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Penalized by Google for link wheel?

by bastik
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Recently I was linking some of the posts on my WP-Blog together.
The first post linked to the second, the second to the third, the third to the fourth.......... and finally the seventh linked to the first one again
I actually did not have building a link wheel on my mind, as I just wanted to encourage my readers to have a look at the other posts.
The next day after having done that, my blog went down more than 30 positions on Google.
Could it be, that Google penalizes me for this link wheel?

Thanks in advanve!
#google #link #penalized #wheel
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Maybe, but a lot of sites took a 30-position plunge last week.

    If the drop took place last week, then it is more likely that your website plunged in the rankings due to the Google Farmer Update.

    If the drop took place before last week, then maybe they observed your link wheel and punished you for it. But as noted below, Google doesn't usually penalize inbound links, but ignore the ones that they don't want to acknowledge.

    Further, if you did this only on your own site, then it really wasn't a link wheel after all.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dave Rodman
      Banned
      Were you linking on the same site? That's what it sounds like and, if so, that's not a link wheel.

      There's nothing wrong with cross-linking your site. That's what you're supposed to do.
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      • Profile picture of the author Doug Wakefield
        You should be linking around your domain, which is what you are doing.

        It could be a temporary bounce, or it could be that you got Google's attention on the last update.

        I have found that I tend to shoot up in ranking after I take some time to interlink my posts or articles on my site. My PLR store got really solid and less jumpy by doing this very thing.

        But, it is worth noting that when a searcher comes from Google to a page on my store, odds are they are going to find what they are looking for... my sales results back this up.

        Ask yourself if your visitors are finding what they came for on your site, or are you just another sales pitch.... that will help give you an idea on which it was.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    If it was truly your link wheel, build a wheel for each of the 30 sites above you in the SERP and knock them down.

    However, if it isn't really the wheel you built, you will increase their strength.

    Do you feel lucky? Well do ya punk? (Not calling you a punk, just my bad Clint Eastwood imitation. )
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by bastik View Post

    Could it be, that Google penalizes me for this link wheel?
    No, in my opinion, that isn't possible.

    It's possible (and actually very likely) that Google can ignore an entire linkwheel.

    But penalize you for it? No. That would make absolutely no sense at all.

    It would be the easiest thing in the world to disable your competitors' websites by building linkwheels for them, wouldn't it, if that could happen? Like most "Google penalty conspiracy theories", it doesn't actually stand up to examination for a moment.

    A lot of sites took a plunge last week, though, for all sorts of other reasons. Let's hope it's only temporary, anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author linkbuildr
    Link wheels in theory could get you a manual penalty if you were in a really competitive top 10 niche. Google states in their bloody guidelines that links built intended to manipulate rankings aka a link scheme, can cause problems. This quote below is from Google's linking guidelines regarding link schemes;

    "This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. "

    If you're spinning ****ty content and hacking together a lame link wheel then good luck to ya lol. If you're wanting the site to be around for more than a year, do something amazing to get good links and you'll not wake up one day -50!
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    • Profile picture of the author mesmerist
      Originally Posted by linkbuildr View Post

      Link wheels in theory could get you a manual penalty if you were in a really competitive top 10 niche. Google states in their bloody guidelines that links built intended to manipulate rankings aka a link scheme, can cause problems. This quote below is from Google's linking guidelines regarding link schemes;

      "This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking in search results. "

      If you're spinning ****ty content and hacking together a lame link wheel then good luck to ya lol. If you're wanting the site to be around for more than a year, do something amazing to get good links and you'll not wake up one day -50!
      Really??? Then why not do that to your top competitors and knock them all down so you can take top spot? If this is true, people are now building ****ty linkwheels to authority sites that they are competing with.
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