Google and Links Schemes

I've posted before about using Mr. Linky, a rather spammish link widget directed at supposedly increasing backlinks to improve your Page Rank (PR).  Recently a website calling itself NYSILLY Link Farm has appeared in at least one blog advertising network I participate in.  The owner of this site actually left a message on this blog inviting me to advertise.  I let the comment go through but after reading Google's Webmaster Tools went back and deleted it.  Yes the site is currently a PR 3 but when Google realizes it is a link farm they will be penalized affecting everyone linked to them.  Directly from Google's Webmaster Tools:

Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links¹.

The real problem with the NYSILLY site is it does say that Google will index you faster because it is a PR3 site.  What happens when Google penalizes this site?  Your PR is going to drop like a ton of bricks!  The second problem is because the ad is being shown within a trusted blog advertising network other bloggers trust it so they are displaying the ad.  That's not a good thing!

If you care about your PR, stay away from any link schemes including Mr. Linky, NYSILLY and anything similar.  If comments have been left on your blog from any link scheme site, delete them.  It is better for your PR to have nothing to do with any link schemes and that includes running their advertising or widgets!

Garden Gnome
©2009-2010