Academic SEO project - Need help

Hello,

Me and my buddy are having our ending project at our media studies, and in that regard we want to create a SEO platform that can generate links - based in the web, not an app.

But our professor said this to us:

"I feel they have to describe a little more how they plan to generate these
backlinks specifically. Is it talk about just yet
another link directory on a specific domain? Or is it a pure spam service
which throws out links in all sorts of social media and web forums? Or is
it back to form links in the html for cut and paste? Anyway, as it
stands now, it feels like it all is a spam service to manipulate
search engines, in which case it must be described much better how they plan to do this without google suddenly decides to effectively
remove them from the search result with a keypress."

I feel we need some help based on this feedback. What can our solution be? Create a linkwheel that are based on high PR links or try to make a backlink service that is google proofed?

Thank you for all help!

I'm astonished. "Academic" and "SEO" in same sentence. Something is wrong right there.
My 2 cents: unless your teacher knows SEO well, just do whatever you want and bullshit him. There are tons of over-hyped sales pages out there to get an idea on how to do it. Just present the things the way you want them to be seen. Figure out what questions he might have or what problems they might have with what you did and how you did it and think at answers beforehand.

My answer is not necessarily one that will help you, but do remember that the thesis is seen as you present it. You should be the one who determines what they will think.

About building a link building platform... lots of work, little chances of being bullet proof unless you're really good with SEO and understand it in depth. Just build something that looks decent and present its strengths like they do in those over-hyped sales letters. You can also study other similar systems and compare yours with the crappy ones saying why it is great and with the ones made by the "gurus" that got a lot of traction and success and say that your system does X thing in a similar way with LinkVana for example and continue by saying about it something like "which is one of the most popular and efficient commercial link building platforms out there". The idea is to put your shit in a good light by showing it is better than the crappy systems and similar to good systems (or those that at least you can argument why they are good).

Remember that having a speech for your thesis is pure marketing. You market your project to your customer (the teachers).

Thank you for your insightful post!

By the way, can it be documented that Google doesn't penalize sites that just get backlinks from these kind of generators?

Google is officially against this and if they do spot you, they will penalize you and your clients. But it is a detail thing. If you get the details right, you pass unobserved.