Webmaster level: all
Google has said for years that selling links that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines. We continue to reiterate that guidance periodically to help remind site owners and webmasters of that policy.
Please be wary if someone approaches you and wants to pay you for links or "advertorial" pages on your site that pass PageRank. Selling links (or entire advertorial pages with embedded links) that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines, and Google does take action on such violations. The consequences for a linkselling site start with losing trust in Google's search results, as well as reduction of the site's visible PageRank in the Google Toolbar. The consequences can also include lower rankings for that site in Google's search results.
If you receive a warning for selling links that pass PageRank in Google's Webmaster Tools, you'll see a notification message to look for "possibly artificial or unnatural links on your site pointing to other sites that could be intended to manipulate PageRank." That's an indication that your site has lost trust in Google's index.
To address the issue, make sure that any paid links on your site don't pass PageRank. You can remove any paid links or advertorial pages, or make sure that any paid hyperlinks have the rel="nofollow" attribute. After ensuring that no paid links on your site pass PageRank, you can submit a reconsideration request and if you had a manual webspam action on your site, someone at Google will review the request. After the request has been reviewed, you'll get a notification back about whether the reconsideration request was granted or not.
We do take this issue very seriously, so we recommend you avoid selling (and buying) links that pass PageRank in order to prevent loss of trust, lower PageRank in the Google Toolbar, lower rankings, or in an extreme case, removal from Google's search results.
I recently became aware of this, and removed or changed the offending links. How long would it typically take to increase my PageRank?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteClearly aimed at http://www.rocketmill.co.uk/interflora-gets-sweep-kicked-by-google2
ReplyDeleteFair comment. But then why does Google continue to index advertorial type pages?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.petecampbell.com/seo/time-to-ditch-advertorials-as-an-seo-tactic/
So to be clear, it's ok to sell links as ads if we put a nofollow on them ?
ReplyDeleteWhat about all the guest post type websites/blogs? Those always link back to the original blog and often include a bio section at the end with additional links. Sometimes the post is new and original, sometimes it is a complete repost.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people guest post or guest blog to try and increase there personal brand, gain new readers, and one would think improve the performance of their website in search engines. Does this penalty affect guest posters or paid posts like the infamous Church of Scientology one in the Atlantic? Is Google using algorithms to judge intent?
@Bruno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-nX2i-y2Es
ReplyDeleteMaybe some revisions to the original post would help?
ReplyDeleteYou know, rather than say things like;
"... Selling links (or entire advertorial pages with embedded links) that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines, and Google does take action on such violations. ..."
why not be a little more accurate and say;
"... Selling links (or entire advertorial pages with embedded links) that pass PageRank violates our quality guidelines, and Google might, in some cases, actually take some form of action. We usually reserve this for big manipulations, or those that have a lot of publicity and we cannot ignore without taking flak. ..."
?
:D
And yet, there are tons of sites that are clearly buying links and don't get penalized despite obvious signs that they are buying links... like the phone company Ring Central and the online funder Kabbage. They even buy links from some of the same sites (e.g. anglers-roost .com)
ReplyDeleteI thought keyword stuffing was against the Google guidelines?
ReplyDeleteThis short article mentions PageRank 11 times, is Matt Cutts using the same ghost writer who keeps spamming my blogs ;)
matt, couldn't you explain the whole issue without mentioning pagerank? every time you mention pagerank, the whole circus of "but if i have a pagerank 4 site and link to a pagerank 5 site and they link to 2 pagerank 3 sites which link 2 links back to ...." starts again. it's annoying. we teach companies to finally not base important business decisions on a 0 to 10 number of a deprecated toolbar, and then you mention pagerank again.....
ReplyDeleteI for one believe google is the best when it comes to being fair and I hope that the algorithms you all are building to identify this abuse targets the advertisers and not the site.
ReplyDeleteNot all of us get a job like a google job and for researchers especially money can get awful tight. A few paid links to relevant sites can make all the difference in the world when that DNS and hosting bill comes along.
I've been online since before google, and not once have I seen google go overboard or mistreat people. I'm happy this is finally getting some priority as the past few years have seen tremendous gaming of the system from stuff like this, mostly sites full of garbage/generated text/page rank systems/etc.
And yes I have daydreamed about what the algorithm to detect this could look like, especially after reading about the safe search algorithms Matt worked on.
So if you aren't gaming, don't be worried, google always gets it right eventually due to having the correct goal: to return to the searcher the most relevant and helpful results possible.
Still though.. I better go implement some nofollows!
How does Google know the difference between a paid link and an earned link?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@michael
ReplyDeleteThanks !
How Google know the difference between a paid link and an earned link?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information
ReplyDeleteJit
SEOExpert4u.com
The notification is for the link sellers.
ReplyDeleteHow does Google know the difference between a paid link and an earned link?
ReplyDeletePlease advise
A good reiteration and I support this kind of good reminder although my site's PR dropped down to 1 from 3/10. Thank you, Google for educating webmasters/site owners to enjoy fair play in building up PR.
ReplyDeletewhat should i do now if purchased already....
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know what planet Charles Torvald is from ... I'd love to visit it!
ReplyDeleteGoogle can/do get things wrong - and it can be horrendous when they do.
Sites that have done nothing wrong suffer, often with no clue as to what/why, and in some cases, there is no way to remove the problem (You cannot fix what is not broken).
Funnily enough - I've been online before Google - and I've watched them screw things up on more than a few occassions (and I was a Top Contributor, so got a closer look than many!).
G receive plenty of reports - and you won't see action taken on a fair % of them, as they'd rather do it algorithmicly.
That's good from their business perspective - sucks like hell for the legit companies being pushed down the SERPs for 3+ Months at a time.
At the end of the day, it has to be a Big Public issue, or a high value/high volume term before you are likely to see take action.
Attempting to suggest that G will take action against Paid Links in general would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
G are not perfect - nothing wrong with that.
But presenting misinformation, false impressions and conducting themselves in a negligent manner is not something that should be encouraged.
With all those smart people - they should be doing better.
Currently I am aboard the international space station, floating somewhere above the arctic. So earth ;)
DeleteGood points, especially the end about google having an abundance of smart people. Eventually every glitch and issue is dealt with, and I'm convinced they won't stop until its right.
For all asking how Google will find which are all paid links and which are earned links...guys do you think they'll just tell you how, so that it can be abused.. When you play fair, it shouldn't bother you.
ReplyDeleteSo are you saying if a company buys a PAID or FEATURED link to lets say yelp or merchant circle or yellow pages.. or any other "big" directory site, that is bad?? How can that be bad, that doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir, this info is really useful.
ReplyDeleteSo, just to be clear, you expect EVERYONE online with a website to know enough about HTML and how to add the rel="nofollow" attribute because your algorithms can't tell the difference???
ReplyDeleteMatt, that is simply not realistic to expect anyone (or dare I say, everyone) to adhere to.
While Google is a traffic source, it's not the ONLY traffic source and instead of threats and penalization, why not simply perfect the algorithm by some other type matrices co-occurrence?
I understand where you and your team are coming from but honestly, this type of goading people will eventually come back to haunt your brand.
If all website owners simply blocked your bots from crawling THEIR sites or put conditions on your bots for how they treat OUR content (then Google would feel the same way as well) offended.
So, all I am saying is, if we have to change the way we link to others on the web for your sake, what is it that we are getting for doing so?
Just not penalized??? It seems unfair to me and many sites get caught in the cross-hairs from misinformation or lack or technical prowess.
I have to agree, Matt, that Google is running the risk of driving hard working webmasters ans SEOs into rebellion with dictitorial policies about how they monetize THEIR content. You make your living on the backs of others... maybe we should be dictating to you how and when you make money via the use of our content.
DeleteJust sayin.
The notification is for the link sellers.Thanks for the information..
ReplyDeleteI was aware :) Thanks for the information Matt.
ReplyDeleteI think it's not Google or Bing, but we webmasters need to aware what matters for our sites and follow necessary guidelines.
Cheers...
Could you please explain how does Google know the difference between a paid link and sell link?
ReplyDeleteWhy only UK sites?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis update will help to stop link selling business for the sake of manipulating page rank.
ReplyDeleteLatest Seo Updates
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI have a question. Please help me, if anybody know about this.
My blog name is www.fitnessfizz.com. I am using infolinks in this blog. Will it create any problem in SEO?
In fact, I am not sure what link selling is. Is infolinks one type of link selling program?
However, please feel free to give me more suggestion regarding to my blog to make it better and search engine friendly. I always welcome feedback for my blog.
Thanks and looking forward to getting your comment.
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information.
What about guest posting as they too have a link pointing to the sites. I hope Google will not consider it as a link scam :(. I have few sites which i use for guest blogs/posting. Also i used to write for other blogs too. I am worried please let me know your thoughts
Subhranil Sengupta
www.seondinternetmarketing.com
Australian media are being extremely accommodating to businesses not wanting to appear they are paying for advertorial links. They are now offering news articles with the same type of online links. Are you going to look at these as well?
ReplyDeleteAlso social media spam bots are rating highly is this going to be phased out with the next algorithm updates?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYahoo directory is a paid or a free directory? :)
ReplyDeleteHi Matt,
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that google didn't like that any website approach to sell backlink to achieve better page rank and no one should to for that kind of deal.
So my concern about why not google punishes that kind for seller backlink sites. I am awaiting for your personal response. Thanks.
Thank you all..
ReplyDeleteI think this is why Interflora get penalized. Seem scary :)
ReplyDeleteDoes Google mean to prevent website/blog owners from earning money? Paying for a text link ad is not always to improve google rank, its for getting referral traffic, branding, conversions and many similar advantages. Instead google must find an alternative way of doing this, Eg. Like google ask for Sitemap.xml for indexing pages it must have Backlinks.xml for recognizing backlinks.
ReplyDeletePointless statement really. SEO's know that they're not supposed to buy links but they are willing to take the risk. This warning won't stop them and clued up webmasters know they are not supposed to sell them (without the nofollow tag).
ReplyDeleteThe people Google are hurting here are average Webmasters - the 'mom and pop' siteowners Matt Cutts so frequently refers to. These people have probably never heard of SEO or rel="nofollow". How are these guys expected to know that selling advertising on their site may harm their search engine rankings? They won't have a clue - all they see is that someone who is looking to promote a service or product relevant to their website and potentially of interest to their audience, is willing to pay to do so - the way that advertising has worked for generations. The thought that this may harm their sites traffic wouldn't have entered their minds.
I am aware of this strict norm of Google. But if I contact blog-owners with relevant blogs to my niches and by both of our mutual consent we exchange links on our blogs , but in a meaningful and post relevant way, will this act be penalized by Google?
ReplyDeleteAlmost all biggest media post PR articles on their websites. Google know this for sure. Do you think, that they will be penalized, or websites are equal like in Orwells animal farm? :)
ReplyDeletebbc, cnn, fox, all out of google index for pr articles with follow links .... :)
ReplyDeleteAnyone who works in new media knows what I am talking about and can find dozens of pr arcticles which look like normal informative.
But ... they started with it in times when no google was there. It is same principle like in printed media. They create content, they have their audience and companies want advertising. In printed, tv, radio and of course also on website. This type of ad si much older than google and its owners but its "against google guidelines"
Google guidelines should think more about world and reality not about nerd idea (anyone wants my pagerank).
Thanks for the post. It’s good to have the timely information on selling links and how they can attract penalties from Google. Natural links have always been endorsed by Google, and so they are definitely the best practice to follow. Obviously in case of paid ads and stuff like that, care should be taken not to violate guidelines set by Google.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information
ReplyDeleteSo basicly if someone invents a cancer cure and creates a web-site , he would have to call all media agencies and all webmasters in the world to tell them not to publish online information about his site , to avoid being penalised...
ReplyDeleteI had a site page with over 300 fb likes , few G+ and 100 tweets , getting penalised for manipulation.
Sorry for creating information that people like .
Now Google has to think it is either white or black ... Because they state that you should make quality content that makes people link back , but when you get link backs from others they may consider paid-link.
Not sure where to head...
Saya berharap semua kebijakan yang diterapkan adalah yang terbaik untuk kita (blogger) pada khususnya dan google. terimakasih
ReplyDeleteHi Matt..
ReplyDeleteWe are fully agree with your points to clear the web spammer.. But your updates from past months and years has announced like STOP SMB, STOP PROFILE LINKS, STOP LINK EXCHNAGE, STOP ARTICLE SHARING, STOP DIRECTORY, STOP COPIED CONTENT, STOP ANCHOR LINKS, STOP KEYWORD STUFFING, STOP PAID LINKS, STOP SELLING LINKS.. So then can you please explain WHAT IS SEO?..
Thanks
Karthik
So in case a website is punished and they take action to rectify the violations, how long will it take for the website to regain it's original ranking?
ReplyDeleteSEO=Money for Google.Why?If you can't pay money to google or their service You are declining google guidelines.Other country sites are full blackhat.But Uk sites.No no no Google is knowing selling links.If there are google guidelines ,They are make general guidelines.UK Sites is bad,Russia good,Turkey good.Africa good ,asia good.
ReplyDeleteNot good all.All is selling links,hacking gov-edu sites and put their links.
Paid , paid , paid.Yes there are paid services or links but google says if you have links you can make good rank.
Do you know pagerank?I see a lot of pr 10 /pr9 /pr8 sites.Wow pagerank is full.
Problem is not UK sites.They are not black then other countries.But google not take any effect.
For good web,Google is make same guidelines other cuntries
Not only UK.
Europe,africa,asia,russia and all word.
Because we don't want garbage on the web.
Sorry I have little english.
@MattCutts Can You Explain me?
ReplyDeleteHow does Google know the difference between a paid link and an earned link?
Dinesh SEO
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree to with Matt. Google has the responsibility to give deserved credit to hardworking webmasters. Paid links needs to be suppressed in favor of honest webmasters. We at www.futurewhisper.com strongly follow this recommendation.
ReplyDeleteWOW
ReplyDeletewhy not just write a blog post saying;
'Bloggers of the world - stop accepting any sort of payment from companies asking you to promote their products/service & please continue producing great content on your site for free. Oh yeah and we are not smart enough to figure out if you are being paid for follow links so please waste your life by making paid links no-follow for us or we will proceed to obliterate your site from our index regardless if your site has good content, good for the user or whatever else good stuff you have on your site. Remember guys 'You can make money without doing evil' so stop being evil by accepting money for content and be like us - not accepting money for anyone elses content on our pages. oh wait our search engine ads shows content from.. nevermind'
Yes there might be a few people who don't accept sponsored posts on their site but there are a tons of people who are trying to combine their passion for blogging with a source of income. Something Google clearly does not understand.
Get a new strategy already.
What about me having a website and asking my friends who have a website to link to me?
ReplyDeleteIt's blackhat, because it has nothing to do with my site's content.
Here's a common practice of big, whitehat websites:
They call all kind of bloggers and websites, and offer them design advice, marketing advice and all kind of other wonderful forms of cooperation.
They don't explicitly ask for a link in return, but often times the bloggers and websites are thankful, and post a backlink anyway.
Whitehat, like pure snow.
Wrong.
It still has nothing to do with the content of the website being linked to.
Hence, helping others and receiving a gratitude vote (link) is against Google's guidelines.
And what about social signals? Now that is tomorrow's backlink isn't it.
Wow, now that's something else.
Every bullshit company offers a %1 discount in exchange for a 'Like' or people even click 'Like' because the cute cats video they want to watch is content-locked on Facebook and requires a Like to view.
They'll all be blackhatters.
In fact, Google, it's time you take a stand and ban the entire world from your results I guess.
Honestly Matt, it's good that you're pushing people to write great content but we're getting a bit tired of the hypocrisy speeches.
What does it mean to "pass Pagerank"? I don't understand the term, and Google doesn't explain it.
ReplyDeletehi - if anyone is having trouble understanding this, I've written a fairly detailed blog post on what happened over here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediachimps.co.uk/blog/110-googles-penalises-the-scotsman
It should hopefully clarify some of the points discussed here.
thank you, this could be a guide for my blog: D
ReplyDeleteHow about paid advertising posts in blogs? It will be banned too?
ReplyDeleteAdvertising posts is the most clear way of earnings from blogs and I don't see anything bad in it.
Thanks for the tips
ReplyDeleteFAIL: Once again Google reminds us that it will punish its search customers with poor results in order to punish a website!
ReplyDeleteA search for interflora now results in me finding vouchercodes! Well done Google!!!! I am looking for a website and you send me somewhere else. Idiots!
Give me my searches back! I dont care what tactics people use to make their sites rank high I just want to use Google and find what I am looking for you ignorant people at Google.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you punishing me the search customer! By removing those sites you send me to inferior sites!
I am going to use Facebook and Bing from now on as you have clearly shown me that you do not care for me as a customer!
Goodbye, Matt Cutts you are a Fool for allowing this to happen.
Ok thanks for this article but why don't you punish yourself because Google clearly buy sponsored links without nofollow attribute!!
ReplyDeleteI am going to use spam report to report Google!
Don't be evil :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBUSTED GOOGLE: http://www.webpronews.com/google-appears-to-be-busted-with-its-own-paid-links-again-2013-02
ReplyDeleteHow you explain this Google?
Matt Cuts if i write 150 advertorials with dofollow atribut to youre blog, you will be penalized? HA HA Google youre funny
Вроде бы хорошая инициатива, но можете наломать дров - опять пострадают многие сайты, где размещение внешних ссылок просто необходимо и они, на самом деле, не будут продажными. Не получится ли так же, как было с Пингвином?
ReplyDeleteMatt, could you please be a tad bit clearer about directories? Do you consider a review service offered by a directory as a paid link?
ReplyDeleteI understand the concept between good directories vs. bad directories and that a good directory adds free listings and doesn’t accept all submissions, while bad directories will approve anything when money is involved. But this stuff with paid links has people so afraid to spend money when it involves a link that your saber rattling is “unfairly decimating” an entire industry of good directories that rely on paid reviews to survive. How fair is that?
What’s to gain by putting good quality directories out of business? Why can’t you support the good part of the directory industry? Are you completely anti-directory now? If you are say so. If not, then why not help this industry survive and blog about what Google does and doesn’t expect from directories and be clear about paid links vs. a paid review service.
Everyone wants to be treated fairly, even you if the tables were turned. Why not support the people that are fighting the same type of web spam you deal with daily? Is that such a bad thing to ask? Can you please assist the white hat part of this industry?
Hi Matt
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great post but I was wondering if i clean up my website does it mean i will lose my page ranking because the whole idea involves bringing down the whole website when it is infected.
Hi Matt
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great post but I was wondering if i clean up my website does it mean i will lose my keyword ranking. I want ur help. do u help me?
play online games: www.darkagewars.com
This is absolutely right - everyone should avoid this kind of activity.
ReplyDeleteHow Google will know that which one is paid link or which one is not ?
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing written there about paid links.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of spam, someone should really give motorcycle-superstore.com a manual review.
Once more... Could you, please, explain how does Google know the difference between a paid link and sell link? Should I use the Disavow Links то aviod the penalty, if I've bought some links aready?
ReplyDeleteWhat does that mean, "links that pass PageRank"? Can you explain what it is?
ReplyDeleteI’ve had offers from sites wanting to pay me for links, but i always say they have to be NoFollow suffice to say, i never hear from them again. DoFollow and NoFollow can be a little confusing to new bloggers.
ReplyDeleteI always have my own rule that paid should always be 'NoFollow' and i stick to that. :)
Please help,,
ReplyDeletemy domain : konveksi.biz
My site (domain above )is extremely lost visitor for about 97%,
it's start on 11 january 2013, and still no improvement until now.
is my site has been penalized?
i never got any notification about such a things
big hope can have any suggestion from Google
many thanks before
Hi Matt Cutts,
ReplyDeleteI've stopped catering to Googles double standards for about 6 months now. It's a shame for a lot of people that depend on google for traffic. Its a nice feeling knowing you dont need to cater to them. They have basically become the problem themselves.
Its like comments. Comments should form good link juice if your comments are productive and give value to the blog, yet because Google couldnt work out to punish the blog owner for spam (after all surely its the blog owners responsibility to not allow spam comments) yet all blogs became nofollow rendering commenting pointless to some degree.
I'm with you Ravi. I see my site getting passed in searches by other sites that blatantly offer link exchanges, have no content on their home page, sell links, etc.
ReplyDeleteMy 7+ year old site indexes well but my HOME page has disappeared from search without any reason. All of my targeted keywords (and when you type my site name) links to category pages on my site, no home page. Google has a lot of rules but they leave you in the dark if there's a problem.
For most of the websites I work with I develop blogs under separate URLS to provide content to their customers and even potential customers. The pages link to their many company website many times and "ads are also shown in their sidebar. Since it is a separate URL do I need to use the rel=nofollow?
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent but we need more actions to fight spams and black hat tactics.
ReplyDeleteA good reiteration and I support this kind of good reminder although my site's PR dropped down to 1 from 3/10. Thank you, Google for educating webmasters/site owners to enjoy fair play in building up PR.
ReplyDeletePublic Relations
I submitted a site map to google a few days later my page rank is N/a . I have had no google warnings .
ReplyDeleteIs there a reason why I am N/ A
I can't seem to get an answer
very good article i am accepting guest post so in return i am linking from my website to another site will Google consider its as paid link?.....how Google can find the paid link and natural link?
ReplyDeleteoh thnx for the article.i think it will help me to improve my website www.niftymoney.org pagerank.thnx buddy
ReplyDeleteI've never really promoted a website before so I had purchased some links ignorant of Google's policy and not being sure how to use links otherwise. Some one mentioned to me that it might be a problem so I decided to research it. I'm glad I did. I'll refrain from buying links in the future. Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteGuys who buy/sell paid links thinks that they should get the link juice in a short term period but what about people who are doing hard work and have patience about their website's ranking ? so as per me Google should take a hard step to make this paid link network closed asap.
ReplyDeleteInteflora had some weird redirects going on, it had nothing to do with guest posts. They were offering exactly what the satchel company on the Google Chrome advert was doing...unless one thing is good for Google and another for everyone else?
ReplyDeleteI do SEO but have seen it simply stop working, even with quality content and very good, deserved links. It's really frustrating. Advertorials? Is that why all UK press release sites and newspapers got slapped? What's next social bookmarking sites? You've already smashed the article directories. No wonder people are buying links if there is no legitimate way of gaining quality links naturally. Go back to a few years ago please Google, you're ruining everyone's lives.
Can help me??
ReplyDeletemy blog little-peter.blogspot.com is not listed on pagerank
Thank you for this information. But, even though don't use, it is very widespread to exchange links without any payment. Is this legal?
ReplyDeletekolay yemek tarifi
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry but this whole nofollow thing you’ve really got wrong.
The actual impact of the nofollow tag down on the ground in the real world away from the golden Google ivory tower is that most major and small websites refuse to link to a website with anything but a nofollow link, and ask you to pay for any link that is followed.
The whole thing has become tipsy turvey, particularly in markets where money is involved. What you have in effect done is price, for the most part, the skilled webmaster out of the market. Those that are willing to engage in black-hat marketing and with big wallets now rule the internet.
Well-earned and well written articles that add value are using the nofollow tag in fear of Google penalties resulting in value not being passed on to valuable technology resources.
You and those around you have got so caught up in your own self impression of how the internet works, that down on the ground you’ve become detached. As such, the search experience has become increasingly gamed by those with money leaving those without money and a good product unable to complete.
In addition, this creates a self-fulfilling prophecy making it impossible for new good apps to break out.
You may think that I’m talking nonsense, that’s fine…but some day, a well-capitalized, well organized search tool is going to come along and do what Google did to Yahoo many years ago after the “gaming” that occurred in the directory based search.
From a frustrated webmaster priced out the game,
Anonymous.
Hello Matt, your decision seem ok to me. I understand that you are fighting to get your users a good search experience. Thanks for giving the option for redemption if sometime of such happens. I appeal that you keep the good work going.
ReplyDeleteRegards WorldWebSurfers.com
They were offering exactly what the satchel company on the Google Chrome advert was doing...unless one thing is good for Google and another for everyone else?
ReplyDeleteYou may think that I’m talking nonsense, that’s fine…but some day, a well-capitalized, well organized search tool is going to come along and do what Google did to Yahoo many years ago after the “gaming” that occurred in the directory based search.
Maybe said already ... but, let's get back to the goal of increased web traffic and the returning visitor.
ReplyDeleteIf someone comes to my site and discovers that I have quality content, I'm happy if they spread the word based on their experience.
Now, suppose that I purchase 1,000 links inviting individuals to come experience my site. Let's also suppose that every one of those links had "no follow" embedded. Would I care? Not really, because the point is to "get the word out" about my product, increase traffic, gain loyalty, etc.
Isn't that exactly what occurs when we use the services of AdWords, Bing, or whomever?
If we are striving to be webmasters, well, let's be webmasters. Let's continue to take the time to educate ourselves. Let's do the research, improve our sites and reap the benefits.
My theory is this: As soon as Google detects words like ‘advertorial’ in certain areas of a web page alarm bells toll. If the page meet a few other criteria, Google recognizes link building via advertorials and penalize the site.
ReplyDeleteIf you back link in guest posts you probably won’t be penalized. Penalty rests on certain phrases written in certain areas of the page combined with language totally unrelated to words like ‘advertorial’, ‘advertisement’ and what is otherwise assigned to advertorials by media guidelines and law. If your subject is ‘the advertorial’ and your article is related to words like 'sponsored stories', 'advertisement' etc., I don’t think you’ll get hit.
I don't see why this should even be an issue. The Google PageRank algorithm should just take care of this without having to manually threaten to impose penalties. It's simple really: if a PR5 page (for instance) has just a single paid do-follow link on the page then the PR should absolutely be passed on. It's just a single link, no one is going to make a business selling one link per page. If they have 900 links on that page then the PR should just be diluted that many times. I'm sure the algorithm already does some form of this but I'm confused why it needs to be brought up as if it's a manual review process with penalties. It seems more like Google is leaving themselves an "out", if you will.
ReplyDeleteThis is my website-http://islamicnews24.net/ . This website already left 1 year but this site have not any google page rank yet . What was my site problem. ANy one help me..
ReplyDeleteI recently became aware of this, and removed or changed the offending links. How long would it typically take to increase my PageRank?
ReplyDeleteI have the same issue currently but my page rank dropped from PR 3 down to N/A and hasn't changed for over 2 months or so. Very worried. But weird;y enough my pages are ranking better and climbing faster than before.
ReplyDeleteSweet, finally, an official statement from Google. I like this. Let's just be unique and awesome on the internet. :)
ReplyDeleteSo what Google is saying is that they have no way to determine if a link has been sold or is "natural" and so they need to scare us into solving that problem for them.
ReplyDeleteNo!
Figure it out Google. You have the money and the resources. If I want to make a few dollars selling a few links that is my business.
How about this idea: Figure out a way to detect unnatural links on your side, and then JUST IGNORE THEM.
That's right. Ignore Them. No penalties. No jumping up and down. No blog posts. Just ignore them.
Since there would be no benefit whatsoever to buying links (because you would eventually catch and ignore them) this practice would become irrelevant and therefore solved.
Next problem!
So what Google is saying is that they can not detect "unnatural" (bought) links so they want to scare us into doing it for them.
ReplyDeleteNo!
Google, you have the money and resources to solve this problem so get to work.
A much smarter solution would be for Google to simply IGNORE UNNATURAL LINKS! That's right IGNORE them. No penalties. No blog posts. No yelling contests at conventions. They just don't count!
This would be perfect. You would not penalize those who don't know any better and over time the people paying for these links would realize (most of them anyway) that they were wasting their money because the would not help in any way. Ignored links would not pass page rank or even help create page rank.
Simple. Problem solved.
How do we contact Blogger to report the illegal selling of Blogspot addresses?
ReplyDeleteYou do NOT have to post this comment as it probably should NOT be advertised because someone is breaking the law, but if it helps catch someone who is illegally selling Blogger blog names, PLEASE contact me at laurieisreading at gmail dot com On June 25th, 2012, a person left their first and last name and said to reach them at a Facebook address if they were interested in purchasing the Blog name. I believe Blogger would NOT want other people SELLING BLOGGER BLOG NAMES, and I also feel this is illegal! I would like to report this illegal selling of Blogger Blog names and I have been trying to report this for forever, and have NEVER been able to report this to Blogger EVER. I just left a previous comment stating I know of someone who is selling Blogger Blog addresses illegally - to GAIN monetary value for themselves! Blogger does NOT CHARGE for blog addresses, but this person IS. If you try to get a Blogger address, it states to contact a person - their name IS LISTED on Facebook so you can PURCHASE THE BLOG FROM THEM! I believe this is ILLEGAL. I NEED to report this! It IS ILLEGAL! Blogger does NOT SELL their Blog addresses! However, this person is! You can contact me at laurieisreading at gmail dot com and I can provide you the address where the blog name is for sale. It is VERY similar to my own blog, and also is the name of my email address! I would really like some direction to find out HOW I report this illegal activity to Blogger!
ReplyDeleteThank you
I believe I have issue relevant to this topic. I recently put up a couple of Business Directories and aren't I was under the impression that Business Directories were a legal business in the U.S., isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAre you telling me that you aren't going to index my sites for conducting a lawful form of business?
As for you folks saying you change your rules for a better user experience (or something like that. If I would have mentioned the possibility that just using a company name, another web site name, or even your own name without hyperlink involved creates linkage. SE's are indexing every bit of content aren't they? Does that not mean that if I write Microsoft in my article about Microsoft that my page will come up eventually if someone searches the name Microsoft? And, I am truly sorry, but isn't that "censorship?"
I too, was here before Google. What I expected from Google, was integrity, not censorship. And I, don't want to see censorship by any type of business, organization, or even a club. And, the last thing I want you to do is censor my search results, that is simply unacceptable. Our Government is does not stop us from visiting web pages that are not in violation of law. But, Google will at their discretion? When did Google decide they had the right to "censor" data from the American Citizen? I really had no idea this stuff was going on. I naturally believed that whomever the Lead was in the SE game, they would have more respect for me than that. Man, has my life just turned to crap, or what? This is beyond belief. Are you telling me that all of America is just standing by and letting ourselves be censored, are we? My Lord, why would you want a company that does not provide you every bit of data available, rather than pick or choose what data they want to present you? Man, am I upset. Why do we claim to be a "Free Country" if business trusted to present us what we search for, actually only lets us search what they want us to see, and everyone just rotates on their thumbs allowing them to do so, as though they are the "good guy?" Man, am I upset. Where are you America?
Without teeth that severely bites the cottage industry of fake links from fake blog sites, Ranking will soon become overrun with fake results. They are using low cost foreign writers (indonesia etc.) hence the broken english, and fooling them into thinking they actually have a blogging career going. I mean, it's far better than working in a garment factory in Bangladesh apparently.
ReplyDeleteBut it is far better to drop the hammer immediately so they do something else with their time.
Otherwise trick ranking will eventually cause paid ranking to fail, and there goes the Google free shuttle bus and free cafeteria.
Honest ranking of search is the best ranking. I'd even be willing to pay Google for and ad-free version of it.
What everyone fails to realize is by most of the SEO performed we corrupt the documents involved. The second your SEO creates a modification of an original document, you violate the documents integrity. Why is any kind of document modification necessary? So Google SE can read what they want to read. Why isn't Google trying to learn how to place a book higher in their rankings than a keyworded web site that uses the book as it's topic? Google actually does not do a fair and reasonable index of Internet, but they have learned how to make most of the world follow their lead as they create job loss, destroy lawful small business, and act as though they are the world's nice guy. What a sham. What a disappointment. I had believed that whomever took the lead as the stronger SE, they would do it with integrity and wouldn't censor the Internet.
ReplyDeleteIf you check most of the comments posted here you'll find users that are mad at Google. There may be some link sellers (watch out!!! these people are really mean, they violate Google's 'quality guidelines' and try to fool PageRank) but I see plenty of good content providers here, affected by a rather unfair algorithm. Ok, Google owns the search engine, the algorithm, so they have the right to play the boss. But when you play the boss, and you have people under your ruling, you'd better not be so dictatorial, cause people, serving you, may rebel some day. You cannot rule if you don't have anyone to give orders to.
ReplyDeleteI think we can all just use Google AdSense to monetize our sites. Then we can make Google money and they will give us a little bit of that money. Problem solved.
ReplyDelete