[fastrealestate]

We have been getting quite a few ABC link trade requests, as a rule I don't take them. Why? I think a 3 way link pattern leaves a foot print that the SE's can and will detect so why even take the risk. It is a very clear signal that your trying to game the system and might just earn you a nasty penalty. A link is a vote and once you get your head around that then you need to consider who you vote for and who is voting for you, the engines consider both sides of the equation. I am going to look harder at our linking stratgey after the recent changes google has made - Links are the currency of ranking well so you need to get quality sites to "vote" for you. When considering link partners go a little further than the toolbar, look at the quality of the site and think about it as an extenstion of your own site. What does a potential link partner bring to the table for your users? The whole link situation I think has moved even further towards synergy / quality.

[Jason Painter]

If I understand this correctly, its kind of like this, say you own two different sites, A and B. You talk you friend C into doing a one way link exchange to your site A and you in turn give him one from site B. I can see no way that this would be anything other than a positive trade. How would the search engines know any of this was related if they even cared?

C gives one way link to A

B in return gives one way link to C

I just I don't understand where there would be any way to detect this, less yet penalize for it. I'm no expert though, anyone else have any opinions?

[Eric Blackwell]

Fast;

I am in agreement with you.

Yes, it DOES in fact leave a "footprint". If you did only one, it might not leave much of a footprint, but in any appreciable quantity, it would. B has to get it's link love from somewhere...it isn't going to just be the donor otherwise its authority gets diluted... and three ways become detectable pretty readily IMO.

Best;

Eric

[Jason Painter]

Originally Posted by Eric Blackwell

B has to get it's link love from somewhere...

I was thinking that if you were the owner of site A and B you would just flip flop the giving and receiving with your next link partner.

[judyo]

Jason, I have more than 2 sites so I can really get creative. However, Matt Cutts has demonstrated with his laptop that he can easily find 3-way links. I don't understand how but I guess if you do it enough a footprint is created.

[Jason Painter]

This is just a guess, but I think the link exchange I was describing is a little different than this scenario, which most folks think of as an ABC link trade:

A links to B, B links to C, and C links back to A. Now in this case it is kind of like a webring or whatever, I can see this one getting found quite easily.

I still think the way I pointed out earlier would be hard to find but I'm not an expert.

[fastrealestate]

The fact is that it is not worth the risk - because it sends such a clear signal of intent. It's very 2005 ...

[36towns]

I have an algo of 15 website network, linking to each other without any "footprints". Each having 4 outbounds and 4 inbounds. figure that one out