Link trade cheating has now sunk to a new low. Man, this is low. It’s actually really scary. I’m not offering any solutions here, but I think it’s definitely worth knowing about. If you’re an SEO, this looks like a nightmare.

Just the other day I received this email:

Due to googles recent and ongoing “jagger / bigdadday” algo update which devalues and even punishes sites that exchange links with non closely related category partners I ask that you please remove our link from your website at http://www.mydomain.com/resources_computers.php

Many sites are already seeing the down effects of this update and I ask you to please remove our link URL before we are affected by it.

Thank you
Name of Company
www.nameofcompany.com

****************************************

I responded to their email with this:

I’ve moved your link offline per your request. I am a bit curious about your strategy though. I have a number of sites in the top ten for competitive keyword phrases and I have seen very little change with Bigdaddy, and I have mostly reciprocal links. Also, the link trade that you set up is a 3 way trade, so you’re getting a one way from my site. One thing that I’ve seen for sure with Bigdaddy is the value it is putting on one way links.

Regards,
Adam

****************************************

Two days later I received this email from the same company:

You may have received a fraudulent email, supposedly from Name of Company (www.nameofcompany.com), asking that our link be removed from your site. We did not request that you remove our link. We value the link that you provided to us, and would never ask that it be removed.

The text of the fraudulent email may be similar to the following:

Subject: Please remove our link

Due to googles recent and ongoing “jagger / bigdadday” algo update which devalues and even punishes sites that exchange links with non closely related category partners I ask that you please remove our link from your website.

Many sites are already seeing the down effects of this update and I ask you to please remove our link URL before we are affected by it.

Thank you
Name of Company
www.nameofcompany.com

This email requesting that our link be removed is coming from someone, possibly a dishonest competitor, fraudulently posing as Name of Company.

If you have not yet received this fraudulent request, please keep an eye out for it, and ignore any request to delete your link to our site. And keep an eye out for similar requests in the future and ignore them.

Lastly, if you have the time to forward to us the header information from the original fraudulent email you received, it may help us to identify the parties involved. We will then take the appropriate steps to attempt to stop this kind of activity from occurring again. Reply to this email or send the email header information to: links@nameofcompany.com.

Thanks in advance for your understanding and your link to Name of Company. We truly appreciate it. If you have not linked to Name of Company, please consider doing so, but more importantly, watch out for this deceptive practice from companies trying to get ahead through fraudulent means.

Sincerely,
Name
Nameofcompany.com

****************************************

Needless to say, this is a bit of a worry.

Note: I’ve changed the name of domains.

• Deleting Link Directories is Not Cool by Adam Sorensen
• If You Trade Links, Definitely Watch Out For This by Adam Sorensen
• Link checkers can get your link deleted - By Adam Sorensen

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 9th, 2006 at 11:12 am and is filed under Link Popularity, SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.