tankQ: Do we need to add a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute to the tag for any of these links?
Do we need to be actively redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file?
Are there any specific things we need to do to ensure the links are not picked up by Google as bad links?
If the links are deemed to be part of a backlinking scheme, and Google violates us for using the links, what are you going to do about it? How will you ensure these links are not picked up by Google as part of link-building schemes?
If Google decided to deem one of the links bad, it will affect many people. How will you ensure this doesn't happen often? Can you? And what will happen if/when you find out a link has gone bad? Will you contact the users of the link and give them instructions on what to do? Will you alert them at all? How will you know when a link has gone bad?
I have seen backlinks go bad many times and I have seen how messy things can get. Overall, how do you plan on handling the other side of these links when things go bad?
There is no way to 100% guarantee that these links will never end up on Google's list, but having a plan in place for when a link does end up on Google's list is a must.
Romain_SEOBUDDY
May 15, 2024A: "Do we need to add a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute to the <a> tag for any of these links?"
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Answer: It's not up to you to decide the Link Rel type (Nofollow, Sponsored, UGC, or DoFollow) but to the third party site. When we know what kind of Link Rel type the opportunity provides, we show it in the Link Chest Database.
Right now we have Do Follow : 739 (45.8%) No Follow : 290 (18.0%) Unknown : 586 (36.3%)
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Do we need to be actively redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file?
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Answer: I don't understand the question. But if you mean if it's better to create an intermediary page that links to your "money page" then the answer could be yes for some of the worst opportunities from the Link Chest such as "Social Bookmarking" and "URL Forwarding"
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Are there any specific things we need to do to ensure the links are not picked up by Google as bad links?
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Answer: The most important is to make it look as organic as possible (such as hunting 10-20 opportunities per month) and focus on the most relevant opportunities to your business.
Trying to convert 100% of the opportunities as fast as possible is recipe for disaster
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If the links are deemed to be part of a backlinking scheme, and Google violates us for using the links, what are you going to do about it? How will you ensure these links are not picked up by Google as part of link-building schemes?
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Answer: We'll do nothing. There is not much more I can do besides what we're already doing which is:
- Giving some stats about each opportunity such as "Spam Score" and "PBN Risk"
- Sorting opportunities by Categories (Opportunity Type)
- Sorting opportunities by Langage and Niche / Industry
So you can build organically only on the most relevant opportunity and stick to your link-building style.
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If Google decided to deem one of the links bad, it will affect many people. How will you ensure this doesn't happen often? Can you? And what will happen if/when you find out a link has gone bad? Will you contact the users of the link and give them instructions on what to do? Will you alert them at all? How will you know when a link has gone bad?
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Answer: I partially answer this question with the previous question. When we launched the Link Chest, we had 335 Opportunities, and 100% of them were top-notch (high quality), but our users keep sending us lists of new opportunities, and we grew the DB from 335 to 1500+ and added "grey hat" stuff such as the categories "URL Forwarding" and "Website Builder" or "Social Bookmarking"
Since then, there are also low-quality opportunities and refined the UX with more data (Spam Score) to fit any link building style.
I don't have enough characters left to answer the rest of your questions.