The death of high PageRank homepage backlink networks

14 replies
  • SEO
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I have found a very interesting article today about high PageRank homepage backlink networks .

I want to put here to find out your opinion about it .. It is simply blilliant. I have the same idea for some time.

I will put here just a few lines and give you the link to read entire article :

While the title of this article may sound dramatic and probably got your attention, the question posed above is certainly true for those network architects and owners that do not understand Google fully. In recent times the rise of the homepage backlink networks (HPBL) has obviously caught the attention of Google and as of last month (February 2012) is now officially public enemy number one of the "Big G" too. The most recent algortithm updates have put into effect a major change in linking signals which probably should have been put in place a very long time ago. And I am going to tell you why these networks are a target. They simply work. They have been one of the most effective methods of gaining rankings over the past couple of years. Unfortunately though, 90% of these networks have some very fundamental mistakes that make them glaringly obvious and extremely easy to find. And this is something I have been predicting to happen for sometime now. I have been privy to a lot of these networks. I have seen them popping up all over the place. I have helped people set them up correctly. I have been part of the beta testing programs for some of the largest networks available. I find them every single day when doing competition research for my clients. And I am going to tell you that 90% of them all make the same mistakes.
I like to call these networks "bigfoot" networks. Why? Simply because they introduce a massive footprint to backlink structures which is a big problem and mistake in any link building campaigns. If there is a footprint, they can be seen, tracked down and identified and they will be removed from Google's index, therefore making them completely useless for SEO purposes and more than likely causing some form of collateral damage and penalties along the way. I have seen many websites that completely rely on this type of backlink. There are so many problems with this and I think this would require another article in the near future purely discussing link building strategies.
So what are the things that cause a footprint? Below are some of the biggest mistakes I have seen and personally go out of my way to completely avoid myself.
1. Lack of "geographical" IP address diversity
2. Exact same outbound links on each site
3. All "Dofollow" links
4. All WordPress themes
5. Thin page content with minimal number of pages
6. No advertising or revenue sources visible on the pages
7. Lack of media files and images
8. No Analytics or Webmaster installed
9. Not having private domain registration on every site
10. Spun content instead of unique hand written, readable content.
11. Provide link reports listing each and every website in their network.
12. Interlinking between the sites within the network.
You can read it entirely here : The death of high PageRank homepage backlink networks (HPBL


What do you think about it ?
#backlink #death #high #homepage #networks #pagerank
  • Profile picture of the author LiftMyRank
    I wouldn't call it the death of them at all.......only the weeding out of the weak hands....happens in every industry at some time.....this is no different.....half ass doesn't cut it anymore in SEO, you either do it right or not at all...
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  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    These links have and will continue to work.

    The only difference is as time goes on it will be harder to find these networks as they will be driven underground and be more secretive in an attempt to not get deindexed by the big G.

    As John Moore said, the weak will just be weeded out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kreative4
    I wouldn't call it death. It is time to develop and use your own niche specific network
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Below are some of the biggest mistakes I have seen and personally go out of my way to completely avoid myself.
      1. Lack of "geographical" IP address diversity
      2. Exact same outbound links on each site
      3. All "Dofollow" links
      4. All WordPress themes
      5. Thin page content with minimal number of pages
      6. No advertising or revenue sources visible on the pages
      7. Lack of media files and images
      8. No Analytics or Webmaster installed
      9. Not having private domain registration on every site
      10. Spun content instead of unique hand written, readable content.
      11. Provide link reports listing each and every website in their network.
      12. Interlinking between the sites within the network.
      Well he got it mostly right but he has a few serious misses. Where in the world does he get #6. and number #8 from? No way on this planet I put all my network sites in Google analytics and ton loads of sites out there have no advertising.

      Networks will survive but long term the only ones that are viable are the ones that are more expensive and private. A network really cannot go totally undergound . If its going to rank sites its going to be right there in backlink profiles to check but it has to look perfectly natural. So in order to survive and have any long term chances at longevity they will have to take on less clients resulting in less links per page and they will have to put a whole lot more thought and reasonable content into their network. With less customers and more work the only way to stay viable is to charge customers much more. Plus as #11 states its going to have to go away from links as a commodity and look more to rankings because giving every one that signups a list of the link locations is just asking for trouble.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Although I understand where this is headed, some things are just ignorance:

    1. Lack of “geographical” IP address diversity
    Do I really need to explain this one???

    2. Exact same outbound links on each site
    No site has the same number - never - cause each one approves, deletes, misses some posts...

    3. All “Dofollow” links
    Like 99% of the internet?

    4. All WordPress themes
    Like 99% of the internet?

    5. Thin page content with minimal number of pages
    Article writer must be dumb, All these networks use lots of "content".

    6. No advertising or revenue sources visible on the pages
    Like 70% of the internet.

    7. Lack of media files and images
    Like 50% of the internet.

    8. No Analytics or Webmaster installed
    Ahhhhh This is a good one. Only badly informed people will use again anything like that. Remember the stress last year with people getting dozens of sites ripped cause they shared analytics/webmasters tools accounts with 1 (ONE) weird site?

    Analytics or Webmaster NEVER AGAIN.

    9. Not having private domain registration on every site
    Now I know author article is really living in a different reality. Do we need to discuss this one? Or do we have to explain him millions of people use the privacy feature, and another millions NEVER used it?

    10. Spun content instead of unique hand written, readable content.
    Ahahahah... omg, this is getting funny now...

    11. Provide link reports listing each and every website in their network.
    Like.. this is a kindergarten and we're playing GI Joe?

    12. Interlinking between the sites within the network.
    These networks don't interlink anything dude, and even if they did, that IS NOT their problem, or their major footprint.

    Fact is: Google could nuke 80 or 90% of top networks right now. But they need to avail and tweak their algo accordingly, otherwise they could be hitting their own foot leaving pure spam/**** on top results, all right?

    And they don't want THAT. That's why they pre-test their moves weeks/months in advance, so when a change comes, they KNOW what they'll get in their search engine.

    Again: they could nuke all these networks today - but they won't, until they can fit/tweak the algo with new rules.

    Same ol, same ol.

    Ask anyone in this business for 10 years and you'll see our answers: who gives a foink about it? It's the usual rat race. Now it's "networks". Before was "forum profiles". Even before that was "footer links"... and so on.. and so on...

    Rat race.

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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post

      9. Not having private domain registration on every site
      Now I know author article is really living in a different reality. Do we need to discuss this one? Or do we have to explain him millions of people use the privacy feature, and another millions NEVER used it?

      Actually Fernando I think you might have misread that. He was saying that they didn't have Private registration (As to whether that is true or not - I don't know anyone that builds networks that does not know to do that).

      You cannot skip private registration on most of your network sites. An open and public Whois record would be a footprint unless you were going to falsify the data in it which would legally also put your domain names at risk.
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      • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
        Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

        Actually Fernando I think you might have misread that. He was saying that they didn't have Private registration (As to whether that is true or not - I don't know anyone that builds networks that does not know to do that).

        You cannot skip private registration on most of your network sites. An open and public Whois record would be a footprint unless you were going to falsify the data in it which would legally also put your domain names at risk.
        Hi Mike, gotchya mate.

        What I am saying is, registration details is the smallest of their (network owners) problem regarding Google. And people can legally have dozens of different registration details.

        Point is: big G allows them to live for now UNTIL Google decides they have all the data ready to dump these networks while keeping their search engine "looking good" and without replacing "some bad stuff" for "even worst bad stuff". It's not a matter of IF, it's a matter of WHEN - and it looks this is the year of all dramas for these networks.

        Meanwhile, people have to keep in mind this is a "loop". What gets kicked NOW will be back (potentially) somewhere in the future. Which means... some stuff that got nuked sometime back is now working again.

        Rat race.

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  • Profile picture of the author technog33k
    There is a lot more to this article than what is posted within this thread. The points listed above only lead onto the rest of the article. The points that are listed there are the "common elements" across a lot of these networks and are things that Google can easily see. I think reading the rest of the article may actually give people an idea of what the exact point the author was trying to get at..And I think a lot of you here, including those that own and operate SEO network would probably agree with the point of the entire article not just the bits that are listed here..I don't think there is anything in the article that actually says you "should have" analyitcs/webmaster, advertising or revenue sources on these sites. But those are common elements across a lot of theses networks and just introduces other ways that Google can link these sites to each other other than the linking/ anchor text footprints..
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    This is nothing new.

    Linkvana got hammered a few years back as well.

    I cant see anything changing soon.

    These networks will continue to build new networks, and Google will continue to take them down.

    Its up to the individual to make the decision as to whether or not they want to be caught in the middle.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimmyn
    It's mainly because a private link network won't remain private for long, no matter how many steps you take to make it look natural. Once you've sold links on it it's out there and open to abuse.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
      Originally Posted by jimmyn View Post

      It's mainly because a private link network won't remain private for long, no matter how many steps you take to make it look natural.

      Totally false. If that were true then any site that sold links would be deindexed and let me tell you FAR more is spent each year in SEO with people and companies buying individual links than with any network. IF you do much online then there is probably not a day that goes by where you don't visit a site that has paid links.
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  • Profile picture of the author bradudan
    I guess it could be a different strategy of building the network ... More complicated ... some pyramid structured ..

    If you got it....

    1. Lack of “geographical” IP address diversity : this already a problem ... but with a few buck could be solved!!

    2. Exact same outbound links on each site : with pyramid approach you can easy pass that

    3. All “Dofollow” links: this is tha biggest mistake these days... But Scrapebox fix it..

    4. All WordPress themes : does not really matter .. put different themes.

    So .. we are live again ..?
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    Not dead. Just evolving. After every update some people shout about about the "death" of something, while others evolve and move on.
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  • Profile picture of the author joetheseo
    I quit reading after the first paragraph.

    BS propaganda. My 100+ unique C Class high PR network still alive and kicking, passing the same juice as always.

    100% of the domains are on Unique a/b/c-class (alternating), however a large chunk of them have the same Nameservers as I did not make them private. (All have WHOIS guard of course...)

    Some of these domains have blatant spam links in the middle of paragraphs from when I was still a newb at link building too.

    I just checked and 100% are still indexed.

    Yawn* more propaganda weeding out the newbies. I love Death of SEO threads, they only inspire me to make more cash. :rolleyes:
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