"High PR" Profile Links - Are they losing their juice?

[bhuff85]

Hey everyone,

Just like the title says...Do you think profile links are losing some of their juice in Google/Yahoo? I've had some people think that this might be the case, but since I know many of you use this method to build up links, I thought I'd see what you all thought about this.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by bhuff85

Hey everyone,

Just like the title says...Do you think profile links are losing some of their juice in Google/Yahoo? I've had some people think that this might be the case, but since I know many of you use this method to build up links, I thought I'd see what you all thought about this.

I hate to be the "bad cop", but please try the search function. The same thread is coming up each and every day. We can only answer the same question so many times before we lose our mind.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by bhuff85

Hey everyone,

Just like the title says...Do you think profile links are losing some of their juice in Google/Yahoo? I've had some people think that this might be the case, but since I know many of you use this method to build up links, I thought I'd see what you all thought about this.

Hi Bhuff85 as I understand it you aren't asking for historical data but recent news that you have heard. Searching won't necessarily give you current information.

There is some truth to it and we all need to make adjustments. Vbulletin announced just recently that it was implementing nofollow tighter into its software so its not just Goolge doing some tightenng up. I still use them of course but they are a first step for new sites. Nothing beats them for getting going. I think though that people are depending on them for the long term and thats not good.

To have staying power you need to build a presence that gets natural backlinks even as you use profile linking, comments and articles etc.

[Shaun Lee]

I'm using profile links and they work just fine.

-Shaun

[bhuff85]

Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin

I hate to be the "bad cop", but please try the search function. The same thread is coming up each and every day. We can only answer the same question so many times before we lose our mind.

I hate to interfere as well, but after doing some searching on this forum, I still wasn't able to come up with a good, solid answer, so I figured that I would ask. If you've already "answered the question before", why did you even bother coming here in the first place? I'm looking for answers to a question, not inviting people to rant. Do that somewhere else, please.

[Marakatapolis]

I think only websites that have been backlink bombed will lose juice, as they will just go nofollow or whatever. Some webmasters just don't know, don't care, or are too big to bother with profile links (unless they are absolutely spammed to hell with dozens of links).

So I guess yes and no would be my own answer, and that is just from common sense as I am pretty ignorant of advanced backlink/seo knowledge/experience.

To me, it's common sense, if one site gets thousands of people building backlinks to them, then one day they may shut off the link juice. However, there is no way in reality that "all profile sites" will "lose their link juice" one day. I guess it's possible Google could do some sort of smart algorithm change, but even then I still don't see how they would be smart enough to really know THAT well which sites are profiles and which aren't. Or maybe they really are SkyNet and in that case, quite IM and move to Crystal Mountain, because we are all dead already. No fate but what we make.... unless Google is SkyNet that is.

Like I said, I'm no expert, but diversifying your backlinking sources and types seems like common sense to me, as they say, "don't put all your eggs into one basket".

In my opinion, creating content that is "link bait" worthy quality, is probably the only "sure fire" way to guarantee links now and into the future. The rest is just what's working RIGHT NOW and you WILL need to adapt, maybe not this week, but often going on down the road, many times.

I think that is just reality and the way the world works.

[webdango]

I run a vBulleting forum with a 5 PR. I recently upgraded to vB 4 and immediately noticed a huge change:

In vB 3.8, ALL members showup up through the browse members link.

In vB 4, only mebers with at least one post show. THat means for profile links to wokr, you now have to sugn up, do you sigm adn post at least one post that doesn't get deleted.

I run my board with an iron fist. Even in 3.8, I used to go through every few months and delete members older then 30 days who didn't have posts. And my mods are very quick at wacking BS posts.

So if you're going to be using vB4 for profile,
create the profile woth no sig
make a legitmate post or two
let the posts age a few weeks
go back in and add the sig

[bhuff85]

Good mix of answers here everyone! I definitely agree that those sites that get bombed with links go no follow or stop accepting registrations altogether. I think this happens primarily with Angela's/Paul's packets. I usually don't get to them until a couple weeks after they are issued, and by that time, about half of the sites are either no follow or have stopped accepting registrations or have taken out the sig option, etc.