Jon Leger just moved his 1WayLinks tool from beta to full production. As most people know, back links are incredibly important in Google (the Google search engine was initially called “back rub” for this reason). In fact, you may recall a post I recently made about a site that I accidentally got to Page Rank 2 without content using only really weak back links.
Jon’s 1WayLinks product promises to give subscribers hundreds of back links per month (750 or more) for a monthly fee. As a subscriber, you can choose the anchor text and the URL. It’s a very cool service, and like all of Jon’s products, superbly run. I am a member, and if you are looking for back links, I recommend it. It works great in conjunction with his 3WayLinks product.
However, it this OK? Is it OK to buy back links like this?
Google Is Not The Law
OK — so first things first. There is nothing illegal about 1WayLinks. It is probably true, however, that if Google had a good way to identify the kind of links generated by programs like 1WayLinks, they would discount their weight and probably “slap” the site using them. Why?
Google is all about money. Period. End of statement. Google has a board of directors that answers to shareholders. Those shareholders invested in Google to make money. Google’s managers report to the Board, and the Board directs those managers to make money for shareholders. Simple. Google needs to make money on their search engine.
Luckily for users, Google management believes that the best way to make money on the search engine is to provide the best possible user experience. The better the user experience, the more users come to the Google search engine and click on ads.
So, Google fights things like 1WayLinks because they know that people (people like me and you) are also trying to make money just like Google will try to use these tools to beat competition in their niche. In some cases, tools like 1WayLinks can be used to cause inferior content to rank above superior content, degrading the “user experience.” As an aside, what you should realize is that having great content that users value is a good defense against actions by search engines like Google.
In any case, Google is not the law. These are just two competing business practices
Is 1WayLinks Ethical To Use?
So, the big question (in my mind at least) is — is 1WayLinks ethical to use?
Let’s start with an assumption that Article Marketing is a valid and ethical marketing strategy. After all, eZineArticles.com is a respected business, and content on that site is highly favored by Google. You will recall the when you submit an article to eZineArticles.com, you are afforded 2 backlinks in the footer that must be maintained by people that syndicate (copy) your content across the web.
To my knowledge, no few people complain about the ethics of article marketing
So, how is 1WayLinks like article marketing?
- User created content. Both article marketing and 1WayLinks accept user generated content.
- Back links. Both article marketing and 1WayLinks allow back links
- Syndication. Both article marketing and 1WayLinks articles get syndicated. In the case of 1WayLinks, the syndication is automatic.
- Human review. At both eZineArtices.com and 1WayLinks.net human review is required.
I am sure there are other ways to compare the two services, but for now I’ll leave it at that. From a web surfer’s experience, the two are substantially the same.
My conclusion is that 1WayLinks.net is not that much different than article marketing. Since article marketing is a commonly accepted business practice, I conclude that 1WayLinks is OK and should be accepted by people (and Google) in the same way as article marketing.
Have you checked out the 1WayLinks tool? Read the sales page and tell me what you think.
Thanks,
Mark
