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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