New Shady Link Schemes From Black-Hat SEOs

Mentioned in Marketing Land post, Tony Edward’s client received an unsolicited email in which he claims that a person named “Nicholas Salmons” offered him to feature their business on Huffingtonpost.com with a do-follow link for a fee of $550. He also claimed in his email that he is the only marketer providing this service at an affordable price.

Google considers link schemes to be an attempt to fool the search engine algorithms. If lower-quality content can rank high just because it has amassed a high quantity of backlinks, that is not a great experience for the user. So Google strives to rank quality content that will meet user needs.


Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link.

This is not the first time it has happened. I am actually surprised that this type of activity is still happening, given how many Penguin algorithm updates have been released. And if you’re familiar with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you would know that some people actually fall for this, hoping their website presence in Google might improve.

But let’s be honest over here, it does work sometimes (not that I recommend it) but if you’re caught using black-hat tactics, no matter how authentic your website might be, it will still get penalty. And nobody wants that, right?

Not only I suggest not only to ignore these tactics but to report them as well. Who knows you might actually save someone from getting scammed and their website being penalized.

Don’t be tempted by “too good to be true” SEO offers

When it comes to spammy link building, there are two types of penalties that can impact your site: algorithmic and manual. An algorithmic penalty occurs when your site loses rankings as a result of an algorithm update – in this case, Penguin. Webmasters may be able to restore rankings by getting rid of spammy backlinks before the next Penguin update, but that is not a guarantee. In any event, you should take steps to remove or disavow spammy backlinks.

An algorithmic rankings demotion is bad, but it is not as devastating as a manual penalty, which can cause your site (or some of its pages) to be removed from Google’s index entirely. Essentially, someone on the Google Spam team manually reviews your backlink profile and places a penalty on your site. To remove a manual penalty, you must work to remove or disavow spammy backlinks and then file a reconsideration request – a process that can take weeks or months.