Is CSS2 Hurting Your Link Building Efforts?

While working on an email link building campaign for a website design company, I received a reply from a potential link partner as follows:

"Well you're using an internal iframe so the place your links are don't have a good Google PR. No thanks..."

I knew exactly what he was talking about, but he was gravely mistaken. The problem was that our client was using CSS2 and a div tag to display the content of their link partner directory in a style sheet generated scroll box.

To webmasters that aren't familiar with this relatively new technique, the css scroll box uses a cascading style sheet property called "overflow" that looks like an iframe when viewed in a web browser. Since iframes have traditionally been difficult for search engines to index, using a technique that gives the "appearance" of an iframe can raise suspicions about link building ethics. The truth is that while iframes can cause problems, search engines have no difficulty following links located within a css scroll box.

I replied to the potential link partner that wrote me the email with an explanation of the technique but it was too late. I'd either lost the trust of this particular webmaster or damaged his pride. Either way, I lost a link partner.

I advised that my client remove the scroll box to avoid confusion but the scroll box was a consistent element in their design so they were unwilling to change it. This made my link building efforts for this client more difficult, but I learned a valuable lesson that I can apply to future campaigns.

In summary, you should avoid the use of css generated scroll boxes on your "resources" or "partners" pages, if you're running an email link building campaign, until webmasters become more educated about the new design options available with CSS2.

Link Popularity Building
LinkAssure offers professional link popularity building services.