Nice Pitch...not

[scrubs]

Please can I have other members comments on this pitch, it was put to one of my clients I think its quite laughable and a contridiction in itself...

"You will not be penalised by the search engines when we provide links to you, for the simple reason that any website can link to any other website in the world, and the search engines use this linking as part of the way that they rank websites on the natural listing. If for example a naughty or banned website was to link to you – you will not be penalised by the search engines, as you have done nothing wrong.

The search engines may choose to discount or ignore links, in which case you would not have better results by the end of the trial basis. However all of our clients have seen huge gains on the natural listings and it will happen for you also."

I've already found bad press about these guys but just wanted to share my findings. :)

[egain]

Don't necessarily disagree with all that is said, however an unstructured link development campaign could and probably would result in little or no benefit at all. However the general theme i got from that pitch was that there was no structure to the campaign, and it was more a result of a mass linkage campaign and as such may involve a large volume of links added in a short period of time, and non-themed in nature.

Nearly all of us are in agreement here, that linkage is very important in any organic search campaign, what differentiates the good from the bad, is the way it is done, and the results obtained as a direct result.

[scrubs]

Of course, linking is fundamental for achieving natural results. :)

What I disagree with is the fact they state Google can simply ignore a batch of useless links and these wouldn't have a detrimental effect....One day you have a couple of relevant links coming in, then next week you have 20 from random sources I believe the Google system does work backwards and spot this.

For example if a domain had a whole stack of links coming in and only 5% of those were on topic and relevant I think that would be a pretty bad overall score. There for denting the chances of good natural results.

[egain]

My personal opinion in mass linkage, is that Google does not penalise for mass linkage, however the effects of mass linkage would be filtered, so that little or no effect is achieved via the addition of new mass linkage. There would be no point in penalising persay for incoming links as this could result in legitamate sites or topical sites being "penalised".

There result may be that other previous linkage to the site would be "watered" down, thus resulting in the "penalisation" theory.

Just my two peneth.

By the ways Scrubs. Whereabouts are you based?

[scrubs]

Hi egain, thanks for your thoughts, most enlightening!

I am based down near Chelmsford, Essex. :)

[grasshopper]

if you're looking after a domain that you want to last many years, as opposed to months, you should be pursuing link development with best practices in mind. i wouldn't be as concerned about "mass linkage" per se. what does concern me is the tone of the sales pitch:

"If for example a naughty or banned website was to link to you – you will not be penalised by the search engines, as you have done nothing wrong.

The search engines may choose to discount or ignore links, in which case you would not have better results by the end of the trial basis. However all of our clients have seen huge gains on the natural listings and it will happen for you also.

within reason, the first part of that statement is correct. a few links from porn sites wouldn't put you in danger (almost every site is bound to pick up a few over time). but if you combine the two - mass links and bad neighborhoods - then that sales pitch gives me the shivers. sounds like a guy sitting on a bunch of porn and blacklisted domains that he uses as link farms for his clients. unless your acceptable risk profile is pretty aggressive (i.e. getting your domain blacklisted for spamming is an acceptable loss), i'd steer clear.

[jackson992]

Mass links to you cannot hurt you in my opinion. This would make it too easy for a competitor to sabotage someone. Most important is who you are linking out to.