How Do You Uncover Your Spammy Links?

A WebmasterWorld thread has a webmaster who seems to have been hit by the Penguin 2.0 update. He is now asking how he should go about discovering which of his links are spammy.

He asked in the thread:
The only thing I can think of is that I may have spammy backlinks. I have 1500 backlinks but do not recognise all the sites that link back to me. How can I find out whether they are spammy and harm my website?

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google Shares Insight Into Content Removal: 404s Confirmation & More

A Google Webmaster Help thread has some interesting details from Google's John Mueller about content removal from Google's index and/or search results.Some of these points you already know but every SEO and webmaster should understand these. Heck, some are even eye opening to me.

Here are the raw points John made and then I'll share what I think is revealing:

• The URL removal tool is not meant to be used for normal site maintenance like this. This is part of the reason why we have a limit there.
• The URL removal tool does not remove URLs from the index, it removes them from our search results. The difference is subtle, but it's a part of the reason why you don't see those submissions affect the indexed URL count.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google: Use The Disavow Tool Like A Machete & Not Fine-Toothed Comb

Earlier this month, Google's head of search spam, responded to a comment on his blog explaining that when most SEOs and Webmasters use the disavow tool, they use it wrong.Matt Cutts said you should not use it like a "fine-toothed comb" but rather use it like you would use a "machete,"

To me this means that webmasters and SEOs are missing too many bad links when they use the tool and possibly often, Google will flag a whole domain as being bad and not just a specific URL. So if you use the disavow link tool too gently, then it might not work. But if you use it too aggressively it might hurt you as well.
Google's John Mueller reshared this on Google+, so clearly we have Matt Cutts saying this, Google's John Mueller sharing it again on Google+. This must come up fairly often.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google Penguin 2.0 Goes Deep - But What Does That Mean?

As you know, Penguin 2.0 #4 is live and webmasters and SEOs are buzzing about that. The thing is, some misconceptions about Penguin 2.0 are driving me absolutely crazy.Matt Cutts, in his video about this update, talks about how Penguin 2.0 will be "more comprehensive," how this version "goes deeper" and will result in "more of an impact" than Penguin 1.0.

The SEO community is translating "goes deeper" to mean that Penguin 1.0 only impacted the home page of a web site. That is absolutely false. Deeper has nothing to do with that. Those who were hit by Penguin 1.0 know all to well that their whole site suffered, not just their home page.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google Pushed Out The Major Penguin Update (v2.0 #4)

As I reported last night at Search Engine Land, Penguin 2.0 / 4 is now live - this is the next generation Penguin update. As Google's Matt Cutts added, this impacts 2.3% of English queries and also impacts other languages but the percentage depends on the level of spam in those languages.Matt officially announced it while on This Week In Google see towards the very end of episode 199.

Matt said on his blog:
We started rolling out the next generation of the Penguin webspam algorithm this afternoon (May 22, 2013), and the rollout is now complete. About 2.3% of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice. The change has also finished rolling out for other languages world-wide. The scope of Penguin varies by language, e.g. languages with more webspam will see more impact.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Webmasters Upset Big Brands Get Personalized Responses From Google's Matt Cutts

Many webmasters know that it is incredibly hard to get a Google representative to respond to their concerns one-on-one, let alone Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts.Google simply does not have the resources, man power or desire to respond to each webmaster concern one-on-one. I respect that and you should also.
But remember when Google slapped Sprint for a UGC spam penalty? Well, Google's Matt Cutts responded directly to the thread to help out. Matt Cutts also did so for Mozilla's penalty also.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Yahoo Spends $1.1 Billion To Be Cool (Buy Tumblr)

I'm sure you heard the news by now, Yahoo has acquired Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion in cash.Seriously, everyone is talking about it - just see techmeme.

A WebmasterWorld thread talks about how we want this to make Yahoo cool and relevant. We want $1.1 billion to turn the company around. We do wish the best for Yahoo.
The concern is will Yahoo mess up Tumblr or will Tumblr clean up Yahoo?
What do you think?
Yahoo did some neat stuff with Flickr yesterday - so that is a good sign, I think.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google Adds Organization Schema Markup For Knowledge Graph Logos

Google has announced they've added support for the schema.org markup for organization logos within the search results, specifically not the search snippets but within the knowledge graph.
So while author schema will show in the search results snippets, organization schema will only currently show in the knowledge graph box.

Here is a code sample of using organization schema:

Do not confuse the two.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google Subject Specific Authority Ranking

As part of our coverage of the ten Google algorithm changes coming this summer, I wanted to make sure you all saw that Google was coming up with a technique to determine which sites are authorities in specific topics. Now, if Google determined you a subject specific authority, your rankings will improve.Google's Matt Cutts said they will improve the rankings of subject specific authorities for queries that they should rank well for. I covered this in detail at Search Engine Land but just in case you missed it.
Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google To Soften The Panda Algorithm

Google To Soften The Panda Algorithm
As I covered yesterday, in very brief summary, Google's Matt Cutts told us ten SEO changes coming to Google by the end of this summer. One of those changes is softening the impact of the Panda algorithm for sites that are in the "gray area" or "border" of being impacted by the Panda algorithm.
Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, said 5 minutes and 3 seconds into the video that Google is adding additional signals to look for other quality metrics that may lessen the impact of the Panda algorithm for those sites in the gray area. This is with a caveat!
Author: Barry Schwartz

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57% Don't Fear Google's Disavow Link Tool

57% Don't Fear Google's Disavow Link Tool
A month ago, I posted a poll asking our readers if they fear someone citing your web site in the Google Disavow Tool?
The results are in, with 250 plus votes tallied, that some SEOs do fear it, many are concerned but most say they are not worried by it.
Here is the break down:

• 57% say they do not fear someone citing their web sites in a disavow link request
• 29% say they do not fear it but are somewhat concerned if they learned someone cited their web sites in a disavow link request
• Only 14% fear the idea that someone can cite their web sites in a disavow link request

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google: More Sophisticated Link Analysis & Link Devaluing In Works

Google: More Sophisticated Link Analysis & Link Devaluing In Works
As part of our ongoing deeper thoughts on the video Matt Cutts made about ten Google SEO changes happening this summer - I wanted to discuss the points about going upstream to devalue link spammers and Google rethinking their link analysis techniques.
This all starts at about 3 minutes and 13 seconds into the video where Matt Cutts talks for less than a minute about the topics. They are two different topics, one about devaluing links "upstream" from link spammers and the second about building out a new link analysis system.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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One Year Later, Only 9% Claim Google Penguin Recovery

One Year Later, Only 9% Claim Google Penguin Recovery
A few weeks ago was the one year anniversary of the Google Penguin update. As you know, we have not had a Penguin update in well over six months, but we are bracing ourselves for the next big Penguin update coming in the next few weeks.
That being said, in our anniversary post, we asked our readers if they recovered or not. We had just under 500 responses to the poll and I wanted to share the results. Before I do so, in October we did this poll and saw that 94% said they did not recover.
Author: Barry Schwartz

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Matt Cutts On 10 New SEO Changes At Google In Next Few Months

Matt Cutts On 10 New SEO Changes At Google In Next Few Months
Yesterday, Google's Matt Cutts did something he doesn't often do - he pre-announced changes Google will be implementing to the ranking and indexing algorithms in the next few months. Specifically, he mentioned about ten changes coming to Google's search results and algorithms over this summer - in the "next few months" he said.
Of course, Matt, Google's head of search spam, adds a disclaimer that timelines and priorities may change between now and then - but this is what is scheduled currently.

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Google Catches Free Host Injecting Hidden Links On Clients Web Sites

Google Catches Free Host Injecting Hidden Links On Clients Web Sites
You'd think these places would learn but no, they don't. A Google Webmaster Help thread has a webmaster asking about how he can remove the site-links from showing up in Google.
What ended up happening is that Google's John Mueller took notice of the hidden links on the footer of his source code.
He then showed the webmaster what was going on with a snap shot of the hidden links. Clearly, this web host is not just a free hosting company but also a company that looks to sell SEO services and page ranking services.

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Google's Penguin Update Coming In Weeks: Update 4 Version 2.0

Google's Penguin Update Coming In Weeks: Update 4 Version 2.0
On Friday, Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that the Penguin update we are expecting this year, will be coming in the next few weeks.
Matt Cutts said, "we do expect to roll out Penguin 2.0 (next generation of Penguin) sometime in the next few weeks."
This has sent shockwaves through the webmaster and SEO industry over the weekend. We know the next generation Penguin update is a major revision to the existing one. Matt said the previous ones were minor updates. To take you back, we had an update on May 24, 2012 and October 5, 2012. Matt said on Twitter that those were more minor, he would have named them 1.1 and 1.2 and that Google is naming this new update version 2.0.

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After You Delete A Web Page, Should You 404 Or 301 It?

After You Delete A Web Page, Should You 404 Or 301 It?
A HighRankings Forum thread asks what should this webmaster do after he deleted an unwanted page. Should the webmaster 404 the page or 301 the page.
To me the answer is simple. Let's look at the definitions of a 404 vs a 301.
404 Not Found: The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address.  This status code is commonly used when the server does not....

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Large Google Update Happening Now...

Large Google Update Happening Now...
An ongoing WebmasterWorld has a huge uptick in chatter around major ranking and search result fluctuation over the night. It seems from this and from all the complaints in the Google Webmaster Help forums that there is indeed some sort of update going on.Is it Penguin, Panda, EMD, page layout or something else - or is it a wide-spread manual action or Google going after and devaluing a major link network - I do not know. But it does seem something has happened causing tons of webmasters and SEOs to take to the....

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Google: Major Penguin Update Coming In 2013

Google: Major Penguin Update Coming In 2013
Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced at SMX West (which I live blogged and reported at Search Engine Land) that a "next generation" of Penguin is coming in 2013.

This one should be big. I specifically asked, what will SEOs be talking about in 2013? What will be the next big Google algorithmic change that is the talk of 2013 amongst SEOs and Webmasters.
Matt did not mention the merchant quality algorithm but he did specifically say it might be the next generation of the Penguin update.

Matt said his team is currently working on it and this will be a big change to how Penguin works. So when it is released, sometime in 2013, I assume sooner than later, this will send some ripples....

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Poll: Are You Reactive Or Proactive With Google's Disavow Link Tool

Poll: Are You Reactive Or Proactive With Google's Disavow Link Tool
A WebmasterWorld thread asks if one should be proactive when using Google's disavow link tool or not.
The webmaster said with the next generation Penguin update expected to roll out sometime this year, should webmasters and SEOs be more proactive about doing away with their bad links or not.
He wrote:
We have a ton of natural bad links pointing to one of our sites. Since these are natural, many have no contact forms, or email addresses listed for us to be able to....

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Google Webmaster Tools Crawl Error Reports Delayed

Google Webmaster Tools Crawl Error Reports Delayed
Many many webmasters are complaining in the Google Webmaster Help forums that the reporting in Google Webmaster Tools specifically for the "Crawl Errors" section is stalled, delayed and not updating.I personally see it updated as of April 23rd, which was 15 days ago! Others are saying April 25th, but many also only see data up to April 23rd. Crawl error reports are probably one of the more important reporting features in Google Webmaster Tools, so to not have an updated report....

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Signs Of A Google Update? May 7, 2013

Signs Of A Google Update? May 7, 2013
There are some very early signs of a possible Google update brewing as of early this morning. A WebmasterWorld thread has some renewed chatter around an update.
Note, most of the WebmasterWorld thread is about April 15th changes, which people say have to do with the Boston bombings and seasonal traffic changes. But last night, early this morning, two webmasters came in and said they saw major shifts in rankings and......

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May 2013 Google Webmaster Report

May 2013 Google Webmaster Report

It has been a pretty busy month over at Google, not much in terms of "official" updates but a lot of discussion about changes on both the algorithm side and user interface side. Plus, we learned a lot from Google comments, videos and responses this month.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has the typical chatter around traffic shifts from Google, ranking fluctuations and discussions around seasonal impact of traffic, including the Boston bombing traffic impacts. There is a lot of smaller chatter around minor updates and ranking changes in Google but nothing serious enough to warrant a standalone post about a real update. Maybe borer line.

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Google Testing Not Showing URLs In Search Results

Google Testing Not Showing URLs In Search Results
@tecnonetblog, a man who spots probably 2 - 5 Google experiments per week, noticed a new one where Google is not displaying the search results URL in the search results interface.
As you can see from the image here of the mobile search results, Google is showing the site's title, description and even sitelinks but not listing for the URL of the site. Again, this is just an experiment Google is running and it is not something we will 100% see ourselves anytime soon. Google may or may not decide to go with it.

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Did Google's Matt Cutts Deny Google Tries To Trick SEOs With Bouncing Search Results?

Did Google's Matt Cutts Deny Google Tries To Trick SEOs With Bouncing Search Results?

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Google EMD Update: Switch To Non EMD Or Build Quality?

Google EMD Update: Switch To Non EMD Or Build Quality?

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Google Rich Snippet & Schema Hacking?

Google Rich Snippet & Schema Hacking?

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Link Removal Fees Adding Up To $12,000 Or More

Link Removal Fees Adding Up To $12,000 Or More

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Are You Using Google+ Interactive Posts?

Are You Using Google+ Interactive Posts?

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Google+ App Activities Coming To Google Search

Google+ App Activities Coming To Google Search

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