Followed Links from random forums, is it worth?

[comercialroldao]

I have a competitor that apeears first place in Google with a certain keyword, i explore their site, and they have a lots of forums poiting to their page.

What they do is, just go to a random forum, comment some threat and they put the anchor in sig, with that keyword, linking to their page.

Well, from what i read in SEOmoz articles, Google its no supose to penalyze this pages? Because thoose are pages (forums) that dont have nothing to do -subject- with the page that apears in first place?

Its a good practise? Should i do the same (x2) to get the first place in google?

(Sorry for my English)

Thank you.

[saibose]

Well, A strict No No there on that practice. Your competitor would have issues in the long run. It seems quite easy to get folks to comment and it is aimed at "gaming" the google ranking algorithms. That practice would surely fall prey to Google webspam team one day. Its best not to tread that path at all. (by the way, Mattcutts- head of Google webspam, is one of seomoz's users...hope he gets to read this post and suggest algorithmic changes)

[MikeTek]

Hi Tiago,

All public statements by Google and by white hat SEOs are going to call this a dirty, worthless tactic.

The reality is, many dirty tactics still work - and this is one of them.

Glen Allsopp from Viper Chill, by any definition a successful affiliate marketer whose central strategy is SEO, touts a tool called Bookmarketing Demon as one of his secrets to success. The tool automates the social bookmarketing process, creating many low-value links with very little hands-on work. And it works, according to Glen.

[Edit: I should say it works for sites in low-competition verticals. You're not going to rank for competitive keywords with these links.]

Now, the question to ask yourself is this: how important is my website to me?

There is risk here. Google may burn your site. How likely is that? Hard to say. But if they do, and the site represents your core business, you're in trouble. If it's a thin affiliate site you can live with losing, that's another story.

Personally, I stay away from these tactics - but I'm not riding on a high horse. Moreso my SEO work has always dealt with properties I couldn't afford to risk.

You're going to see more tactics like this working for competitors. Link buying, for example, is still massively successful for many organizations. J.C. Penney was just "outed" for this, but they're a big, visible company. Many of the mid and low-level properties have been profiting for years off a link-buying strategy.

Google will never squash all of these sneaky tricks (there will always be loopholes), but they always catch a few and penalize the ass out of them. Unless you're prepared for the possibility that you'll be the one they catch, I don't think it's worth the risk.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

If there is one thing I have learnt it is to steer well clear of anything that is not completely white-hat (ethical) because Google pops up now and then and surprises everyone - Look at the recent changes with 'Panda' and the sites they are going after there!

There is no long term substitute for a well designed site with fresh, unique content that is easy for visitors and search engines to navigate.

Regards,

Andy

[comercialroldao]

Thank you very much guys!

What about the directories? Its bad to my site be on a directory, or Google knows automaticly that my link is on a directory website and will not penalise for this? (becasue the subject of the pages arent the same)

[KeriMorgret]

Just wanted to leave a quick note saying that SEOmoz has upgraded our Link Directory! You can view a post Cyrus wrote with more information about the directory update and link building via directories at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-link-directory-best-practices