Connecting with other website owners to build a link directory for your own website is ultimately the goal of link building, but what if instead of sending out hundreds of emails to website owners you could do it over a social media platform similar to that of Facebook or LinkedIn? A recent editorial by Mike Butcher for TechCrunch discusses the pros and cons of a website for link builders called Linktive. Not to be confused with LinkedIn for employment networking, Linktive is a social networking website for SEO link builders looking to trade links. The website is in infancy at this time but, in terms of making a solid link directory of relative links, how effective is it?

Essentially, Linktive takes the email approach out of building a “natural” link directory and, instead, users of the site can add links much like users of Facebook add friends. But, with Facebook’s predecessor, Myspace, spam users are more common and, with authentic-looking pages, a user of one of these social networking sites could potentially accept or trade links with a spammer. Although, according to Butcher, Linktive has restrictions on the amount of links put on a page, the website doesn’t seem to have enough filters for spammers.

In terms of creating a link directory of relevant, non-spam links, would using Linktive be effective? According to Butcher, the website has the potential for becoming a forum for spammers. For users, how would one be able to differentiate between an authentic link request and one from a spammer? The benefit of doing links by email is that written text allows for more personalization. Often, the text of an email reveals if the person sending the link is spamming or is asking for an authentic link request. Linktive seems like more of a short cut to take out the personalized aspect of emails and, by removing that, real and spam link requests could becoming almost interchangeable. And, for your website, this would mean putting up links that could sink your rankings.