <even though they do help in my opinion>but it would be interesting to know if this is one of g,s new spamm filters! becaus if it were then they should think it over,it would be so much easier to knock off the competition if its being detected as spamm; OR?.

[TellyTubby]

And i think that the decline in guestbook links is due to the fact that alot of guestbook owners have erased alot of messages or does anyone watch there guestbook links all the time?.<through google of course.>

[vitaplease]

No TellyTubby,

Many have stopped letting users add their url, but at this moment,
its just a case of Google not showing them anymore as backlinks.

[TellyTubby]

ok i,m convinced thanks for the info.:)

[Interent Yogi]

Nice work Google I signed some guestbooks before my WebmasterWorld days only NOW about 4 are now showing, real backlinks up way up. My tracks are covered . No change in my SERPs so I suspect that they were never counted anyway .

[berli]

Looks like Yahoo Groups spam has gone up recently, however. Some of these groups have open archives, which means that the high PR of the archive pages is passed to these spam links.

It would be impossible for Google to tell the difference between spam and legit postings. (I have had legitimate links to my sites posted in those groups and they bring me real visitors. Any google boost is an extra plus.) Many of the list moderators cannot even tell.

[edit]spelling. oops[/edit]

[skipfactor]

its just a case of Google not showing them anymore as backlinks.

I agree. I had just 2 GB backlinks on a site from ages ago & they have now disappeared on Google. They're still showing as backlinks on ATW so I checked them, and my links are still live. Embarassment's gone on Google, and the lazy boys are pissed & busy. :)

[AAnnAArchy]

skipfactor

I agree. I had just 2 GB backlinks on a site from ages ago & they have now disappeared on Google.

Yours may be gone, but they're not gone for everyone.

[mosley700]

>>The best GB line I've seen is "Great site, I'm so glad I found it. It's been very useful to me. I'll be back.

LOL. I actually saw on SEO promoting his services on guestbooks. "If you need webpromotion tips, email me at..."

Personally, I never look to guestbooks to find SEO's.

[DaveN]

What PR is on the guestbook page that aren't showing anymore?

DaveN