Is link building unethical?

I would encourage you to read some of the comments on his blog about this post too.  Makes an interesting and educational read.

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 A thread got started at a popular marketing forum recently, and one poster (who appears to be pretty new to Internet Marketing), stated that my 3WayLinks.net link building service was “dishonest”, “immoral” and “unethical.” Those were his exact words. He didn’t say that he “felt” it was that way, he applied an across the board, no-contest judgment regarding the service.

I responded with a series of questions asking whether or not he felt writing articles to get backlinks is unethical, or posting comments to blogs was unethical, or using social bookmarking sites for backlinks was unethical. The user never answered these questions, so I can only assume that he was unable to do so without undermining his original argument. He continued, however, with a series of arguments which I responded to and, in my opinion, debunked. Numerous other users chimed in to support and agree with my position, but there were some on the other side of the fence as well.

I felt there was something to be learned from the debate, and I wanted to share my perspective on link building with my readers here. Your position may be completely opposite, or you may be somewhat in line with my opinion or somewhat out of line with my opinion. But here’s how I feel about it:

The basic argument from the other side of the debate appears to be that any “artificial manipulation” of the search results is dishonest, including link building. I can’t say this absolutely, as the other person refused to answer my questions in order for me to have a completely clear understanding of their point of view. However, it certainly appeared that this person felt anything even remotely appearing to violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines is morally wrong.

I’ve heard this argument before, and I disagree with it for a number of reasons.

Problem #1: Defining “the rules”

First of all, in order for something to be unethical, you have to have a consistent set of standards by which to judge the action. To make this clear, let’s use an unethical act that I think everyone will agree on: theft.

Theft is defined at Dictionary.com as “the act of stealing; the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another; larceny.” Simply put, if somebody has something that does not belong to you, and you take it without permission, it’s theft. I don’t think there are many people who would disagree with that.

Let’s contrast that with link building, using Google’s Webmaster Guidelines as our “rules.” Here’s what Google suggestions you do in terms of building links:

1. Have other relevant sites link to yours.
2. Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online.
3. Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

Notice how vague these guidelines are. Let’s go through them one at a time.

1. Have other relevant sites link to yours.

Okay, the problem here is the lack of definition of what constitutes a relevant site. For some, it would mean only sites that are based on the same subject matter. That is, if you have a site that is generally about arthritis pain relief, they feel you should only get links from arthritis-related sites.

The problem with that point of view is that it fails to take into account the vast range of subjects that fall into that category. For instance, as was shown in a previous blog post, such diverse subjects such as swimming, cycling, weight loss, vitamins, different types of fat, comfortable furniture, etc. can all be related to arthritis pain relief. So is it okay to get links from weight loss sites or furniture sites to your arthritis pain relief site? Given the lack of specifics, that can only be labeled a personal question, not an ethical one.

2. Make sure all the sites that should know about your pages are aware your site is online.

Again, vagueness is the culprit here. Frankly, since I know that links from other sites are what rank my sites in Google, I’d like every site to know that mine is online! That means getting links from as many sites, in as many categories as possible. Without a better definition of what Google means, it’s impossible for everyone to share the same viewpoint of this recommendation.

3. Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

The same problems that exist with #1 and #2 exist with #3. What defines “relevant”? What defines “industry-specific expert sites”? From what we’re given by Google, it’s left for us to decide.

So, in contrast with the pretty straightforward unethical act of theft, link building can hardly be considered an indisputable breach of ethics. Now, it certainly can be relegated to a decision of one’s conscience. If a person doesn’t feel that building links would be right, they certainly have the option of not doing so — and I don’t advocate doing anything that doesn’t sit well with your inner radar. However, to claim that others are dishonest or unethical because of link building would not be appropriate, because the standards put in front of us leave a huge amount of leeway for interpretation.

This is true in many aspects of our everyday life, too. For example, we’ve all been taught that we should be “kind” to people, and most would agree that we should. But to what degree, and in what situations is left up to our own conscience to decide. In the end I believe we will find out whether or not we did what was right from a higher authority, but to try and group building links to your website into a great moral or ethical issue is nonsense in my opinion.

Problem #2: “The rules” aren’t rules!

The second big problem in the “unethical linking” argument is that the “rules” everyone refers to aren’t rules, and Google never calls them rules. They are referred to as “guidelines.” Guidelines are generally much looser in their approach then rules.

For instance, “the speed limit is 30 m.p.h.” is a rule. However, “you need to drive slowly” is a guideline which relies on your own personal view of what “slowly” means. There is a point at which virtually everyone would agree that another person is not driving “slowly” in a given situation, but there’s also a lot of gray area where people would disagree.

Google can’t call their guidelines rules because they are intentionally vague. Google seems to feel that creating too strict a set of rules would give away too much information about how their algorithm works, and so they make vague statements bordering on being almost useless.

Problem #3: I can design my website any way I want to.

The third problem with the “unethical linking” argument is that it fails to accept the fact that, as a webmaster, I have the right to design my site any way I see fit. Just as taking an object out of my house can’t be considered stealing (since I own the object), the act of adding links to my site to whatever other sites I choose cannot be considered unethical.

This third point is really where the “unethical” argument breaks down. After all, as webmasters we have not entered into any kind of agreement with Google. We have not agreed to abide by their guidelines. We have signed no contracts. Google has not requested our permission to crawl and index our sites, and they do not give us any kind of compensation for the act of doing so. What Google does, Google does of its own accord and without permission.

Granted, it’s in our best interest to be indexed and rank well in Google, so we want to try and do what we can to that end, but they have not asked our permission and give us no direct compensation for using our content.

So if a group of webmasters setup their sites in a way that they know will help them rank well in Google, and Google crawls those sites, counts those links and ranks those pages, can that be defined as unethical? Google has made the choice to index and rank the sites. They don’t have to do so, and if they change their minds about it, they can always remove sites they feel should not be in their index.

I see services such as 3WayLinks.net like a farmer’s co-op. In a farmer’s co-op, a group of farmers join forces to be able to have more buying power and get cheaper rates for equipment and supplies. It’s in a smaller farmer’s best interests to join so that they can compete with the “big dogs” of their industry and not be priced out of the market.

My linking service serves the same purpose. The “big dogs” of the web can afford to get huge numbers of links aimed at their sites through a variety of means (some Google sanctioned, some not). 3WayLinks.net is a “linking co-op”, where the smaller guys can join forces to help each other compete with the larger sites. You may or may not agree, but that’s how I see it and why I created it.

Problem #4: We have no relationship with Google.

A webmaster’s relationship with Google cannot be equated to a user’s relationship with a site for which they have an account. When you create an account with an interactive site, you usually agree to their terms of service, and so any actions you take interacting with that site must abide by those terms. Thus, when MySpace sued a spammer, they won, because the spammer had violated the terms they agreed to.

However, we’ve never “created an account” with Google. We never invited Google to our site. They just assume you want them there (and who doesn’t?) and so they crawl and index the site. But if our site is doing something Google doesn’t like, we have not violated any kind of agreement, and they have no right to take any legal action.

From my perspective, all search engine optimization is a risk/reward scenario. You have to be smart about how you interpret Google’s guidelines, because they certainly have the right to remove your site if you’re doing something they don’t like. But as the owner of the site, you have the right to create it and link to it in any way you see fit (as long as you have permission to put links where you are putting them — more on that in a bit).

Problem #5: What are the real “rules” anyway?

Also, I don’t think that Google’s Webmaster Guidelines are what define the real “rules” of Google. They can’t, because they’re far too vague. The real definition of the rules is Google’s algorithm. The problem with these “rules” is that they are constantly changing as the Google team modifies that algorithm. So what works well today may not work well tomorrow. That’s why it’s so important to diversify your search engine optimization and link building methods, which will help insulate you from future changes that are sure to come.

I can’t tell you how many threads on webmaster forums I’ve read where people are crying that they “did everything right” and Google obliterated their rankings in a major update. So is it really Google’s Webmaster Guidelines that sets the rules, or is it their algorithm?

This behavior on Google’s part has lead some to abandon the “white hat” theory of search engine optimization all together. Personally, I don’t wear hats. Let me tell you why.

I don’t wear hats: white, gray or black.

You’ve probably heard of the three “hats” of search engine optimization. They are generally thought of like so:

1. White Hat - You do everything Google recommends in their guidelines.
2. Gray Hat - You don’t do what Google recommends, but you don’t misuse other people’s web sites for your own gain.
3. Black Hat - You don’t do what Google recommends, and you don’t mind misusing other people’s web sites for your own gain.

The “white hat” is a fantasy, some great ideal held up before people that doesn’t exist. How can there be a true “white hat” when Google does not give specifics in their guidelines, and does not publish their algorithm? Also, since Google’s algorithm is always changing, today’s “white hat” is tomorrow’s “unacceptable practice.” To make matters worse, since we have no specific rules from Google, all webmasters have to go based on their own interpretation of Google’s vague guidelines, so at best the hat is “light gray.”

I don’t like the label “gray hat” either, though, since that assumes that you are doing something “sorta” wrong by ignoring Google’s guidelines, but you’re not. You have the right to build your site any way you want. Of course, Google has the right to penalize or remove your site from their search results, but that’s a quality decision, not a moral judgment.

I do, however, believe in the “black hat” label. Using other people’s web properties without their knowledge or consent for your own selfish gain is very unethical in my mind. An example of this is blog comment spam. Stuffing thousands of comments into unsuspecting blogs in the hope that you can get some back links from those comments when you’ve never even read the blog posts is unethical to me, and I would never engage in such a practice. So I don’t wear that hat either.

The difference between using an unsuspecting blog for comment spam, and designing a site to rank well in Google, is that Google comes to you. Google crawls and indexes your site of their own volition. The blog owner does not come to you and ask that you put comments on their blog for the sole purpose of your personal gain. Google, on the other hand, wants your content and indexes it accordingly. One similarity between the two, though, is that the blog owner can make the decision to delete a comment they feel is inappropriate for their blog, and Google, too, has the right to remove sites it feels are not of the quality they want in their index.

The Bottom Line: It’s your decision.

I don’t believe in the mantra, “it’s not personal, it’s business.” I strongly believe that your personal ethics and beliefs should very much effect every aspect of your life, including your business. That said, there are situations that are simply business decisions. There are risk/reward decisions that every business has to make. “Will this advertisement help me make sales, or hurt my image?” Those kinds of decisions have to be made all the time, and there are good and bad consequences associated with those decisions.

To me, as long as you’re not doing anything that steals links or content from other web sites, search engine optimization is a risk/reward decision, not an ethical one. “Will this hurt my rankings in Google, or will it help it?” There’s always risk involved.

Google used to love reciprocal links, and so people got reciprocal links. Then Google changed their minds and decided one-way links were more valuable, and a lot of those reciprocally linking sites fell out of the rankings. Was Google right in their determination that one-way links are better than reciprocal? It doesn’t matter, because it wasn’t an ethical decision on their part — it was a business decision, and they had the right to make that decision.

Were the owners of those sites who linked to each other reciprocally “unethical”? My opinion is No, because it wasn’t an ethical decision on the part of the site owners either, but a business decision which they had the right to make.

What about being a part of the very successful 3WayLinks network, or writing articles for backlinks, or creating blogs and posting to them for linking purposes, or posting to social bookmarking sites for the purpose of traffic and links? Are those actions “unethical”?

The real question is, “What do YOU think?” Please post your thoughts and comments below.

Source: ethical link building

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Link Building Tips For The Newbie Blogger

Let me ask you a question …

In terms of your online marketing efforts, what have you done to make sure that the search engines recognize you and your target market can find you?

If you have no idea what I’m talking about or, if the answer is “nothing,” then sadly, that’s exactly what you will be receiving when it comes to free web site traffic.

People who do business on the web are realizing that despite the fact that you can purchase traffic though Pay-Per-Clicks advertising, there is a great deal of benefit to attracting the attention of the search engines, from whom you can gain good quality, free, targeted traffic.

If you want targeted traffic from the search engines however, you have to harness the power of link building.

In fact, I’m going to tell you a little story …

Back in November 2007, the PageRank on my blog increased from 5 to 6 and naturally, I was overexcited. A few weeks later though, my blog was back down to a PageRank 5 again.

Now, I know there are all sorts of reasons for the PageRank increasing and then suddenly changing again in a short period of time but I was convinced that there had to have been something I did to lose my PR 6.

Well, after about 4 weeks, I found the problem …

I am registered with Jonathan Leger’s 3 Way Links program and since I was one of the early adopters, I had 250 links pointing to my site just from sites with the 3WayLinks.net system alone and what happened was that I moved my blog and forgot to set up the resources page which displays all of the links and my account was suspended …

250 backlinks wiped in a day!

It’s no wonder my PageRank went down. Google must have thought I was up to no good. I then discovered weeks after this that at the same time, my BlogRush account was suspended because again, I’d forgotten to set up the widget on my blog.

And yes, I expect to receive some comments telling me that losing the incoming links to my blog had nothing to do with anything, but I have tracked the time period and I’m confidently sure that losing 250 back links to my blog wouldn’t go unnoticed by Google for long.

So why are backlinks or incoming links important to your blog or website anyway?

When determining the ranking of your site, the search engines are really only interested in how popular your site is. This popularity is determined by how many sites are linking to you without you linking back to them.

So, by working on good link building you’ll be able to get to the top of the search engine’s list because of the “assumed” popularity of your site. It also means that you can rank highly for a keyword term that doesn’t even appear anywhere on your blog or web site.

If you don’t believe me, go to Google and type in the term “click here.” You’ll notice that Adobe.com is ranked #1 on Google for this search term and yet the term “click here” doesn’t appear anywhere on that page.

Why is this?

Everyone and anyone has a link from their website to the Adobe website explaining that the document the reader or purchaser is about to download is in PDF format and to be able to read the document, they will be required to “click here” and go to Adobe.com to download the free version of their Adobe Reader.

Because of the huge number of links going to Adobe.com, the search engines consider it to be a popular website and has given it more weighting or higher ranking than any other site trying to rank for the term “click here.”

In truth, who would want to rank for the search term “click here” but I use this example to get my point across.

How to you get your links on other people’s websites?

In my view, if you’re a blogger, the first thing you want to do is provide top quality content on your own site and then provide top quality blog comments on other people’s blogs. You can make the task of finding and commenting on other peoplel’s blogs much easier these days by using Comment Kahuna.

You then need to consider submitting good quality articles to articles directories.

You’ve seen sites like Ezinearticles.com and associatedcontent.com and you will notice that on many of the articles, there is a cleverly placed URL at the bottom.

Every article that you post to these article directories is one more link leading back to your site, and what’s more, other people can post the articles they find at the article directories on their blogs or, publish them to their ezine … including yours.

A word of caution when it comes to link building though … avoid using services that promise to broker link exchanges between you and other webmasters. Too often, this can lead to the search engines deciding that you are link spamming and it will penalize you by dropping your ranking which could be more damaging than if you’d done no link building at all.

This is not to say, however, that search engine optimization services are a bad idea. In fact, for many people who do not have the time or the energy to put into link building, outsourcing to an SEO company can be well worth the fees that they will charge in terms of the Return on Investment.

If you do intend outsourcing your search engine marketing though, look for a company that has a good reputation and that come highly recommended. Ask for references, and if necessary, ask to speak to a few of their previous clients. If they’re good, they will be excited to put you in touch with those they’ve achieved good results for … in other words, don’t shy away from being bold and asking. You want to ensure your money is going to be well spent.

Article marketing isn’t the only way to build links back to your website but it’s a great place to start if you have done little or no link building before. Other options include videos, podcasts and, blogging and if you have the inclination to do it, you can approach other webmasters direct and ask them to link back to your site. However, more often than not, they will not do so unless you reciprocate by linking back to them in return which isn’t as effective nowadays.

For more information on reciprocal linking, see my blog post entitled “Is Reciprocal Linking A Thing of The Past?”

One thing is for certain, link building as a means to getting higher search engine rankings isn’t going to go away any time soon so if you want to get found online, it’s time to start building.