Now that we’ve covered up Organic Link Building, let’s move on to it’s not-so-evil counterpart which is Artificial Link Building or what some others call Automated Link Building.
Artificial link building isn’t altogether bad but some people exploit automated means to the point of redundantly abusing it until they are regarded as spam. And as such, some of these practices are generally frowned upon by the SEO community at large.
But hey, why go through all the criticism and risk of being penalized if it doesn’t work, right?
Coz it does work.
But that doesn’t mean I’m encouraging you to practice it. In fact, as much as you can, I would advise you to avoid these methods in order for you to give more focus to your organic link building and capitalizing on the conversation in your reader’s minds.
Let me point out that these are just some of the artificial link building methods available out there. There are plenty more and I’m sure many more will be innovated in the years to come. We never run out of loopholes. Not unless Google becomes perfect in scouting the web from spammers and violators – which is unlikely.
Again, let me point out that these practices are valid and helps you increase your rankings. And not all of these practices are harmful – but I personally think that you should focus more on content marketing and organic linkbuilding than these artificial link building methods.
Directory Submission
Directories are like an online Yellow Pages list. They categorize websites by the niche and topic that the websites contain. Before search engines took over the web (literally), web directories did matter. People went to web directories to find relevant information that they are searching for. And as such, web directories provided a good source of traffic and links to your website.
Nowadays, unfortunately, web directories have been reduced to something comparable to linkfarms. Most of the directories are just full of crap sites that are trying to get linkjuice to themselves. They aren’t reviewed properly, and aren’t visited much anymore. Coz hey, why would you tire yourself out looking at web directories when there’s the ever-convenient Google to run to?
Not since lately, linkfarms are one still a source of links. But I personally don’t practice submitting to directories. I don’t find it useful nor helpful anymore. Not since Google declared that Caffeine will look at directories as linkfarms.
Blog Commenting
There’s nothing wrong with commenting on blogs and slicing out your two-cents for the author’s article. In fact, authors appreciate a true, sincere and heart-felt comment and may even get in touch with you on Facebook or Twitter. Unfortunately, as all other good, angelic, innocent linkbuilding methods out there, bad-ass black hatters found out a way to ‘utilize’ this.
As an editor-in-chief of several blogs, I’ve received my share of annoying, irritating and downright useless comments. And without Akismet, I might still be sweeping away spam comments on my blogs right now. Though sometimes Akismet might be overprotective, so you have to check your spam comments section once in a while if a real comment was swatted away.
Blog commenting is one great way to build links if the blog owner allows dofollow on all the commenter’s name-link. It’s a two-way deal. The blog owner gets comments (boosting his/her authority and reputation via the article’s popularity) and you get the link juice you oh-so-crave for.
Forum Posting
There are a lot of great forums out there. And behind each one is a great forum moderator – who swats all the spam away. I know because I manage an SEO forum myself. It’s a lot of work because there’s a lot of spammers trying to worm their way in and sneak in some links. To all forum moderators out there, I salute you! Please holler on the comment section below!
Forum posting is one great way to build links. You post a new thread or topic that is relevant to your keyword or blog or niche, etc. And you build a topic out of that thread in which a lot of people shares information and data, making that thread more relevant to the links you’ve put in there, giving you link juice that is relevant and, if the forum is a high PR, high authority site, then you’ve just hit gold – given that they allow dofollow links.
Buying Links
Google will always have a hard time figuring out if you’ve bought a link if the site you’ve bought it from does not explicitly say that they’re selling. Purchasing links is something that Google generally does not approve of (although there are rumors and facts that Google itself is using this to their advantage, read SEOBook for Google villainy).
Buying links is good because it gives you one-way link juice. And this trade will give you a big leverage if you get a link form a good, high authority website with high PR and traffic. That is if your cash can meet their terms.
You can also check our comprehensive all-in-one guide about Effective link building strategies
About Sean
So, say your business paid somebody to post links to hundreds of different directories back before the Caffeine update took place and discounted all these links. Is there a penalty for that now, or is it okay?
Hey Jennifer!
No it won't be penalized. Just disregarded. Depends if the directories are good or bad ones :)
Gosh, I’ve been looking about this specific topic for about an hour, glad i found it in your website!
You’re welcome Jhon!
Hi Sean I must say I find reading your post, emails, twitter and fb updates all extremely helpful. I am a painter and decorator who is trying to learn IM myself and it’s full of ups n downs I must say. But I find your White hat advise really helpful. I do have a question about buying link services fro
Places such as warrior forums … What is your view on this? I recently purchased 100 directory submissions and 50 edu profile links. Am I wasting my money? Or should consentrate on building linkable content? I’m trying to do both!!! Also id live to hear your view on things like Seonuke and article spinning…
Keep up the good work
Hey Greg,
Thank you so much for your kind words. Really appreciate it.
I think that directory submissions are now irrelevant and are considered link farms by search engines. If for any consolation, they hold much less weight now. Search engines are getting more sophisticated. As for .edu links – just make sure that the links you’re buying aren’t being explicitly sold by the owner. If Google finds out that the owner of that .edu site are really selling links, they will devalue your links and you would’ve wasted your money. Building linkable content is best. If you could focus on that more, that would haul you in some good natural links. Seonuke – I think it’s too commercialized. I also think that you have to put in a lot of work in it. But some say it’s their ‘secret weapon’. I don’t think it’s a secret at all. Article spinning won’t do you any good. Period.
All the best for your IM studies Greg!
Buying links, link farms is ok but I never thought that blog commenting comes under artificial link building though I could call it as indirect backlinking.. or obv inbound links..
hi Sean
I forgot where this post was and just came back to it. Thank you for your advise you read so much different advise from different people its hard to know what works and what doesnt when your a beginner.
I have my one site which is very important to my business and if that was effected it would effect us great. This is why I want to focus on only white hat methods… but then you see various claims of x amount of links for x $$$ you can get tempted
Hey Greg,
Don’t get tempted about those links. In the end, it won’t pay off. It’ll just do more damage than help. Always think that you can do SEO. It’s a lot of work to make it work but that’s what you have to invest in order to get to the top.
So is it an artificial link if I create a blog on WordPress.com and on Blogger.com and create blog posts there which link to my main blog?
Is this something that Google would penalize me for?
Hi Jeremy,
Yes it’s considered an artificial and manipulated link.
No I don’t think Google would penalize your main site for that. But if your content from blogger and wordpress.com is duplicate, then that’s a different story.
Hmm, interesting take on Blog commenting. I think this is highly dependent on the methods used to create the comments. If you use some form of automation or software to create the comment just for a link then you are obviously trying to game the system.
However, if you use blogs as a way to engage with your peers and create actual valuable content then this is not only a form of natural link building but also a great way to drive traffic to your site.
As a general rule of thumb, or an indication, I would argue that if you would make a comment even if the site employed nofollow links then that blog comment is a natural link.
David, i agree with your statements, however, I would add in that if people are using blog commenting as a form of engagement and decide that they want to drop their keywords in as their names, hence getting a keyword anchored backlink, then that is probably not simply used for engagement.
As far as using your own name and including your web URL, i don’t see a problem with that, it’s a great way to engage on the blog. It’s a fantastic way to make contact with blog owners, show you know what you are talking about, and then after a while you can try to make direct contact in order to offer guest posts and other content to the site. These sorts of backlinks are the ones that will then have the value people are searching for.
Exactly, if blog commenting is used to enhance the content of the blog or inquire about something then there is real value in what you have done and is done, well possibly, without being driven purely for a link. It’s more about engaging with your community and growing your reputation.
However, the question remains is that artificial? I honestly think that it can be both depending on the use.
As for using your keywords as your name. I agree, seeing “SEO Expert” or “Cheap DVDs” on a blog is a sure indication that any comment made is just for the link.
Hi Sean.. I think artificial link building is no gonna work any longer. But I can see still some sites are getting away with it. Specially high Page rank websites. Any thoughts about that??
Hi Melisa,
While I do agree that it’s going down in its effectivity, it is still a qualified link building practice. However too much of it will get you noticed. So the best way to approach it is to diversify – create great, natural links while you back it up with some artificial ones.