Synnd Users Warning
I posted this in a response in another thread and feel that it deserves its own thread to make users aware of this potential threat.
This post is for current users of Synnd and anyone considering its use...
Synnd's complete back end strategy for gaming social systems has been exposed to Google. In particular it has been shared with Matt Cutts directly.
Despite Synnd's best efforts of disguising their footprints they are totally traceable by spotting patterns of social buzz on certain content (like toenail fungus for example) and analyzing it against a weighted average of other similar content across the web.
If your content's social signals are way above the average norm for similar content then you are raising major red flags that are easy to spot. Google is already working on and has implemented parts of an evolving algorithm to spot social gaming techniques.
You're especially in trouble if you are buzzing up every page of your site. It would seem quite unnatural if your site is say, 6 months old, and you're getting more buzz than a well established site that is many years older and has much more traffic.
Another major red flag is when your average traffic levels do not match the amount of social recognition you are getting. Google knows, for example, that it takes X number of unique visits to equal 1 vote, tweet, like, etc. Unless you are also buying traffic to the deep pages of your site to disguise this footprint, you're asking for trouble.
In short, if you're using Synnd, you're raising glaring red flags that Google is already privy to. The owners of Synnd are also aware of these flags but they don't have the technology to cover these footprints and they wouldn't dare tell you about them because you might unsubscribe.
This post is for current users of Synnd and anyone considering its use...
Synnd's complete back end strategy for gaming social systems has been exposed to Google. In particular it has been shared with Matt Cutts directly.
Despite Synnd's best efforts of disguising their footprints they are totally traceable by spotting patterns of social buzz on certain content (like toenail fungus for example) and analyzing it against a weighted average of other similar content across the web.
If your content's social signals are way above the average norm for similar content then you are raising major red flags that are easy to spot. Google is already working on and has implemented parts of an evolving algorithm to spot social gaming techniques.
You're especially in trouble if you are buzzing up every page of your site. It would seem quite unnatural if your site is say, 6 months old, and you're getting more buzz than a well established site that is many years older and has much more traffic.
Another major red flag is when your average traffic levels do not match the amount of social recognition you are getting. Google knows, for example, that it takes X number of unique visits to equal 1 vote, tweet, like, etc. Unless you are also buying traffic to the deep pages of your site to disguise this footprint, you're asking for trouble.
In short, if you're using Synnd, you're raising glaring red flags that Google is already privy to. The owners of Synnd are also aware of these flags but they don't have the technology to cover these footprints and they wouldn't dare tell you about them because you might unsubscribe.