The Danger of Using Automated Backlinking Tools?

[KateD]

Hello All,

I'd like to share a mistake I made this week. It involves using an automated backlink program, and the negative effect that it caused me.

Here's what happened:

I have been working for months on a blog in the diabetes niche (I don't mind sharing the niche because I tend to focus on very targeted subniches within a larger niche - still good search volume, much less competition).

Anyway, this niche blog is based around a single keyword phrase. This phrase gets about 250 daily searches, and has competition around 200,000 (more than I usually tackle, but the first page of Google looked manageable).

After proper backlinking and article marketing, I had gotten the blog to the #11 spot in Google's search engine results.

I was one spot away from the first page, and I was just starting to see traffic from it.

I thought that if I got a few more backlinks, that I'd crack the top ten, and then I'd slowly work my way up the first page.

But then I made a critical mistake.

I came across this "backlinking" tool that was suppose to automate the backlinking process.

All I had to do was enter my domain name, and the software would automatically build links on about 3,000 sites.

3,000 backlinks would definitely help, right? No. Not the way I did it anyway.

After about 200 backlinks being created, my inner IMer started to shout at me to shut the program off, which I did. But it was too late.

The very next day my site disappeared completely from Google's search engine results. And it was gone until today.

A week ago my niche blog was sitting pretty at #11. Today it's at #471. Woohoo!!

Just thought I'd share the experience with you guys. Building quality backlinks the right way is awesome. Trying to shortcut the process can end disasterously.

Much Success,

KateD

P.S. Just so everyone knows, I did NO OTHER marketing with that niche blog during the past couple of weeks. The automated backlinking must have been the cause for the drastic change in my rankings.

[Mikedb]

Originally Posted by KateD

Hello All,

I'd like to share a mistake I made this week. It involves using an automated backlink program, and the negative effect that it caused me.

Here's what happened:

I have been working for months on a blog in the diabetes niche (I don't mind sharing the niche because I tend to focus on very targeted subniches within a larger niche - still good search volume, much less competition).

Anyway, this niche blog is based around a single keyword phrase. This phrase gets about 250 daily searches, and has competition around 200,000 (more than I usually tackle, but the first page of Google looked manageable).

After proper backlinking and article marketing, I had gotten the blog to the #11 spot in Google's search engine results.

I was one spot away from the first page, and I was just starting to see traffic from it.

I thought that if I got a few more backlinks, that I'd crack the top ten, and then I'd slowly work my way up the first page.

But then I made a critical mistake.

I came across this "backlinking" tool that was suppose to automate the backlinking process.

All I had to do was enter my domain name, and the software would automatically build links on about 3,000 sites.

3,000 backlinks would definitely help, right? No. Not the way I did it anyway.

After about 200 backlinks being created, my inner IMer started to shout at me to shut the program off, which I did. But it was too late.

The very next day my site disappeared completely from Google's search engine results. And it was gone until today.

A week ago my niche blog was sitting pretty at #11. Today it's at #471. Woohoo!!

Just thought I'd share the experience with you guys. Building quality backlinks the right way is awesome. Trying to shortcut the process can end disasterously.

Much Success,

KateD

P.S. Just so everyone knows, I did NO OTHER marketing with that niche blog during the past couple of weeks. The automated backlinking must have been the cause for the drastic change in my rankings.

Hi,

I agree with you that automatic backlink building is not the best way to go.
Do you mind telling me what the software was?

I would give it a few days to see where you end up.
Doing the Dance right now.

Please report back in a few days.
Would like to know what happend.
If you stay at that position, I will give you a free tip to get it back where it belongs or even higher

So please, wait a few days and then tell us.

Regards,

Mike

[Brad Gosse]

We have all made this mistake. I need to send some of my automation hungry students to this thread.

I was #1-2 for a term that got me 250k daily visitors and I bought a text link and everything went south for a whole year

[Carl-Reed]

Hi Kate, what type of sites were your links being created on?

[adamv]

If that tool is really capable of sending your site from #11 to #471 just use it to nuke all of your competitors.

I'm sorry to hear about your drop in rankings but I don't believe it is so easy to bury a site like that. It would be far to easy to sabotage all of your competitors. Keep building links, wait a while, and I bet your site will come back higher.

[Michael Cruz]

Originally Posted by Mikedb

Hi,

I agree with you that automatic backlink building is not the best way to go.
Do you mind telling me what the software was?

I would give it a few days to see where you end up.
Doing the Dance right now.

Please report back in a few days.
Would like to know what happened.
If you stay at that position, I will give you a free tip to get it back where it belongs or even higher

So please, wait a few days and then tell us.

Regards,

Mike

Yes, it seems logical that you're experiencing the Google Dance. I do hand-submission backlinking and notice that I move around quite a bit. I usually rank #2 most days of the week but once in a while I will be on page 2 or even 3 but I always tend to return within a day or two.

I suspect giving it a little time, you may see better results.

Nonetheless, the best of luck--

Michael Cruz

[Mark Blaze]

WOW i want it!

If it can build 3000 backlinks fast then i want it... what was it called?

All you have to do is point them to an authority site with backlinks and it won't make any difference to your own site at all... in fact it will help it rank higher and higher!

Mark Blaze

[Ron Douglas]

You should have created the automated links for the 10 sites ahead of you instead of your own. LOL

[John Romaine]

I wonder if this proves that Google is intelligent enough to differentiate between "natural backlinking" as opposed to "automated backlinking"

I guess it does... *shrug

[syncjam]

Sorry - are backlinks the same as linkwheels?

[Whosyou]

I am seriouly considering some competitor sabotage by getting some really dodgy links to their sites. has anyone tried this?

Any tips for a budding sabatour!

[thecableguy]

Originally Posted by adamv

If that tool is really capable of sending your site from #11 to #471 just use it to nuke all of your competitors.

I'm sorry to hear about your drop in rankings but I don't believe it is so easy to bury a site like that. It would be far to easy to sabotage all of your competitors. Keep building links, wait a while, and I bet your site will come back hire.

I agree that using off page factors it would be to easy to sabotage competitors, but that seems to conflict with those that say don't build backlinks to fast. Yet I've seen sites with obscene numbers in backlinks get Google top rankings. Could it be that by using automated backling tools (not services) you're leaving something for the searchengines to pickup on? Several autoblogging products mention using a robots.txt to block the searchengines.

[John Romaine]

Originally Posted by Whosyou

I am seriouly considering some competitor sabotage by getting some really dodgy links to their sites. has anyone tried this?

Any tips for a budding sabatour!

Oh yeah sure. You want to perform an SEO attack on various websites on the net, for your own advantage and youre asking us for tips???

Dude, c'mon.

[scottallison]

I have many link automation tools but I always try tp play safe and make sure that my linking campaigns also have a good portion of manual linking.

I go for slow and quality, not fast and quantity...

Scott

[halfpoint]

Kate,

Just about any time you build an excess amount of backlinks your site will jump up and down the rankings and if you keep going with it you'll probably find that it'll come back ranking higher than it initially was.

If it was really possible to just build a huge amount of backlinks to screw a site over and make it lose it's ranking, search engine rankings would be a joke.

I have tools capable of creating tens of thousands of links a day, as do many other people, so if incoming links truly could have a negative effect then no one would be able to hold a decent ranking due to sabotage.

Automation is completely fine when it comes to building links. What's more important than quantity is consistency. It doesn't matter if you're building 1 link a day or 1000, just make sure you're consistent.

Additionally, don't be discouraged when your site "dances" and drops into obscurity after building links. In my experience this is usually a good thing as your site will often come back stronger as a result.

[Heidi White]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

Oh yeah sure. You want to perform an SEO attack on various websites on the net, for your own advantage and youre asking us for tips???

Dude, c'mon.

Exactly, wrong forum.

[Ron Douglas]

Seriously though, I don't think it was the software you were using. It was most likely the surge in links all at once to one page that looked unnatural and raised a red flag. Especially for an unestablished site.

[AverageGuy]

if it is true, then simply use it for your competitor's site. will it kick your competitor off the first page? possibly, it will not. otherwise, it will be a huge problem for SE ranking.

I would say what you saw is possibly a ranking dance. wait for some time, it could be days or weeks, your site will be back in the ranking. at least, it happened to some of my sites.


david

[nikolaaa]

Kate,

What happened to you SERP is that you got in sandbox.
You built too much links in short time without having good "base" for it.
Don't worry - you will come back in some time (week to 3 months).

It would work if you already had big number of backlinks and if domain is older.

If site is new you should make this kind of backlinks over other sites that point to your main site:
- first build properties on high PR sites (blogger,vox...) and link to your site from them
- then use that software for automated links and promote those properties

On that way you are safe and pages with your links are getting more points, so their link to your site has higher value.


But as I said - don't worry.
Just continue working on your site, adding new content and building more links.


Nikola

[John7447]

I have found that Google has been shaking things up the last 30 days.One of my sites that has been number one for three years dropped to 85 for 2 weeks and then came back.I have noticed sites with very few links and PR turning up on the first page, not for long maybe a week or less. I don't think 200 links would be red flag,just because you add 200 links today does not mean 200 are indexed today, my guess it could take 30 days or longer for them to be indexed.

[petelta]

KateD, I am about to send you an PM. I am in a small niche of diabetes as well. Maybe we can cross promote or work something out.

Travis

[KateD]

Hey Guys...

Thanks for all of the feedback. It has only been a short amount of time and maybe the site will come back.

I mean, I know it will because I will keep promoting it and building it. And like I said, I stopped after about 200 backlinks created.

I will definitely keep you posted if the site moves again.

KateD

[KateD]

UPDATE:

I just checked the ranking again for my niche blog and the keyword phrase I'm targeting.

I'm now sitting at position #661.

I'll keep you guys posted.

KateD

[JonMills]

Of course you cant screw with the search engines they are a heck of a lot smarter now days. Plus I can stand spammy backlinkers. No offense but avoid that stuff at all costs its just not worth it.

[ShaneRQR]

Originally Posted by adamv

If that tool is really capable of sending your site from #11 to #471 just use it to nuke all of your competitors.

I'm sorry to hear about your drop in rankings but I don't believe it is so easy to bury a site like that. It would be far to easy to sabotage all of your competitors. Keep building links, wait a while, and I bet your site will come back hire.

^ This.

If there's a software/service that can effectively shoot down sites from the SERP and do so without much effort, the SEO game is about to change.

Now, it'll all be about who can shoot down the competition at the highest rate. Think about the possibilities in less-competitive niche-markets! So easy to rank if all you have to do is drop a handful of competing pages.

[Matt Gannon]

Iv been backlinking my blog slowly and manually and it went from #5 to #191 , I don't know why but its still first page on yahoo and bing.

I'm sorry but it was not the tool that did it .. I have no idea what tool you used but the fact is build a few thousand backlinks will not hurt your ranking. This is a proven fact. I will say it again as I have many times over.

Go do a press release with PrWeb and see dont you get hundreds to thousands of backlinks within hours. This does not hurt your rankings at all, it increases your rankings.

Not to mention there is no program or no system that can track all backlinks, this is impossible. It is also impossible for google or any other bot to be in all places at all times. They would have to monitor billions of websites every single second of every day and they just do not have the ability to do this.

Again no idea what tool you used but saying using automation is dangerous is a false and misleading statement. Most of the time it is the way people abuse the tools.

James

[Mark Blaze]

Originally Posted by KateD

Hey Guys...

Thanks for all of the feedback. It has only been a short amount of time and maybe the site will come back.

I mean, I know it will because I will keep promoting it and building it. And like I said, I stopped after about 200 backlinks created.

I will definitely keep you posted if the site moves again.

KateD

Hey Kate,

Sent you a PM but not sure if you got it or not as i really do want to know what this tool is (and no not to shoot down my competitors i have more constructive thing's to do with my time).

Im guessing it's xrumer but not fully convinced!

Mark Blaze

Originally Posted by nikolaaa

Kate,

What happened to you SERP is that you got in sandbox.
You built too much links in short time without having good "base" for it.

This is nothing but BS ... You can not build links too fast and this has been proven... Sandbox my eye, I wish people would stop with this myth.

I do not care if it is a brand new site, you can build 1,000 links in an hour and it not hurt you. Has nothing to do with age of domain name, what you think the spiders check your registration ?? No they do not.

Anyone can release a brand new site and send out a press release and bookmark that site to 100 bookmarking sites, post articles on 100 article directories, build hubpages and squidoo lens, and post videos on the top video sharing sites.. All in the same day and it will not hurt them one single bit.

They would build thousands of links in this one day and have nice listings ..

James

[Olga Schipilow]

Hi KateD

Thank you so much for this tip.

[dndoseller]

That happened but then the site came back after about 4 weeks.

Who knows what Google is up to sometimes.

My best results are done like this:

1. Search Google for my keyword - like "Acai Berry Diet" as an example
2. Look at each result on the first page only for a "links", "Partners" or "Blog roll"
3. Add the site to my own directory.
4. Personally email the Webmaster, show them their site in my directory, ask for a link back.

Keep searching with different variations like "Acai Berry Directory", etc. and repeat.

I have gotten about a 25% response rate. BUT you have to have a really nice non-spammy site.

This are my best traffic and incoming PR links.

[jasonmorgan]

This is nothing but BS

gotta agree... what we have here is somebody jumping to conclusions and blaming a piece of software.

how long had your site been at #11

SE ranking shifts like this happen all the time.

you don't think all of the black-hatters haven't already thought of this and found that you can't nuke your competitions rankings this way. If this worked I'd be running scrapebox 24 hours a day nuking every site ahead of me.

[whawk57]

This happened to me 3 times in 6 months. No need to back link anymore its going out of trend. On the contrary lesser backlinks with shoot you up to the top. Better wash off all those dirty backlinks . I am much better off without backlinking. Just let it be natural. hahahha.

Peace

[Fraggler]

3000 links? It sounds like one of the tools that submits your site to all of the whois directories online. Your site will pop-up in a few weeks time. Don't be too concerned. Assuming it is this tool, the links won't pass much authority to your site but the tool does help get you indexed fast. The page your link will appear on isn't going to be a bad link neighborhood so she'll be apples in a few weeks.

[zoobie]

@admav yes I do agree with your opinion. If it is that easy to get your site bury with that software, your competitors will be "dead".

Keep building links with the right way and see what happens.

Originally Posted by jasonmorgan

gotta agree... what we have here is somebody jumping to conclusions and blaming a piece of software.

how long had your site been at #11

SE ranking shifts like this happen all the time.

you don't think all of the black-hatters haven't already thought of this and found that you can't nuke your competitions rankings this way. If this worked I'd be running scrapebox 24 hours a day nuking every site ahead of me.

Seriously I wish people would use the brains that God gave them .. It's common sense that building links will not hurt you and there is no such this as "NATURAL" link building..

Sorry to all those that try to push your backlink service by saying "NATURAL" but fact is and yes I said fact is ... No search engine can tell if a link is "NATURAL" or not. They have no idea when it was posted, how it was posted and who posted it.

James

[KateD]

Originally Posted by jasonmorgan

gotta agree... what we have here is somebody jumping to conclusions and blaming a piece of software.

how long had your site been at #11

SE ranking shifts like this happen all the time.

Trust me. I'm no SEO expert, nor do I pretend to be. I just made an honest observation on the ranking of one of my blogs.

Am I freaking out? Hardly. Just gave my opinion on what happened to my blog. I know that in time, it will come back.

It's just that I had been working at it very slowly and cautiously. The only type of promotion I did for that blog in the last couple of weeks was using the automated backlinking tool.

So I am making the assumption that it was that tool that caused my blog to make such a drastic leap in rankings.

Is it dangerous to my blog today? Yes it is. I was just starting to see the traffic from almost being on page 1.

Is it dangeruous to my blog long term? Well, that depends. I know, I know. It's just the "google dance" and it will settle back down after some time.

But who know how long that will be? A couple of days? A couple of months?

KateD

[jasonmorgan]

Your story is changing.

You first posted that you only used the tool once for 200 backlinks and now you've said that it's the only type of promotion you've done over the last couple of weeks.

I don't think you have to worry about the tool.

I think you are experiencing a natural shifting of SE rankings. It happens all the time. I have a site that is playing ping pong at the moment, it drops to the 120's then comes back in the 20's... then drops back to the 70's... then comes back in the teens... then drops down to the 40's... so on and so on... it's playing ping pong with google. I've also had sites that have dropped down to the 500's or 800's for a couple of weeks then bounce back... this stuff just happens.

It could be that your site will bounce back at a higher ranking or it could be that you were receiving that elusive new site ranking bump and now your site has dropped down to where it naturally belongs.

[djleon1]

I always read these threads with interest. None of us know Google's algorithims nor de we know what the heck a google dance is or whatever people want to call it.

If you use automated tools (and god do I) and you blast out say 100 links (or if you use xrumer 5000 links) my experience is that Google doesn't give a rats a@@ about it. Links do not show up instanteously and why would that matter. Think about it - every day there are zillions of new sites put up and some get hundreds of backlinks instantly - say a website dedicated to a upcoming movie is put up every movie/fanboy site links to it and guess what - the site does not do a "dance".

I have never heard an explanation from somebody explaining why these tools should not be used other than to say "manual is better", "quality is better" etc. Has Google published a "quality" link guide or a "natural" link guide? It just confuses me when people say that "natural" links are better.

So then what explains the so called "google dance" - I have no freaking idea - but I also think nobody else has a actual idea - it would take the testing of thousands of sites using different backlink methods to determine what the heck google was doing (and google would have to promise to not change during the test period). It is hard to draw conclusions from one data point (or a handful of sites).

I have built hundreds of links to new sites in a short (really short) period of time and have not experienced any dance. The sites are on the first page and are still there a year later with very little backlinking work done since the first week (ok almost none) of the site being active.

[KateD]

Originally Posted by jasonmorgan

Your story is changing.

You first posted that you only used the tool once for 200 backlinks and now you've said that it's the only type of promotion you've done over the last couple of weeks.

No. My story isn't changing. Both of those statements are true:

I did only use the automated backlink tool once (a few days ago).

It has been the only promotion that I have done for this particular blog over the last couple of weeks.

KateD

[whawk57]

Originally Posted by djleon1

I have built hundreds of links to new sites in a short (really short) period of time and have not experienced any dance. The sites are on the first page and are still there a year later with very little backlinking work done since the first week (ok almost none) of the site being active.

Read your last sentence again.

[djleon1]

Originally Posted by whawk57

Read your last sentence.

I did - care to elaborate?

[Chris Worner]

A GOOD handyman NEVER blames his tools.

It seriously amazes me how people are so quick to jump and blame automation... Millions of people use automation, DUH!!! Guess what google's spider is automated ..LOL!!

Anyways ... Let's get real, for those of you that talk about this mythical google dance and sandbox or this myth about building links to fast.. You seem to leave many factors out.

* Maybe your competition is building higher quality and more quantity than you are and thus your listing is no longer related and is pushed down.... This is natural and has nothing to do with some dance or sandbox.

* Maybe your onsite seo that some expert told you to do is done wrong. Maybe you are keyword stuffing your sites. Maybe and just maybe a site with better on site seo kicked your butt.

There are so many factors involved that it would be impossible to claim some automation software hurt your listings. Google or nobody else can tell how those links was built. That also is impossible as google does not have access to your personal life, servers, computers, and ect...

Honestly this thread title should be changed because it is false and misleading. There is no danger of using automation... Millions of websites and companies use automation every single day. It's called being smart!

James

[Jeremy Kelsall]

More than likely your site is just being "evaluated"...

Your site isn't "gone" - It's not "banned" - It isn't going to slip into the neverworld and never appear again.

More than likely, your site was "stale" with very little or no promotion in the way of backlinks. You started to build some links so Google is evaluating where you site should be.

Give it a bit and it will 99% of the time not only come back, but come back to a better permission.

Manually or automated...what is the difference?

Either way, links are being posted on a site. Do you really think the search engine knows - "oh boy, this person is using XXXXXX software - Time to give their site a slap"....no.

[DogScout]

I never make any back links. Only outsource them. That way they never are created with my IP. May or may not make a difference, but I am a conspiracy theorist.

Speaking of which I am going to need more back linking done soon James. Those you did for me before took the site from more than 9800 (all Google would show) to page 1.
Thanks
Mark

[DogScout]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Google or nobody else can tell how those links was built. That also is impossible as google does not have access to your personal life, servers, computers, and ect...

James

sometimes I wonder about that. If someone using the Google toolbar was on the site when the link was dropped, Sidewiki could have easily recorded the IP of the link dropper.

Originally Posted by DogScout

sometimes I wonder about that. If someone using the Google toolbar was on the site when the link was dropped, Sidewiki could have easily recorded the IP of the link dropper.

Mark,
Sidewiki would have to have actual access to the server logs, which they do not ... Google or nobody else can get access to your server logs because it is illegal. I am sure if google was allowed access you bet your A$$ they would gather the info.

James

[DrewG]

My guess: your site is going to come back at a higher spot in the next few days/weeks

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Seriously I wish people would use the brains that God gave them .. It's common sense that building links will not hurt you and there is no such this as "NATURAL" link building..


James

Actually, it isn't common sense to a lot of people. Not everyone knows everything from birth like you do James.


I am waiting to see the word God in your avatar.