Sphinn - Busting the Myth of Inbound Links Hurting... Again

34
Sphinn It!

Busting the Myth of Inbound Links Hurting... Again

Went Hot: July 26, 2007 - 10:53 am
Posted By: Skitzzo 709 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.seorefugee.com)
Category: Link Building

I’m having to revisit the myth I thought I had previously exposed as well… a myth. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t convincing or not enough people read it or what, but if the real Myth Busters have to revisit things, I figure I’m not above it either.

11 Comments

Who Desphunn This (0)

Comments

from AndrewGirdwood 709 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

Sadly I fear people are always going to worry about this.

from imnotadoctor 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

I can't wait to see the results.

from todd 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

nice post, I would also love to see the results... valuable info.

from SendTraffic 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

At the 2007 NY SES, Evan Roseman, a software engineer at Google stated that it is indeed feasible but still highly unlikely that a competitor can hurt you by pointing hundreds or thousands of "bad links" to new, unestablished, and untrusted domains.

from Skitzzo 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

Send,

Even if that's the case, how well would you be ranking if you were a "new, unestablished, and untrusted domain"? I mean what would be hurt?

from Eavesy 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

I'm totally with you I have said for a while that it is not possible to hurt someones rankings via links.

from TannerC 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

I have linking nightmares.

from kimber 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

"I have linking nightmares"...me too!

from Feydakin 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

I was involved in a test a little over a year ago where an established website with a limited link profile suddenly had 1000s of links pointed at it from a link farm / "bad neighborhood".. Not one or two, or 100s, thousands from sub domains, duplicate pages, the works..

The site dropped significantly for the 'city keyword' search we hit it with in the anchor text..

The site had been static for nearly a year with no work done on it.. Limited link profile, less than 100 IBLs.. And it all but vanished in short order..

Removing the link dump caused the site to recover in about 3 months with no work at all done to the site..

Could this happen to an active site, or one with a more in depth link profile?? No idea, but I would guess that it might be less than likely.. I don't know if more testing was done to refine the information.. I didn't offer up any more sites to test on..

from DoshDosh 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

The article reminds me of the Saboteurs of Search that appeared in Forbes recently. Here's a quote:

"Matt Cutts, a senior software engineer for Google, says that piling links onto a competitor's site to reduce its search rank isn't impossible, but it's extremely difficult. "We try to be mindful of when a technique can be abused and make our algorithm robust against it," he says. "I won't go out on a limb and say it's impossible. But Google bowling is much more inviting as an idea than it is in practice."

Link:

http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/28/negative-search-google-tech-ebiz-cx_ag_0628seo.html

from onreact 708 days ago # - show/hide this comment

Votes: -1 | Vote:

+ -

Create a new empty site on a new domain and then pay for an obvious PageRank 7 link with the anchor text "online poker". Then create at least 5 splogs on blogger.com doing the same. Link the site from your homepage at first.

Create another empty site on another domain. Link the site from your homepage.

Compare both.