Thread: Is profile link building a black hat technique?

Black and white, lines are blurred now it's all shades of grey
It's not very effective the way people usually do it, focusing on the quantity, rather than quality, but if you create a few profiles on the top sites and really take the time to make them look active it might be worth the effort.

If you ask me, it is blackhat. As a web owner myself I hate it and I delete it and I keep cringing at the fact so many fellow webmasters actually do this, and other forms of spamming. You're not helping make the web better, and in the long term I don't think you even benefit from it. It's a lose-lose.

I actually accept some comments that are posted for SEO reasons IF the poster made a very good effort at 1. being on topic 2. saying something interesting. Anyway these links on the very bottom of the page are worth close to nothing, but if you spam at least do it right -> only post on relevant sites. Otherwise it's like collecting garbage.

Yeah, profile link building is totally different thing compared to the natural link building. Natural link building affects on page rank on the search engines where as profile link building has no effect on the search engines or search engine result pages.

Most of such links have nofollow attribute so I do believe in the most cases that is time wasting.

I would not see profile links as spam when using relevant sites and although I doubt they boost PR and SERP's massively as long as your not creating thousands each day they should be fine.

I have been building profile and forum links as part of my link building campaign and I just got my first Page Rank of 2 now I know its not the best but its the first ever page rank I have got so profile link building can't of done to much harm

---------- Post added at 11:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:40 AM ----------

I would not see profile links as spam when using relevant sites and although I doubt they boost PR and SERP's massively as long as your not creating thousands each day they should be fine.<br><br>I have been building profile and forum links as part of my link building campaign and I just got my first Page Rank of 2 now I know its not the best but its the first ever page rank I have got so profile link building can't of done to much harm

Also signatures on high page rank relevant forums can help I have even managed to find some ones without the nofollow tag

Adding a sig to YOUR OWN REAL PROFILE is a perfectly legit method of giving a site a little traffic boost (note the word "little") if your posts garner attention and leads people to follow the link. I check out links of members in forums I frequent when their posts suggest they know their stuff and the site in the sig looks interesting.That's what profile links are for. They're a way to let other members find out more about the poster. They're a privilege the forum owner grants to members in return for participating. Nothing even mildly black hat about that.

That said, nobody will ever click on the link of a 2 post wonder or someone that speed posts fluff for count. And frankly I have serious doubts there's a gain in having a link for a Florida real estate company or a spa in Redondo Beach under posts that originate from the opposite side of the globe. All that tells me is some idiot is too lazy to post and too stupid to spend his marketing budget wisely.

Building stacks of dormant or useless profiles in one forum is frowned on if not prohibited by forums worth visiting, so a "link building campaign" that employs intentionally breaching and willful attempts at deception is by definition "black hat".

Another danger of this practice is the temptation presented by access to multiple profiles. Its just so easy to use them to bump threads, ask leading questions that the other id can use to showcase the product, or use them to praise the service of your other id. Nothing will destroy your credibility quite as fast as having someone point out that the guy that just complimented your integrity is really you. It is used to boost credibility, but when detected, demolishes it.

Like others that have spoken I have serious doubts about there being any boost for a site available from a massive profile spam campaign. In fact, it just tells people the owner of that site is not trustworthy, and if one persistently re-adds new spam profiles with the same link it paints a bullseye on that site for the mod team that raises red flags when that site is mentioned, so it accomplishes the exact opposite of a good marketing campaign.

As for using power tools... If you're looking for an seo and he proudly points to his Xrumer profile campaign, It's just a sign the "professional seo" involved is in reality not even a talented amateur. Just smile and put him on the list of vendors you will never work with, cause he's a wannabe.

Bottom line, profile link building is great if your goal is to take aim at your own foot and pull the trigger. It wont fool google, and it wont fool readers, so why do it? It has no effect if done in moderation, a harmful effect if implemented vigorously, and if the mods find out you're the one doing it you won't even keep your own real profile. Waste-o-time.

Originally Posted by 5starpix

Profile link building is regarded as spam. I have tested profile links and to be honest I didn't see a great deal of improvement in the SERPs. However, I feel this is a short term link building technique.

For thirty days straight, I built 10 to 15 profile links. At the end of the campaign, I did see the backlinks, but about two months down the road, all the links were gone. Out of the 400 links I built, only about 50 or so are valid now.

If you are going to invest time in building profile links, I wouldn't recommend it. There are much better SEO techniques that you can benefit from.

profile linking is only short term link building, posting links without any post is really a spam

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

Originally Posted by 5starpix

Profile link building is regarded as spam. I have tested profile links and to be honest I didn't see a great deal of improvement in the SERPs.

I've done similar tests and seen similar (lack of) results.

Thanks I have come to know it clearly too. I was wondering about this.

I agree with hazelnice, if you're just going out and getting a bunch of profile links and not actively getting links to your profile (by posting, submitting, etc.) then it's pretty much useless spam.