Using web 2.0 sites for link building sounds like win-win: you get to put a page on a high authority site and hopefully at least some of that authority and credibility passes across to you.
But is it worth doing?
And, if it is, how should you do it?
There are lots of web 2.0 sites: Blogger (sometimes referred to as Blogspot), WordPress.com (where they host your website rather than you doing it), HubPages, Weebly, Tumblr and quite a few others.
They each have their own rules and those rules change over time.
Which is the first “catch” to remember.
What is acceptable today may not be acceptable tomorrow or in a few weeks or months time.
That’s partly down to the nature of these platforms.
Because all you need to sign up is an email address and a few other bits of information, they’re attractive to spammers as well as real people.
Their rules for what you can promote also vary over time.
For instance, whilst you can use WordPress on your own hosting for anything you want, if you use the version that’s hosted on their website then there are lots of rules. Including this one:
“the Content is not spam, is not machine- or randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as spoofing);”
That’s a pretty comprehensive paragraph but it’s one worth reading and understanding before you create content on any web 2.0 sites because – in one way or another – they all work to those kind of rules.
Blogger explicitly bans any use of its site for trying to manipulate search engine rankings. Which you should expect since Google owns it.
So take the time to at least skim the terms and conditions rather than just ticking the “I agree” box without even visiting the relevant page.
It could save you a lot of heartache later if the page gets taken down without notice.
It’s also a timely reminder to keep a backup of any of your sites – whether they’re web 2.0 ones or not – so that if anything goes wrong you can recover without too much panic.
The next thing to remember is that although the authority of the main page of the site is high, any new page created is treated the same way as any other new page.
There’s no magic potion that’s applied just because the page is on a high authority site.
Remember, Google ranks web pages not web sites.
Sure, a lot of things come into play in the ranking of pages and that does include the authority of the main site but the other factors involved are at least as important.
Write good content
Yes, content.
Again!
These web 2.0 sites vary in what they expect:
- HubPages expects a page about a single topic including images and often Amazon and other links using the built in modules. They’re fussy and don’t like promotional content so I’m personally not a fan but some people manage to get them to work.
- Blogger, WordPress and Weebly act like a normal blog, so you can put up posts like this one.
- Tumblr is a different animal and calls itself a microblog platform. It’s posts are typically shorter than a regular blog and it’s more prone to images, not all of which are safe to be viewed at work or on public computers.
Depending on the platform, you may have to keep adding pages to keep interest in your web 2.0 site.
Much like your own blog except that you don’t own the domain or even any long term right to the name of the blog or page you’ve created.
Inbound links help
Just like any other page on the web, links pointing to your web 2.0 site count towards how well you’ll show up in the search results.
Sites like EzineArticles will normally allow you to use articles to point links to your web 2.0 properties in the same way as they allow you to point to your own website or YouTube videos.
This is fine to do but you need to remember that the pages you’ve created may not be permanently available (remember those changing rules) and ultimately you’re helping to build up someone else’s website.
So think carefully before you build links to a page that may not exist in the future through no fault or choice of your own.
Almost all web 2.0 sites pay careful attention to the quality of links pointing to pages. So don’t be tempted to point spammy links to them – you’ll get found out and your page is highly likely to get removed.
There are other options!
Over the next few days, I’ll talk about building up your own sites rather than someone else’s.
You don’t get the instant bonus (even if it’s more perceived than actual) of being a new page on an authority site.
But unless you don’t renew your domain or forget to keep your hosting going, you’re in control.
Which is a much better place to be for your long term future on the internet.