Q: We spend a great deal of time gaining inbound links and PageRank. In some cases, it seems our efforts actually damaged our natural search engine traffic. Why is that?
A: Without a proper analysis of your situation is hard to say if Google penalizes your efforts and thus negatively impacting your traffic. It is important to note that links should be obtained naturally. Over the past years, Google’s detection algorithms for spam type inbound linking improved significantly. Sadly lots of SEO consultants are advocating techniques that are walking clients on the edge of the chasm. Even some of the promoted techniques by SEOs at well known conferences may very well be interpreted as spam by search engines. We advise our prospects to be ethical in their efforts and employ only best practices when optimizing their sites. Falling into the spam category may destroy your traffic and recovery is far from easy.
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Mike Lascut is Principal of Single Entry Point® Marketing, focusing on the search, email and analytics practice and leading the development of the 