Why it is not advisable to participate in Meme or Link Schemes

It is well known that to achieve higher page rank for search engines like Google, it is important for your site to have many inbound links that link to your site. This is because your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. However, for some, in order to achieve more inbound links, it is common for many webmasters to participate in meme tagging or link schemes like Technorati train, Alexa train and many more. Some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites.

According to guidelines by Google Webmaster for participation in link schemes, it is considered to be a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links

Solution

Sometimes, it is good to decline to participate in any meme tagging or link schemes. Even though you may gain more inbound links to your site in a short period of time, but excessive linkings from non-related sites will eventually lead to negative impact on your site’s ranking. The best way to build your page rank is to create good content and allow your readers to discover your post naturally. (You may refer to my previous post on “Everything you need to know about Linkbait : The Comprehensive Guide“)