Links is a Creative Commons image by Ravages.
After Matt Cutts’ disclosure that PageRank sculpting support has been discontinued many SEO practitioners struggle with the issue of links in comments or from User Generated Content (UGC) in general draining their PageRank again.
Matt Cutts says that good (non-spammy) outgoing links are a positive ranking factor but few people notice or care.
SEOs are still stuck in the past.
Moreover they focus on technology not conversation. It should be the other way around:
To succeed in a post Web 2.0 environment, where the social web is all-encompassing, self-evident and taken for granted you need to focus on the human factor of SEO.
Some people already argue that the E in SEO stands for experience not engine anymore. Face the facts:
- SEO is about humans not robots.
- SEO is about humans not tools.
- SEO is about users not Google.
SEO is about conversation not technology. It’s even more than that, it’s about relationships. Soon this blog will be two years old. The people I “met” online back then when I started are mostly still around and I’m part of their virtual sphere. I can be silent for a while or they might have stopped blogging in the meantime but all the time the number of my friends online is growing. Having a link means having a relationship with another human being who edits a website.
Web 2.0 allows everybody to link in a plethora of ways. You can bookmark, vote, tweet whatever, you spread the news and good resources via a myriad of channels. The channels change, it’s Friendster one day MySpace the next and Facebook a day later. The relationships stay and the links to other people stay as well. Unless you think robots, tools and Google. They can dump or ban you anytime. People can as well, but they usually don’t out of the blue. Even if they do on the Web you won’t lose 2/3 of your revenue over night.
So make sure you listen to the right people in the conversation. Then make sure to connect with them, forge a relationship, create a link.
The HTML link that shows up on your website is just a manifestation of the real link between two individuals, the person who links and the person who is linked to.
What does this mean for blog comments? I don’t care if you just link your microsite which is unrelated to my blog as long as the link between us is a real and valuable one. It will pay off for both of us, sooner or later, no matter what the robots, tools or Google have to “say”.
The only thing you must care about now more than ever considering blog comments and likewise UGC elsewhere is the quality of links. With WordPress blogs it’s easy:
- Moderate comments with links
- Moderate all comments on posts older than a week
- Do not allow links to empty pages, deep links (unless they’re relevant) and gambling/NSFW pages
Most of these things are common sense and have been practiced by most bloggers already. Also make sure to use one of the many dofollow plugins until WordPress removes the obsolete “nofollow atribute” from the default WordPress package. Using nofollow you hurt both your site and your commenters sites.
For people who want to switch off comments altogether: Why are you on the Web? The Web is about sharing or at least offering information. Consider this: Everything you publish and share might empower others and hurt you so either you risk that and reap the benefits or you go offline, no need for a website then.
Think relationships not technology and no single tweak, small or big, from Google or any other site can hurt you. Stay connected to your peers throughout the many platforms and using all the upcoming tools and never forget what really counts.
All you need is link love!
Link is a Creative Commons image by fotorita.
Related posts:
- Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov – When will it come to your Website?
- Does Google Index Your robots.txt?
- Blog Suicide: Top 7 Title & Meta Tag Mistakes that Kill Your Blog
- Blog Commenting for SEO and Exposure: More Than Dofollow Links
- The Best Way to Convert Visitors to Supporters is to Forge a Bond
Need help? Consider a world class blog & SEO consultation by the author of SEO 2.0, Tad Chef. For full fledged SEO services like ongoing link building, contact my partners from SEO.com or look up my directory of SEO service providers and checkout reputable companies like Datadial or Redfly.
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This thing has 13 Comments
Good points Tad, thanks for reminding us to take our heads out of the programming cave and look at the overall picture.
Yeah. Many old school SEOs, even the good ones tend to geekify SEO too much.
Even SEO 1.0 was about link exchange where you actually had to attract link partners alas real people.
A good point made. All good SEO’s that I know are great communicators. They are open, friendly and interested in everything new because this business is in constant flux and the only stable variable are your relationships. Lot’s of SEOs are totally wraped up in techie stuff and sometimes forget that a big part of our job is to make connections. With people.
Now you just have to remove the no-follow tags from your comment section Tad and the world will be an even better place ; )
@Tad – “Even SEO 1.0 was about link exchange where you actually had to attract link partners alas real people”
I must have been doing something wrong then because link-exchange has never been and most likely will never be – a strategy for my clients.
Why should my websites link to other people? Why?
Seriously.
A website for a small-business is nothing but a live advert. A box on Telephone Directory. A spread advertisement on a Newspaper.
The function is to get the client’s customer to call. To contact. Nothing more. Nothing less. Conversions.
Why should I allow traffic out? Traffic should come in.
If on the other hand the site is a directory, a library of resources, a blog, a news site, a discussion forum, an INFORMATIONAL website – sure.
Otherwise – I will not succumb to this new “link-baiting” fad – have lots of links – have lots of “”INTERESTING”" information.
Stuff that. If you want interesting information – go to Wikipedia.
But if you want a plumber next to your neighbourhood, 24 hours – here is the website: with the phone number showing first / big / bold / highlighted. Here is the address, here are the instructions. Here is a map. Here are the contact details. Here are the fees. Here are it’s credentials.
Simplicity.
Deliver the info that is very much needed. Don’t waffle crap. Dont’ add a blog FFS!!
Let the real people who want to write extra information, video streams, tutorials whatever gimmick do that out of altruism or experience , duty / whatever. Then links to other smaller websites.
But don’t force smaller sites to pollute and confuse the web with 2nd rate information – let them remain simple, functional.
The web is already littered with very bad annoying distracting confusing websites, don’t make matters worse.
Thanks for putting linking in perspective.
I think if you proactively market your business online using all the possible channels around you you will build your links and rank naturally. There has to be a large element of marketing and human interaction along with the technology aspect.
“but few people notice or care” I like that ! Many times I gave valuable SEO tips but people simply don’t care because it needed to reframe or it appeared to need more work. they keep on believing wrong seo advice because simply more people talk about.
I appreciate your comments on links
It does seem to make more sense to get your head out of the clouds and really see what your doing
“SEOs must become marketers.” That’s it, on the nose.
I’ve been a marketer since well into the last century and I’ve seen innovations come and go, with me scurrying along in an attempt to understand and employ them for clients. From catalog marketing to SEO, the technical people tend to be the “first in,” but the issues remain the same: you need to get someone’s attention, demonstrate you understand their situation, present a solution and motivate some type of action. The stuff of marketing, all of it.
I like the illustration about link and relations….
You right… Link’s like a relation… Same as ship’s anchor … The more chains that bound it will make the ship heavier, which causes the ship to remain silent place and not washed away the water … So also with the link, the more links that we get it will strengthen
…
This is a conversation with a friend I had last night. I’m eager to pick the conversation back up now.
Repeat after Tad:
* SEO is about humans not robots.
* SEO is about humans not tools.
* SEO is about users not Google.
Could anybody agree more with these points? Thanks for reminding us about the importance of blogging, i.e. writing for human beings and NOT for SE Robots! Thanks.