SEM Scams: Link Bait and Switch

Links are a critical component of ranking well in organic search listings. They are also one of the most difficult parts of a search engine optimization (SEO) program. Some SEOs will offer a quick fix and guaranteed results to improve a client’s rankings with their link-building programs. Oftentimes the campaigns deliver positive results at first. But in the long term, the client is usually left with a hefty bill to pay and no quality links to show for it. What happened?

Quality links from quality sites are hard to come by without effort. They require extended efforts to build, and the approach to achieving a long-lasting quality link can be manual, tedious and very time intensive. At the very least, it is an ongoing effort; not a one time, quick-hit activity. For example, if you are a marketing agency, a link from top university marketing departments would be valuable. It would provide a credible link from a credible institution. It also will help you generate traffic directly from the link as students, faculty and business leaders will visit the university site and likely click through to the links presented on that site. As you can imagine it would take time and extensive relationship building to receive these types of link.

On the other hand, to speed things up, some SEOs build out a network of their own sites against different industry verticals and place links to their clients on those sites. When a client contracts with these SEOs, they will immediately receive some guaranteed number of links, properly optimized, pointing to their site. It always sounds like a good deal. And sometimes it can be. The challenge comes when the client evaluates the long-term implications. When the relationship with the SEO ends, the client’s links are usually taken down and rented to the client’s competitor. All your hard work and money spent goes out the window.

The bottom line is that these types of linking relationships are essentially paid sponsorships where the client is renting space on another website in hopes that they will receive more traffic via the search engines. While there will be some SEO benefit, as with many advertising deals, all clients should look to project the expected results of these paid sponsorships against other paid sponsorships. They could be effective for the client, but it is important for the clients to come to the table with a complete understanding of what is included and not included in any SEO deal.

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