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Backlink Footprints

by swords
12 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I would like to see everyone's insight on backlinking footprints. I'm not talking about your own (or other) blog networks, etc. I'm talking about backlinking such as articles, forum profiles, bookmarking, web2.0.

Will/Can Google devalue (or even sandbox) you for backlinks created using the same username and/or email?

The biggest question I would have is... what about forum platforms. Let's say I use a program to naturally post to one single forum platform - maybe even changing the usernames every 2-10 websites. Will Google see all these forum profiles with some repeating usernames and be like

"Obviously this person is getting backlinks solely from forum profiles - there is no way they are that active on this many sites. And, coincidentally, it's all on the same forum platform!!"


Looking for some suggestions and comments. Thanks a bunch!

P.S. - I am asking this because I want to use one forum platform to get backlinks to my site, and that's about it for my backlinkg efforts (it's a small micro niche blog). Would I maybe be better off backlinking to an article first, then the article to my blog? Or will the easy competition of a micro niche keyword be easy enough to rank with forum profiles from one platform?
#backlink #footprints
  • Profile picture of the author Steven Miranda
    It is not an easy question for ANYONE to answer unless if they work for Google. My opinion is that is pretty difficult to tell at this point but they are getting better every day. The key with SEO and link building in general is to try to keep a natural link profile. Build links from many sources as much as you can and do it in a consistent manner.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaverickUK
    Google is clever, but don't forget that it's just a machine. It's unlikely (note the word unlikely) that it will notice these patterns, but it's not a risk I take, I always alternate username every 10 or so profiles, just to make sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author swords
      I've ranked an Amazon website of mine up with 90 PR4-PR8 backlinks on the same username and the same forum platform all the way to #2 - now it's at page 3 #1 about 3 months later. I'm not sure if that's because the Panda update caught my backlinking structure or what, but it was sitting at #5 for at least 2 months (and #3 for a month)

      However, I did not make anymore backlinks besides those 90, but I don't think it'd drop me that far because of that.

      (My website is whitehat optimized - a legit Amazon review site)
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  • Profile picture of the author kkchoon
    I agree hiding your backlink footprint is a long term work. So far I've created a lot of profile links with the same username, but they still stay and my ranking is high.

    I'm using different email domains, I don't use free email account to create profiles, but I think Google can't really track the email part, but stop forum spam does trace that!

    Google won't risk penalizing the username that create those profiles, I think there are too many similar or same names out there, if Google does that, I think more bad than good will do to their search engine!
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    • Profile picture of the author swords
      Originally Posted by kkchoon View Post

      I agree hiding your backlink footprint is a long term work. So far I've created a lot of profile links with the same username, but they still stay and my ranking is high.

      I'm using different email domains, I don't use free email account to create profiles, but I think Google can't really track the email part, but stop forum spam does trace that!

      Google won't risk penalizing the username that create those profiles, I think there are too many similar or same names out there, if Google does that, I think more bad than good will do to their search engine!
      What would your comment be on building solely forum backlinks from the same platform/username as the ONLY link building process?
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      • Profile picture of the author kkchoon
        Originally Posted by swords View Post

        What would your comment be on building solely forum backlinks from the same platform/username as the ONLY link building process?
        Lately I found that if you spin unique content to your profile, you'll still gain high ranking for fairly competitive keywords, even with minimum to no mix of backlinks, but I haven't test this thoroughly, and the result is exciting as this is not comply to usual mix link type advice.

        One of my link indexing case study does review that Google gives a lot of credit to unique content link: Nuclear Link Indexer Review and Case Study
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        Powerful Indexer That Makes Your Backlinks Count ==> Nuclear Link Indexer

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        • Profile picture of the author swords
          Nice case study. Would be nice to see the same study done with no other backlinking methods mixed in - results might be very interesting. But the actual fact that you went up after doing only forum profiles is still impressive.

          Were all the forum profiles from the same platform? Or which platforms were they on?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Jason
    I did not see any problem with footprint for my sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author swords
    Anyone else have any insight?
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  • Profile picture of the author Caleb12
    I don't think it takes this into account due to there being so many different usernames possible. I definitely thing though that you want to get links from websites with different IP addresses because if all of your links come from the same IP address that is suspicious.
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  • Profile picture of the author RevSEO
    You won't have a problem using the same username, but the real question, if you are this paranoid about it why not change up your usernames on future/current projects?

    Will Google devalue your links because they use the same username? Highly unlikely.

    Will competitors have an easier time identifying your current and new backlinks that are being built? Yes - and for that reason alone I'd diversify your usernames.
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