Funky Link Development That Works... Sort of

Over the last few years I've taken a look at a few sites practicing what is generally regarded as funky link building. Some of these sites build their rankings on the back of a ridiculous amount of directory submissions. Others have backlinks that are so obviously paid-for you expect to see a red light on their backlink SERPs. It's a commonplace that reciprocal links don't work but you look at SERPs long enough you'll find plenty of examples to dispute all of it and make you want to rethink commonly held beliefs about link building.

Something common to sites with funky link building is they're unstable. I've reviewed (pro-bono) enough sites caught in a spam update to see a pattern with the backlinks. I've also seen that some of them come rolling back to the same top three positions they've held for many years running.

Funky link building. I'm not advocating it, especially the mass directory submissions, because I just don't see those kinds of sites dominating the universe in the same way other link building techniques do.