Phones4u Take Advantage of Free Links from the BBC
Lunchtime find : Every so often you come across a site that hasn’t added nofollow to comment links. The independent comments allow you to add links in (check out the comments) BBC magazine websites are a free for all on the forums.
Checking over a few blog posts on the BBC surprisingly I’ve noticed that links don’t have nofollow on, which has led to anchor text links being placed into comments. Some of the BBC blogs add nofollow to links while others don’t.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/fivelivebr……ivin.html#P91629883
The link goes over to the Phones4U home page.
What’s great about the BBC blogs is you have a profile page which links to all the comments you have made. The comment above has been made by Vince (maybe related to the vince update?).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=14285586
Vince has been busy recently targeting “iphone”, “mobile phones” and “phone” all to the Phones4U home page. It’s not clear if this is being done by an agency or Phones4u themselves but they are not the only one at it.
A further look finds this account http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=14129205 in the name of David Cooper, which links over to www.very.co.uk, Phones4u.co.uk and k7computing.com (but that links broke!).
Others include…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=14125842 – seospecialistbirmingham.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=14235298 – seomomo.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=14137534 – bluelightseo.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=14130042 – clarebrace.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=1773493 – openeyemarketing.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=13952511 – david-whitehouse.org
I could go on…. Question is
a) Are these links any good considering they are located in the comments section rather than in the article content?
b) Is this a legitimate way of building links?
My view
a) Yes but they would be better in content.
b) Its a ok way to build links but in the long run not effective.
Anyone else have a view of this type of link building? If so add a comment
Good spot
Here i was thinking that you were in aukland… (aukseo)
I think its quite legit – while it lasts…
Not aukland, manchester, not as nice.
I’m sad. I thought I was the only one who’d discovered this but had kept it to myself. I’ve been using BBC blog comments for links for around 3 or 4 months without any trouble and the juice it’s passed as proved very valuable indeed.
I guess it’s game over now though
The games not over, the links are still live. It’s was just really a point to see if they are actually useful. It seems that you’ve found them useful so they should form part of a link building campaign.
Think I owe you a beer!
if thats worth a beer i could get very drunk on a night giving you other similar sites
Go on then John, I’ll get you a few drinks in, spill the beans
http://www.bing.com/community/forums/t/650494.aspx
http://forum.bbcwildlifemagazine.com/
http://www.studentbirmingham.com/whattodo/working/blog/write-about-birmingham#comments
That’s a couple of pints of bitter, problem is, which was my original point they pass PR but they actually good? OR should you spend time on getting a link in content?
More more!!
“OR should you spend time on getting a link in content?”
You should do that as well of course. As well as all the other methods ‘crazy’ Jim Boykin recommended at SES…