Bukisa

Bukisa

Most people looking to improve their rankings in the search engines are aware of web 2.0 properties. They are excellent ways to promote information about your website or product, as well as create inbound links from reputable sites. The only problem that has recently started occurring is the devaluing of outbound links emanating from many web 2.0s. The usefulness of these secondary pages for SEO purposes is well known throughout the internet marketing community, and this caused an explosion in the interest and content of these sites. Web 2.0s that did not have strict regulations on what type of content was acceptable, ie. amount of words, unique, readable by a human, not scraped and spun from other sources, pretty much lost all of their link value after the Panda update.

Google considered many of these websites no better than link farms as they were filled with useless content created for the sole purpose of contextual backlinks. Contextual backlinks are great for SEO, and are usually the holy grail for organic search engine optimization. However, Google wants to see anchor text links in unique and quality articles. Otherwise there is no value in the article you created and it should not benefit from any link weight.

This is pretty much the stance Google has taken when dealing with many web 2.0 providers since the Panda update. Here are some of the web 2.0′s that took the worst drop in rankings after the update:

• Hubpages  85% Decrease in visibility
• Squidoo  35% Decrease in visibility

Hubpages took a pretty bad hit because they are filled with pages that are neglected, never visited, and mostly outbound links. Google is not necessarily penalizing Hubpages forever, they will not be considered an authority site in their niche until they purge their databases of low quality content. Something they have already started doing. Links from Squidoo and Hubpages are still worthwhile as link diversity is key to a successful SEO campaign, it is just good to know their are other more reputable web 2.0s available for use. Enter Bukisa, the place to “share your knowledge”.

500 words minimum. Bukisa says the body must be at least 250 words, however, in my experience 400 word articles often do not get approved.

Bukisa has fared very well through the various Panda updates and adjustments that Google has been making. This is for a variety of reasons, but what seems to stand out the most is their stringent moderation process. If anything posted on Bukisa looks to be copied, spun, or just written poorly it will not be accepted. The moderators are extremely diligent with patrolling the site and finding link spam. I have even heard Bukisa referred to as unique content nazis. Now I don’t know about that, but they definitely make sure only quality information is posted on their website. This policy is obviously paying off as here are some of the statistics regarding Bukisa:

• Alexa Rank 5,660
• Page Rank 5
• Daily Page Views 200,000

Bukisa is feeling Google love even with the Panda updates. This is because of their qualitystandards. They were one of the first web 2.0 sites to have such strict regulations and apparently it has been working. Because their standards are so high, many people have trouble getting articles approved as they are used to creating low quality content and throwing a couple contextual backlinks into the writing. Methods like this will never get an post approved by a Bukisa moderator. Here are a few basic guidelines for Bukisa success.

• 500 words minimum. Bukisa says the body must be at least 250 words, however, in my experience 400 word articles often do not get approved.
• Do not place any anchor text backlinks in the body of the articles. They will be flagged as spam and your article will not be approved until the links are removed. There is a link button, but after writing 30 or so Bukisa pages I am fairly certain it is a trick .
• No self promotion. I know the whole point is self promotion, so you need to think of ways to promote a product or service without making it completely obvious. If Bukisa can tell you are advertising for your own business or service they will remove the article.
• Use full urls in the body of the text. Bukisa allows a few click-able links in articles just make sure its no more than 3, and that they don’t all point to the same domain. 3 links to the same domain = denied.
• Embed video. Try and create a video for the product or service you are writing for and embed it into the post. Bukisa allows video, just make sure it is not an obvious plug for your business as it will get the article denied. But remember, all web 2.0s love media, so pictures and video are good.
• Post more than one article. Nothing says SEO spam more than creating one post with a backlink pointing to your site, and no further activity. Bukisa has been known to purge articles and user profiles of people who don’t frequent the site, so use their service at least once a week. You just have to be active, not necessarily post, but posting is much better if you have the time.

Bukisa seems like a lot of work for backlinks that don’t have anchor text.

This is true, but Bukisa is a very reputable web 2.0 property, probably one of the best on the web currently. Any links directed to your site from Bukisa are a good thing. Google likes Bukisa and gives their links weight. Even without anchor text, an authority site recognizing your website is better than not having an authority site linking to your homepage. Web 2.0s are a large part of SEO, and as Google’s standards become stricter and stricter, we will have to become used to rules and regulations similar to Bukisa. Quality content that actually benefits readers is the present and future of SEO success.