{"id":397,"date":"2011-09-28T11:30:17","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T15:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/?p=397"},"modified":"2011-09-30T13:47:33","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T17:47:33","slug":"telefloras-scheme-siphon-from-florists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/seo\/telefloras-scheme-siphon-from-florists","title":{"rendered":"Teleflora Linking Scheme &#8211; Are You A Victim?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Thousands of Florists Are Unwittingly Contributing To TF.com&#8217;s SEO Efforts<\/h2>\n<p>In the world of internet marketing, links are the currency that powers the economy of search and user behaviour. Consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Links enable users to move from one page to the next, be it from page to page on the same site, or from one site to another<\/li>\n<li>Long before there were search engines, there were directories that linked to web sites, and there were \u201cweb rings\u201d that linked sites together based on common themes<\/li>\n<li>Links are the primary metric in the original PageRank formula developed by the founders of Google<\/li>\n<li>Links are still the single most influential factor in determining a site\u2019s search engine ranking &#8211; so much so that Google has waged a very public multi-year war on paid linking schemes because of the effect on their algorithms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Links on the internet are viewed as an endorsement or a referral. Just as you might suggest a product, resource or other business to a person in a conversation, links are how you express online that something is worth the attention of your audience.<\/p>\n<p>As in real life, links carry different weight based on the person making the recommendation, their authority, and relevance of the subject matter. If Gregor Lersch told the attendees of a design show that the new book by John Doe, AIFD is the most inspiring thing he\u2019s ever read we could expect that book to start flying off the shelves pretty quickly. Search engines try to replicate this social graph by identifying and quantifying the authority of the source of each link on the internet based on their position relative to all other web sites and within niche subject matters. Someone could, for example, have a web site that is low in authority relative to the majority of the internet, yet still be the world leader in cross-breeding dianthus varieties.<\/p>\n<p>The authority (also called \u201cweight\u201d or sometimes \u201clink juice\u201d) that any page has is determined by the pages linking to it. Think of links as pipes of various widths delivering water to and from each page of your web site. The \u201cwater pressure\u201d that you have to use on that page is determined by the combined water pressure of the pipes coming to you. That pressure is then divided amongst the pages that you link out to.<\/p>\n<p>So why the long explanation? Because I want you to understand the importance of links before moving on to the subject of today\u2019s post: Teleflora\u2019s (relatively) new scheme in siphoning the link authority from their members\u2019 web sites and passing it through a keyword optimized link designed to help Teleflora.com\u2018s search ranking.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_398\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-398\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-398\" title=\"Pickpocket\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Pickpocket-iStock_000013531490XSmall-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"Hope they at least bought you dinner!\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-398\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hope they at least bought you dinner!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That\u2019s right &#8230; if you have a Teleflora web site, your pocket is being picked right now, with the express and sole purpose of having Teleflora.com outrank you. It\u2019s like a Nascar driver pushing the guy in front of him toward the finish line &#8230; except it\u2019s nearly 12,000 florists pushing Teleflora to the top of the Google results.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Every site hosted by Teleflora bears a badge on each page declaring the member to by a &#8220;Proud Member of the Teleflora Network&#8221;. While the level of pride is open for debate, it&#8217;s outside the realm of this article. What&#8217;s interesting is what happens when you hover over, then click on the badge. As you can see below, hovering over the image reveals some optimized text Teleflora has inserted for the benefit of search engines&#8230; note the inclusion of the word &#8220;flowers&#8221; in the text that appears.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_399\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-399\" style=\"width: 288px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Proud-Badge.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-399\" title=\"TF Pride Badge\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Proud-Badge.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"66\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Proud-Badge.png 288w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Proud-Badge-283x66.png 283w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even with the extra text, this seems innocent enough ...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So let&#8217;s look at the code behind this badge. Remember, it&#8217;s the code and structure of the site that search engines see.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_400\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-400\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Flowers_Network_code.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-400\" title=\"TF Network Code\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Flowers_Network_code-300x10.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to see a larger image with more detail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The code reveals that the badge is a link to a page on TF.com. Interestingly, we see the ALT text for the image and the title text of the link have the extra word &#8220;flowers&#8221; included. So, let&#8217;s see where that link takes us&#8230;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_401\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-401\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Innocent_Info_Page.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-401\" title=\"TF Innocent Info Page\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Innocent_Info_Page-300x134.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"134\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A seemingly innocent info page about the TF network. (click for full sized image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As you might expect, the link takes us to a page explaining what the TF Network is. Relevant? Sure. Useful? Probably. But innocent? Hardly!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_402\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-402\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Nasty_Link.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-402\" title=\"TF Nasty Link\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Nasty_Link-300x86.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"86\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-402\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">There is a link to TF.com buried in that text! (click for larger image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What you don&#8217;t see at first is that the word &#8220;Flowers&#8221; in the paragraph is actually a disguised link to TF.com.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_403\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-403\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-403\" title=\"TF Hidden Link Code\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code-300x36.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"36\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code-300x36.png 300w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code-768x93.png 768w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code-1024x124.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code-400x48.png 400w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Hidden_Link_Code.png 1404w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-403\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Using CSS the link is disguised from humans, but not search engines (click for larger image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Why would Teleflora take this approach?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_SEO_is_embarassing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-405\" title=\"TF Embarassing SEO\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_SEO_is_embarassing.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"306\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_SEO_is_embarassing.png 306w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_SEO_is_embarassing-254x300.png 254w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px\" \/><\/a>Teleflora has consistently under-performed against their competitors like FTD.com and ProFlowers.com when it comes to SEO. \u00a0After years of getting their virtual behinds handed to them by their peers &#8211; and facing real danger of having From You Flowers actually pass them in online market share &#8211; it&#8217;s no wonder TF&#8217;s SEO team opted for some desperate measures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The results of this effort are quite tangible, as shown in this graph outlining their link acquisition:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_406\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Link-Discovery.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-406 \" title=\"TF Link Discovery\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Link-Discovery-300x75.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"75\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Link-Discovery-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Link-Discovery-768x192.png 768w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Link-Discovery-400x100.png 400w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF-Link-Discovery.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-406\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click for the full size graph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can see a clear trend of large-scale increases in their link counts as the links from TF Florist sites are discovered.\u00a0The end result is that the pop-up info page has exponentially more links than even TF&#8217;s home page.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_407\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-407\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Link_Counts.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-407\" title=\"TF Link Counts\" src=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Link_Counts-300x62.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"62\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Link_Counts-300x62.png 300w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Link_Counts-768x159.png 768w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Link_Counts-400x83.png 400w, https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/TF_Link_Counts.png 974w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-407\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The ridiculous link counts of TF&#39;s pop-up page (click for larger image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>So where does that leave us?<\/p>\n<h2>The Good News &#8211; Their SEO Still Sucks<\/h2>\n<p>Ya, I said it.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, even with this artificial boost their link profile isn&#8217;t as strong as FTD.com&#8217;s. They are still stronger than any florist web site, and the sheer weight of their links will give them some boost, but it&#8217;s like putting a Formula 1 car \u00a0in the hands of a driving-school drop-out: The pure power of the vehicle can get you somewhere, but the lack of skill means they&#8217;ll never win a race. And you can always count on some kind of crash.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, this linking scheme could have been implemented in a much more effective manner, but I won&#8217;t go into the details on how &#8230; after all, we don&#8217;t want to help them fix it.<\/p>\n<h2>The Bad News &#8211; Florists Still Lose<\/h2>\n<p>By linking to a competitor, florists are effectively endorsing the competitor ahead of themselves from every page on their site. When you link to someone else with a keyword relevant to your business, you are in essence endorsing them as a higher authority on that subject matter.<\/p>\n<p>Further, every page on the florists&#8217; web sites are losing a portion of their link juice to a 3rd party site instead of directing that authority into their own pages. It&#8217;s like springing a small leak in every pipe in your house: your water pressure suffers, and you&#8217;re likely to have a surprise in your foundation after a while.<\/p>\n<h2>One More Thing<\/h2>\n<p>Web sites having a footer link to the host or designer of the site is as old as the world-wide web itself. While we have a strict policy against this behaviour with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.demoflowershop.com\">our florist web sites<\/a>, I understand it&#8217;s a fairly common practice. I don&#8217;t like it &#8211; but lots of people do it.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s different in this case is:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The florist isn&#8217;t aware of the link<\/li>\n<li>The link is funneled through an optimized link for a high-value term<\/li>\n<li>The link is to a competitor, not just a service provider<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div>If you agree to let your web designer include &#8220;Designed by Acme Web Corp&#8221; in your footer, that&#8217;s your business. It&#8217;s not a good policy, but it&#8217;s your choice to make. However, when the web provider alters the site at a later date without your knowledge, to promote a competitor above the site owner, that&#8217;s an ethical violation I cannot tolerate.<\/div>\n<div>Update 30 September 2011: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floristseo.com\/seo\/tf-link-scheme-update\">TF Takes Action &#8211; But Is It Enough?<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of Florists Are Unwittingly Contributing To TF.com&#8217;s SEO Efforts In the world of internet marketing, links are the currency that powers the economy of search and user behaviour. Consider: Links enable users to move from one page to the next, be it from page to page on the same site, or from one site [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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It would appear as though Interflora embarked on an aggressive campaign on the run-up to Valentine\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;SEO&quot;","block_context":{"text":"SEO","link":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/category\/seo"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Depositphotos_11809844_original.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Depositphotos_11809844_original.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Depositphotos_11809844_original.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Depositphotos_11809844_original.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Depositphotos_11809844_original.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Depositphotos_11809844_original.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":376,"url":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/seo\/seo-basics-small-businesses-part-10","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":4},"title":"SEO basics for small businesses (Part 10)","author":"JA","date":"July 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"By now, I hope, all small business operators who have been following my blog have come to understand the importance of SEO. To review it in a nutshell, SEO is important if you want to compete successfully with your niche competitors and emerge as a winner in your field. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;SEO&quot;","block_context":{"text":"SEO","link":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/category\/seo"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":411,"url":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/seo\/tf-link-scheme-update","url_meta":{"origin":397,"position":5},"title":"TF Link Scheme Update","author":"theRKF","date":"September 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a follow-up to the post\u00a0Teleflora Linking Scheme \u2013 Are You A Victim?. We have received word unofficially that Teleflora is responding to a number of complaints about this issue. We can confirm that Teleflora has removed the hidden link from the pop-up page. Why This Is Not Enough\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;SEO&quot;","block_context":{"text":"SEO","link":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/category\/seo"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.florist20.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}