Does his spam work for him?

[C0ldf1re]

Does anyone know the answer to this? I saw some spam on a blog a while back, and it caught my eye because the keyword tag on the spam URL mentioned my town. I couldn't resist following the URL, and the spammer turned out to be someone I knew from school. Being naturally curious, I asked Google about "link:HisSpamUrl", to see if he was building up the massive backlinks he seemed to be looking for. There were no backlinks at all from the blog in question. I went back to look at a pageview of the blog pages, and there was his backlink embedded without any no-follow tag. I couldn't resist emailing him to say that his spamming was all in vain. He replied that Google was indeed indexing his backlinks and contributing to his site's pagerank, but that Google was "picky" about the links it revealed on a backlink search. He said that there were other secret ways to see the real backlinks, which he couldn't reveal. I am consumed with curiousity to know whether he was telling the truth, or whether he was bluffing. Can you help? Please!

[minstrel]

He's correct about the link: query im Google. That was crippled inetentionally by Google a long time ago.

However, the key to whether his spam strategy is actually working for him is:

1. What is the PageRank of his pages? If he has a lot of non-devalued incoming links, his pages should have high PR. If his PR is low or zero, it would suggest that Google does not value those backlinks.
2. More importantly, how well do his pages rank for his important search terms? This will tell you whether the strategy is really working for him.

[C0ldf1re]

Originally Posted by minstrel

He's correct about the link: query im Google. That was crippled inetentionally by Google a long time ago.

Is there a story behind that which you can tell us? And, more to the point, is there another way to find his backlinks?

[minstrel]

Google crippled backlinks to make it harder for webmaster to engage in linkbuilding, what Google calls "artificial linking practices".

More acuurate incoming links can be found in your Webmaster Central account but only for sites you won.

In any case, as I said above, number of incoming links is n't what matters. How is his site doing in Google rankings and what sort of PR do his pages have? That info is publicly available.

[bigcat1967]

In any case, as I said above, number of incoming links is n't what matters. How is his site doing in Google rankings and what sort of PR do his pages have?

Well - I agree to an extent. In the end - how is his site ranking in the SERPs? Also - he might be putting his site in a niche that isn't visited that much by ppl - so it won't matter anyway.

With Page Rank - I believe it is dead. Matt Cutts has even said so (I believe in his blog - can't find the url though). I personally never worried about PR - and I've done pretty good w/out it. However, I could be wrong and Matt Cutts could be throwing another little white lie out there.

[minstrel]

I don't believe Matt Cutts has said that. In fact, I think he has said the oppsite. It's not dead - it's still a factor. However, it has fallen in terms of importance in the algorithms and it is now one of more than 200 factors whereas previously it was more primary and one of only about 100 factors.

[harrysmith]

Originally Posted by C0ldf1re

Is there a story behind that which you can tell us? And, more to the point, is there another way to find his backlinks?

There are many backlink checker tool available which you can use to check backlinks a particular have.
eg.. backlinkwatch.com
tool from seomoz and iwebtool.com etc..
Though they predict approximate figure but it worth

[MrCat]

You can also try using Yahoo Site Explorer to see more of his backlinks using the link:hisdomain.com
These type of links does get indexed no matter how spammy they are - the only problem is that should all his spam links get indexed at the same time as google will get suspscious of them and he may get his site in trouble.

[harrysmith]

Yeah, Google Webmaster Central account and Yahoo Site Explorer both are also reliable tools to get back link details. Personally i use Yahoo Site Explorer more rather then other online tools.

[melovemoney]

In my opinion if spam does end up helping you...it will only be temporary. I think that spam is cheating and cheaters will end up getting cheated. What goes around comes around and spammer beware as it will come back and bite you!