I posted a thread the other day wondering how a nearly brand new site could be ranking so high in Google for competitive search terms. It appeared that the site had quickly amassed several hundred reciprocal links. What was weird, to me, is that the site ranked so high for a bunch of recips. I began to think that reciprocal links were working magic for this site.

On closer inspection, I wonder if they are not just running a reciprocal link scam. For example, one of their resource pages has about 20 outbound links. They look like direct links that would pass PageRank. If you mouseover the link, the outbound url shows up as a regular, direct url in the bar at the bottom left of the screen.

However, when I looked at the source code for this page, not one single link appears in the source code! I'm not a developer, or even a web designer, but as far as I can tell, the code that does appear, where I expected to see the outbound links, looks like this:

<div

style="padding-bottom:8px;padding-top:25px;padding-left:4px;color:#3FAAF4;font-size:18px;font-

weight:bold;">Blue Widgets Sites</div>


<div id="lnks" style="padding-left:10px;padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:20px;">




<script

language=javascript>_X1(blue_widget_sites, blue_widgets_sites_cnt, "blue_widgets_sites",

1);</script>

<span class="txt_span">




</span>

I have substituted Blue Widgets but changed nothing else. In this little bit of code there are about 20 outbound links, plus descriptive text for each one.
Question: how are these links being handled?
Are the sites being linked to getting reciprocal page rank, or is this a scam that pretends to be reciprocal, but in fact creates a bunch of one way links for the site in question?

Thanks,

WB

From what you posted it looks like and sounds like these links are in javascript. If that is the case, chances are search engines don't follow the links. That said, it's hard to say without seeing the entire page. Would the links make sense being where they are and with other content on the page?

Would the links make sense being where they are and with other content on the page?

The links are the primary content on the page. Everything else is just the navigation panel and other stuff that is sitewide.

I can pm you the url if you care to see it and form an opinion.

Hi
Personally if another site that I was competing against was using such a technique and it does sound like they are. I would personally contact all 20 sites or how many there are, explain the situation even educate them to whats going on as they might not even know, be carefull if they are your competiters though to how much you edicate them, then see how long it takes for them to drop there links and watch your competiter take the fall they deserve. Make sure it is a scam first though.

I have used techniques like this against competiters and it works. Thats why you should always be honest when link building. It only takes one person to educate every one else to your activities and all your "hard work" is pointless.

Hi
If you turn off JavaScript in your browser do the links disappear?

I've never turned off Javascript in my browser before. How do I do that?

The easiest way to disable Javascript is to download Opera - on the top menu it's Tools>Quick Preferences, then just unclick the box for enabling JS to disable it.

If they're using JS links for their recips, they've gaming their link partners.

or firefox

In FireFox click tools - options - content - deselect javascript. IE will be similar in the tools menu.

What if you post the URI??
Instead of ask for details for ever?

Javascript can do that. For example, when you put emails addresses avoiding to being steal by robots are javascript that hide to this software the emails addresses but are visible/copy/paste.

What if you post the URI?? If the URI is posted we'll remove it, since we don't "out" sites here; it's right in the FAQ. So no, the URL shouldn't be posted. Describing it is just fine.

It sounds like they're pulling a fast one with reciprocal links, tricking people who think they're getting a link back by putting the links in Javascript so it'll get them one way links instead of recips.

Hi if you Pm me the JS code i'll try you for sure. It looks like they have used the DOM. Basically they have used JS to write a link and the href source to the page thus giving the impression it's not in JS when it is modern JS brill. By the looks of it. this wont be a visable link to SE. as it'd dynamically written to the page after they have done their stuff.

Hi I checked out the link you PM'd me sorry all above board.

The link is 2 lines above scroll right in the source code and you will see it. If it was in JS it wouldn't be in the code it would be in the JS.

I couldn't find the function in their JS, which is weird, but to be honest it COULD be for monitoring click thoughs as in it passes variables to a seperate page/another server side program etc... but w/o seeing the code I cant be sure, so don't take it that is what this function does.

I turned off JS in FF and it works. Again if it was a JS generated link it wouldn't work as it wouldn't be able to make the variables into a link.

Sorry if they use black hat then this isn't it.

edit to the post above:

When I said it would be written to the code after the SE have done their stuff this implies that it would be readable after the SE have done what they need to. !!This is wrong!!

the link and the code would always be in the JS. The browser is the only one that would see it in the code as such.

Sorry this is what I meant.