Fantastic Footprints - What they REALLY are & How to Get/Create Them

You have a shit load of rep but I'll add to it for this post. Thanks

Thanks for sharing such valuable info. I do something like that when creating footprints but I hadn't thought it out as thoroughly as you obviously have. Excellent time saver!

+ rep. Opened my eyes on a few things. BHW is a freakin' online black hat university.

LOL , this post should be sticky ...... another +rep from..superb!

edit : it's strange. i was unable to rep crazyfix. after repped somebody and cameback but still unable to..

This is the best guide I have seen on footprints in a long long time. For anyone that comes to me asking for help on footprints I'm going to forward them to this thread. It's a rather comprehensive and dense piece on info but definitely the best explanation about footprints .

Also DiamondDave etc should stick this thread at the top of forum thread (like them threads that always seem to be at the top), this will help out alot of novices and experts alike...

I've come to realise that footprints are the key to getting links that you theoretically shouldn't be getting. A new site shouldn't be getting high PR do-follow links but with good footprints anything is possible.

I have found that I had some ridiculously complex footprints, not out of desire for them, but out of necessity. However I always strive for simplicity, and if I have a simple footprint which gives me exactly what I want, then I use it. In fact as I said the most simple footprint is what I aim for. You might start with a simple "Powered by X" example but as you say that is too broad. You analyse the page and then add something else which will focus and drill down even more; you keep going until you have reached your target, i.e. almost every page that SB/HREF harvests contains the comment box you are looking for.

What makes a good footprint? I define it much like crazyflx, and it's funny that we both had never talked about it really, but came to the same conclusion. I am looking for the following:

1. VOLUME. I must get large amounts of results. It is no good being so specific and picky that you get near zero results. That's the tug of war of a footprint: volume is pulling on one end, telling you to be broad and get the most results, while accuracy is pulling you on the other end, telling you to be more specific and add more criteria, words, special operators etc. The footprint you find MUST allow you to get large volumes, with a good keyword list (1 million+) a good proportion of the platform in question.


2. ACCURACY. It is no good getting millions of results when 95% of them are useless to you. You may as well just use no footprint and harvest using just a shitload of keywords, because your list will be useless to you if each page is not what you need. Your footprint must be accurate and provide 95-100% of pages with the criteria you need.


The best footprints combine volume and accuracy magically. I love it when I find a new one.

I would mention operators like + and - as well. Specially "-" you can use it to remove from results pages with -"comments closed"
But really great post man.

kaidoristm said:

I would mention operators like + and - as well. Specially "-" you can use it to remove from results pages with -"comments closed"
But really great post man.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is absolutely correct, + and - do work well.

However, you won't have to use the -"comments closed" because if the comments on a page are closed, then the name, email, website, comment box & submit comment button wouldn't appear on that page.

Bookmarked this post thanks mate. Great footprints and a good understanding of search operators are so critical to success in the business. cheers.

This thread deserve an Up!

It's pure gold and crazyflx deserve more credit.

Finally someone made the people who did not know this anyways realize how to properly use search operators. I always thought it was funny when people shared 'footprints' on the forum which are like one fifth of an actual, 'fantastic footprint'.

You can easily check whether your footprint is fantastic already or not by quickly harvesting a few urls via scrapebox/hrefer and having a look at the results.

If you get 99-100% urls using the cms you were going for, then your footprint is decent. But be sure not to narrow things down too much, make sure you use wildcards where appropriate so you do not miss out on thousands of urls (like the example mentioned before: leave a reply/response/comment etc.).

Another tip: If you search for platforms which require you to create an account, only create footprints for the sign up/register pages. This way, you will end up with more working urls where it is still possible to create an account (no sites with disabled/removed registration pages).

Yes, + and - operators work like a CHARM. Some of my best footprints involve +"XYXYXYX" or -"XYXYXYXY" . Also please do not forget - always try to AVOID special operators such as intext: , inurl: etc. - for any substantial harvest you will burn through your proxies and get next to nothing. A great tip as I have consistently repeated is to substitute inurl: with simple quotes. Works like a charm.

Great post, You provided the proper name to something I do but didn't know what it was called. Also some great pointers for doing it better.

Thanks..

Mate, did you manage to make that fantastic footprint working with Scrapebox? Starting to annoy me, only 0 URLs harvested... Using private proxies...

Thanks again!

Awesome post. I bought SB a long time ago, but still haven't mastered it. Your tips are helping me get there.

GREAT post (thanks added) but I have ONE problem.

I've known this information for a long time, but I've never been able to put it into practice becasue i miss one thing, maybe its in there and i just read it wrong but ive read it 3x and i don't see ana nswer to my question...so...

lets say I want to find as many blog posts i can comment on as possible about birth control:

inurl:"http:// *birth control* .com/" "name AND mail AND leave a AND * comment"

is that how I'd type it? Cause when i do a second set of quotes i -always- get no results...I dont know how I'm doing this wrong >.<

Thanks for the great post! I always have a problem understanding how to create good footprints without having them looking like garbage.

Very helpful posting. This clear up a lot of things for me. Thanks!

If Crazyflx's excellent post whets your appetite for footprints, checkout Wizgizmo's awesome share, "http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/member-downloads/157955-get-search-engine-optimization-footprints-backlinks-made-easy.html"