Inbound-only links

[ragman]

Today I received a solicitation for a link exchange with another site, not really related to mine, so I declined. But on investigating, I noticed some interesting things.

For one, the solicitation included links to the site's homepage, to the "directory" page where my link had already been added, and to a link builder utility to modify my link.

The directory page was on a subdomain "directory.website.com" and I was wondering if using a subdirectory would affect pagerank by not having outbound links from the main directory of the site.

Of course, when I went to the homepage of the site, I found no links at all to "links" or "directory" pages.

And best of all, when I clicked on the link in the signature, to the SEO firm doing the link campaign,I found that they boldly advertise their strategy of creating large numbers of inbound-only links! Are many webmasters so gullible as to exchange links with a site that really provides no link to them?

Bill

[crankydave]

Are many webmasters so gullible as to exchange links with a site that really provides no link to them?

Yep, it happens. Many folks quick to pull the trigger to link for linkings sake rather than take a bit of time to explore the potential site and see what, if anything, it has to offer.

Dave

[Mel]

I believe it was P.T. Barnum who first said:

"There's a sucker born every minute"

Its at shame that so many so called SEO sites seem to have taken it up as their motto.

[clasione]

There is tons of these spammy empty sites going online every single day, and yes, some people just don't know any better, so they eventuall wind up getting a decent amount of inbounds from these types of campaigns..

These spammy sites are going to get filtered though...

It is imperitive for the se's to find a good safe way to get rid of them. They are just clogging the engines with useless link filled pages.

[ragman]

Originally Posted by clasione

There is tons of these spammy empty sites going online every single day, and yes, some people just don't know any better, so they eventuall wind up getting a decent amount of inbounds from these types of campaigns..

It's not that the site itself has anything wrong with it, it's a very straightforward site looking to sell its product. But they've hired someone for SEO that promises inbound-only links to improve their page rank, so their entire link directory is on a subdomain that's not linked to their main site.

The SEO company promises the link partner an "exchange", but in reality the link is from a page that can't be found from the main site.