Do Linkwheels Still Work?

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I remember reading about linkwheels as a legitimate ranking strategy years ago but haven't heard much about it lately. Do linkwheels still work to help your web pages rank better for your keywords, or does Google see them as manipulation and consequently doesn't give them much worth anymore?
#search engine optimization #linkwheels #work
  • Many people are still not clear of what a linkwheel means.

    Linkwheel works if implemented correctly. If you have many links pointing to one website then that is not a link wheel. Search engines are clever enough to understand the intention.

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    • I agree with your looks about link wheel, it is the best way of promoting your site in a white hat way.

      Thanks!
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      Opinions will differ, Laura.

      Two things I can tell you factually (though they're only factual reports of opinion) ...

      (i) The members here who have previously worked on search engine algorithms have all always said in earlier threads about this that linkwheels recognisable as such don't and won't work at all;

      (ii) The authors of the standard, widely accredited SEO textbooks say that linkwheels recognisable as such don't and won't work at all.

      And three more things which are my own opinion only ...

      (a) Some sort of vaguely link-pyramid-ish structure which additionally includes some randomised cross-links may work;

      (b) There certainly won't be any downside or "Google penalty risk" to trying anything like this on a "home-made/manual scale";

      (c) Call me a skepchick, but in a forum in which so many members sell/promote linkwheels as part of their SEO services, it may be a little difficult to gather objective information, and with no disrespect to anyone, the consensus of opinion may not be an altogether independent one.
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  • Peramid Linkwheels are working good these days and still you have to use your mind not to leave any foot print. I have purchased private proxies to creat linkwheels and for other link building stuff that seems more natural to search engines.

    try to post 3-4 articles in your web 2.0 to make it natural.
    any thing else you want to know ?
  • Maybe, only google knows for sure, imo.
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  • Anything that is not grey and black hat
    will forever work.
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    • if your manufacturing links, writing articles for self serving links... heck any backlink you generate is grey hat at least
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  • Link wheels will most certainly have some effect. Whether or not Google's algorithm can pick up on them is up for debate. I can all but guarantee that they'd be easily picked up during a manual review, which could get your site deindexed.

    Justin Briggs had a nice article on SEOmoz regarding link spam detection. You can check it out here: Better Understanding Link-based Spam Analysis Techniques | SEOmoz. It might provide some valuable insight.

    That said, I agree with most of what Alexa said in this instance. Pyramid-style links with some cross linking (maybe 5-15%) would be ideal. Don't be afraid to link your main site to a one or two of your supporting sites, either. The idea is to create as large of a web as possible. Avoid bottlenecks.
  • Hmm, I'm not sure I even understand what a link wheel is. I guess it's links in a circle which point to your site and each other. I usually write articles, then make links to those articles from social bookmarking sites, maybe linking sideways, as well as in a line to my site. I guess that's a link pyramid with cross linkng. Generally, if it makes sense to you as natural, then it makes sense to Google.
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  • Great info everyone, thanks for the insight.
  • Linkwheels will work if they aren't too direct, you now have to create sub linkwheels within the main linkwheel leading back to your site. It is almost enough to make your head spin. LoL
  • In my own opinion, since the time of Google panda update it is not working anymore.
  • meh, they still work, would you want your sole linkbuilding to be just link wheels heck no.
  • Although keyword is low competitive. after panda effect i build some link wheel for my site with some spoke. i keep my site on Primary link wheel target & now my site is on the top on SE.
  • yeah, still works. Links are links. Treat it like that
  • I do not sell SEO. What I do is I use link wheels on a small scale and it definitely works for long tail keywords - and unique content.

    Then again, I am pretty sure any type of linking with unique content would work anyway.

    I'm not sure what people talking about sometimes. If you mean spammy, useless pages with spun content/machine-made gibberish in a link wheel then I don't know if that would work or not. Probably not but then again any type of spammy link scheme is dubious at best anyway.

    What I do is like this, for example:

    Post on money site < Short Blogger post with link and pics < Livejournal post (posting to journal and LJ community where actual people read it < More blog posts, different websites, Squidoo, Triond (some unique some not) < Forum posts/forum blogs
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      Well, please excuse questions about what you've said, Lyanna, but ...

      (i) How do you know, and what makes it so "definite"?

      (ii) Why would the fact that they're "long tail keywords" make the slightest difference? You're surely not suggesting that if Google's algorithm sees the highly detectable footprint of a linkwheel, it stops to analyse the keywords in question and then thinks to itself "Oooh, well, this linkwheel was built for a long-tail keyword with low search volume, so we'll count all the backlinks involved here and not disqualify them"?! How on Earth could this make any difference? Please excuse the interrogatory tone, but you're really making a very remarkable assertion, here. To put it mildly, it's extremely difficult to envisage either why or how that could possibly be the case, isn't it?

      (iii) Why would the fact the content involved is/isn't "unique" be relevant in any way? Again, for this to be true, it would have to be the case that the linkjuice value of a backlink would depend on whether the content to which it's attached has previously been published elsewhere online! This is something which even people selling spinning software don't allege. It's a really inexplicable claim, if you think about it, isn't it?
  • Linkwheels are still one of the best ways to build links to a site. But don't ONLY use linkwheels, obviously.
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    Do Linkwheels Still Work?

    I remember reading about linkwheels as a legitimate ranking strategy years ago but haven't heard much about it lately. Do linkwheels still work to help your web pages rank better for your keywords, or does Google see them as manipulation and consequently doesn't give them much worth anymore?