No, I’m not talking about the super sensational club hit called Barbra Streisand by Duck Sauce, but the promotional effect. It all started with a National Geographic Photographer taking pictures of the California coastline for the California Coastal Records Project, and apparently a picture of Barbra Streisand’s secret mansion was snapped unknowingly. The diva sued the photographer to remove the image and essentially put the address of the secret mansion on public record. Oops.

Overzealous lawsuits are common in the US, especially by those with cash and no brains, but there is an interesting effect with lawsuits other than your secret mansion being exposed: Links. I know it sounds ridiculous, but they tend to be juicy back links. Everyone loves to point out ridiculous lawsuits like chubby girls suing McDonald’s for their food choices and robbers suing their victims for injuries, and naturally they get passed around quickly.

That is why I was not too surprised to see SEO Book list Suing Google as their #62 link building suggestion. Yes, it works, but they rightly put “Proceed with Caution” nearby.

It seems that useful, relevant content would be the way to go. I say grow up, stop externalizing your link building efforts to the courts and learn to take responsibility for your decisions. If you do get those links, I hope you spent just as much money on content, if not more.