How not to use bridge content for SEO

We have been quietly asked if we would be willing to place other people’s bridge content on our Web sites. It is not my personal policy nor the policy of my employer to sell space on our content networks.

Quite frankly, I would not regard third-party content as “bridge content”. It’s third-party content. First-party content is the content you create for your site. Second-party content is the content you allow people to create as user-generated content — comments, forum posts, etc. Third-party content is content placed where you would normally place first-party content, but it’s created by someone other than you (the site operator).

Links may or may not be third-party content, but if someone wants to boost an insurance Web site off of, say, a medical glossary site there should be some connection between the two sites other than a finaincial one. In my opinion, legitimate connections that justify (first-party) bridge content include:

1. Common ownership or contribution – you normally control or at least create content for the two sites you’re bridging
2. Logical relevance – there is some non-semantic relationship between the two sites, such as an auto mechanic’s blog linking to a retail store site where the mechanic buys parts or equipment
3. Editorial policy – news sites periodically write content about other Web sites, some news sites doing so more often than others — i.e., it’s in the nature of the site to write about other sites
4. Personal relationships – it’s okay to tell your visitors about your friends’ and relatives’ Web sites
5. Personal generosity – once in a while, someone just throws up some content about another site even though they don’t normally do that

All of these connections can be faked or rationalized in some way to persuade people to sell space on their sites for third-party content. Nonetheless, if it smells like a request for links it IS a request for links.

Before accepting someone else’s content I would ask myself what possible benefit that content would provide in a non-search optimization relationship. Will it provide valuable opinion or information to my readers? Is it the start of a beautiful relationship? Will the content provider continue to provide me with useful content that is relevant to my site’s purpose.

A Web site that sells bridge content pages will, in my opinion, look weird. Since the search engines have not yet had to deal with this kind of Web spam they are probably ill-prepared to deal with it. Nonetheless, if the concept of buying bridge content space on reputable Web sites catches on, I’m sure the search engines will want to do something about it.

There are certainly many content archives out there where people can place their content on someone else’s domain: free article archives, discussion group service providers, free hosting services, press release distribution services, etc. Of course, it could be that people want something more than just a place to park their content.

It could be that people want to park their content on sites with good Toolbar PR. It could be that people want to park their content on sites that are frequently crawled. It could be that people want to park their content on highly trusted sites.

If that’s the case, then this is a self-defeating strategy because as more pseudo-bridge content is placed on the Web more sites will lose their trusted status. That’s what has been happening to sites that sell links, right?

Ah, but the search engines don’t yet have filters in place to detect pseudo-bridge content so anyone who launches a “Bridge Content Brokerage” now might have an opportunity to make some money.

Okay, that makes some sense. However, I don’t believe it would be a sustainable model.

Furthermore, whereas links are not endorsements pseudo-bridge content might very well be deemed endorsements by the U.S. government — in which case these third-party pages would have to include some sort of disclosure statement.

Frankly, if you have the ability to create pseudo-bridge pages you can better use your time by figuring out ways to put that content to more legitimate long-lasting use than by sending unsolicited emails to people like me, asking us to post your content on our sites.

I like having search engine trust. I’d rather not sell it. That’s just me.

If I want another trusted site in my network I know how to build one. All it takes is a little time, content, and passion. I have plenty of all three ingredients. That’s a better recipe for long-term search optimization success than chasing links.