None of my sites have been affected by Google's latest update , the key was doing absolutely nothing

by nest28
54 replies
  • SEO
  • |
After all of my old sites received the unnatural links notice I decided to stop backlinking all together. My old way of thinking was how in the world does google expect anyone to ever find my site if I don't backlink for higher rankings and that way of thinking along with following the herd got me penalized.

I've recently read a statement made by google here and this part stood out to me.

We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites. As always, we’ll keep our ears open for feedback on ways to iterate and improve our ranking algorithms toward that goal.

Posted by Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer

But this part right here really caught my attention (or even no search engine optimization at all)



I have 7 new sites here's one that ranks without doing anything other than posting articles. ultrasound site 2 this was suppose to replace my old ultrasound site but I decided not to make another one.

Out of my 7 new sites none were affected by this new update. All the sites are around a month old with zero backlinks. Some sites have as little as 4 articles while others around 25.

I will be putting these sites on hold to focus my attention on build one large authority site which will be based on 5 medical careers.

The only thing I plan on doing to this site is post great articles,using polls,video's,talk about the things my visitors are interested in.


Personally the only stats I go by when building a site is high exact local search count, not because I want to rank for my main keyword but because a high monthly search means there are plenty of people interested in this topic.

Google tells us to make sites for people yet we make sites to appeal to crawlers.

Google says do not backlink to your own sites yet we do it anyway and complain when we get hit with a penalty.

Even in the wake of all these penalties and updates I see people still buying links and asking what the best backlinking software or my favorite using buffer sites.

Oh yea using buffer sites will never affect your main site lol. When will you guys learn?

That's why I say call me the "Anti-Marketer" while you backlink I wont. You use buffer sites I wont. You use exact match domains, I wont, you use wordpress I don't etc.

If google seems to be cracking down on every known method/tactics that imer's use why are you still using these methods.

To those who say because it still works, your just lying to yourselves.

Mark my words use buffer sites for example and see if one day soon you don't receive a penalty but hey maybe I'm crazy.

Edit: There is nothing wrong with using wordpress btw.
#absolutely #affected #google #key #latest #sites #update
  • Profile picture of the author Web Hosting
    Well you sort of just linked to one of your websites LOL.

    Personally I think there is such a thing as overkill both ways. If a person links to their site and promotes it on a limited level, they will most likely be fine. I think not linking to a site at all would be extreme. A person just needs to be more selective and take their time and do things with a bit of common sense.

    Now if you just throw every possible link you can get at a site, automate the process, etc, you are going to get into some trouble it seems at this point.

    As far as buffer sites go, they will most likely penalize them as well at least at some point. But I would not be so sure that they would automatically penalize the sites the buffer site links to.

    My thinking on all of this is that there is only so much they should penalize in a lot of cases, otherwise webmasters will start attacking each others sites. You would have people using link blasts to hurt their competition. People would be creating the equivalent to buffer sites to hurt people as well.

    I know that G is making a point and has people scared, which can be a good thing. I just don't see them leaving any crazy long term changes or they will be shooting themselves in the foot.

    Eventually there will be more viable alternatives than G. Imagine if webmasters and other groups got together and boycotted Google, and started supporting YAHOO/BING isntead as their preferred search engine..


    I agree that folks should stay away from a lot of the cheap tricks and keep it legit. But don't be afraid to market your site with reasonable methods.
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by COIL View Post

      Well you sort of just linked to one of your websites LOL.

      Personally I think there is such a thing as overkill both ways. If a person links to their site and promotes it on a limited level, they will most likely be fine. I think not linking to a site at all would be extreme. A person just needs to be more selective and take their time and do things with a bit of common sense.

      Now if you just throw every possible link you can get at a site, automate the process, etc, you are going to get into some trouble it seems at this point.

      As far as buffer sites go, they will most likely penalize them as well at least at some point. But I would not be so sure that they would automatically penalize the sites the buffer site links to.

      My thinking on all of this is that there is only so much they should penalize in a lot of cases, otherwise webmasters will start attacking each others sites. You would have people using link blasts to hurt their competition. People would be creating the equivalent to buffer sites to hurt people as well.

      I know that G is making a point and has people scared, which can be a good thing. I just don't see them leaving any crazy long term changes or they will be shooting themselves in the foot.

      Eventually there will be more viable alternatives than G. Imagine if webmasters and other groups got together and boycotted Google, and started supporting YAHOO/BING isntead as their preferred search engine..


      I agree that folks should stay away from a lot of the cheap tricks and keep it legit. But don't be afraid to market your site with reasonable methods.
      I agree that you are less likely to be penalized for building just a few of the right kind of links but I have never tried Google's way of just building a quality site and letting my visitors backlink for me, so I figure hey why not give that a try.

      I'm also looking into how to get traffic from other places beside google.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dellco
      I totally agree with you. Do nothing. Some sites of mine where I did nothing, also remained unchanged in rank. But most of the sites where I monetized them in some way (and I admit have links built), have taken hits.

      One thing you need to remember is that *most* links are now bad in Google's eyes, but for other search engines - No.

      That is why the Unnatural Links messages are a double edged sword if you go overboard and try to delete all your links, because it may affect your standing with other search engines. So keep the other search engines in mind, whatever you do.

      Google might think they call all the shots now, but what if another search engine took over?

      Would you even give a damn what Google orders/demands if they lost their popularity today?

      And judging by how crap they allowed their results to become in their eagerness to punish webmasters BOTH good and bad (without even consideration what people would think of them), I can *imagine* them losing their position.

      Yes, a lot of great sites disappeared just because they had some "bad" links, to be replaced with TERRIBLE spammy sites.

      To me, they are just another search engine, albeit the top one now. And God forbid they should dominate the internet totally. We all have a part to play in preventing this from happening....
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  • Profile picture of the author Mantasmo
    "Do nothing" is the philosophy that I normally approach SEO with. I pretty much never get anywhere, it's great!
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by bnetwork View Post

      "Do nothing" is the philosophy that I normally approach SEO with. I pretty much never get anywhere, it's great!
      I guess this is suppose to be a smart remark but I don't understand why you left it. You have the choice between leaving a useful comment that we could all benefit from but you'd rather leave this.
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  • Profile picture of the author nest28
    It's funny how you can laugh and joke but be complaining how you lost your sites when you do something. I'll take my chances with my approach I've already tried the whole "do something" method and it has left me broke , because I wanted to follow what everybody else was doing.


    Edit: Believe me it's take hard work to build a quality site and find ways of promoting said site other than backlinking.

    Sometimes all of you sound like you've been brain washed, when somebody mentions not backlinking the fear of god enters your heart lol. Here's a tip try thinking outside the box, that is what the most successful marketers do.
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    • Profile picture of the author febbelli
      Nest I wouldn't get too worked up, your method works and you have helped a lot of people on this forum myself included. I have started on a site using your method and am 25 articles in and things are looking good. I don't plan on doing any back linking either since all of my other sites I was backlinking too have been hit hard after the update. Your posts are greatly appreciated by many of us. How are your seven new sites less than a month old doing right now? Are they already making money?
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      • Profile picture of the author nest28
        Originally Posted by febbelli View Post

        Nest I wouldn't get too worked up, your method works and you have helped a lot of people on this forum myself included. I have started on a site using your method and am 25 articles in and things are looking good. I don't plan on doing any back linking either since all of my other sites I was backlinking too have been hit hard after the update. Your posts are greatly appreciated by many of us. How are your seven new sites less than a month old doing right now? Are they already making money?
        Thank you, every time I get mad someone always comes out of nowhere and tells me my thread has help them in some way, it's at that time that I remember why I come on this forum.

        I haven't put adsense on any of the new sites, in may I will be launching a new authority site. Instead of limiting my site to 100 article I intend on building it larger to say 500 or more. Either way I will be spending less time on the forum and more time working but I will keep you guys update on my progress.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Your tone in this thread is condescending to say the least.

    People, such as myself, who have done the right thing, and still been hit, see it differently.

    How about instead of beating your chest and saying "When will you guys learn?" ..you provide us with something useful that can actually be of benefit.
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

      Your tone in this thread is condescending to say the least.

      People, such as myself, who have done the right thing, and still been hit, see it differently.

      How about instead of beating your chest and saying "When will you guys learn?" ..you provide us with something useful that can actually be of benefit.
      I have gone the extra mile these last couple of weeks doing nothing but providing useful info only to have people leave smart remarks or try to put me down in some kind of way.

      I have laid out my personal strategy for making money with adsense and reveal more than one of my sites just to show people how to accomplish a good income with adsense.

      When's the last time you seen anyone do that?

      So please forgive my tone but I'm getting tired of these people, soon yall going to have me sounding like paulgl lol.

      Edit: No offense to paulgl I actually happen to like the guy.
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  • Profile picture of the author brittlesnc
    Nest28,

    As always another great thread. In such a short time you've provided a lot of value to this forum and it is very much appreciated...

    And for the people who don't agree or don't like his advice rather than criticize it why not offer a better alternative or explain why you think he's wrong rather than trying to insult the guy...

    As for the end of his OP I don't fully agree with it because I'm of the opinion that good quality backlinks, i.e., high PR and relevant backlinks, still work...so I don't 100% agree with the "NO backlinking" strategy but we can agree to disagree and I use the parts of his advice that I feel will work for me and my situation...

    And please do keep us updated on your progress Nest28.
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by bnetwork View Post

      Yes, yes I would. :rolleyes:
      Thank you for yet another useful comment.
      Originally Posted by brittlesnc View Post

      Nest28,

      As always another great thread. In such a short time you've provided a lot of value to this forum and it is very much appreciated...

      And for the people who don't agree or don't like his advice rather than criticize it why not offer a better alternative or explain why you think he's wrong rather than trying to insult the guy...

      As for the end of his OP I don't fully agree with it because I'm of the opinion that good quality backlinks, i.e., high PR and relevant backlinks, still work...so I don't 100% agree with the "NO backlinking" strategy but we can agree to disagree and I use the parts of his advice that I feel will work for me and my situation...

      And please do keep us updated on your progress Nest28.
      Thank you, I know my whole don't backlink theory has made some people mad but I don't understand why. The old way of doing things has gotten most marketers penalized either by the unnatural links notice or google's new algo.

      My decision to hold off on backlinking came as a result of losing my adsense income due to backlinking!!!

      So I don't understand why people want me to do the very same thing that took my income away from, also most of the people giving this build backlinks advice was hit recently by google's new algo, but guess what I wasn't.

      Now I don't say any of this to offend anyone, all I ever did is try and help people.

      I have a question for my critics , actually 2 questions.

      1. How do you propose we build sites that wont get penalized?

      2. I get messages everyday from wf members saying how I've help them in one way or another. Do you receive messages like that?


      I may change my mind about not backlinking but me not backlinking is a heck of a lot better than using the same methods that left me without a steady online income.


      If I hadn't backlink to my old sites they probably be making me good money right now.

      Brit none of this is directed to you, I respect your wishes and the wishes of anyone on the wf ho chooses to continue backlinking.

      All I ask for is respect, I almost never say anything unless it's worth saying and certainly not any smart remarks to some one I don't even know.

      Edit: I'm starting to notice that out of all the marketer on this forum I receive the most haters, every thread I make has at least 3 or 4 people who like to leave smart remarks directed at me. I even seen a remark focused toward me in threads that I have nothing to do with lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author FraserC
    Hey nest28, I'm totally in your camp. Backlinking is a complete and total mystery to me, complete with risks and techniques that I just don't fully understand. Instead of trying to build content on other websites outside my own, I focus my efforts on my own website, trying to create more value there.

    I have no problem with the people who do all the off-site methodologies, with linkbuilding, etc, but it's just too dynamic and rapidly changing for me. But focusing only only your own website is a perfectly viable way to grow a website and do SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by FraserC View Post

      Hey nest28, I'm totally in your camp. Backlinking is a complete and total mystery to me, complete with risks and techniques that I just don't fully understand. Instead of trying to build content on other websites outside my own, I focus my efforts on my own website, trying to create more value there.

      I have no problem with the people who do all the off-site methodologies, with linkbuilding, etc, but it's just too dynamic and rapidly changing for me. But focusing only only your own website is a perfectly viable way to grow a website and do SEO.
      I may change my views on backlinking in the future but since no one is sure what kind of links will hurt your site I won't build any. The thing is whoever said backlinks =money anyways. My sites will earn regardless, people don't seem to understand that.

      Thanks for speaking up I'm sure we can't be the only ones thinking this, can we?

      Originally Posted by tylerherman View Post

      Sites a month or so old where not effected by the update... yet. Not any of mine or any of other people who I've heard of.

      So doing nothing is truly doing nothing - having zero effect, on said new sites.
      How does me not backlinking = doing nothing. My site is still aging, getting larger, being promoted in others ways. Truly doing nothing would not lead back to a full time income. I know how to make sites that make money with or without backlinks. So why take the risk with backlinks?
      Originally Posted by babyfacedassassin View Post

      Hi Nest,

      Although I disagree with much of what you said I am not going to hate on you for it. I also don't think that you are the mosted hated person on this forum. Not by a long shot.

      We can all have different ideas about how to get things done.
      Thank you, I don't mind when people disagree with me, I just hate when people trying come at me like I'm stupid. Fact is I've already reached a level of income most people aspire to achieve and it wont be long till I'm earning that income again.

      I make these threads to give people another option other than finding a keyword with high exact local search, with high competition. Most imer's who go after these keywords fail or get hit with a penalty for trying to backlink their way to the top.


      If someone would like to be as open as I have been and share a better method that wont get me penalized I would love to hear it.

      Edit: Please don't take my statement about my earnings as me being better than anyone. I know there are marketers out there who make 20x what I use to make.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Nest come on man. you are a nice guy - why put your site up again so people can potentially target it . Take it out of the OP.
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        • Profile picture of the author nest28
          Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

          Nest come on man. you are a nice guy - why put your site up again so people can potentially target it . Take it out of the OP.
          Thanx for the concern Mike but it's a site I'm no longer interested in. Believe I've learned my lessons from before. I only care about my new site, but me putting my old ones up really helps people.

          Edit: actually it's a test site. I've taken articles from my old site that was penalized and imported them onto this site. So far these articles are starting to rank and bring traffic. I had my old site url removed from google.

          This could possibly be away for people to recover from the unnatural links penalty.
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          • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
            Originally Posted by nest28 View Post


            This could possibly be away for people to recover from the unnatural links penalty.
            Doubt it. When you find that you have stalled remember you didn't try all kinds of backlinking you only tried the kinds that are popular at WF. Most people here have been laughing their heads off at the idea of white hat link building and there is nothing wrong with it especially now. Go ahead and look at a site ranking number one now and tell me you don't see backlinks for every single one. Its the kinds of backlinking not link building in general.
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            • Profile picture of the author nest28
              Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

              Doubt it. When you find that you have stalled remember you didn't try all kinds of backlinking you only tried the kinds that are popular at WF. Most people here have been laughing their heads off at the idea of white hat link building and there is nothing wrong with it especially now. Go ahead and look at a site ranking number one now and tell me you don't see backlinks for every single one. Its the kinds of backlinking not link building in general.
              Your probably right I just wanted to test it and see. No biggie I've already moved on. The weird part is the article that I imported rank sometimes and other time not at all. The 4 unique article that were already on the site don't have any problems ranking.
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              • Profile picture of the author mosthost
                Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

                Your probably right I just wanted to test it and see. No biggie I've already moved on. The weird part is the article that I imported rank sometimes and other time not at all. The 4 unique article that were already on the site don't have any problems ranking.
                Did you rewrite any of the articles you moved from the penalized site to the non-penalized one?

                If you search for a snippet in quotes do you get more than one result?
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                • Profile picture of the author nest28
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                  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
                    Hey Nest, I don't agree with 25% of what you say, but man
                    you are working it!

                    I like the part about not doing anything. I have said the
                    same thing over and over and over. Not in the same way,
                    not really in the same context, but pretty darn close.

                    My example always is, that people like Aunt Sally with
                    her knitting blog or site will never worry about deindexing,
                    penalties, etc. Because they don't do anything. Crappy,
                    wannabe, useless SEO. And they don't create a page,
                    wordpress, because some site told them the keywords
                    would make them rich. I know plenty of "aunt sallys"
                    who are now making a decent income because their
                    hobby and love turned into a money maker.

                    Like I said, I only agree with 75% of what you say, but
                    the thinking, smart man always wins in the end. And you
                    have a lot of guts to make the post.

                    Originally Posted by nest28 View Post

                    I agree that you are less likely to be penalized for building just a few of the right kind of links but I have never tried Google's way of just building a quality site and letting my visitors backlink for me, so I figure hey why not give that a try.

                    I'm also looking into how to get traffic from other places beside google.
                    MAN THAT IS THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                    Paul
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                    If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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                    • Profile picture of the author nest28
                      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

                      Hey Nest, I don't agree with 25% of what you say, but man
                      you are working it!

                      I like the part about not doing anything. I have said the
                      same thing over and over and over. Not in the same way,
                      not really in the same context, but pretty darn close.

                      My example always is, that people like Aunt Sally with
                      her knitting blog or site will never worry about deindexing,
                      penalties, etc. Because they don't do anything. Crappy,
                      wannabe, useless SEO. And they don't create a page,
                      wordpress, because some site told them the keywords
                      would make them rich. I know plenty of "aunt sallys"
                      who are now making a decent income because their
                      hobby and love turned into a money maker.

                      Like I said, I only agree with 75% of what you say, but
                      the thinking, smart man always wins in the end. And you
                      have a lot of guts to make the post.



                      MAN THAT IS THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                      Paul
                      Oh snap Paulgl said something nice I swear I'm smiling from ear to ear. But seriously thank you I really do respect you very much and it means a lot to see what you wrote.
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                    • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
                      Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

                      . And they don't create a page,
                      wordpress, because some site told them the keywords
                      would make them rich. I know plenty of "aunt sallys"
                      who are now making a decent income because their
                      hobby and love turned into a money maker.
                      Paul I have been at you for a couple of posts where I think you are just being acidic but this is a truly great point. Frankly to me I think adsense as people around here use it is dead and done. By that I mean EXACTLY what you just wrote - putting up sites because of the keyword traffic not having a site that works and attracts readers and putting adsense on it.

                      What causes all this over optimization that google went after? Its not people who had a niche they wanted to work and could monetize it a number of ways but people who had sites who the main thing they wanted to do with it is rank for a keyword in order to get traffic on the keyword. Affiliate sites are the same deal. Since this was the only goal the main thing they concentrated on was hitting those keywords - in anchor text, in page content , in their domain name. Keywords , keywords keywords. If thats all you are trying to achieve it seems obvious to me even now that you are going to have a tough going.

                      Google was right to go after this from a user experience standpoint for their search engine. Lets be honest when I want to train my dog Fido. DO I want a site that just keeps on about dog training over and over. No I don't want that . I want to read about leashes, particular techniques. A site that will tell me different temperaments of dogs based on breeds where I can find professional dog trainers. None of that is going to be on most sites target dog training. ALl they want to do is give me some general stuff where they can mention the keywords and make sure to give me nothing I really need so that I will click on adsense site.

                      In your Aunty sally example Aunt sally is in to it. She's going to discuss things about knitting that go beyond mentioning the word knitting and as it turns out you are going to see thing related to knitting that are nnot going to be in there because the keyword tool says they get traffic but just because its things that people who really are into knitting like to cover as well. this to me is what Google is after. I have my suspicions that they have ratcheted up the LSI component of the algo and despite what was in the past I now believe they may be analyzing entire sites not just ranking pages but that hunch will await real tests and data.
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                      • Profile picture of the author yukon
                        Banned
                        Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

                        In your Aunty sally example Aunt sally is in to it. She's going to discuss things about knitting that go beyond mentioning the word knitting and as it turns out you are going to see thing related to knitting that are nnot going to be in there because the keyword tool says they get traffic but just because its things that people who really are into knitting like to cover as well. this to me is what Google is after. I have my suspicions that they have ratcheted up the LSI component of the algo and despite what was in the past I now believe they may be analyzing entire sites not just ranking pages but that hunch will await real tests and data.
                        I've tried to tell people to theme their sites/pages/keywords I think a few got the hint but I doubt many will actually use the info.

                        A lot of people here on WF are still stuck on keyword stuffing/density & each time I see those post It makes me want to smack the PC monitor, lol.
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                        • Profile picture of the author nest28
                          Originally Posted by yukon View Post

                          I've tried to tell people to theme their sites/pages/keywords I think a few got the hint but I doubt many will actually use the info.

                          A lot of people here on WF are still stuck on keyword stuffing/density & each time I see those post It makes me want to smack the PC monitor, lol.
                          Believe it or not I take heed to everything you, mike anthony and paulgl have to say just to name a few. Everything from themed sites and silo structure , to using supporting pages ,looking into the whole make money from youtube with adsense thread. There's not much that get's past me.

                          Every bit of advice you given was not in vain.
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      • Profile picture of the author tylerherman
        My point was you don't know if your new sites are effected or not because new sites are still in the dance.

        Plenty of good sites with good content and 100% whitehat where hit by this update. It was a pretty big cluster**** on googles part.

        I don't build a lot of links either but hey the strategy still works, even after Penguin. Some people like to make less money with less risk and some take more risk for the big payday and have their sites deindexed every couple of months.

        Feast-or-famine, or slow-and-steady, you pick your route but they both end up getting you there if you do it right.

        At this point in the game it is best to either go all white hat like you mentioned or go all the way black. Sitting on the fence won't get you anywhere.

        Sure people can build sites for longtail keywords and get a trickle of traffic and make a living from that. But that isn't the only game in town. Big money is in big keywords and to get to 1# you need to have either content that blows the competition out of the water, which in 99% of the time isn't possible, which means it boils down to who has more links.

        Link building isn't necessary for niche sites going after longtime, but for high competition niches it still is relevant.
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        • Profile picture of the author nest28
          Originally Posted by tylerherman View Post

          My point was you don't know if your new sites are effected or not because new sites are still in the dance.

          Plenty of good sites with good content and 100% whitehat where hit by this update. It was a pretty big cluster**** on googles part.

          I don't build a lot of links either but hey the strategy still works, even after Penguin. Some people like to make less money with less risk and some take more risk for the big payday and have their sites deindexed every couple of months.

          Feast-or-famine, or slow-and-steady, you pick your route but they both end up getting you there if you do it right.

          At this point in the game it is best to either go all white hat like you mentioned or go all the way black. Sitting on the fence won't get you anywhere.

          Sure people can build sites for longtail keywords and get a trickle of traffic and make a living from that. But that isn't the only game in town. Big money is in big keywords and to get to 1# you need to have either content that blows the competition out of the water, which in 99% of the time isn't possible, which means it boils down to who has more links.

          Link building isn't necessary for niche sites going after longtime, but for high competition niches it still is relevant.
          My sites don't dance ever, the only one that did was the nurse site and that's because I used a backlinking service. Building sites and ranking for short time is not a good business model. Put me in the slow and steady category.

          You don't seem to understand that there are people out there who are killing themselves trying to rank for these competitive terms because that what everybody says to do.

          Do you think I would have ever built a site on ultrasound technicians if I knew what I was getting myself into. Keywords like that mean you have to go to war with your competition and now you have people who want to use negative seo on your sites.

          No thanks, my sites float around, only ranking for long tail. I'm no threat to anyone so I don't have to worry about negative seo like some of you.

          Point is my methods involve less risk anyway you look at it and at the same time will make me a steady income.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hlatky
    I did no backlinking to one of my sites that happens to be in the car insurance niche. Amazingly, I was getting all top 50 spots for keywords and a few first page spots.

    Now, it' dropping like it's hot.
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by Mike Hlatky View Post

      I did no backlinking to one of my sites that happens to be in the car insurance niche. Amazingly, I was getting all top 50 spots for keywords and a few first page spots.

      Now, it' dropping like it's hot.
      I'm sorry to hear that mike, I suppose their is risk involved no matter what we do when it comes to google. That's why it's important to take the advice of others and not rely on google for all of our traffic. Look into ways of getting traffic from fb.


      Get a bunch of fb buddies and send a picture of a bad car wreck with the words "got car insurance" with you link on the picture.

      One thing I notice lately is these pics with 100,000 likes, I thought to myself man how can i capitalize on that.

      For example if I had a news site I would send a pic of Treyvon Martin, those pics get a gazillion likes instantly. Not that I would trying take avantage of a young boys death, but it just food for thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author mbmehmet
    I spent the first day of this penguin release bitching and moaning on these forums about how they slapped my sites. It is really funny how many can be in denial despite knowing deep down what they done and when they done it. I was one of those people until today when I realised and finally admitted that the sites that were penalised in my collection did have links that I made a while back to game rankings. Not only did I finally admit that to myself I also realised that the only 3 sites that were not effected and gained ground were ones that had no backlinks. Fare play google, you got me good :-) Now we are even...

    On another not I think quality links are still beneficial and I think focusing on creating a large site with the right setup is enough in many cases to rank for many terms so long as there is a good internal linkage. But hey, I am a noob, what do I know....
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  • Profile picture of the author nest28
    Also when you think about if more people decided to make large sites that create a good user experience there would be less competition.

    Example: Let's say you have 20 internet marketers who each made 10 mfa sites, altogether that would be 200 sites on the net and that is why google had to crack down.

    Example: Now let's say you have 20 internet marketers who only made 1 really valuable site, that would only be 20 sites vs 200 from before.


    Now if we all decided to care more about the sites we make we would probably make less sites resulting in less competition for each other. Of course this will never happen but it just make's you think what if.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Ward
    "Do nothing" isn't exactly a viable strategy for anything.

    We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites. As always, we'll keep our ears open for feedback on ways to iterate and improve our ranking algorithms toward that goal.

    Posted by Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer
    I'm sure Cutts would love people to do that. Yeah, as though "we want people to... do no search engine optimization at all" is realistic.
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    "Keep moving forward."
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    • Profile picture of the author nest28
      Originally Posted by Matt Ward View Post

      "Do nothing" isn't exactly a viable strategy for anything.

      I'm sure Cutts would love people to do that. Yeah, as though "we want people to... do no search engine optimization at all" is realistic.
      You mean to tell me you read this entire thread and this comment is what you came up with. Why is it soooooo hard to believe that building a site for people will get you traffic in the long run.

      This is why I say people are here seem to be brain washed into thinking backlinking for results is the only way to achieve success.

      The one thing I always here people say is diversify, but I guess they only want to do that when it comes to their link portfolio and not there internet marketing skills.
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  • Profile picture of the author boxoun
    My sites that I've literally done nothing saw a boost! Op is right hahahah.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMAnthony
    One of my sites was place #2 in page 1 200 visitors per day.
    Then I added Pop Up Domination. After 4 days I was getting 15 subscribers per day. But I don't know it was a coincidence or not, at 5th day (about 25 days ago) my site was dropped to place 1 to page 2, I mean it got 11th place. After that I built and indexed some backlinks and it moved to 3rd place. But after 5 days, it finally is #5.

    So, at the beginning it reached 1st page because I built backlinks.

    C'mon it is on page one, and not even is the main domain is just a page within 800,000 results. I made it for that purpose.

    I am just watching was is going on, but doing SEO quietly.
    And of course I will be building backlinks, of course I will, why? because it works. I did not just "din nothing" I worked hard and I have results.

    Any way, I am building anothe siter, my main goal is to have at least 100 useful and interesting articles in it. Written for the users. And that is for sure the best strategy.
    Do not rely only in one kind of site.
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  • Profile picture of the author nest28
    I'm done lol I see my words falling on deaf ears. Continue to use outdated techniques if you want. My thought process is always evolving and changing for the better , there's no way I'd ever settle for one way of doing anything. If and when new evidence presents itself explaining which links are safe maybe I'll backlink ,until somebody can guarantee that I wont harm my site by linking to it I'm gonna chill on the links.

    What I will be doing is taking the advice of others and tap into social media, twitter,fb,stuble upon etc so I wont have to rely on google. In the process of finding new ways of receiving traffic I'm sure I'll develop new skills that would have otherwise been none existent and that my friends is certainly something.
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  • Profile picture of the author pangolin123
    OP, is your site ranked in top 10 without building backlinks? How does one expect to be in top 10 for medium or high competitive keywords without building backlinks?
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  • Profile picture of the author FraserC
    @pangolin123 - You need to understand the distinction between getting links and building links. Wikipedia has millions of links, but there's nobody there actively linkbuilding, spamming forum profiles and running scrapebox campaigns. They create content that's so great, people link to it all on their own.

    So, the way that you rise to the top 10 without building links is to create something so cool that people will drive you up into the top 10 with their enthusiasm.

    My site ranks #2 for "universe"... after Wikipedia. I've got half a million links pointed at my site, but I didn't do any linkbuilding.
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    • Profile picture of the author mbmehmet
      You work for Nasa?

      Originally Posted by FraserC View Post

      @pangolin123 - You need to understand the distinction between getting links and building links. Wikipedia has millions of links, but there's nobody there actively linkbuilding, spamming forum profiles and running scrapebox campaigns. They create content that's so great, people link to it all on their own.

      So, the way that you rise to the top 10 without building links is to create something so cool that people will drive you up into the top 10 with their enthusiasm.

      My site ranks #2 for "universe"... after Wikipedia. I've got half a million links pointed at my site, but I didn't do any linkbuilding.
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      • Profile picture of the author CatherineMay
        Nest28, what about pinging to Pingler or Pingomatic when you add a new article or add more content to an old one?

        When you say you "do nothing," does that mean you don't even ping?

        Sorry for the newbie quality of this question. After two years, I'm still learning basic things. I've just added more content to a page that was on the first page of google at #5 and is now somewhere on page 54. I'm trying to resist the temptation to "do something."

        I really appreciate this thread and the others you have.

        Catherine
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        • Profile picture of the author nest28
          Originally Posted by CatherineMay View Post

          Nest28, what about pinging to Pingler or Pingomatic when you add a new article or add more content to an old one?

          When you say you "do nothing," does that mean you don't even ping?

          Sorry for the newbie quality of this question. After two years, I'm still learning basic things. I've just added more content to a page that was on the first page of google at #5 and is now somewhere on page 54. I'm trying to resist the temptation to "do something."

          I really appreciate this thread and the others you have.

          Catherine
          Pinging should be fine, when I say do nothing I don't mean it literally lol.

          My definition of "Doing Something" is using old methods to promote your site such as fiverr gigs,profile links,article marketing with spun content,blog comments,amr sunuke x, magic submitter etc.


          My idea of "Doing Nothing" is building a great site full of useful content worthy of receiving natural links. Promoting using social sites like fb,stumble upon,youtube and many lesser known sites as well.

          By promoting yours sites through different avenues you will eventually see natural links and traffic.


          Now some people will say hey if I wait for natural links I'll will be waiting a long time. And if your foolish enough to literally do nothing but wait that is exactly what will happen.
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  • Profile picture of the author Graziella
    Amen! This has always been my feeling, though I am a newbie. Thanks for these insights.
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    • Profile picture of the author JeanneLynn
      I like your posts, Nest. Great information and I appreciate that you spend so much time discussing your methods.
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  • Profile picture of the author jpete
    I totally agree, Google is looking for great content and not bad back links.. I think, we will find that there will be a lot more changes to Google algorithms to come, this is just the begging …
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  • Profile picture of the author discuss4u
    In fact, I am trying to do an experiment. I have moved a site which is hit to a new domain. And close the old domain without redirecting to the new site. I will try to add new post only to the site to see what will happen.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnweyer
    @tylerherman "which means it boils down to who has more links.

    Link building isn't necessary for niche sites going after longtime, but for high competition niches it still is relevant"

    methinks google has decided to disagree with that.

    Google can know if your content is spun or PLR
    Google has stated they don't want un-natural backlinks; they want even sites with no links at all.
    Google can crawl your site and determine if the content is relevant. It reads it and compares its quality to millions other articles. About the same topic. Instantly
    Google can penalize you for linking to Facebook
    Google can reward you for Google+ link
    Google can look at your backlink, determine where its from, determine who put it there, determine if it was done by you or a backlinking gig. They can determine how many links you bought, when you bought them, who you bought them from and likely how you paid for them.
    They know all
    They ... wait, someones at the door.
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    • Profile picture of the author tylerherman
      Originally Posted by johnweyer View Post

      @tylerherman "which means it boils down to who has more links.

      Link building isn't necessary for niche sites going after longtime, but for high competition niches it still is relevant"

      methinks google has decided to disagree with that.

      Google can know if your content is spun or PLR
      Google has stated they don't want un-natural backlinks; they want even sites with no links at all.
      Google can crawl your site and determine if the content is relevant. It reads it and compares its quality to millions other articles. About the same topic. Instantly
      Google can penalize you for linking to Facebook
      Google can reward you for Google+ link
      Google can look at your backlink, determine where its from, determine who put it there, determine if it was done by you or a backlinking gig. They can determine how many links you bought, when you bought them, who you bought them from and likely how you paid for them.
      They know all
      They ... wait, someones at the door.
      Google still has absolutely no was of determining quality. This has been proven over and over and I wish people would stop with this nonsense. They can find spelling and gramatical errors, they can find duplicate and very badly spun content sure but they have no way of determining what "quality is".

      Google has always disagreed with link building and SEO. It doesn't mean people didn't still do and will continue to still do it.

      Google has gotten slightly smarter but it's still pretty dumb. Wait one month and people will be gaming the **** out of this update just like they've done with Panda and every update before it.
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      • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
        Originally Posted by tylerherman View Post

        Google still has absolutely no was of determining quality. This has been proven over and over and I wish people would stop with this nonsense. They can find spelling and gramatical errors, they can find duplicate and very badly spun content sure but they have no way of determining what "quality is".

        Google has always disagreed with link building and SEO. It doesn't mean people didn't still do and will continue to still do it.

        Google has gotten slightly smarter but it's still pretty dumb. Wait one month and people will be gaming the **** out of this update just like they've done with Panda and every update before it.
        Its funny how they openly admit not being able to decipher images, yet are in total denial about not being able to identify "quality content" :rolleyes:
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        • Profile picture of the author JeanneLynn
          Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

          Its funny how they openly admit not being able to decipher images, yet are in total denial about not being able to identify "quality content" :rolleyes:
          I wish Google would actually reward websites for having quality content. Almost everyone thinks that their content is good quality, but most of it isn't. Poor grammar, poor spelling, all fluff.

          If Microsoft Word can accurately determine that I used poor grammar or incorrect spelling, why can't Google?

          Some of the sites ranking highest on Google have content that is disgustingly bad.

          Quality content makes for happy web surfers! I hate it when I go to a page and the content is so bad that I can't even read it. It's very disappointing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stevie C
    I'm still confused about what Google wants, I'm not just seeing my sites penalized for my links but it also appears that some are getting penalized for on page seo, for example all the sites that I used clickbump seo for on page seo optimization have tanked. While sites that I've just thrown up a couple of articles and left are still ranking.
    So should I buy the .net for my sites which are branded and not emd's and rewrite the articles without leaving out any sign of on page seo for example H1 tags, keywords in bold and so on and then put it up on another ip address?
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  • Profile picture of the author hicksdelight
    The new seo = No seo.
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  • Profile picture of the author sackboy127
    I think they can determine how readable the content is, at least to a certain extent, for example I wrote 2 unique articles (never before been published to the web), then autospun the first one, created 2 brand new Wordpress.com blogs, and posted the completely original, unique and 100% readable article to one of them, and the spun version of the other article to the other Wordpress blog. (Again, the original version of the 2nd article was never published anywhere)

    The first blog was indexed within 2 days of creation (without pinging, backlinks, bookmarks, or anything), while the other one with the unique, but un-readable content took 6 days to get indexed. So according to these results, it does matter how readable your content is, uniqueness isn't the only requirement.
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  • Profile picture of the author extremejava
    I modified my website so that it more pleasant to the users. Earlier I had 4-5 ads over the fold and content length was 100-150. Now I am targeting for minimum 300 words of length. Let us see what happens.
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