Style Guide - Avoiding Bad Links

• Also watch the Mahalo Greenhouse training video: Recognizing Good And Bad Links
  

[edit] Spam Blogs

• Spam blogs, or splogs, are blogs that appear to have original content or useful information about a particular subject, but are in fact simply scraping, or stealing, their content from another site or blog. Mahalo never knowingly links to splogs.

• Some splogs might create their own content with the intent to advertise something. These blogs will appear to be blog posts and commentary about a concept, product, or service, but will be funded by or linked to commerce sites. The information on these blogs might be useful, or it might be one sided. It is best not to link to anything that is trying to sell you something.
  • Tip: The official blog of a product, service or company is acceptable to include
  • Here is an example: Hawaiian Noni Juice

[edit] How To Spot A Splog

• Splogs can be difficult to identify at first glance. Many will appear to be legitimate, but here are a few ways to tell if the blog is in fact worth linking to:

1. Click around the blog. Look at multiple entries and see where the links take you.
2. Look at the "about" or "profile" section. Is this blog by an actual person with accountability?
3. Notice how long the blog has been in existence. Most blogs have an archive section on the side. If a blog has been active for only a few months that is usually a bad sign.
4. See how many posts have been made, or if there are any comments. If there have been one or two posts in the last three months, you probably don't want to link to this blog. If there are absolutely no comments, again, not a good sign.
5. Look at the ad placement. Are the ads obtrusive and distracting? Can you distinguish what is an ad and what isn't?
6. Examine the layout. Is it a generic template, or has someone spent time on personalizing the site? Beware: flashy graphics or layout don't necessarily equal quality.
7. Type the URL into Technorati and check its ranking. Is it a good resource linked to by other good blogs?
8. Finally, if the content seems like it is taken from somewhere else, or you just want to confirm that it hasn't been, do this test. Take a unique sentence and search for it, in quotes, in a mainstream search engine. If you get more than one hit, you will be able to see where that content has been published elsewhere online.

[edit] Further Reading About Splogs

• Mahalo's Guide to Splogs
• Wired: Spam + Blogs = Trouble (2006) | How to Fight Those Surging Splogs (2005)

[edit] Advertorials

• Advertorials are ads that appear to be legitimate news or editorial commentary. They might seem like informative and useful pages to link to, but are in reality paid-for advertisements. Mahalo never knowingly links to advertorials.
  • Tip: Advertorial-heavy verticals: Health, Travel, Products, Food
  • Here is an example: PlasticSurgery.com: Cosmetic Surgery Addiction

• To learn more, visit Mahalo's guide to Advertorials

[edit] How To Spot An Advertorial

• Advertorials are inherently designed to look like impartial news or editorial content, and can be difficult to identify. Use this check list to help you spot and avoid them:

1. What is the host site's mission? If it is selling a product or service, then their content could be skewed.
2. Does the page have many highlighted or underlined words that link to external sites or internal pages with ads or sales pitches on them?
3. Does the content appear anywhere else on the web? To find out, search for a sentence from the page in quotes on a mainstream search engine and see what the results are.
4. Are there conspicuously placed ads or can you not tell what is an ad and what isn't?
5. Who is the author of the piece?
6. Is one particular product or service being mentioned repeatedly throughout the piece?

[edit] Telling A Good Link From A Bad One

• When evaluating a link for inclusion in your serp, it is a good idea to consider the following criteria:

1. Where are the ads, if any, placed on the page? Are they on the sides or bottom, or are the stuck in the center of the content?
2. Is there more original content or more ads on the page?
3. Where does the content begin on the page? If there are only ads in the top quarter or top half of the page, we don't link to it.
4. Are the ads distracting or is it difficult to tell what is an ad and what isn't?
5. How is the page designed and laid out? It is acceptable to link to pages that have below standard layout and design if the content is terrific. It is not okay to link to a slickly designed page that has no content. Ideally, we want to link to sites that look great and have great information to offer.
6. What is the page's Alexa ranking? In general, we don't link to sites that get very little traffic. Downloading Firefox and the Alexa toolbar is an easy way to keep tabs on the traffic of a given site. If the page rank is higher than 100,000, it is probably safe to include the site on your serp.
7. If the ads are of an inappropriate nature, don't link to the page.

[edit] Final Thoughts

• The ideal "good link" is helpful to the user, has original content on a well designed page with a sensible amount of easily identifiable ads.

• If you are on the fence about a certain link, leave it out. If it is worth being included, then a user will recommend it and it can become a part of the serp over time.

• Remember, it is always better to have a shorter serp with every single link being of extremely high quality, than to have a longer, lower quality serp!

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