If you are using free web hosting services or provide one, Google has some important tips to avoid penalties and being removed from Google’s index.

Recent Google Panda updates have seen Google on the look out for spamming web site’s which do not add “sufficient value” to its users. Tje introduction of a spam algorithm in the Panda update in January 2011, this one was aimed precisely at fighting spam and affected about 2% of search results. This even saw Google ban free hosting services (and all their sites using their service) from the Google index, you might remember when all the co.cc domains were removed from the index, causing thousands of sites to disappear from Google.

So in order to help these free hosting companies stay clear of a penalty or ban, they wrote this blog post with tips, including:

• Publishing a clear abuse policy and communicating it to your users to provide transparency about what is considered “spammy” activity.
• Using CAPTCHAs or other verification tools to only allow human submission and prevent the majority of automated scripts from creating sites on your hosting service.
• Monitoring for spam signals including redirects, a large number of ad blocks, and spammy keywords. Google recently announced its page layout algorithm, which penalizes sites with too many ads above-the-fold. Read the rest of this entry »

The search marketing industry has been abuzz about safe link building practices in light of Google cracking down on sites with ‘unnatural and artificial links’.

Many webmasters have been left enraged after being issued penalties by Google because their sites acquired artificial links that were used to manipulate their PageRank. Many experienced a sudden drop in the Google SERPs without prior notification.

Google has either partially or completely removed entire blog networks from its index. Consequently when Google removes a website from its index, any outgoing links automatically become null and void leaving thousands of websites affected.

The worst affected by this update are blog networks like BuildMyRank who are reportedly on the verge of shutting down. Read the rest of this entry »

Thinking of Penguins tends to conjure up images of cute, waddling birds. But now, at least in the SEO world, they’ll lose part of their innocent image with the new Google algorithm update aimed at webspam being referred to as the “Penguin Update”.  This  is expected to impact about 3% of search queries. If you’re engaging in black hat techniques – be warned – yet again (remember the “Panda Update” anyone?). Google is coming after you, continuing its relentless pursuit of offering only high quality, relevant results for its users. Here are the details you need to know to ensure your website stays on Google’s good side.

Over-optimized websites

Matt Cutts, Head of Webspam at Google, had alluded to this update when he described “over-optimized” websites being punished. This received criticism from the SEO world as it blurred the lines between white hat SEO and webspam. Fortunately he clarified this by explaining, “The idea is basically to try and level the playing ground a little bit, so all those people who have sort of been doing, for lack of a better word, ‘over-optimization’ or overly doing their SEO, compared to the people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we want to sort of make that playing field a little more level.”

If you’ve been in a frenzy over thoughts of your website being punished by Google either by manual changes or automated internet marketing software, you can calm down. Cutts has confirmed the over-optimization warning was aimed towards webspam, not SEO in general.

The Penguin Update

In his latest blog post appropriately titled “Another step to reward high-quality sites”, Cutts explains: Read the rest of this entry »

Insatiably curious blogger PotPieGirl stumbled upon an indexed copy of Google’s training manual for human URL quality raters in October. The 120+ page guide was more a reinforcement of search engine optimization (SEO)best practices than an earth shattering revelation of the inner workings of the organic algorithm.

The actual influence of these human raters is debatable; many believe they are used in troubleshooting and improving the algorithm, rather than having a direct impact on rankings.

Matt Cutts, Google Distinguished Engineer and head of the web spam team, tackled the subject in a Google Webmaster Help video blog yesterday, in response to a question submitted by SEO AJ Kohn. What did Cutts have to say?

“Raters Are Really Not Used to Influence Google’s Rankings Directly”

Human raters work under the Search Quality Evaluation Team and are used in the initial testing phases of proposed changes to the organic search algorithm. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s going to be OK… Google promises! But what does that mean to the small- to medium-sized business owner? Especially the ones who do everything by the “Google book” only to fearfully watch Google web visits plummet with every ruthless update.

Launched last week, the Google Penguin update is designed to get rid of spammy websites and businesses Google has identified as trying to cheat the system. The algorithm change is said to promote high quality content and penalize webspam while impacting about 3 percent of search queries.

Google: Doing The Right Thing, Not Always The Right Way

Contrary to popular belief, Google says the Penguin intent is to help the overall search experience versus put legitimate businesses in jeopardy of losing precious web traffic and bottom line sales. Unfortunately, innocent bystanders report they are taking a hit with little defense against Google, the largest search engine boasting 66.4 percent of the search market share and not to be ignored.

How can a business protect itself from the potential crush of Penguin or the next Google algorithm change? There is something to be said for not putting all your SEO eggs in Google’s basket.

Deep SEO Inhale… Long Social Media Exhale

There is life beyond Google for gaining online visibility. The opportunities are greater than ever to take part in some healthy SEO living from other organic marketing sources in places like social media networks. Read on advice from veteran online marketers. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past few months Google has really upped the game in terms of manually and algorithmically adjusting for what they deem to be artificially inflated or “over-optimized” online marketing tactics. Such updates and events include Panda, the notice of detection and a Penguin web spam algorithmic update.

Sweet. So while SEOs and webmasters this side of China are busy analyzing what might constitute over-optimization, what an [under|below|sub-par|sans|zero] optimized site might look like (ladies and gentlemen – your obligatory keyword stuffing joke!) – and if it might offer any insights.

The “Control” Variable

We have a client (who shall henceforth be known as Client Site), for whom we manage their display advertising. It’s a very old site. Thirteen-odd years old in fact; and during this time the site has published content of the same style regularly.

This website has great authority in its sector, a .co.uk exact-match-domain with high traffic and page impressions, a whack-load of data, and huge number of Page 1 rankings, including a few No. 1’s for its core terms. The site is in a niche within the women’s lifestyle sector and evolved from a labor of love into a commercial concern being monetized with display advertising.

Nobody has ever solicited a single link to it! All of the sites’ backlinks are there because another party chose to put them there.

While we may all be fretting over what makes a great anchor-text mix, home to deep-page linking ratio, PR spread, or whatever-the-hell-else, it might be interesting to see what a lack of interference looks like in one single case. Read the rest of this entry »

Another update, another dose of mayhem. This time the mayhem is called Penguin. As with all Google updates over the years, there have been winners and losers.

Before we start panicking, we should remember that for Google to survive and continue dominating in the next decade it has put in huge effort to keep its SERPs relevant, useful, and clean of spam. As a reminder, Penguin isn’t the first major update Google has rolled out in the past 10 years:

We won’t go into detail on each of these, as plenty has already been written about these updates on Search Engine Watch and elsewhere. Instead, let’s focus on the one theme that runs through each of them: To keep spam in check. Granted, Google’s definition of spam has varied, but generally they have done a good job of being vocal in the community through Matt Cutts, head of Google’s web spam team, and also through Google’s own Webmaster guidelines. Read the rest of this entry »