Hi I wanted to clarify whether what I am describing is a link wheel and is this black hat ?

[AllieMc]

There is a SEO company that is creating a page on each of their clients' sites called 'pages of interest' or 'links'  they then list all their other clients websites - using a variety of their keyword phrases as anchor text as well as a brief description.  But then in the footer of these sites the SEO Company are also putting a link back to their own website using a variety of keywords such as SEO, search engine optimisation,link building etc and linking to their home page.  At the moment the SEO company are ranking really well for their search terms.  I thought that this was really quite 'dodgy' as the only two things that link all the clients are -(1) that they are all clients of this one firm and (2) all the websites come from the same country - no theme, or related industry at all. The clients that I have spoken to were not even aware that the company had put the link back to their site in the footer which in itself is pretty sneaky

[JohnW-UK]

Dodgy and risky as hell!!! If the sites have nothing in common and link in time it will all fall apart. At this stage I think it's risky but probably getting away with it....

Go on rat on the company or at least private message me the name... I'm curious

[AllieMc]

Thanks for the response I really thought it was. What gets me is that they are continuing to rank highly at the expense of their own client's who really don't know the first thing about Seo.. Will pm the name

[JohnW-UK]

Send the PM - I'm curious - I want to analyse their site. Plus what are the sites you are comparing i.e. yours and their clients....

[gcdtechnologies]

Totally agree, even if they seem to be getting results at the moment it's not sustainable and will likely do far more harm than good in the long term. Give this SEO company a wide berth!

[matbennett]

It's not what I would call a link wheel. However it certainly does demonstrate the intention of building a network of sorts. Sadly quite a few SEO firms (including some quite large ones) do this. What is really bad is that they don't tell the clients that they are effectively abusing their websites for them either. Really underhand tactic if you ask me. I don't think that the "white hat / black hat" thing is particularly useful. It's over simplistic and makes our industry sound childish. However these are not links that have editorial merit, so you would think/hope that they don't pass authority. It is also a clear case of trying to manipulate pagerank, which is against google quality guidelines. As such it would seem to be putting the host sites at risk. Oh... it's really damn easy to spot as well.

[McTaggart]

Exactly the reason I don't use (or trust) SEO agencies. I've seen this, I've seen blog networks. You name it...

[matbennett]

That's like not trusting builders, or cab drivers, or in fact anyone because there are bad ones out there.

There are plenty of agencies that don't use such tactics. There are others who will use tactics from across the spectrum, but ensure that the client is able to make informed choices based on risk v reward.

[McTaggart]

I agree Mat, but it's difficult to tell who is who. Client worked with a big name in the world of digital marketing. They checked references, put in place a carefully worded contract (phew!) and (thankfully) I had the knowledge to identify a well-hidden blog network, and secure link takedown. The SEO industry needs an aggressively policed quality standard, in my opinion.