What is a Link Scheme?
Update: Google has a new help page describing link schemes.
When I am describing the Google webmaster guidelines, one of the most common questions I encounter is “What is a link scheme?” and also “What is a bad neighborhood?”
I explain both of these in my description of the guideline that mentions these terms…
To see more about this guideline please visit my Avoiding link schemes page.
July 19th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
When you talk about reciprocal links - does it only count as a reciprocal link if it’s completely unrelated to your site or what ?
Say you have your site on topic x that has links to other sites on topic x who also link back. Surely that’s not bad in G’s eyes?
July 20th, 2007 at 2:46 am
A great way to look at it is to ask yourself, “did I put this link on this page for a user?” Would I have made this link if search engines didn’t exist?”
If you have a new website and most of your links are reciprocal (even if they are topical) then you are in a bad place.
It is hard for people to see, but for new websites, you are much much better off to have no links than you are to have poor quality / risky links.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Fair enough.
Thanks for the advice.
August 13th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Hey Pat, nicely put and you were the first to recognize this help page. BTW you’ve created a new niche “poker cats”, do you make money with it?
Another term for the opposite of a natural links is artificial link.