Google Releases New Webmaster Guidelines

Click our post title to see a clickable list of the new items that Google has release today in its Webmaster Guidelines section.

Of note it the mention of WebPosition Gold. Using this product now violates Google’s terms of service. Google has also really spelled out details for duplicate content, affiliates sites, printer friendly page versions, loading keywords in link title tags and image alt tags, and many other important issues. If you are in the business, you really need to take a few seconds and make sure that you are up-to-date.

One thing that I would like to point out that I am seeing that clearly Google will be looking for is the use of false anchor tags in text. The use of this technique may get your site banned from Google as it really falls into the category of hidden text. In several cases on sites that I webmaster that have been optimized by other firms this is a technique that is used. The anchor goes no where, but allow keyword stuffing in the source code. Another trick that I have seen that is sure to give you problems is to include in html comments bogus links to websites that the domain contains your keywords, and I don’t mean one link or two, I mean like 50 links in one commented section.

Be careful, make sure that your site is being webmastered by a reputable firm to assure that this tricks that Google has clearly identified and is targeting for dropping from their index is not being used on your website.