Linking Trends For 2006

[Deliguy]

With the changes rippling through the SEO world that spawned from a stone called Jagger thrown by Google; I predict there will be many changes in the way people start to think about link popularity in 2006. Many new and inventive ideas(schemes) will arise from the ashes of dropping SERPS in hopes of adapting to apparent changes in Google's devaluing of link exchanges and gaining respect for in-content-linking. The following is my predictions for 2006 so no one can ask who thought of it first :)

Link Pyramids
This will be the new world of link exchange directories until the major search engines catch on and figure out a way to stop them. One site joins the program and places a page on their site containing a link to the first site to join. Then another site joins and places a page on their site that has links to the two sites. Then a third and a fourth...so on and so on. That way when you join, you only link to sites that joined before you and don't have a link to you, and every site that joins from that time on links to you, even though you don't have a link to them. The more the link pyramid grows, the more one way links each member gains. The inherit benefit of this goes of course to the sites that join quickly. However the sites that join later when the pyramid is growing much more rapidly gain one way links much much faster. For those of you who don't yet grasp this concept I'll put it into numbers for you. If you are the 10th person to join a link pyramid that gains an average of 50 members a day, by the end of one year you will have gained 50*365-9=18,241 one way links for the small price of 9 links on your site. If you are late to the trend and don't get in until the 100th day, you still get 13,241 one way links to your site by the end of the year, but will probably have to place a whole directory of links on your site. However if you only link to the directory from one location within your site, and lets say for example you pass a PR4 to it, mathematically you will still gain much more PR to your main page from the 13,241 one way links. I'm not saying it's the greatest idea in the world or if it's even possible to get off the ground, but I still predict someone will think of it and manage to pull it off before the year is done. The search engines will have a fit!

Content Directories
This will be the temporary solution to Google's new found love of in content links. Advertisers and Exchanges will start placing directories containing whole pages of content written by the link providers for publishers and/or other members to place on their sites. They will pitch it as, gain content on your site and get paid/gain HIGH QUALITY links of your own. I realize concepts of this are already in practice, but I predict it will become quite a bit more developed before the year is done. Already advertisers are paying publishers to place single content pages on their sites. We are only a hair away from full content directories being placed on sites, and the services being rendered for free.

Article Directories
Boy that phrase Content Is King is really getting pounded into people's brains. Lets face facts: article directories are exploding all over the net. The problem you ask? There's not a single GOOD article submitter. I've done my research on this matter. You may argue that there are ones that work and may even submit to quite a few article directories, but all it will take is one quality programmer to put in some actual effort with a good open source community backing him up before this marketing method completely explodes and search engines will have to start thinking of ways to stop it. Duplicate content?

Google Will Surprise Us
Google will develop a set of algorithms that look at each individual pages on a site. If that page contains over a certain ratio of outbound links to content(pages that are inherantly link exchange pages) the page's ability to give “votes” will be greatly devalued with certain exceptions for authority sites like DMOZ of course. If i see this in the next Google patent I'm gonna sue and buy beer for members of WPW with the money :)

Celebrity Blogs
Com'n...admit I'm right. Small brained, big egoed celebs mesh with technology to allow themselves the power to express to the world what they think about stupid sh*t like politics and society have been a ticking time bomb ever since Rosie Odonald first told us who to vote for.

Any other predictions for 2006?

[williamc]

Article Directories

Actually it took 2 damn good coders and a team of 8 beta testers from seochat and is still evolving almost daily. The site is my signature if you would like to expand your research. :)


Very nice article too :)

[Deliguy]

Wow, I stand corrected :)

*claps*

[Graf1771]

Originally Posted by Deliguy

Celebrity Blogs

too late - here are three of my favourite...

Zach Braff (Scrubs, Garden State)

Moby

Scott Adams

Link pyramids won't work because no-one is going to trust anything with the word "pyramid" in the title.

The big SEO trick this year is going to be bribing insider coders in the big sites to add small, almost hidden, links on the front pages of their sites. IF anyone knows anyone working for msn.com, bbc.co.uk or yahoo.com please let me know! :-)

[IIxxVADERxxII]

No one can know, but the folks who (someone stated earlier) work for them decide what happens. All else simply guess.

[espectations]

I received an interesting invite this week which I think fits in with your theories above - full content pages.....:

"If you would like to contribute to the article above, you may:

a) send us your tip/idea in 40-70 word with a link back to your site,
and we’ll add it to the article above.
b) send us your text link information and we'll write the tip/idea
content for you.
c) send us an original article of 250+ words that will be placed on its
own page which links back to you.

In exchange, we ask that you would place a unique article of ours on
its own page on your site. This article will provide valuable
information to your visitors allowing them to benefit from information
about an industry related topic. The article will be 100% unique and is
subject to your approval to ensure it meets your quality guidelines."

[californiamoods]

I know 2 top execs at msn...I am reading this thread and I am intrigued by your question.

Msn is the honest one of the 3 and wants honest businesses to rise to the top.

What did you want to know?

[DrTandem1]

Originally Posted by californiamoods

I know 2 top execs at msn...I am reading this thread and I am intrigued by your question.

Msn is the honest one of the 3 and wants honest businesses to rise to the top.

What did you want to know?

Yes, I'm inclined to agree with that statement from my experiences dealing with them. I'm not saying that Yahoo is dishonest, but they distance themselves from their users. Google appears to talk the talk, but not walk the walk as of recently.

[Mel]

I have only one rule of thumb when dealing with anyone from Micro$oft -

After shaking hands count your fingers

[williamc]

Actually, Yahoo has always been the most forthcoming in helping webmasters in my opinion. Tim Mayer has always been the first to get together with webmasters and talk about search and issues. That has been the norm for years and years with him. Yahoo is far far better than either MSN or Google at communicating with webmasters.

[freetraff]

Very good post Deliguy! Top A's to you for it.

BTW, was it your own review or did you 'steal' it somewhere?

If it was your own, then you are very up-to-the point with was will come up to the market shortly.

I suggest you opening your own web site Internet Oracle and cut nice bucks. internetmarketingoracle.com is still free, so 'hurry up and buy' :)

I will be your first subscriber to the newsletter on the site.

[digitallabz]

Article Marketing is the new norm of building high quality inbound links.

Submit Article | Article Distribution Services

[Deliguy]

thanks freetraff. Yeah I wrote it myself. I am thinking about starting a (i hate to say blog).........blog. That will introduce people to a new form of SEO and talk about trends in the industry and give some new ideas. Sounds like fun(sorta)

[Deliguy]

On a side note.

I think the problem everyone runs into is the lack of "advanced" articles on SEO. If your a member of WPW, chances are you are at least savy enough to know where to get the information you need. However, there seems to be way too many articles on how to get started. So people like us are looking at our hundreds to a few thousand backlinks wondering "where do I go from here?" You can spend your life reading the infinite beginner articles out there trying to dig out some new information from each one. Thats great and all if all you want to do is compete in a small niche market. What if you want to compete with the big boys like amazon.com and about.com? What if sites with 100,000+ links are filling your top 10? I think there should be a resources out there that gives some insight on breaking that barrier without resorting to black hat practices. Although I am definitely NOT the right person for the job, perhaps I can get it started and get some help along the way. I'll post the url on these forums when I'm finished and maybe you knowledgable guys can get some use out of it, or at least get an idea or two from it.

[Graf1771]

Originally Posted by Deliguy

...I'll post the url on these forums when I'm finished and maybe you knowledgable guys can get some use out of it, or at least get an idea or two from it.

That sounds like a very useful idea. I've found that just trying to use SEO to boost my sites is becoming a lot more difficult, especially as I don't always have the time to follow the newest trends and the latest ideas in SEO practice.

[Deliguy]

I COMPLETED THE SITE!

As promised, I began on the site. The URL is http://www.BlueHatSEO.com

To give the site a good start on the road to helping many webmasters I already disclosed 3 of my top 30 most guarded secrets to SEO. Throughout the year I will be disclosing many secrets of my own, and hopefully will recieve some ideas and article contributions that will help you guys out.

Please feel free to check out the site and let me know what you think by posting a comment. If you have any great ideas or techniques that would fall under the Blue Hat SEO definition please email them to me.

Note: I am also looking for knowledgable people to help me with the site and develop the idea/popularity of Blue Hat SEO.

Outside of my normal tradition. I will not be promoting this site with any conventional methods. I will just post it on a few of the forums I frequent and let it the users help build it's popularity. If the site dies, then so be it. Eitherway feel free to check back often, I will try to update the blog at least 3-4 times a week.
Thanks Guys

[aaron2005]

williamc - What's the percent of duplicate content on your article site?

[williamc]

Originally Posted by aaron2005

williamc - What's the percent of duplicate content on your article site?

Good question. I would actually have to run thru it with a few scripts to see the out-of-site dupes. Then there is the question of "what is your definition of duplicate content?". Some people think that duplicate penalties apply across websites, while many more think that normal run duplicate penalties are in-site only. (I am one of the latter)

Our reviewers check every article submitted and they are all run thru an in-site checker for duplicate content and based on a ratio of duplicated copy either approved or declined. So the in-site % should be rather small if anything.

If I had to guess at out-of-site, i would say about 85% as the entire reason for people submitting articles to us, is to get them distributed across other sites.

[Deliguy]

hey william. I hope you don't mind. I reviewed your site on BlueHatSeo.com.

[Deliguy]

Ignore this post.

[Deliguy]

Ignore this post

[Deliguy]

ignore this post

[Deliguy]

oops. WPW went into "debug mode" on me and had a field day with my post.