Half’s SEO Notebook

I’ve been spending the last couple weeks checking out posts in Google Webmasters Help. One thing that these posts keep hammering home to me is the fact that there’s a huge gap between what’s being posted on SEO forums and reality in cases where either people are not allowed to link drop or they choose to keep their URLs to themselves. And right now I’m getting a kick out of talking about real sites instead of theories. Even a simple question like “why is my site not indexed?” often lead to unexpected answers.

A random example (just fished this one out a few minutes ago):

“I’m very confuse now, before August, my site got PR 4. But around August, my site PR drop to 0.”

Without a URL, typical responses might be:

• Maybe you’re banned. Check to make sure your site is clean. You might want to do a re-inclusion request.
• The little green bar doesn’t matter; don’t worry about it.
• Check urls that are linking to you. Changes in their PageRank will effect yours.

But the moment the guy posts his url, I have something I can sink my teeth into: http://games.monx007.com/ What do you think?

Inbound links, according to Yahoo Site Explorer:

http://technohack.blogspot.com/ TBPR 0
http://www.klubforbiz.com/info-kerja-penawaran-kerjasama/t-offline-jobsvacany-at-telkom-963.html (forum - no connection) TBPR 0
http://www.friendster.com/user.php?uid=7459848 TBPR 0
http://www.womensshoescritic.com/links/games%5B99%5D-1.htm TBPR 0

Interesting. Hidden text using CSS fontsize=0em.

http://www.ringcards.com/resources/recreation%5B8%5D-56.htm (directory) TBPR 0
http://www.myrtle-beach-sc-vacation.com/metro/recreation%5B3%5D-12.htm (directory - now dead) TBPR 0
http://www.cellphoneswow.com/links/recreation%5B8%5D-52.htm (another similar looking directory) TBPR 0
http://archive.freespaces.com/ TBPR 0

What’s this? Links pointing to all his subdomains click-proofed with external JS? Real slick.

http://www.lake-tahoe-local.com/partners/games%5B143%5D.htm (games directory) TBPR 0
http://www.shohouyaku.com/links/playstation%5B43%5D.htm (another crap directory), TBPR 2
http://www.yellowsurveys.com/resources/index176.htm (crap directory) TBPR 0
http://www.paid2lotto.com/links/recreation%5B8%5D-10.htmm (dead link) TBPR 0

A few things that stand out:

• Alot of TBPR 0s (doesn’t mean those pages were penalized though. I didn’t check their backlinks or see whether they are supplemental).
• No “natural” citation links. Low quality links, including hidden cross links, forum sig, and cheap directory listings.

Especially the cheap directories look too much alike when you compare their url structures:

resources/recreation%5B8%5D-56.htm
metro/recreation%5B3%5D-12.htm
links/recreation%5B8%5D-52.htm
partners/games%5B143%5D.htm
links/playstation%5B43%5D.htm
links/recreation%5B8%5D-10.htm

If the guy didn’t supply the URL, we’d still be talking about a “sandbox” or “trustbox” or whatever-else-box. BTW, I have no moral qualms about “outing” a crap network or a lousy link building campaign. Robbers don’t out each other, but I’m no robber. As The Clash used to sing:

YOU BETTER CHEAT CHEAT
NO REASON TO PLAY FAIR
CHEAT CHEAT OR DON’T GET ANYWHERE
CHEAT CHEAT IF YOU CAN’T WIN