Spammers Stopped By Psychology

Up until recently, the forum would get several spam registrations every day. These were people who were only interested in adding a link to their website in their profile or dropping a link in some random post.

Anyway, about a month ago, I added some text to the registration page that basically told the spammers that if they were only interested in getting links, they shouldn't waste their time. Ironically, something that simple worked. We've only had 1 spam registration this entire month.

There are many automated tools that register to forums, create a profile, then create a signature with a link in. They don't necessarily post.

The link the profile will then get crawled and provide a back-link to the website in question.

Take a look here.

http://www.fiverr.com/backlinkshub/skyrocket-your-website-with-1000-forum-comment-backlinks?context=advanced_search&context_type=auto&funnel=201409021351228499671460

There are many of these services...

You don't exclude profiles from being crawled, so you're a target.

http://onlinestorageauctions.com/robots.txt

Take a look at mine..

http://phphelp.com/robots.txt

Disallow: /index.php?action=profile*

Anyway, so with all that aside - The back-linking if done right will get you a better page rank and better Serps (teir1 - teir2 - teir3) type linking.  So those $5 gigs above are popular and those people make a killing just clicking a button. And to people like you and me, it's worth the $5 easily and doing a few different ones for $20 is worth it.  Doing it manually will take you forever.

Thanks for the input. Honestly, I haven't had a problem with spammers since December of 2013. Nowadays, I might get 1 or 2 people a month who make some lame post with link in it or who never post at all and add a link to their profile. They are eliminated quickly. I only allow people who contribute to the forum on a regular basis to have profile links, since they are followed and since every time you make a new post you get a new backlink.

SEO has drastically changed over the past year and it's constantly evolving. It's all about quality now, not quantity. Services like the one you mentioned destroy websites. Google has gotten very good lately at detecting websites with low quality spammy backlinks. A single backlink from a quality website is worth more than 1,000 low quality links. Even worse, these spammy links can actually cause a manual or algorithmic penalty where your website is removed from the search results. 

There are some great sites in the storage auction niche which don't rank well in the search results. Why? They or their SEO administrator built tens of thousands of low quality backlinks or used some shady techniques which violate Google Webmaster Guidelines. Now they're suffering and they don't even know why.

From day one, I've employed only the best SEO techniques on OSA. I've focused on developing high quality backlinks and great content, which attracts natural links. It's not always easy taking the high road, but it's not worth taking any chances. Our ranking in the search results is essential to our long term success.   

Google is not as smart as you think it is..

All it is, is an algorithm, that changes and people and sites change with it..

You may want to say it's bull****, but look at this..

http://www.fiverr.com/dino_stark/build-an-eminent-backlink-pyramid-good-youtube-seo?funnel=201409021724580436656800

This guy sold 30948 of these $5 services, that's $154,740 (At a minimum for clicking a button) $5 is the base service, a person can always buy the add-ons, in which I'm sure a percentage of those people did.

In his text he mentions "70000+ GIGS SOLD" which is probably different offers he has combined or roughly $350,000

Then this guy gets Great Reviews, repeat Buyers, etc (100% Overall rating) - Not one of those 30,948 people were unhappy.

In your head, you have this psychology, where you think they are "Low Quality Spammy Links", but in reality "Google doesn't see it the same way as you see it", because Google search crawls doesn't have the same an AI that comparable to your intelligence. It's like saying I have a forum profile on your site, and I have links in my signature, does that mean the links I use on your forum is "Low Quality Spammy Links"?   

Once you get on a person's software list, you'll get hit everyday with it, I have before and I had to ban ranges of IP addresses  or implement reCaptcha instead of silly ones that come with forum software.

Things happen by doing, taking action, and executing.  You don't know what works or don't unless you try.






 

You don't know what works or don't unless you try.

I have tried it. In the past, I've used all kinds of link build programs and SEO services on one of my other sites. It ruined it. Even after disavowing all low quality links, it still hasn't recovered. That's why I'm so careful with this site.

If this guy has the ability to get you to get you a 1,000 forum backlinks for $5 dollars, he's obviously created his own worthless forums which are certainly littered with spam from all of the sites he's selling links to. I guarantee you Google recognizes the patterns of sites like these and doesn't give the backlinks any value.

I've watched several sites make the same mistakes. They take short cuts and it helps them out for while. Then one day, POOF, there site get's de-listed from Google's search results.

You're right though, Google can't catch everything. But they are getting better at detecting spam every day. I'm just saying be careful because what may be helping you today could end up destroying your site in future algorithm updates.

I'm just saying be careful because what may be helping you today could end up destroying your site in future algorithm updates.

Check out the reverse of that, buy not doing anything today, can be hurting or destroying your site in the future. There is always 2 sides to a coin.

Attached is a graph of one of my sites (You can see the de-indexing that happened) - nothing to do with a penalty or a manual action. went from 6 million pages index to just a few thousand. I sat around and did nothing, tried a few things, nothing worked. I gave up on it.

Then one day, I just had an idea, I implemented it, and figured out the Google Algro, applied the necessary changes and bingo.. Re-indexed. Just like that. It's not rocket science, it's just applying logic.

I broke down the algo, through trial and error.  Now I only applied the changes to a portion of my website, when I do the other portion I'll recover the rest.

I think I know the how the algo behaves and what makes things acceptable and not acceptable to it. It's a series of if/then logic that google chooses to decide what path your site goes down as to what it will and will not allow, you shift the path and it opens up the world.



 

Here's another example...

 On phphelp.com/forums  - I have 14000 topics and Google would only index 40 of them.  Why? I didn't know, then one day I decided to try something and changed my custom menu and all of a suddened 11k out of 14k, indexed overnight.

One little change allowed me to shift which path it flowed down the algo.

What didn't google not like about my custom menu, I'm not going to say, but I know.  Algo's are stupid, treat em like they are stupid..

Wow, that chart looks like the cliff of death. That had to be heartbreaking.

I totally hear what you're saying and I'm glad you were able to partially recover, but I prefer to do things naturally. This way, the peaks are valleys and more like speed bumps and potholes.      

This chart reflects OSA's traffic since we switched to the new domain. Nothing amazing, but it shows a nice, gradual incline. And best of all, it's safe.

Nothing amazing, but it shows a nice, gradual incline. And best of all, it's safe.

You only live so many years, you can wait 20 years and then determine if you failed or made it, or you can get aggressive and make things happen sooner.

You only live so many years, you can wait 20 years and then determine if you failed or made it, or you can get aggressive and make things happen sooner.

Slow and steady wins the race. 

Slow and steady wins the race. 

Not in business - Tell that to the investors of your company and watch how the stock dives.

Not in business - Tell that to the investors of your company and watch how the stock dives.

That may be so, but as of now, I'm the site's only investor and I have to do what I believe is in the best interest of the company.

You seemed to de-railed the thread a little, but I'll go in your direction, as you are applying my general comments about being successful in business towards your specific business model. I'm giving everyone words of wisdom, those who delay or take then time, the entire world just passes them by.  Don't be afraid to try new things and don't let what psychology of what you think "Google" thinks, affect your decisions. You're not a mind reader and even if you were, "Google" changes it's mind a lot. And businesses that depend on another sole entity to survive is just a bad business.

I don't disagree with you, about ownership, by all means do what you think is right by yourself. I watch ABC Sharktank a lot, it's a good show and this is what Kevin O'Leary will say. If you approached him at this stage.

"I can buy a domain name, toss up an online auction site and and do a little SEO magic and I will be in the same position that you are in, in about 30 days. What value are you offering? There is nothing special about your concept, you have no measurable sales, no proven track records, what am I buying with my money? The answer is Nothing, I'm Out"

Just food for thought.

That's hilarious! Only because I'm a HUGE fan of shark tank. I've watched every episode and I'm about 1/3 the way through Dragon's Den.

Yes, Google changes their mind a lot, but the basics remain the same. They're getting better at detecting unnatural behavior every day and I refuse to do anything now that will jeopardize the site in the future.

What we have here can't be replicated, at least not overnight. If it could, I wouldn't be getting six figure buyout offers from other companies who want to enter the niche. This site has something the other storage auction websites don't. A community and a media presence. You can't duplicate 33,000 forum posts 370 quality articles & 18 celebrity interviews in 30 days. It takes years of commitment.

Not only that, only the best of the best sites rank in the top 10 for the search term "storage auctions." We got there naturally without any shady SEO tactics and we're moving closer to that #1 spot every month. I've watched countless businesses compete for that coveted first page. Almost all of them have failed, it's just too competitive. We also rank #1 for the search term "online storage auctions" and we always will because we have the exact match domain and we're listed in DMOZ with the exact match anchor text. That's priceless!

I do, however, find it ironic that you brought up a venture capitalist, because I just got off the phone with one. Oh, and he didn't say I'm out. 

Not only that, only the best of the best sites rank in the top 10 for the search term "storage auctions."

See Attached, I typed in your website name when I started testing my new site OnlineWebSiteAppraisals.com and I rank #22 without even trying :/

Your site  rank #13 when I do a search on my PC for storage auctions.

Hammerdownauctionsinc.com ranks 10,11,12 (auctioneer site)

StorageTreasures  ranks 1, 2

Auction zip is 3,4

Cubesmart is 5,6

Google ranks based on GEO location and well HammerDown does South Florida Auctions, Auction Zip does too and also CubeSmart. (All these places are close to me)