Suggestion: remove nicecoder.com's foot links to customer's sites

[Excell]

I don't think it's a wise move to link customer's sites at the footer of nicecoder.com site without customers' approval.

In addition, the search engines will be possibly confused with the footer links as they're dynamic, and this might bring negative effects to these sites.

If you want to showcase customer sites, pick some nice ones and contact the owners for their approval.

[Bruceper]

If you don't want your site(s) listed then paste the URL's here and we'll remove them.

There are no issues linking to external sites "without permission", why would think there are?

[FSGDAG]

I don't think it's a wise move to link customer's sites at the footer of nicecoder.com site without customers' approval.

So you think some people will have a problem with FREE advertisements?? FREE links??? FREE exposure??? I cant see the logic in that one?!?!?

In addition, the search engines will be possibly confused with the footer links as they're dynamic, and this might bring negative effects to these sites.

I'm not an SEO expert, and you might be right, but I've never heard any problems with this in all of my research and time spent doing it.

If you want to showcase customer sites, pick some nice ones and contact the owners for their approval.

With over 3000 IndexU sites, it would be an extremely daunting task to get everyone's approval. Bruce is right... If someone does have an issue with it, they should just post here.

[Excell]

With over 3000 IndexU sites, it would be an extremely daunting task to get everyone's approval. Bruce is right... If someone does have an issue with it, they should just post here..

daunting task? Nobody requires you to link to customers sites, why is this a task?

contact you for removal? This sounds like you can do anything, if we don't like to be bothered, send a request. Please make sure who're the owners and who have the full rights on their sites.

Sorry for my harsh words, this is not a bad suggestion if you really care about your customers.

[Excell]

So you think some people will have a problem with FREE advertisements?? FREE links??? FREE exposure??? I cant see the logic in that one?!?!?

Do you think all FREE advertisements, FREE links, FREE exposure will bring you positive effects? What if your sites appear on an extremely xxx page or a site or in a way that might generate potential harms?

Yes nicecoder.com is nice, but it shouldn't be taken for granted that all webmasters want their sites appear on nicecoder.com, especially in the footers that are dynamically changing!

Anyway, there're some webmasters that are really picky about their backlinks for both SEO and branding condsiderations.

[Bruceper]

A webmaster cannot choose who can and cannot link to them, especially to their home page. And in most cases lawsuits have been shot down in regards to deep linking as well.

In the end, if you don't want your site linked to, ask us and we'll remove it.

[Excell]

A webmaster cannot choose who can and cannot link to them, especially to their home page. And in most cases lawsuits have been shot down in regards to deep linking as well.

We're not talking about this is legal or not. And of course, you can link to any site at your will.

I can read from your words that you're reluctant to take any consideration of a customer's suggestion. Well, you could say "thanks" and reject my proposal.

We're discussing in this forum just in hope of improving the business. All I feel is your strong unwillingness.

So my final say is, thank you for reading my post and replying to me. I appreciate it.

[Bruceper]

I'm not reluctant to take suggestions, in fact I take them all the time and users can see that in the changes to our software constantly. I've even delayed releases (such as Deluxe 1.2) just so we can make changes that customers wanted. I am always open to suggestion.

I just don't see any merit in removing those links. We don't have ads on our site so there is no issue of content dilution. They rotate on every refresh so there is no hard link. We may be "bleeding" page rank but I'm smart enough to know that PR doesn't really mean as much as you think it does.

I could add a nofollow to all of the links, that would preserve our own site, but I don't see any issues with our site and it's ranking. Even if it went down I don't think I'd be too bothered.

But these links aren't about us, they're about the customer. Both to help advertise a customers site (albeit briefly) and to advertise what IndexU can do for users.

To me it's win-win for everyone.

As for replying, I reply to everyone. Sure sometimes people don't get the replies (such as via email) but that's because they have no idea how to use whiltelists, and that's not my fault. I fully believe each and every message/post/question/complaint should be responded to by someone who can make a difference and a change if necessary.

In this though, I don't see a need for change. Yes perhaps I should have said thank you earlier, but I was unclear as to why you thought we shouldn't link to customers websites.

So thanks, but this one isn't going to change.

[Mitchell]

What if your sites appear on an extremely xxx page or a site or in a way that might generate potential harms

I do a bit of SEO work and that is correct if your site is link to a xxx site or none related site may not be good for your site, search engines may even penalize you if you overdo it. In fact some people use that technique to damage their competition by buying none related links for their competitors in link farms.

… BUT
Nicecoder’s website is a directory website and all of those 3000 websites using the IndexU script are some sort of directory so being listed in Nicecoder’s DIRECTORY website is only a help from SEO point of view and keyword DIRECTORY.

… what Bruce has done is help for all listed sites and will not harm in any way unless the sites owner doesn't want to show any association with Nicecoder or IndexU.

[Excell]

I really don't want to post here as I know it's up to you. But I have to speak for myself when I see your response.

I just don't see any merit in removing those links. We don't have ads on our site so there is no issue of content dilution. They rotate on every refresh so there is no hard link. We may be "bleeding" page rank but I'm smart enough to know that PR doesn't really mean as much as you think it does.

Please make sure did I mention PR? I don't understand why you associate my question with PR things.

I could add a nofollow to all of the links, that would preserve our own site, but I don't see any issues with our site and it's ranking. Even if it went down I don't think I'd be too bothered.

Yes you won't be bothered. But your dynamic footer links may bother users' sites whether it's positive or negative effects.

but I was unclear as to why you thought we shouldn't link to customers websites.

I wish you could repect my above entries as I stated clearly about the reasons. However I'll be glad to re-explain:
1) The dynamic or rotating direct links might generate adverse effects to customer's sites in terms of SEO. I'd rather you use nofollow or redirected links.
2) There're quite a number of webmasters that symply don't want their sites associated with their purchased scripts for branding/security/copyright(some may copy the design ideas or the site contents) considerations.
3) Finally, it's sort of impolite to link customers sites without permission. If you think contact them is a daunting task, you could add a selection in the client panel for customers to choose if they want to have their sites exposed on nicecoder.com

Nicecoder’s website is a directory website and all of those 3000 websites using the IndexU script are some sort of directory so being listed in Nicecoder’s DIRECTORY website is only a help from SEO point of view and keyword DIRECTORY.

Hi Mitchell, not all customers buy this script symply for building a diectory. In my view LINK DIRECTORY has no future, but business directory/yellow pages/alibaba type sites will continue to gain popularity.

If I wanted to build a link directory, I should have selected phpld which offers enough functions for link management and there're many great phpld templates or designers available. However, IndexU is my favor because I think it has some unique features that offer the capability to build a business directory.

[Bruceper]

No you didn't mention PR, I didn't say you did. I mentioned it in regards to our own site, not any of the sites we link to.

You're right that customers don't buy directory scripts just to make directories. I have business directories, a recipe site, affiliate feed sites and (not complete yet) a collectors checklist for a specific market. A directory script like IndexU can be made into pretty much anything you want to.

There is a coupon site out there that has a beautiful custom template, and I could easily see IndexU being used for a contact/penpal/meetup site.

But all that aside, I understand what you're saying, and if you want to be opted out just let me know the URL's.

[Bruceper]

As a followup, I have added nofollow to the URL's on the index and fixed dozens of links/screenshots.

[Excell]

Great job, Bruce.