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Two Questions About SEO

by Jon Paella
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have two questions about SEO. I have heard so many contradictory things and I'm sure we all have different beliefs about certain things. Would love to hear your thoughts on


1) Can Google penalize any site solely for backlinking? Some say that Google doesn't because if they do then you can sabotage your competitors. What are your thoughts?

If the above is true, then it's possible that Google doesn't penalize us for backlinking, but if they sense something unnatural or spammy, they can do a manual review and then penalize you for your spammy and unnatural onpage SEO (not backlinking). What do you think?

2) Whether Google penalizes us for backlinking or not, can they detect automated software? Do you think it matters if we do automated or manual?

What are your thoughts on outsourcing manual submissions vs. using automated software and even outsourcing automated link building.

Cheers
#questions #seo
  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    1. Yes you can get penalized for backlinking and yes you can sabotage your competitors websites (at least temporarily anyway). If the site is established though you may not be able to, but newer and weaker sites can definitely be sabotaged.

    2. Automated software can be detected if used incorrectly. Automated software used properly cannot be detected, contrary to what the manual linkbuilding gurus think.
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  • Profile picture of the author MSC
    Automated software is good when used properly. It helps to save time to register to all web 2.0 sites and updating them. As long as you publish quality content automated software will bring benefit to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Paella
    Gyuman,

    SO what kind of backlinking would result in penalties by Google?

    And what does improper usage of automated software involve?

    THanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
      Originally Posted by Jon Paella View Post

      Gyuman,

      SO what kind of backlinking would result in penalties by Google?

      And what does improper usage of automated software involve?

      THanks.
      Most common backlinking penalties involve from excessive amounts of links. For example if you have a brand new website and send 10,000 spammy links to it over a matter of a few days you can end up with a heavy drop in rankings.

      As for improper usage of automated software, aside from excessive linkbuilding the next most common misuage is lack of anchor text variation. Say your site's main keyword is "Dog Training", if you only build links that have "Dog Training" as an anchor text you will most likely be hit with an over-optimization penalty.
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    • Profile picture of the author nichemaker
      1) They can, but I think those situations would be few and far between. However, Google is smart enough to detect a lot of footprints, and could potentially penalize certain sites with an algorithmic fix if the problem was widespread enough.

      There's an indirect way that Google can seem to penalize a site without actually taking action against the offending domain (the domain acquiring the rogue backlinks): If a site is relying heavily or exclusively on a certain link building method and Google takes action against the source of their backlinks, that, in turn, could look like a penalty on the offending website yet it's really the website's lack of link-building variation that led to their so-called penalty.

      2) If you're using software to access their index, or service, I assume they could catch on to it, but especially if your queries or requests are tied to a specific domain that's more likely. I've not heard of sites being penalized for using automated software, though. I use it for social bookmarking with nothing but great success (socialadr) from it.

      I mean, if you're using automated software that leaves a visible footprint, there are probably others doing the same thing. When you get a mass market doing things that Google feels screws up their index, they're probably going to take action in some form and footprints make it much easier for them.

      I think varying your link building methods and keeping your link-building efforts in line with what is normal in your particular keyword market are the best ways to protect yourself from some form of penalty for link building.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Paella
    Thanks for your responses guys. Nichemaker, could you elaborate on this: "...keeping your link-building efforts in line with what is normal in your particular keyword market..."

    What do you mean by in line with what is normal in your keyword market. You mean different keywords have different standards? Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author androidapps
    Originally Posted by Jon Paella View Post

    I have two questions about SEO. I have heard so many contradictory things and I'm sure we all have different beliefs about certain things. Would love to hear your thoughts on

    1) Can Google penalize any site solely for backlinking? Some say that Google doesn't because if they do then you can sabotage your competitors. What are your thoughts?
    Yes, search engines track your link velocity and if they found it high; they will penalize your website.

    Originally Posted by Jon Paella View Post

    2) Whether Google penalizes us for backlinking or not, can they detect automated software? Do you think it matters if we do automated or manual?
    Google can't fine automated submissions at all. There is no technique/algorithm for detecting automated submissions. However, once again, search engine giants will detect your link velocity. And, if you are getting backlinks from FFA sites or MFA sites then it will also hurt your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author orpaz191
    1. Yes you can be penalized for backlinks if your doing it wrong.

    2. automated software can do good if you are using them correctly, but remember to never count on only one type of backlinks (don't try to rank sites only with one software or one backlink type).
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