Sneaky link development with Flickr
You probably know that Flickr can be an excellent resource for links as well as traffic. My previous method involved making a quick comment on flickr images that appear on the front page of Digg and generate up to 500 clicks. However just like on most website we can’t really go around plugging our link everywhere without getting banned. Or can we?
After doing a bit of backlink research yet another method has popped up. Have a look at glitter graphics and their 3 and a half million backlinks. Can you see how a lot of these come from flickr? Lets take a closer look at one of the pages. Can you see a little animation of two cats? Its an image link back to glitter graphics. However it is not too seo friendly. I took mine to the next level.
I used a little smily from this blog and added alt=”keyword” as well as title=”keyword” tags to my html code. You can see the final result here. The smily at the end of my quick comment looks natural and small enough not to attract unnecessary attention. Now I can go whitehat and leave quality comments on related pictures or alternatively adopt blackhat tactics and bombard every page possible.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I have been using that technique awhile… works on alot more places than just flickr.
You can also rename your smiley pic to your keywords for an additional boost.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Wow, I can’t believe all those comments on Flickr show up as backlinks! I am in awe. Wow. I really like your smiley face. That will not be noticed as a sneaky link tactic by most poeple. Brilliant.
I’m wondering though, does that tag really have the same effect as hard anchor text would? It counts as a link for sure but is the title tag really taken into account. I imagine you’ve tested this but it just seems too good to be true.
Feel free to leave a comment on my flickr page anytime at XXXpedite and go ahead and use a text link if you want.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
It shows up in yahoo cuz it’s nofollow…. it wont show up for Google….cuz, once again, the image link is nofollow.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
http://www.exposedseo.com/2008/03/25/do-nofollow-links-help/
Nofollow links are still good links.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
in mass quantities….
July 18th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
You never know unless you actually prove it with an experiment
July 18th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I’m definitely going to give it a try. I think I’ll develop one of those flickr “awards” graphics that people drop onto peoples comments.
July 19th, 2008 at 6:53 am
“Nofollow links are still good links” sorry to disagree, (waste of time as far as SEO goes) but an ingenious device and devious idea,non the less,bet you keep your do follow link methods to your self ??
July 19th, 2008 at 11:43 am
i cant for the life of me get it to work after studying how to write links for 45 minutes! lol guess i gotta use text instead cause even using your exact linking it wouldnt put the smiley in
July 19th, 2008 at 11:54 am
BusbySEOChallenge,
I actually have proof that they improve SERPs but not PR. Try it for yourself. Setup a new domain and generate nothing but nofollow links.
AK,
Are you sure the smiley you are linking to is not hotlink protected?
July 19th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Positive cause i am hosting it myself
i even pasted in your code from the page source and still no go it just reduces the code to a link and deletes the img tag 
July 19th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
ok i tested it again and yes it does work! you were right i am sorry for disagreeing and i am not sure why it works now but not before
July 19th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
“I actually have proof that they improve SERPs but not PR. Try it for yourself. Setup a new domain and generate nothing but nofollow links”
you don’t need a domain, try it with a fresh page put a rel-no follow link to it ( must be a vacuum ) that is no other links to it. It wont get indexed by Google, does robot text file work ? same thing , maybe the bot get through sometimes but this is rare and will get de-indexed mostly. So that is why I say those links are of no value for SEO. You do as you wish and believe as you wish. Why not develop do follow technologies for link gathering , there are still many opps. for this and they work by any measure
July 19th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I don’t think, I know. I actually do these sort of experiments. Maybe it does not work internally. Besides, Flickr was just an example. I give ideas and its up to my readers to decide what they do with them. There is nothing stopping you from using the same technique on dofollow sites.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I agree with you vip.. honestly I’ve use this tips when i sign up to every social network and it’s give a result.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Cool stuff SEO, I never tried this before….I’m not a big user of that site, but I see how it could work on others.
I may have to check it out….
July 20th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
this is amazing. I couldn’t help but lol when I rested the mouse over the image.
I tried, but why does mine delete the image tag? I don’t know.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Can someone please explain exactly how to do this, step by step? - how do we get this smiley and how do we get it to link to our website? Thanx a million
July 20th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Here is an example code for you to copy and paste into the comments:
<a href="http://www.destination.com"><img src="http://www.yourimage.com/image.gif" alt="keyword" title="keyword"></a>
You will need to link to your own smily or find one hosted somewhere else as long as they don’t mind you hotlinking. The last thing you want to happen is them replacing that image with a picture of testicles or something.
July 20th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I don’t understand… I don’t see any code…
July 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Sorry, it should be visible now.
July 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
cool! Thanks so much.
can you recommend a good place to get that same smiley that you used? Thanks
July 21st, 2008 at 5:13 am
do a search for smiley theres a million places to get them for free. then right click on it and save. not hard to do if i can do it!
July 21st, 2008 at 6:30 am
This is why I like your blog so much Ilia! You sure have the hottest tips and tricks that one doesn’t encounter on many other blogs.
July 21st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
When I type in the code… no smiley comes up..help!
July 21st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Try using a different smily. Are you sure you got the code right? If all else fails simply post your urls here as well as the keyword you are targeting and I will reply with a working snippet for you.
PPC,
This is what I promised myself when I started blogging. To be different. Thanks!
July 21st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Wow! Sneaky, sneaky.
July 21st, 2008 at 2:15 pm
the website is http://www.watchopia.com keyword = watches
thanks a million!
July 21st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Here you go. I have tested it and it works.
<a href="http://www.watchopia.com"><img src="http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/basic/smile.gif" alt="watches" title="watches"></a>
July 21st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Thanks for that….but it’s still not working for me…do I need to download a script of some sort or enable some setting? also where else can we include these smilies (eg. does it also work for comments in live journal, wordpress blogspot etc?)
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:49 am
I dont think you can know if it works or not until after you post you know? Mine dont always work sometimes they are blank but eventually one WILL work. just dont want to make people mad by over doing it
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 am
Sneaky and delicious
Thanks for sharing
Cheers
Lucio
July 27th, 2008 at 11:06 am
It’s a sweet treat for SMO, isn’t it?
The only thing I do different is not including the title attribute in the tag because it has not effect. The alt attribute is what matters for an image. Title will work for text though. So, why to keep a lousy tooltip that will only grab more attention from people and show your real MO?
Agree with you on the value of nofollow. Been tested to dead and the results count for themselves.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I never think this kind of SEO technique before. No one notice, unless you hover the mouse over it. Genius who invent this
It safer to put up comment on establish social media like this compared to usual blog which sometime comments moderated.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:00 am
Thanks for the tips.
I’ll try it
August 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Flickr links are nofollow, as are links from Delicious, but they both appear as top 10 referrers to my site every month so I don’t care. It’s not all about the dofollow links and PR, it’s about getting that traffic.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Thanks a lot!! Thanks for sharing.
alex
August 30th, 2008 at 12:27 am
One of my sites is getting hot linked like crazy (probably the same person) and I noticed they are all showing up in yahoo as backlinks. Now the link is to the image, but is there any benefit at all from an seo standpoint to me? I’ve tried to get the hotlink protection working (says it is enableed and all and it looks like the video on how to use it, but still allowing people to hotlink). Anyway I found this site when searching for why it doesn’t work (hotlink protection) and then wondered if I am getting any benefit from it? Thanks.
August 30th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
thanks for the tips. but it will produce many of spam comment
August 30th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Dave
If somebody is hotlinking your images you are not getting any benefits. Unless the images actually link to your website. You can always watermark your images if you don’t want to stop people from hotlinking.