Our company, http://www.rumblegroup.com (http://www.rumblegroup.com) , is embarking on a linking campaign with our resellers. Some of them are a little cautious to put our link on their site thinking their customers may go directly to us instead of through them. Can our resellers put a link to us in white on a white background or even clear type and still have it found as a backlink to us? Any help is great help! Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Brent Yager
Rumble Group - Dallas, TX

* If you are sending file attachments to me, please go to
http://fth.rumblegroup.com and use the DropBox feature

http://www.rumblegroup.com

One note: I do know this is a double-edged sword...higher PR due to more backlinks but if no one sees the links = no hits... Just want to know if higher PR plays into higher rank on search...

Regards,

Brent Yager
Rumble Group - Dallas, TX

* If you are sending file attachments to me, please go to
http://fth.rumblegroup.com and use the DropBox feature

http://www.rumblegroup.com

It's not just that mate, you open a whole can of worms once you start hiding links. All that has to happen is some crusading "white knight" sees it and starts frothing at the mouth and getting all hot and sweaty about reporting it to the engines.

If you want to do it properly however:

<a href="http://example.com" class="myhiddenLink">some link</a>

in your css

.myhiddenLink {
display: none;
}

Nick

Tactics used to trick or fool search engines are always risky. Back in the day webmasters spammed their pages with lists of keywords camoflagued in the same font color as the background. Search engines got wise to this eventually.

The method described should work, but would be considered a deceptive practice, I think.

We're not trying to be deceptive in any way, shape or form. Just trying to please our resellers and get backlinks at the same time. Based on the "white knight" problem that could occur, we'll refrain from clear or white on white links. Thanks for all the input!

Regards,

Brent Yager
Rumble Group - Dallas, TX

* If you are sending file attachments to me, please go to
http://fth.rumblegroup.com and use the DropBox feature

http://www.rumblegroup.com

We're not trying to be deceptive in any way, shape or form. Just trying to please our resellers and get backlinks at the same time. Based on the "white knight" problem that could occur, we'll refrain from clear or white on white links. Thanks for all the input!

Regards,

Brent Yager
Rumble Group - Dallas, TX

* If you are sending file attachments to me, please go to
http://fth.rumblegroup.com and use the DropBox feature

http://www.rumblegroup.com

This can be done easily and extremely effectively... and morse - in that you will actually "increase their sales collectively".

Diversify your website to include a content management systems of some sort: this could be a forum, a blog, or an article CMS/news CMS... something that aggregates "information" and not specific to products or services.

Each affiliate link to the information repository at your domain directly (and not your company, product, or services informaion pages.

Now the affiliates are linking to a "non-conpetitive" archive that actually complements their offerings, and the copyright statement at the bottom (which no one will normally click) repurposes their link value to your main pages.

Also - approach them on this matter - from their benefit value - not yours... noting less about the gaining of links > and more the gaining a collective archive of content from you.

"We're not trying to be deceptive in any way, shape or form. Just trying to please our resellers and get backlinks at the same time"

Sorry, but it is being deceptive as far as the engines are concerned. These sites do not wish to provide a link to you for whatever reason - therefore you are hiding the links because it is for the sole benefit of ranking in the search engines. All of the big engines are adverse to hidden links.

Now, I'm not saying that means you shouldn't do it or that you're evil if you do. But, you need to understand that no matter whatever your "stated reasoning" for adding the hidden links are, they are indeed against the SE rules.

The problem that I see is that you would be taking these risks with the websites of your resellers - it won't be your website that gets banned, it will be theirs, since they will be the ones using the hidden links. I don't see that being fair to your resellers (who I assume to be your bread and butter) or a smart business move (loss of business as a result of getting one, or more of their sites banned).

In addition, they signed on to sell hosting, not be a part of your link development campaign - any of them with SEO knowledge may start shopping for another person to resell hosting through who doesn't require them to risk their sites by either siphoning traffic to the main company or by being forced to go against the SE rules.

If this were you're own site, I would simply say understand the risks and then decide whether or not you want to take it (and more power to you if you did). But, these are the websites of other people and not your own. Makes it kind of a sticky situation.

If this were you're own site, I would simply say understand the risks and then decide whether or not you want to take it (and more power to you if you did). But, these are the websites of other people and not your own. Makes it kind of a sticky situation.

This is an extremely valid point.

And moreso - please read up on Traffic Power... I assume in the discussions with your affiliates you highly stressed that Google "could" auto-detect this and penalize them (and quite possibly ban - because of the "network" or broad manipulation of Google's index) and/or a competitor can see you above them in ranked results, and report the affiliates as spam.

Would be paid them damages if either occurs (lose revenue - they seem to be concerned about lose sales to you)... or would you do as Traffic Power did? Walk away?

What I suggested above is a far superior strategy.