Woah - calm down mate. Link Animosity!

18 replies
Had a very irate email from a webmaster for a medium sized business saying that I am causing irrevocable damage by linking to their site from an article I had written which had been submitted to a blog (it was a very positive article and in no way was detrimental to the company)

I cannot go into details but this person was spitting blood claiming that it is undoing his hard work in SEO and marketing his company's website.

What is that all about?

Are you not allowed to even link to people these days.. :confused:

Is this paranoia after much press about recent google shenanigans.
#animosity #calm #link #mate #woah
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
    I say go ahead and link, and don't worry about it.

    If they threaten to sue, then that's a different story.

    Perhaps it's being naive, but I don't see what the big deal is. Maybe you could respond and explain how you're actually doing the company even more good with your praise than they are with their unstable SEO tactics (and most of them are unstable).

    All the best,
    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author Thomas Michal
      Originally Posted by Michael Oksa View Post

      I say go ahead and link, and don't worry about it.

      If they threaten to sue, then that's a different story.

      Perhaps it's being naive, but I don't see what the big deal is. Maybe you could respond and explain how you're actually doing the company even more good with your praise than they are with their unstable SEO tactics (and most of them are unstable).

      All the best,
      Michael
      I do seo for people, and some people get worried that you are going to post negative links to drop their ranks. However, it doesn't sound like that was your intention, and as long as you didn't post the link in a straight up content farm or anything you could have possibly helped his serp.

      Ask him if he does this when a happy customer leaves a testimonial raving about his business and links back? Or does he not have any of those...
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  • Profile picture of the author GarrieWilson
    Tell him to just wait until the blog post/article about how his SEO services are killed with a link.

    Garrie
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  • Profile picture of the author Guru4u
    Originally Posted by rankingconsult View Post


    Is this paranoia after much press about recent google shenanigans.
    I'm guessing yes. Unless the blog is part of a dodgey network,
    there is really no reason for him to fret.

    If it's your blog, I'd remove the link.. otherwise let him
    send the takedown notice to the blog owner.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
      Tell him "Welcome to the Internet and why SEO is an uncertain pisser".

      ...or something to that effect.

      Daniel
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      • Profile picture of the author rankingconsult
        Originally Posted by Daniel Evans View Post

        Tell him "Welcome to the Internet and why SEO is an uncertain pisser".

        ...or something to that effect.

        Daniel
        I like this one..

        For the sake of harmoney I would have removed it immediately, of course.
        However, his attitude and tone was outrageous, rude and uncalled for.

        He must be under some hefty pressure.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ismael Zarruqui
    It used to be that sites linking to yours couldn't harm you !! then Google's "ZOO" Update came to fool every Seo "expert".

    It's up to you to remove the "low quality" link, maybe they will pay you to remove it ..
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  • Profile picture of the author Alan Petersen
    Just be a good citizen and remove the link. For whatever reason they do not want your link. A lot of sites have been penalized by Penguin.

    Maybe he/she got hit hard and is now doing a backlink audit. Right or wrong, they don't like your link so they went through the process of contacting you. So be nice and remove it. Karma.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Would it cause a dramatic change in your business to unlink to the site? If not, then just remove it and let the guy swim in a sea of ignorance.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fredbou
      I had always assumed that a request was made to a site owner before you placed a link from your site or blog and that you request a reciprocal link at that time. Isn't the benefit in having 2-way links? It's part of good SEO to have both, not just have backlinks to your own site.

      I think as a site owner it's good to know where your links are coming from and making sure that they are not poor quality sites, especially the way that Google is at the moment.

      Please don't condemn a site owner because they don't want your link. It's their prerogative, surely? Quality is in the eye of the beholder, after all.
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      • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Fredbou View Post


        Please don't condemn a site owner because they don't want your link. It's their prerogative, surely? Quality is in the eye of the beholder, after all.
        Ummm....no, it isn't their prerogative. What I do with my site is MY prerogative. If they don't like it, tough. They don't get to tell me who I can and can't link to unless they want to pay me for that privilege.

        I cannot go into details but this person was spitting blood claiming that it is undoing his hard work in SEO and marketing his company's website.
        If your description is accurate, I'd tell him to jump in a lake, and maybe hint that I was going to post the same article on another blog and hit him with a duplicate content double whammy, lol.

        There's a right way and a wrong way to do things. Ask me politely and I'll do what I can to help. Email me "spitting blood" as you put it, and what you want me to do is the last thing I'm going to do.
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      • Profile picture of the author ArcherWylde
        Originally Posted by Fredbou View Post

        I had always assumed that a request was made to a site owner before you placed a link from your site or blog and that you request a reciprocal link at that time. Isn't the benefit in having 2-way links? It's part of good SEO to have both, not just have backlinks to your own site.
        I was under the impression that reciprocal linking is not nearly as effective for SEO as "organic" one-way backlinks.

        I believe the trick with link-building is to make it look as natural and "viral" as possible.

        Trading links with another website could be viewed as a "linking scheme" according to Google's TOS.

        Link triangles are a little bit harder to track down though...
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  • Profile picture of the author imchillin
    oh wow.... a spitting blood irate email all that over a link? Some people don't know how to talk to ppl these days, sheesh!
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    • Profile picture of the author ArcherWylde
      This is surprising because many people concerned with SEO use Google's Webmaster Tools which allow the verified site owner to disavow any bad links anyways...Bing offers the same which covers Yahoo too.

      I'm also surprised he took the time to send the e-mail versus just having Google ignore the link?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tony Humble
    Banned
    Don't bother until they send you a cease and desist. WHen they do, remove the link, but not before.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Silvey
    Originally Posted by rankingconsult View Post

    Had a very irate email from a webmaster for a medium sized business saying that I am causing irrevocable damage by linking to their site from an article I had written which had been submitted to a blog (it was a very positive article and in no way was detrimental to the company)

    I cannot go into details but this person was spitting blood claiming that it is undoing his hard work in SEO and marketing his company's website.

    What is that all about?

    Are you not allowed to even link to people these days.. :confused:

    Is this paranoia after much press about recent google shenanigans.
    My brother and I had the same issue over a financial site we own. Same scenario. I went and checked all our published content and no outbound links to their site was found. I chopped it up as a pissed off competitor, cause I use sniper tactics to rank keyword phrases.
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  • Profile picture of the author brentb
    Put up a blog post with his email contents so everyone can see how obnoxious he is and add a few links to his site in there with dirty anchor words lol

    just an idea...

    *I am not a lawyer and by no way does this constitute as legal advice. Please speak with a lawyer regarding this before you take action... lol
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  • Profile picture of the author mosthost
    Take it down. Help him remove all his backlinks! He's guaranteed to float right to number one with that SEO strategy
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