Quote:
Originally Posted by MrX99
I'm still pretty new to the internet business, and don't have mainstream projects, but to me adult SEO seems different from mainstream SEO in at least one important way.
Off-page efforts have been pretty difficult/ineffective for me lately, presumably due to Google's detection and penalizing of various forms of link trading and other "unnatural" linking. According to Google's webmaster central blog, Page Rank and search rankings are influenced in a positive way these days only by "natural" linking, which for all I can tell means someone else voluntarily and unilaterally linking to your site from their blog, site or whatever.
Does this "natural linking" happen in the mainstream realm? It's happened only very rarely in my experience pushing porn, and I can't say I've ever gotten a "natural" link from a site with high PR. Although I lack this knowledge, I would imagine it's easier to lure people to link to mainstream content.
To the extent that Google's algorithm enforces its rhetoric and webmaster rules, off-page SEO is becoming something very tricky, delicate and confusing for me and my porn sites. The underlying algorithmic changes of course affect other sites too, but seem to make adult link building especially tough.
Sorry to be long-winded. Just wanted to add these thoughts. Feedback, disagreements and advice welcome and appreciated!
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That is a good observation and question. Going back to what I said in an earlier response, mainstream sites just aren't run the way that adult sites are. Natural linking is simply the organic connection of sites - if someone wants to share something with their friends, they link to it - and - if a particular blog post or news article is popular, then it gets shared more often than one that isn't. You can't spoof it, you can't game it, you have to take it into account when working up an SEO strategy.
Building an organic adult site can be very hard for a couple of reasons. First, noise - there are a ton, literally millions, of adult sites out there. Second, the road most traveled is paved with affiliate links, redirects, bought and traded traffic, etc. The problem isn't that the search engines don't see this, it is that your average user doesn't. Your site may never get visited because all of your potential visitors are stuck clicking through redirects to affiliates, closing pop-unders, etc. You can maybe make some money on clicks that way, but you will never build a dedicated user base or a brand peddling someone else's wares.
In case it wasn't obvious, I am a firm believer in the notion that offering unique and quality content will net you the best results over time (assuming it is worthy of being consumed).