Dear Kalena
So, I’m a freelance writer, cruising through Elance.com, looking for projects to bid on. I see a project for a site called buildmyrank.com. They say they are looking for 150-word blog posts that will be website summaries. I can do this work, but…are these sites legitimate SEO tools or just ways to get around link building that is considered acceptable?
Thanks for your thoughts!
Denise
Hi Denise
I think your spidey-senses are accurate! This site looks and smells fishy. They’re also hiding their domain registration details, which, while not necessarily suspicious, is a common practice amongst sites employing less than legitimate SEO methods.
There is a very easy way to determine if they are *white hat*, have a look at their Google Toolbar PageRank. Oh look! A zero PageRank score. If Google doesn’t think they’re trustworthy, that’s a big red flag right there.
I would avoid them like the plague.
I would agree on that one Kalena. In fact I’d say that this might be the only real use for the Toolbar PageRank.
This is nice question Denise,
Here am not totally agree with the reply as having PR0 is not necessarily because Google’s ignorance. There are lots of reason behind PR0.
I do agree with whoise protect because if you are legitimate service provider, there is no meaning in hiding the ownership information.
Have a nice time,
Jigs
It’s really not nice to pass judgment so quickly on something you’ve never used. And especially to relate our site’s page rank to the effectiveness of our service. The domain is new and there hasn’t been a major page rank update in almost a year.
Any how just thought I’d chip in my two cents.
Good info Kalena! Whilst working in SEO we always avoided submitting to websites with 0 page rank – often overlooked but vital! As you say Google determines your websites worth by awarding a Page Rank!
Excellent advice that the link building strategy might not be completely white hat, although Page Rank 0 can mean many things, that the website may have just come online etc. There have been rumours that Google are not going to use Page Rank in the future and may use another system which may be rumours or may have some relevance? LT