Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Discounting non-earned links by search engines opened a new and wide field of tactics to build link-based popularity: Classically this involves optimizing your content so that thematically-related or trusted websites link to you by choice. A more recent method is link baiting, which typically takes advantage of Web 2.0 social content websites. One example of this new way of generating links is to submit a handcrafted article to a service such as [digg.com....] Another example is to earn a reputation in a certain field by building an authority through services such as [answers.yahoo.com....] Our general advice is: Always focus on the users and not on search engines when developing your optimization strategy. Ask yourself what creates value for your users. Investing in the quality of your content and thereby earning natural backlinks benefits both the users and drives more qualified traffic to your site.
Has anyone been able to distinguish whether such suggestions from site links that provide no PR actually build trust e.g. Yahoo Answers?
Can Google tell a link by "choice" from another?
[edited by: Whitey at 9:26 am (utc) on Dec. 2, 2007]
Can Google tell a link by "choice" from another?
If a site linked to you by choice, based on the quality of your site, and has done the same with all other sites it linked to, and has been doing it for years, then Google can (at least to a degree) tell it.
Harvard has been choosing to link to good quality sites for years, that's why Google will value your site, if Harvard chooses to link to you.
OTOH, if you can per$uade a site to link to you, despite the low quality of your site, then that casino or pills site can use the same per$ua$ion means.
I think it's a matter of linking profile, accumulated over time.
