Is this blackhat or acceptable for SEO?

[Amber Jalink]

Hi all, I rarely post, but this has been nagging at me a little.

For those of you who do the article writing/submissions to OTHER sites (other than your own blog)...

do you or do you not emphasize keywords in your articles by bolding them or hyperlinking some of them? (That is not a real hyperlink, just a colored word to show you how they are appearing).

I'm not talking about your sig file - I'm talking the article itself?

Reason why I'm asking: I want to know if this is considered BlueFart or totally acceptable?

I run an article directory, and we screen most articles submitted to us. (I have my admin do a lot of it, then I go back in and follow behind to ensure he didn't miss any garbage

Anyway, when I come across these kinds of articles, it irritates me a little to see it happening in some ways because it's blatantly obvious that they're linking (90% of the time anyway) to a product - sometimes / sometimes NOT related to the article. (When not - it gets deleted instantly).

*Yes* I recognize that the purpose of articles IS to lead people to (usually) products or blogs, but from my standpoint, this often just looks spammy. (In my opinion, at least since I've been doing this for over 12 yrs now, product links SHOULD be in the sig file, especially when its an affiliate link).

Is this something I should just say "ok" to and let them through, or should I be continuing to delete them?

I do NOT want to risk suddenly losing my PR and getting banned because of a few people who are doing something they shouldn't be. Note: I don't do a "lot" of seo - we get tons of organic traffic to begin with so it's not so much a ranking issue unless its considered abuse.

Thoughts?

Amber
PS - not sure why it changed my words to "bluefart" but I certainly didn't put them there! Perhaps a better phrase was "Iffy".

[__internet__]

You shouldn't bold or put a url for any of them. Most article directories don't allow links to be posted in the article content anyway. They only allow it in the resource box. It's actually rare to find some that allow it. They may allow bolding, but I don't think it's worth trying. It just gives the people that approve your articles a reason to not accept it.

[Amber Jalink]

Thanks - I was thinking URLs shouldn't be allowed.

I'll ensure my admin continues deleting them.

Amber

[Steven Carl Kelly]

I submit articles to directories which allow linking in the body of the article. The SE's don't segregate where a link falls in an article, whether it is in the body of the article or the resource box. A link anywhere on a page is a link, as far as the SE's are concerned -- there is no algo to rank a page lower because a link appears in the "wrong place".

I tend to feel that directories which allow two links, one in the article and one in the resource box, are more writer-friendly and more likely to get my interest in submitting to them.

[Amber Jalink]

Hi Stephen,

I have never had a problem with "one" link in the body of the article and one in the sig file.

My problem is, that the ones doing it are (very high majority above 95%) putting 3-5 keywords hyperlinked in the article, sometimes even more.

Now, if the article is reviewing sites, (i.e., suggesting where people can submit their ads or articles at), and they're including a list of sites (like Wordpress, Blogger, Google, etc), that aren't affiliate OR redirects, then I'm totally okay with those as it serves the purpose.

It's just when its abused by 2 or more. (Well, frankly it also depends on how well the article is written - you guys wouldn't believe the junk that comes through!)

We delete typically a good third to half of the articles that come in daily just because they do whatever they can to break the rules... change the date/time ahead 12 hours (or even days) to attempt to be at the top... put the URL as their name, put the URL as the title or even filename (DUH!), not to mention putting the articles in blatantly wrong categories, spoofing the summaries (totally different summary than article body), Oh I could go on and on LOL!

But for the linking... I knew I'd get some good responses in here - and its helpful to get several opinions. Thanks.

Amber