Comments on: Backlink Seekers Target Squidoo For Pagerank

By: Flynn

Flynn — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:40:44 +0000

Aaagh, yes, I’ve been hit by so much plexo spam lately. I’ve actually started turning submissions off entirely on some lenses.

By: Sandy Peaks

Sandy Peaks — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:29:10 +0000

Appreciate the reminder; I find it very annoying when lensmasters try to drop links in the Guestbook so I always set the module to strip HTML from the text. I do not understand why this is not set as default or better yet, disallowed. It seems such an obvious way to keep the module clean if HTML is automatically rejected when entered, yet HQ appear to ignore this solution.

By: Ellen B

Ellen B — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:27:34 +0000

Note that there’s nothing wrong with backlinks per se, although they’re not wuite as important as some people think. It’s true thwt links from related content or really good webpages can boost search engine rankings. For example, if a news magazine like Forbes.com or Wapo links to one of your articles, you may see your article rank a little better.

What Google is trying to penalize is artificial linking practices like fake blog networks where the content isn’t for human readers, just a fake webpage built in order to plant a link. Google is trying not to be fooled by those.

I take advantage of Squidoo tags, which put links to lenses with the same tags in the “related” box. That can get some backlinks. i also will link between my relevant articles when I think the readers of one will be interested in the other, too. This is a slow but reasonable way to create links. No robots, no triccks, just, “if you like this, you might also like that.” Google doesn’t penalize that because it’s not tripping “fishy” filters as 1000 identical links all posted in Squidoo guestbooks would do.

By: Kathryn Grace

Kathryn Grace — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:09:10 +0000

GreekGeek, thank you for another informative article. I’ve never really understood backlinks, so haven’t spent a lot of time trying to get them. Reading this, I’m glad I didn’t waste my time!

It appears that Google is getting smarter and smarter about helping us to find what we’re looking for–and to avoid the spammy sites–when we search the web.

That’s a good thing, in my book.

By: guardianstar77

guardianstar77 — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:19:09 +0000

This is a good heads-up, Greekgeek. I have all of my lenses set up so that I DO have to approve all comments just for this reason. I especially love the ones that say something like “Nice lens. Please read mine at ——.” I have even had a couple of obvious (or devious) Squidoo lensmasters do this. I hold no grudge against the young newbies, but I still delete their comments, simply because I think they didn’t even bother to read mine–based on the wording of the “comment” they left.

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:22:40 +0000

A really great philosophy, I wondered why I was getting so many requests for link exchange just lately. Although the link may be relevant to my blog, why now, why all of a sudden. So I started looking around and found your article on how Google has penalized them and now they are running scared. Thank you for answering my questions and helping me stay sorted out.

By: AJ Ashley

AJ Ashley — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:25:11 +0000

Ah yes, those emails asking to reciprocate backlinks that come via my Squidoo Bio – I just ignore them.