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Old 04-23-2008, 09:19 AM
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kgun kgun is offline
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Default Re: Can inbound links really hurt you?

Quote:
Originally Posted by crankydave View Post
Precisely the point. They can't. They can't "know" whether or not a link is paid. They "guess" and act upon that "guess", based upon a pattern.

As I said earlier, algorithms, bots, filters, etc. are not intuitive. They can't "know". They don't consider what "makes sense". They don't "think" (not yet anyway). They can't assign "no value" to a paid link, they need webmasters to do that, what makes you, or anyone else for that matter, think they can assign "no value" to any other link "automatically"?

A pattern is a pattern. When that criteria is met, it is acted upon automatically. Doesn't matter why the pattern exists. "Why" cannot be automatically discerned.
Have your ever programmed? Some patterns are identified better by statistical / mathematical algorithms (Bots) than by human observation. But identifying bad IBL's is not an exact science. There will never be a "perfect" world.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter (IMC) View Post
I completely agree with Dave. It is possible to get your competitor's site drop in rankings by doing really bad link building for their website. Everybody agrees that doing link building the wrong way can hurt your rankings, and I think everybody would agree also that Google can not know who's responsible for the backlinks that a site has.
Natural question:
Drop in rankings because a prior positive effect is zeroed out (neutralized) for one reason or another?

What would the implication be if you could destroy a competitor's business by establishing bad IBL's links to that site? Wouldn't that be the start of the end of the internet (some companies with deep pockets taking over the internet). IMO that would also be the start of the end for that Se. Zero (neutral) weight of IBL's (votes) is IMO the only viable option.

Last edited by kgun; 04-23-2008 at 09:31 AM.
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