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Google is done playing nice. For years they have said, "Don't do this. Don't do that" but never enforced those positions with any real backup until the past 18
by scottkrager 14y ago
Google is done playing nice.
For years they have said, "Don't do this. Don't do that" but never enforced those positions with any real backup until the past 18 months.
Don't write crappy content. Bam! Panda update Feb 24th, 2011.
Don't get crappy links. Bam! Penguin update last month.
The stick has come out from Google on cracking down on what they have been telling SEOs and webmasters for years.
SEOs will be fine. They are a very adaptable group. My concern is more for the small business owner who hires someone that doesn't disclose the tactics they are using.
It's a crazy time in SEO-land. But no one can say that there wasn't warning.
With iAcquire I see this as Google's shot across the bow to paid links. They dealt with bad content last year, then bad links/optimization last month, and I think the next enforcement will be around paid links.
- JoachimSchipper 14y agoMeh, I have more sympathy for the normal user. [EDIT: i.e. the searcher.]
- scottkrager 14y agoThe normal Google user? or small business who hired an SEO?
- trevin 14y agoBy 'penalizing' sites for bad links, Google is opening a lot of scary doors. Historically, they've instead devalued bad links which makes a lot more sense to me. Penalizing a site for websites that link to them simply isn't fair. There is no way for a website owner to control that.
- scottkrager 14y agoI agree with you there. I would think Google penalizes the sellers, and only if they can nearly 100% confirm that the site linked to initiated the link, then the link buyer. In the past Google would just take away PR from link sellers, but not de-index them.
- a5seo 14y agoAs someone who attends (and occasionally speaks at) SEO conferences, I can say #1 I'm glad and #2 Google needs to do this MUCH more. There are 2 problems: #1 links are still very potent, #2 JC Penney and Overstock got a public lashing, they had all of their rankings back within 90 days. The market won't take Google's Webmaster Guidelines seriously until someone loses a few hundred million in revenue, or at least enterprise value when they violate them. It's a classic downward spiral: cheaters get rankings, traffic, revenue, all of which helps them cheat better (or cover their tracks to look legit), which deprives the WG-followers of equal opportunity.