Link exchange cheats

13 June 2008 - 09:56

We run a small web directory site Tech-Directory. I started it because we had a number of static html links pages on Tech-Pro.net that were created to provide lists of useful resources related to various topics such as data recovery or anti-virus. I was constantly receiving requests to add links to these pages, which was a hassle as I always have 101 more important things to do. So I set up Tech-Directory.net using the free directory script IndexScript so that people could add their own links to the directory.

Unfortunately free directory sites suffer from the problem of spam submissions. This means that you either have to weed out the spam manually - a time-consuming process - or put some controls in place to prevent them. One way to do that is to charge a nominal fee for processing submissions.

At Tech-Directory.net a standard listing costs just $ 5.99 and a featured listing costs $ 11.99. By the time Plimus has taken its processing fee, the amount we receive for the standard listing hardly covers the value of my time checking the listing and authorizing its submission. So we are certainly not doing this to make money.

However I am all too aware from my own experience of building up Tech-Pro.net that many web developers don't have any money to spend on such promotion. So we still offer a free submission option. However, to qualify for this you must create a reciprocal link back to Tech-Directory.net, and my submission script actually reads the link-back page and checks that our link code is in it.

Unfortunately there are some cheats around who create the link on a page that is not linked to from anywhere on their site and will never be seen by a search engine. Such links are worthless. It's often hard to tell if this is the case, but when the page contains nothing but the link back to us, the likelihood is that it was created solely to get past my submission check.

If you want a free directory listing at Tech-Directory.net, play the game and link back from a page that is part of your site and indexed by search engines. Otherwise I'll have to remove the free listing option altogether.