Sphinn - Is Google Going to Expand its Punishments of Paid Links?

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Is Google Going to Expand its Punishments of Paid Links?

Went Hot: November 19, 2007 - 4:04 am
Posted By: jeffquipp 597 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.stonetemple.com)
Category: Google SEO

Eric discusses whether of not Google will expand its punishment of Paid Links. Contains some good stats about the numbers of SEOs still engaging in link buying ... which I found surprising. Good read!

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from JohnWeb 597 days ago #

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If Google wants to see some results then they will have to. They can't be preaching the gospel of "don't worry about PageRank" all day, then reduce people's visible PageRank and act like it matters. Reduced rankings or delisting sites will get people's attention quick! The difficult part is that they'll loose relevancy because some very good sites sell links. How good does Google look if someone is searching for [SEroundtable] and they can't find it?

Currently people are just laughing at the PageRank drops. The first question everyone asks is, "did your ranking change?" they answer,"nope, and traffic is the same", and we all say,"Don't worry about it then, it means nothing"

That's not much of a punishment. It wouldn't work on my 6 year old, and it sure won't work on grown up adults either.

from AndyBeard 597 days ago #

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It works on some people, though I know people who have removed at least some of their links and requested reinclusion ;) Note I don't say all, so it will be interesting to see what happens

from Sebastian 597 days ago #

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Well, and if that's just phase I. ?

from NickWilsdon 596 days ago #

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Aren't those surveys asking the wrong question? Considering the penalties given out to date, a more appropriate one would be, "Are you still selling links?". Until link buyers are given penalties, I wouldn't expect them to stop.

Of course once Google goes after the link buyers, negative SEO is going to become even more viable.

from mphung 593 days ago #

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Yup, it matters squat that link sellers got dinged a couple of green pixels, all else being equal. What does it matter to them? But it is starting to hit link buyers, and not in terms of Toolbar PR. This is where we get to taste the pudding. One site for which I bought links took a hit over the weekend... lost page 1 positions for a whole bunch of words. PageRank of those pages hasn't changed, but that's meaningless if I'm not getting the same traffic I used to.