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important Google admission: extenal links CAN hurt you

by PhilipSEO
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
John Mu, a well known Google employee, has come out and admitted, as against earlier denials by Google, that it is "probably possible" that third-party external links can hurt your site. Source:
Google: "Probably Possible" 3rd Party Bad Links Can Hurt You

I believe this is a significant wakeup call to some of us, or it should be.

While we are at it, here is another interesting recent statement by a Google employee, about Google Places: "I can assure you that the last thing we want is for the business who hires the best SEO to win a better slot. But, the SEOs are, unfortunately, pretty good at what they do, and so sometimes they out smart us." Source:
Google: The "Last Thing We Want" Is The "Best SEO To Win"

Thought I'd share these, I hope they are of interest.
#admission #extenal #google #hurt #important #links
  • Profile picture of the author adesbarats
    It's interesting Phil and thanks for sharing it.

    However, I think you would have to agree these types of statements from Google need to be weighed against their self interests. In many ways, I see Google like a militaristic country constantly warring with small annoying tribes that are always trying to find weaknesses in their defensive fortifications (ie. spammers).

    It is good military strategy to use propaganda to throw off your enemies. This kind of statement smacks of propaganda to me. But it certainly gets you thinking nonetheless...
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad Callen
    I knew it!! So what does that mean for newbs? Be careful when you buy links on DP

    I still think the Google Places system has some serious kinks to work out.. checking on the analytics for some of our listings it really amazes me at some of the keywords our listings are showing on!
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  • Profile picture of the author lexilexi
    I am convinced that Google deliberately clouds things up. It makes sense. I'm quite happy that they do - but one thing remains like stone... all "SEO knowledge" comes from back-engineering search results; therefore do your own empirical testing and cut ahead of the pack.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    So, backlinking is a waste of time?
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    Originally Posted by PhilipSEO View Post

    John Mu, a well known Google employee, has come out and admitted, as against earlier denials by Google, that it is "probably possible" that third-party external links can hurt your site.
    From everything I have read on the subject Google has always said it was not impossible but improbable for a competitior to hurt someone's site. Often people just read what they want to hear.

    I have been doing a bit of reading lately on penalty reversal and on occasion penalties have been removed by fixing (removing) bad/toxic links. Penalties being reversed from the removal of bad links would indicate that it is possible to hurt a site you don't own by throwing in some bad links.

    Anyone want to volunteer their site to experiment?
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Google has always said bad external links may hurt.

      But they also put a caution with the statement that just keep
      doing the good things and those links will be a non-issue. That
      is, a non-issue for people who keep doing good things. If you
      constantly create a bunch of junk links, what do you think that
      will do? This pertains to "phanton" links, where you can't control it.

      Link schemes are bad. Link schemes - Webmaster Tools Help
      Sadly, many here keep promoting link scheme crapola.

      Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author GuerrillaIM
      Originally Posted by Fraggler View Post

      Anyone want to volunteer their site to experiment?
      I tried several Google bowling methods. I learnt a lot doing this. New sites are vulnerable over short term, but it is easy to recover them if you know what to do. The worst thing that happens is that Google disregards some genuine links along with the spam.

      I never did this against competitors, it was just experiements on my own sites to test the theory. Some methods even helped the target site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    Fraggler:

    People need to go to the actual thread and read what John Mu actually wrote in his post and understand the context in which it was written.

    Much ado about nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author DPM70
    I'd like to throw these .EDU links into the mix. Check out Ultracarfinder.com
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  • Profile picture of the author LeCE
    and since when did anyone take Google at their word....?
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Goodwin
    Nothing new here. Matt Cutts has stated that, basically, unless it is the most bizarre case, incoming links won't hurt your site. Basically, none of these Google guys ever want to claim something is 100% certain. Call them agnostics if you will.

    I don't see how this is a wakeup call, as I just don't see this being an issue, but to each their own.

    In any event, why on earth would Google ever tell the whole truth about anything.


    Tom

    Originally Posted by PhilipSEO View Post

    John Mu, a well known Google employee, has come out and admitted, as against earlier denials by Google, that it is "probably possible" that third-party external links can hurt your site. Source:
    Google: "Probably Possible" 3rd Party Bad Links Can Hurt You

    I believe this is a significant wakeup call to some of us, or it should be.

    While we are at it, here is another interesting recent statement by a Google employee, about Google Places: "I can assure you that the last thing we want is for the business who hires the best SEO to win a better slot. But, the SEOs are, unfortunately, pretty good at what they do, and so sometimes they out smart us." Source:
    Google: The "Last Thing We Want" Is The "Best SEO To Win"

    Thought I'd share these, I hope they are of interest.
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    • Profile picture of the author Brad Callen
      Originally Posted by Tom Goodwin View Post

      Nothing new here. Matt Cutts has stated that, basically, unless it is the most bizarre case, incoming links won't hurt your site. Basically, none of these Google guys ever want to claim something is 100% certain. Call them agnostics if you will.

      I don't see how this is a wakeup call, as I just don't see this being an issue, but to each their own.

      In any event, why on earth would Google ever tell the whole truth about anything.


      Tom
      I thought the only time he said something like that was for paid links and links on sites that sell posts only.

      Obviously they can't be very open about specifics as someone would use this as an exploit at least to sink their competitors.. and people have done that for quite some time now.
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