Back in July, I wrote an article about link building and since that time I’ve done a lot of research but also had some negative results on my blog that has made me rethink the whole 3 way linking strategy.
I suppose the question isn’s so much “Is Link Building Unethical” as much as it should be “Is It Acceptable To Google,” and the other search engines for that matter?
First of all, let me go over my history of using a three way linking strategy on my blog:
I was one of the early adopters of 3WayLinks back in July 2007 and in a few months, my blog went up from a PageRank 5 to a PageRank 6 and, as you can imagine, I was ecstatic!
Weeks later, it went back to a PageRank 5 and after weeks of scrathing my head, I discovered that having moved my blog to a new server, I had forgotten to add the resource link to the bottom of my blog which displays all the sites I was linking to in the 3 way links network and, without my knowledge, I was kicked out of the network.
So, I thought, Google must think I’m playing games here … 170 links here today … 170 links gone tomorrow. Of course it looks suspicious! Even I would ban me! Okay Google, don’t take that as red! 
I of course added the link to the bottom of my blog, sent a support ticket to the team over at 3waylinks.net and I was now back in the network.
A couple of months on and my blog has now gone down to a PageRank 4! It hasn’t been that low for what feels like an eternity.
Now, I’ve no doubt I’m going to get comments like “why should you care about PageRank” and, “PageRank doesn’t matter anyway.” Well, you keep thinking that … it matters to me!
But that aside, the only thing I could think of (and that’s not saying it’s correct) was my three way linking strategy.
What Is 3 Way Linking?
For those of you who may not know what a three way linking strategy is, it’s a system that uses a method of linking where site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links to site A, like this:
Therefore, rather than one site benefitting from a one-way link, all 3 sites get what Google sees as a one-way link to their web site.
This also differs from the old reciprocal linking method, where site A links to site B and site B links back to site A, a strategy which Google seems to no longer value.
The power of linking three ways is that Google sees each link in the 3-way link exchange as a one-way link
and gives it the same full ranking value of a one-way link.
So the story goes anyway. And, I say story, not to discredit the validity of 3 way linking, but more to question whether this really is an acceptable strategy by Google.
Well, over the weekend, I spoke to a good friend of mine Srini Saripalli who had implemented a 3 way linking strategy to one of his blogs which, in a short period of time, lost it’s PageRank entirely.
So naturally, this not only got me thinking, it got me worried and so I searched the Internet for information on whether this strategy was good or bad and of course, you have the extremist on each end of the scale … those who bless the day 3 way linking was born and those who curse it.
But the most interesting site I came across was a page on … Google’s Webmaster Central. Whilst the article is mainly in reference to paid links, Matt Cutts makes it clear that “Google’s official quality guidelines have advised “Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank.”
I personally now believe that 3 way linking is one of the very schemes Google is against since ethical or unethical, it is a scheme designed to increase your sites ranking or PageRank.
Now, I’m also going to say this …
“The Proof Is In The Pudding.”
Not a technical blog term I know, but had I not been slapped twice by Google, I would have had no cause for concern and, in the past when other sites were moaning, Google was loving me!
If you’re asking why my blog went to a PageRank 6 initially, I think my only logical explanation is this:
Google hadn’t caught on to the 3 way linking strategy I’d implemented back then and just saw each link as a one-way link. It’s also interesting that my second “slap” followed shortly after I’d published my article about 3 Way Linking. Did I hand it to them on a plate? Did I expose myself to Google? Who knows!
The Google Bots may not be that intelligent to spot the linking strategy but Google uses human eyes to spot violations of their guidelines too.
Anway, yesterday, I cleaned up my blog.
I removing my blog from both three way link networks I had participated in and, I also removed the links pages on my site.
Not sure what the consequences of my actions will do just yet since Google may think I’m playing games again, but the view I took was “do it now and start building your site credibility with Google again.”
I understand there is a place at Google’s Webmaster Central where you can write to and ask specifically why your PageRank has decreased but I haven’t found it yet and have been looking for weeks. If someone knows where the link is, I’d love to hear from you.
In the meantime, I’m sticking to practices that build my links naturally. The tortoise won back then and he’ll win again!!
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A bit of a basic tutorial today, for all those who keep seeing and hearing about this RSS stuff but don’t actually have any clue what it’s all about.
