This is a very interesting video done by Matt Cutts Google’s voice to my industry on the topic of article marketing. It is a must watch for all website owners.
In this video Matt Cutts specifically states that Google does not give weight to links from article marketing but specifically articles that are low quality meaning they are 200 to 275 words long and then have the wording changed by using article spinning software and syndicated out on hundreds of websites.
In other videos, Matt does say that articles created for sites in your industry that are high quality and that you have clearly worked hard on and sweated a bit over will give you link juice.
The bottom-line is that articles can still work for you for link creation but not typically in the way that many have done before and certainly not with volume “spammy” syndication.
3. Lists of locations containing city or county names with keywords at the bottom of a web page used as a tactic for location specific placement has not been disavowed by Google as recently as the middle of October. Google specifically addresses this tactic as keyword stuffing. Read more on this from Google.
4. Google is asking you to turn other sites in that are spamming their network or not playing by their guidelines. Here’s the reporting link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreportform?hl=en. Considering many SEO tactics that would not be considered black hat at the time to now be grey hat, keyword stuffing or even web spam.
What I have found so very interesting with the recent changes and updates is that Google is now actively soliciting your help in turning in offending websites. By using an online form you can bring Google’s eyes onto your competitor’s website that has been practicing newly disavowed techniques to garner better placement. Although Google does not state that they will “smack down” a site you report, I surely would not want to be in their sites, would you?
In the last thirty to sixty days Google has been changing and tweaking their algorithm and has also quietly been updating and changing its webmaster guidelines. Here are just a few things that you should know just in case you missed them.
New disavow link tool – not to be used lightly, this tool is to be used only after you have tried other removal protocols first, but using this tool will tell Google you do not want them to consider a particular site that is linking to you in their algorithm. More information from Google on this topic. Google continues to work to categorize inbound links weighting some heavier than others and penalizing website for certain types of links.
Update to the webmaster guideline about links and other optimization tactics. Read the information from Google. What may be a concern to some is the use of CSS and possibly some uses of Spry widgets where some webmasters may have been hiding keyword dense text specifically for improved placement.
Come back on Wednesday to read the rest of the points in this article.
This is an excellent video that really reveals what links Google is really rewarding and which links Google is actually penalizing your website in their index for.
First, it is important to hear in Matt Cutts’ (top Google Web Spam Engineer) own words in the lead-in to the video what links Google is now considering as spam. The Panda and Penguin updates were all about web spam, so his thoughts are very important to take to heart.
Web Spam Links from Google’s Perspective
1. Paid Links
2. Blog Spam
3. Comment Spam
4. Forum Spam
5. Guest Blog Spam
6. Low Quality Articles Widely Syndicated that Are Keyword Dense
7. Links with the Same Anchor Text from Link Spam Schemes
8. Fast, Unnatural Link Building
The disavow link tool is not to be used lightly. Matt says that you should contact webmasters and websites first personally to ask to have links deleted from their websites first and then and only after as a last recourse should you use the disavow link tool to let Google know to not consider that specific link in your placement.
The bottom line is that when links are built too quickly, scamming is done to generate a large number of links quickly from low quality sites, and inexpensive, low quality, keyword dense content is widely disseminated on the web pointing to your site – Google will damage your organic placement for these efforts. Unfortunately, this was part and parcel the typical SEO strategy in the last three years. This has never been our strategy, but the SEO industry’s strategy overall. Many websites have been negatively impacted with the Panda and Penguin updates by heavily using what is now consider link spam tactics.
If you are now looking for quality writing, unique content blogging that is thoughtful and insightful please consider our services. You can find out more about how we build content for authority websites on our own website. There will never be a down side to buying and posting great, unique content for your business purposes and we can help with creating these types of pieces for you.
