is ethically building pagerank possible?

I’ve previously written about Criteo and their ‘autoroll’ widget that displays links to other blogs. Links to related content may be good, but the problem is that only Criteo benefits from the links in terms of page rank.

Linking to other blogs is a great idea, especially if each blog can benefit from improved page rank. Because Criteo adds the links via an iframe however, websites don’t derive such benefits from the Criteo widget. The solution is simple, blogs and other sites that are linked by Criteo ought to directly link to each other.

I invited each of the blogs who appeared on my autoroll to link directly with Plexav. The responses I received reveal much about the blogosphere and the direction that the web is taking. It isn’t looking very good.

The Invitations

I emailed each of the 5 blogs listed in my autoroll to link with Plexav.com, and I linked to each of the blogs in my post on Criteo and on a separate links page.I figured that the links might get the blogger’s attention even if the email was overlooked.

The Responses

I did get the attention of the bloggers. Of the five bloggers I emailed, three responded. Two of the responses were in comments to the post rather than as a response via email. These two comments are telling:

• geeks are sexy (GAS) - Hey there, we just moved our blog, could you please update your link :)
• Manoj Ranaweera - Many thanks for the link.

Ben Yoskovitz replied directly to my email and created a link to Plexav.com at his Instigator Blog.

Ken’s Op-Ed

By responding via comment, the GAS and Manoj attempted to create a second backlink from my site, while refusing to link back to my site, PLEXAV. Of course I immediately deleted the links and the comments to their sites. Why? Because their exploitive behavior is deplorable. Shame on them both for the approach they’re taking to build an audience.

Ben Yoskovitz, it turns out, was no better than the others. While he did create a link to PLEXAV, after a few weeks, he added a “nofollow” tag. Google doesn’t index such links and consequently doesn’t grant any pagerank to the linked-to site.

Yoskovitz is smarter in his approach than the other sites, but apparently he’s not smarter than me. While I’m moved to do so, I’ll not comment on him futher. I’d rather have far fewer visitors and retain some integrity, than sell out like these people.

Conclusion

Google prefers that boggers and web site admins fight each other for page rank. Such a strategy turns attention away from the cooperative strategies that would benefit bloggers at the cost of Google. As long as bloggers distrust one another, such strategies remain wholly theoretical.

I invite savvy bloggers and admins to comment, or contact me to discuss further!