Random Acts of SEO Kindness
AdSense publishers (that’s us, folks!) can be a self-centered group…. let’s face it, we’re using AdSense because we want to make money. Maybe not a lot of money (as always, there’s usually a direct link between the amount of money you make doing something and the time and effort you put into the process) but money nonetheless. And that means focusing on the tiny part of the Internet that’s yours by publishing more content and getting more backlinks to that content.
Every once in a while, though, it’s good to step back and look at the wider picture. If you’ve done this for a while now, you’ve surely developed some expertise or understanding of how things work on the Web. Why not use this expertise to benefit someone else for a change, without them knowing about it?
There are all kinds of “random acts of SEO kindness” you can do that will benefit others. Here are a few suggestions:
- Bookmark someone else’s page. We all know that Social Bookmarking Is Today’s Big Thing and so we’re busy bookmarking our own sites… Well, go and bookmark your favorite charity’s site. Or your child’s school site. Or a site you just like. (Side benefit here: your bookmarking account won’t get flagged for just bookmarking your own sites…)
- Submit articles that link to other sites. Do you have access to an article submission service like Article Marketing Automation? Submit an article that benefits someone else.
- Link to other sites. It’s tempting to hoard PageRank by linking as little as you can to other sites… but PR ultimately depends on sites linking to other sites to work. Give a real link to a site you like from one of your own pages and spread the wealth.
That’s just scratching the surface, of course, I’m sure you can come up with your own ideas. How about setting up a Google custom search portal for your favorite local team or charity and making them a few bucks that way? Or teaching what you’ve learned about the Web to others?
Random acts of SEO kindness won’t make you any money, but they’ll make you feel better, and that’s a different kind of reward.
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73 Responses to “Random Acts of SEO Kindness”
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Great article and you are right. We should do some SEO kindness. If we all help each other it will make a difference and that itself is rewarding!
That’s a good one. I will definitely start bookmarking sites I think serves the right purpose. And I agree that more people should do the friends. I will write a blogpost in this myself tomorrow and tell my friends about the concept. I think I’ll start with my church
Jones
That is a really good idea and yes, I did this for some time now. It’s the one of the idea for social marketing. As much as you do bookmark for good website and share with another as much as you will get popular and that is your reward.
Thank you for this great post.
Well i agree with you. The thing that i like about web blog is posibility to make a relationship between each blog and by linking each other it will raise popularity of each blog linked
You can show kindness even during SEO. Great tips!
You are 100% correct. Some people are very selfish. They are stuck in their own world. They have bad luck because they are not being nice to anyone. Thanks for the great article.
SEO kindness?But i think as as SEOer don’t make any spam,then this is the greatest kindness,right?
I definitely leave bookmarks for all my favorite dofollow bloggers, and I always make sure to take nofollow off the comments left on my blogs or bookmarking sites! Then again, if I see a blogger or writer who is extremely greedy with their outbound links I won’t do much for them.
I guess maybe I’m not really making random acts of kindness if I’m being so selective
Anyway, I’m off to go bookmark this post. We can win the SERPs we want with generosity!
You have list URLs social Bookmarking?
Couldn’t agree more! I think the biggest problem with social bookmarking is that some people only submit their own sites and never take the time to bookmark or submit others!
The communities depend on people taking the time to vote for each other, and helping a site that you like make the top page of digg (or mixx, reddit, etc.)is good karma!
You’re right in what you’re saying. Many people spend too much time promoting their own sites. If people like or enjoy using your website, then they should definitely help spread the word, and obviously if you like somebody elses website you should help them too.
Great post. Link-building has forced us to become very self-serving that we lose perspective on the bigger picture.
Nice article, i’ll go bookmark some sites i like.
It’s like Karma, we help someone out then someone will help us out!
SEO have many ways to do better and better.Its nice to read and discover new ways and suggestions to do it right
Doing these things can also help you gain some members to your site. While it might not be a direct path to your website, these people will notice you if you bookmark their stuff. In return, they will most likely visit your site at the very least.
I often do some of the things mentioned, mostly the bookmarking and the linking to helpful sites. I also will sometimes do more then required like add title tags to somebodies link who doesn’t request one. Or if I link to something on a forum or post I tend to use their keywords as anchor text as opposed to just pasting a URL and letting in auto link.
Yep. It’s great to list others with good content.
We all want better internet so we need to support good sites in SEO run
Also PR doesn’t mean anything. if You link and are linked by respecetd sites with relevant content (socalled trustrank) it’s much better.
Wanna add tip
Adding articles to Ezines helps alot as they are respected sites by google and brings also some small traffic through link
If everyone did a random act of SEO kindness, then all SEOs would help one another in the long run and it would be a nice thing =)
What about nofollow ?
Thanks for the excellent article. Will this benefita real estate agent website. We are moving towards the first page of Google searches but very slowly and we have a ways to go (page six, three and two for our three main key word phrases at the moment).
Thanks
Irene and Jim
Excellent info! I always keep that in mind to always return a favor and you will reap greater rewards.
Whatever site you have, always think about giving the best content you’ve got - and always be on the lookout for great content that you can syndicate.
That’s a great article! However, submitting articles that link to other sites will work? Can you tell me more about it?
My blog is about my neighborhood and I do always link to local sites that I think worthy of support.
There’s actually an SEO argument that says that relevant outbound links can make a site look more legit to Google. Heaven knows whether it’s true, but up to a point it certainly doesn’t do an harm.
Nice article, totally agree. I will bookmark this post. Anyone can help to bookmark some articles on my site??
I occasionally write posts that link to 5 recently read articles. If I don’t have something on my blog and somebody asks about it, I link to someone who does have the info. I don’t know why you would submit articles with links to other people’s websites though.
Its always great to link someone. You get their attention and build good relationshipd by linking them. We should not hesitate doing so.
That’s a great article ! I like your idea and totally agrees with you on social marketing…
I have actually done this in the past and the guy emailed me giving me abuse for putting his links on my site…I still occasionally do it though, just imagining the guys face when he see’s the results makes me chuckle.
Great Idea, but i think that won’t work, cause most webmaster especially here in Germany are very egotistical and will therefore not link other websitesm, but of course your proposing is absolutely correct!
Good point about linking to other sites. Bloggers in particular will almost always take note when you link to them. It’s a shame that some of more established media outlets and online newspapers all too often refuse to link to any external sites.
When I stumble across another blog that has good material I write about and link back to them, I do believe in sharing and spreading to help others who do quality posts. This is a good article.
This is good article. Me just realize the bookmark somebody page specially school and other site may benefit us.
Thx
I liked this article, and the fact that I was not the only one who thinks and acts this way.
I started doing so after I was handed some link love from a webmaster that I never knew, he just liked my design of one of my projects and felt like sharing.
I always bookmark sites that I enjoy so I can go back and read all the time and keep updated on them. I personally use entrecard and add them to my favorites so I can use their nav bar to get back to them easily.
More bloggers should be doing these things. For me I ’socialize’ other peoples sites or post that I find have value. It gives them some publicity and a backlink.
I believe outgoing links do have some importance. Google remember is after a good experience for the user, not us. If we link out to valid sites, we are looking after the user.
Likewise a good internal link structure, linking to relevant pages, not just any page.
Of course, outbound links brings inbound - at least, that’s the theory.
les
i am a newbie in blog. But i really want to make a powerfull blog. good content, many links inside and has a high page rank in google..:) could give some suggest?
I partially agree with this what you stated, I think the SEO kindness can be better done if both sides benefit each other on some way like dofollow blogs where you add value to a post or article and is rewarded with a link not by doing things and expect other good people to do back this will only work if they know you already
I remember a movie called pay it forward with Kevin Spacey. Well I also practice SEO pay it forward. If someone comments on one of my blogs and wanks a link to their site I will definitely oblige them. In fact I really don’t care about making money on my blogs. I mean it would be nice…but frankly I just like to write.
I am looking to increase page rank of my websites. Is this method will help me to get PR5+ ? Or I need to follow some other methods also. Can you write a post on “how to get PR5+” ?
thanks
I have to say that I’ve always been pretty nice when it comes to links and other SEO business…
Unfortunately, a number of big media companies - including the BBC - are banishing outbound links on their sites…
They do this to keep their readers on their own site rather than drift off elsewhere
It is, of course, a completely unnecessary policy and a violation of the spirit of the net
Yes, you are right I try to hoard PageRank where ever I can. I need to start link out more on my blog.
Actually, all bar one of the sites in my ‘cool websites’ section are sites that I like, and are cool. Actually, I might can the exchanged one too… Be nice and link to stuff you like….
“Link to other sites.”
I hate doing this for sites I write about, but in the end I still do it because it’s the right thing to do
This is very true. It has been my habit of bookmarking someone else’s site for good backlinks for them.SEO is not an exact science thus we should always make some effort of helping one another.
Outbound links to relevant sites in theory can help, as it can associate your site with the topic, link to high PR sites and sites that will be interesting to your own visitors.
If your site becomes a useful point of reference then hopefully people will link to you. (at least thats the way it should work!)
I agree completely. It’s not too hard to reach out and help. But don’t expect anything in return, however eventually good things catch up
What do you think of article marketing automation?
Whenever I reference an article in one of my blogs, I always reference the source. That is the very least you can do. You help others and it always comes back to you.
I also agree that you need outgoing links and I believe Google weighs that in your sites ’score’.
It’s good to balance out the SEO karma with worthy submissions
i link to other sites all the time.. so i guess im seo kind to those people
Great seo tips for you.
I always try to help out sites that I feel are good and worth while to other users, and I hope that others will do the same for me. There is no reason why we all cant help each other out from time to time.
interesting think you are talking about
If everyone did a random act of SEO kindness, then all SEOs would help one another in the long run and it would be a nice thing =)
all web sites will be linked, and every web will get good rankings
Always great to spread some link love!
to The Scribe of Notting Hill: I believe outbound links affect our site. Linking to bad sites and those site are banned, Google will catch our sites. I always add attribute rel=nofollow to links I don’t trust.
Links are so very important, and I don’t think that if you have a website, and you link to other good relevant sites with some degree of moderation and editorial review - that you will get dinged by google. As “The Scribe” says above, I think that you might even see a boost by linking to good sites.
As long as google doesn’t see you as a “link farm” you should be ok.
Great tips!
Thanks
Irene and Jim
Excellent advice.I often submit others content to social sites and they do the same for me.People often do the mistake of submitting only their own content to the social sites and get banned.
Never thought i’d see a post like this, SEO karma will be good for you. Article marketing is another good way of gettign linkbacks, but lately, its been marred by PLR or private label right articles, especially when google hates duplicate content
An eye opener article that will be helpful to all the bloggers who are out there making small monies every day, and who are filled with tension all the times, due to the crashing PRs every month or two. The tips given in this article will help in maintaining PRs for a longer time while helping other do so. it will be a win-win situation.
Awesome……….i get to help others and others get to help me……….if i consider this as a public help its fine or i can even do it a sense of tit for tat………….so either way i get benefited and so do others
Good info! I will start bookmarking some sites so that backlinks are created which in turn helps me and every one in the future. But will every guy in web agree to this? Every one come to web to make some money? Will new comers take this as a point to remember?
yea… well you have to keep in mind what sites your are connecting to your site. google has really database set up to track if your blog is a spam or not.. just a tip.
Hey when you give, it definitely come back to you. Maybe one day Google will give credit to those who share page rank for a good cause.
SEO is a give-and-take relationship! I do believe in karma that’s why all my kindness in doing some SEO methods would probably cause me something good in the near future.
It’s nice to be reminded that yes, we should be voting up the sites that we like instead of the sites that we’re trying to promote on a daily basis. You have my vote.
I totally agree with this. The interesting thing is that the goodwill that can arise from doing stuff like this can actually come back to benefit you. Not that you should do your good deeds just to be seen to be doing so though…
My first thought when reading your blog was the pay it forward movie. Then I read the comments and saw it mentioned.
Thanks for sharing these positive thoughts, and for encouraging others to share.
I thought this was a great post and take it to heart. I never thought about passing the SEO love in those ways. Great post and thanks for bringing it to everyone’s attention!
Those are some awesome tips, esp the one about bookmarking a charity site.
I myself have to agree that I am quite ’selfish’ when it comes to SEOs. I mean I do this because there is a lot of money in store for you if you know how to strategize and think well. Having read your article’s title turned on my curiousity and sure enough, I was reading this post later on.
“Link to other sites. It’s tempting to hoard PageRank by linking as little as you can to other sites… but PR ultimately depends on sites linking to other sites to work. Give a real link to a site you like from one of your own pages and spread the wealth. ”
I really like this one since not only are you helping others, but you are helping yourself as well since internal or external link structures are factors that can really affect your SEO.