Should You Buy The Next Shiny SEO Ebook?
I’ve been buying a lot of ebooks and have only lately (again) decided to stop falling for their nastily persuasive sales pages anymore.
While I do agree that not all of these authors are just out for the money, it’s becoming harder and harder to pick the real ones from the frauds these days.
There’s one ebook, for instance, that I purchased recently, which talked about backlinking strategies and a method to keep one’s site off google’s radar. By “keeping off google’s radar”, they meant staying just under the surface so as not to be noticed by google in terms of the backlinking method used. They implied that google has set algorithms in place that will automatically get you punished if your site happens to violate them e.g. spammy backlinking methods, etc.
While I don’t necessarily write these theories off as crap, because some of these actually happen to be sensible and seems to be actually being implemented by Google, I have second thoughts about believing some of them right off as factual.
These authors write as if they have inside information or have actually tested their theories. Again, some may have actually ‘tested’ their theories, but may not really be exhaustive enough to stand Google’s algos in the long run. I mean, they probably test their theories for a couple of months, at most three, and then take any changes to the rankings as the final absolute and reproducible result.
Backlinking Methods
One of the backlinking strategy being taught as Google-proof is as illustrated in the image below:
The above strategy is supposed to be so stealthy google won’t notice the ‘manipulation’.
[note]I believe all of Google’s algorithm changes has all been attempts made for the sole purpose of preventing manipulation from the SEO masters in the serps.[/note]
The thing is, all these claims (including mine) are speculations. Getting some particular results after a 3-month experiment is not necessarily conclusive or even ‘scientific’ enough when it comes to the serps, considering that search engines make micro changes to their algorithms every so often.
With regard to the backlinking strategy illustrated above, this may probably work in a way. But to believe the author’s claim about google’s punishments if you don’t follow the technique is just going overboard.
I personally know some sites which, with the help of software such as Market Samurai, I found, are not using this strategy and are still among the top 5 in their chosen keywords. In fact, the sites are using forum profiles as its primary backlinks source, all shamelessly pointing directly back to it.
Again, I cannot make claims here. Perhaps, Google’s algorithms take time to spread all over the worldwide web. Meaning, some sites are yet to be processed by its spiders. Perhaps, google’s robots are not that super fast after all. Perhaps forum backlinks still work as long as it is not robot generated. Perhaps, google is using a human army of evaluators this time. Perhaps, backlinking is overrated. Perhaps….
I can only say perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Had I the guts to say otherwise, I’d be making quick money writing and selling e-books and WSOs myself.
Have you any observations that actually go against what the SEO masters are saying but are actually working for you?