Can Google penalize you for hand-made links?

10 OBL - Full Link Report - Zero Footprint

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paulgl

13 years ago

Originally Posted by brandonbaker

dburk,

So:

a) How do you explain tons of WF posters giving the same kind of story: "I was #5 in Google for months and all of a sudden I'm #492! What's going on??"

b) If there are no penalties for inbound links, what does Google penalize for (they DO administer penalties, right?)?

Brandon

Because people choose to not listen or read the forum before posting.

Google penalizes for breaking their webmaster rules. There are too many
to list. Hidden text is one. Keyword stuffing is another. Having illegal
activities. Linking to illegal activities. To name just 4.

A marathon runner decides not to train. He finishes 50th. Are the
officials to blame? Are the race course designers to blame? Was
this runner penalized?

Paul

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13 years ago

Originally Posted by paulgl

Because people choose to not listen or read the forum before posting.

Google penalizes for breaking their webmaster rules. There are too many
to list. Hidden text is one. Keyword stuffing is another. Having illegal
activities. Linking to illegal activities. To name just 4.

A marathon runner decides not to train. He finishes 50th. Are the
officials to blame? Are the race course designers to blame? Was
this runner penalized?

Paul

But that runner didn't spend half the race in 3rd place and suddenly get pushed back to 50th in the blink of an eye. That's a more accurate analogy.

I take your point about Google penalties, however. So you're saying that Google only penalizes for on-site activities, not off-site?

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13 years ago

Originally Posted by brandonbaker

But that runner didn't spend half the race in 3rd place and suddenly get pushed back to 50th in the blink of an eye. That's a more accurate analogy.

I take your point about Google penalties, however. So you're saying that Google only penalizes for on-site activities, not off-site?

When Google penalizes it's usually a removal from the index, not a change in rankings. And why would Google penalize your website for something that happened on a different website? Google is not a referee, they are not interested in handing out penalties or trying to be an Internet cop, they are simply trying to provide relevant and useful results for their users.

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13 years ago

Originally Posted by dburk

When Google penalizes it's usually a removal from the index, not a change in rankings. And why would Google penalize your website for something that happened on a different website? Google is not a referee, they are not interested in handing out penalties or trying to be an Internet cop, they are simply trying to provide relevant and useful results for their users.

So, in theory, a brand spanking new site with 1 page of quality content wouldn't be de-indexed if you pumped 20,000 PR0 links into it from Day 1?

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13 years ago

Originally Posted by brandonbaker

So, in theory, a brand spanking new site with 1 page of quality content wouldn't be de-indexed if you pumped 20,000 PR0 links into it from Day 1?

True!

Those links, if not meritorious, may not necessarily benefit the new page, but they certainly won't hurt it.

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13 years ago

Originally Posted by dburk

True!

Those links if not meritorious, may not necessarily benefit the new page, but they certainly won't hurt it.

So what about all this talk of an "unnatural" backlink profile? (e.g. sites with 95% PR5 links, 95% identical anchor text, etc.) No detriment at all?

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Jacob Martus 13 years ago

Originally Posted by brandonbaker

So what about all this talk of an "unnatural" backlink profile? (e.g. sites with 95% PR5 links, 95% identical anchor text, etc.) No detriment at all?

Most of the people talking about 'natural' have this set idea in their head of what 'natural' should look like. The web is chaotic, and it is not uncommon for websites to get tons of high quality links in a short period of time.

I always use the same anchor text unless I'm trying to rank a page for two different but similar terms. I.E. I'm trying to rank a page for cars and motor vehicles.

In every other case, I use only my target anchor text. I don't buy into the inbound links can hurt your website idea. I've never once had any problems keeping all of my anchor text exactly the same.
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13 years ago

Originally Posted by brandonbaker

So what about all this talk of an "unnatural" backlink profile? (e.g. sites with 95% PR5 links, 95% identical anchor text, etc.) No detriment at all?

Hi brandonbaker,

Some folks think that they may be able to spam their backlinks and elude detection by blending in with a "Natural" profile. Google doesn't care how many backlinks you create for yourself, as long as those backlinks are meritorious. What they don't want to see is backlinks that are pure spam. They work hard to detect that type of spam and they are going to treat it the same regardless of how your profile looks.

I personally believe they are laboring under the false notion that Google does't mind spam as long as it created slowly or mixed in with some meritorious links. The problem with this notion is that Google looks for pages that contain spam and they devalue the links on that page by zeroing the page's TrustRank which weights the value of outbound links. Most of the places that you place your spam will be found by other spammers and no matter how little or how slowly it is created those other spammers tend to draw attention to those pages, which results in the devaluing of your spam. A backlink profile, no matter how "natural" you think it appears, will not prevent this devaluing.

Eventually, most spammers figure this out and realize that the only way to get any huge benefit from spamming is to spam as much and as fast as possible to exploit that brief window between the placing of spam and the detection of spam.

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13 years ago

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi brandonbaker,

Some folks think that they may be able to spam their backlinks and elude detection by blending in with a "Natural" profile. Google doesn't care how many backlinks you create for yourself, as long as those backlinks are meritorious. What they don't want to see is backlinks that are pure spam. They work hard to detect that type of spam and they are going to treat it the same regardless of how your profile looks.

I personally believe they are laboring under the false notion that Google does't mind spam as long as it created slowly or mixed in with some meritorious links. The problem with this notion is that Google looks for pages that contain spam and they devalue the links on that page by zeroing the page's TrustRank which weights the value of outbound links. Most of the places that you place your spam will be found by other spammers and no matter how little or how slowly it is created those other spammers tend to draw attention to those pages, which results in the devaluing of your spam. A backlink profile, no matter how "natural" you think it appears, will not prevent this devaluing.

Eventually, most spammers figure this out and realize that the only way to get any huge benefit from spamming is to spam as much and as fast as possible to exploit that brief window between the placing of spam and the detection of spam.

So does this render blog commenting useless for SEO purposes?

I started a thread a few days ago, "Is a PR5, dofollow, low OBL blog comment" a high quality link in Google's eyes? Based on what you're saying, I assume that as long as other spammers don't spam it to death, Google won't detect it, and therefore, it remains a valuable backlink?

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paulgl 13 years ago

Originally Posted by brandonbaker

But that runner didn't spend half the race in 3rd place and suddenly get pushed back to 50th in the blink of an eye. That's a more accurate analogy.

Said runner may keep up with the pack for the first few miles. But then, due to
lack of training, falls way behind. Who penalized him?

Continuing further....runner drops to 50th, decides to take a subway to within a few
blocks of the finish line. Then worms his way into the lead pack and wins. After
a few days, people start thinking. Judges realize runner cheated and is stripped
of the crown. Banned from racing again. Now that's a penalty. For cheating.

Those of you who remember Rosie Ruiz are chuckling....She, like all others,
swear they did nothing wrong.

Paul
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