Now, I see this forum, marked "Relevant Link Exchanges", but actually, I get the feeling the forum really promotes spam.....

Why you may ask? Well, lets see......

I jsut got an email forwarded onto me from seokid@seo-guy.com asking for a recipricol link. Now aside from the fact that recip links seem to be causing problmes in places (I suggest you go and have a read of the Cre8asiteforums to find out about some of that), its not relevant to my companies business.

Ok, we sell software, and this email was spamming me asking about linking to sites about software. But we're a little more specific. We are the biggest reseller of Education Software in the UK. Yeah, thats EDUCATIONAL. i.e. we deal with schools and Local Education Authorities, not web masters and people who continue to use IE and need spyware removers.

Oh and a quick note, althought you're trying to tell me, a guy who's been a moderator at said Cre8asiteforums for 2 years, I don't even think you're right.

"Linking with our sites which we feel are very relevant from a search engines standpoint to your own will allow you to dramatically improve your search engine rankings, traffic and thus sales."

And, uh, yeah, so people finding our site, who are actually looking for things like mod_rewrite or a spyware remover are REALLY going to want to be presented with a site selling software for schools. So though we may see some increase in traffic, I doubt our sales, and therefore ROI would improve any. Thus you would be completely wrong.

As an aside form all of that, we already rank number 3 for the fairly competitive term "Educational Software" and have the kind of brand built up over 40 yrs of trading that I wouldn't exactly want to screw up by entering into spammy link exchanges with sites that are not relevant to ours. Even if it was relevant, you would need to be one of our suppliers or something for me to want to link to you, and for it to be done in a way that isn't spammy.

Anyone goto the SEO Roadshow at the weekend? Or was this forum not invited?

Please take a chill pill. SEO Kid was just asking for a related exchange with your site. and yes I said "Related"

See even though your site only sells education software it still makes sense to link exchange with a Spywear Remover site since it's a "Software" site. Does not really mater what kind of software. Though if you wanna be really picky and target only education software link exchanges it's fine but please don't say this is spam as SEO Guy is the best SEO out there.

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Hydroderm

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No, it's not related. We are SPECIFICALLY an Education reseller. We do have some home users, but the very very large proportion of our custom is from schools after software to teach kids with.

How the hell is spyware removal, mod_rewrite and logo creation going to help us sell educational software?

Newsflash, SEOGuy is certainly not the best SEO around.
I was in London with several of the best SEO's around at the weekend, would you like me to quote a few names? Certainly I'm nowhere near as good as most of those guys, but I don't think SEOGuy is either.....

Links is one thing, but then turning visitors into customers is another.
I'd rather have 50 less visitors a day but get a higher percentage of sales.

It's all about ROI, not rank.

Ahhh please do not cause a feight here. I don't think your getting the SEO / Link Building concept very well. How the heck you suposed to get an ROI without top rankings? Your wrong about "It's all about ROI, not rank."

Good rankings will give you a good ROI. Take this I exchange links with logo design and seo websites. Is that non-related links? Hell no. It's related webmaster links. Now if I exchange links with a viagra site that would be non-related. I have more then a year of SEO experiance so please do not feight with me or any SEO Guy staff.

I am telling you what SEO Kid emailed you is related.

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Hydroderm

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Your site would never rank for "Spywear Remover"

Yes I agree if you were ranked for that then your conversion will be low. But what your doing is allowing Aluria Software to rank for "Spywear Remover" even better then without your link. It will not harm / damage your site, your sales, your life, etc.

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Hydroderm

Alcohol Myspace Layouts

Ah now we get down to it. It's not about helping me at all, it's about helping Aluria

Something I've never heard of, and something that I'm not sure I want to promote, let alone whether our business wants to promote it.

If I was going to link to a spyware remover, I would link to one that I have used and like and think is worth linking to. That is afterall, the idea of linking, and the basis upon which PR is built. The idea that people link to sites they like. Not site's that will link back to them to try and give a PR boost. But then, as I mentioned in my first post, its even debatable these days whether straight forward link recips are even that useful.

Some theories suggest that in cases Google (and of course, this is only really targetted at Google) will not give the link as much weight, because it appears to just be a link of convienience. These straight forward, singular link recips are an example.

Adrian, So you get an e-mail from a member who works for SEO-Guy that burns your tail... and that leads you to the coclusion that the forum promotes spam? Help me out here... I've gotta be missing something, or....

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WOW... You got an email looking for a link exchange!!!!

And that's spam?????

You obviously have been missing all the Nigerian scam spams, viagra sellers, top ranking for your website emails...

If a spyware site links to you, using your prefered anchor text, then I can't see how that does any harm.

As for SEO Guy being the best SEO, I don't think I have ever heard SEO-Guy make this claim, the only people I hear making those claims to be the best are people like Traffic Power

If you were in London with the best SEO's, then I would suggest that they were pulling your leg...

Diliigaf, when the email says the following...



Then yeah, I tend to think the forum promotes whats being sent out.
If the forum doesn't perhaps the forum should stop people doing that....



And it's about as useful and relevant to me as those emails, particularly the "top ranking for your website" emails.

The person making the claim of SEOGuy being the best around was wyrickj in this thread.

So, uh, I was in a pub with Danny Sullivan, Ammon Johns, Mike Grehan, RCJordan, Peter Da Vanzo, Fantomaster, to name but a few, you think they were pulling my leg? haha

As I said before, it was an unsolicited email, that is irrelevant to our business. Therefore spam. I get enough other link exhange requests which would do no harm if I took them up on their offers right? Well, if I did that, I would have dozens of links to sites about products I've never used all over our website. Which makes it end up looking like some link farm or something and very unprofessional. Not good for branding, not good if I end up linking to a bad neighbourhood, and just something I don't want to do.
I'm not even tempted to link to Spybot, a spyware remover I actually use and like, because it ISN'T RELEVANT TO OUR BUSINESS.

If you're going to ask an Educational Software reseller about links, you better make it something to do with Educational Software in some form.

I think you're out of line. Anyone on any forum anywhere can send anything to anyone and use any reference with any recommendation they choose....

If you take issue with the Kids mail, I say you mail the kid!

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