Report: Backlink Tools Show 30% To 50% Of Your Links

Report: Backlink Tools Show 30% To 50% Of Your Links Remember that study Eric Enge published that said Google+ has no ranking benefit? Well, part of that, Eric said that an issue with his report may be that he can't find all the links to his site. Specifically, he estimates that 30% to 50% of the links are not reported cumulatively via both the third party tools and search engine backed tools. Specifically, he said he uses Open Site Explorer,...

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That Google Manual Penalty May Come Back To Haunt You

That Google Manual Penalty May Come Back To Haunt You It is not new that Google manual actions expire, it should also not be new to you that an expiration of a manual action does not mean the manual action will never return. It likely will, if you have not taken correction action. Google suggests that you should never wait for a manual action penalty to expire, that you should take corrective action and submit a reconsideration request. ...

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Why Build Your Own Blog Link Network???

Why Build Your Own Blog Link Network??? You'd think that after Google has penalized link network after link network that SEOs would stop asking the question of how to build links via a link network - but nope. A WebmasterWorld thread has one senior WebmasterWorld member, wheel, detailing how he builds and monetizes his own blog link network. I guess if you can't depend on underground secret link networks, you can always try to build your...

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SEO Companies Fined For Fake Online Reviews

SEO Companies Fined For Fake Online Reviews New York State Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, announced that 19 companies have agreed to pay out a total of $350,000 in penalties for submitting fake reviews. Some of the 19 companies are SEO companies and the term "SEO" is found nine times in the formal announcement. This was a year long investigation named "Operation Clean Turf" with the goal of finding fake consumer-reviews on websites...

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Poking Google With Fetch Requests Won't Lead To A Penalty

Poking Google With Fetch Requests Won't Lead To A Penalty You know that annoying kid who is constantly poking you on your back and asking the same annoying request over and over again? Well, Google said if you do that to them, at least via the Fetch as Google feature within Webmaster Tools, it won't lead to a penalty. A Google Webmaster Help thread has one webmaster concerned that if he uses the fetch as Google feature too often, it might...

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Google Search Update Over The Weekend?

Google Search Update Over The Weekend? The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread and dozens of posts in the Google Webmaster Help forum suggest that around September 20th, Google did some sort of larger update. Let me start by saying, Google asked me nicely not to ask them on record if there was an update. So I am not going to ask Google from now on. But based on the chatter I have seen over the weekend, it seems like there was some sort of update. Now,...

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What Happens When You Disavow 35,000 Links In Google?

What Happens When You Disavow 35,000 Links In Google? Cyrus Shepard posted on Google+ about a case study he posted on his blog about the results after he disavowed 35,000 links pointing to a site. He said, "On April 3, 2013 I disavowed every link to my website I could find through Google Webmaster Tools." That turned out to be 35,000 links. The result in his traffic? Well, hard to say. Here is the chart: He said, "shortly after" he...

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Study: Google+ Has No Direct Ranking Benefit, Like Google's Cutts Said

Study: Google+ Has No Direct Ranking Benefit, Like Google's Cutts Said You can now stop clicking the +1 button on my articles, they have no ranking benefit. Eric Enge published an exhaustive study named Direct Measurement of Google Plus Impact on Search Rankings. In short, Google+ has no direct impact on your Google rankings, outside of personalization and of course, getting visibility out, which has a side impact of possibly getting more links....

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Google: Don't Pay The Link Mobster For Link Removals, Just Disavow Them

Google: Don't Pay The Link Mobster For Link Removals, Just Disavow Them We have discussed people charging fees to do link removals several times but Google's John Mueller said you shouldn't have to pay for your links to be removed - instead just use the disavow tool. In a video hangout 56 minutes and 49 seconds in, John Mueller said you he personally wouldn't pay to have a link removed. Here is the transcript of that section provided by hiswebmarketing. So...

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Take That Back: Not Every Manual Action Must Be Acted On...

Take That Back: Not Every Manual Action Must Be Acted On...  I'll be honest, I am still confused on this. The other day, I reported on how an ex-Googler who worked in the web spam team, said that every manual action must be acted on or else the site will soon be penalized and have a negative ranking applied to it. I honestly thought before I wrote that post that some manual actions do not lead to negative rankings. I wrote, "I tried...

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Google Update Reports Again: September 12th

Google Update Reports Again: September 12th  I've received a few emails, a bunch of tweets, plus I noticed new comments on our older posts and some updates in the Webmaster World thread that signifies a possible Google update rolling out this month. The chatter is there, so I have to report it to you. I am not sure exactly what is going on. We saw what appeared to be a Google search update on August 21st (about 400 comments on that post)...

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Google's Cutts: Hit By Panda? Then Write Better Content!

Google's Cutts: Hit By Panda? Then Write Better Content! Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, posted a video on what to do if you think your site may have been impacted in a bad bad way by the Panda algorithm. In short, write better content! Matt said your content should be as high quality as you would read in a published book or in a magazine. It should be unique, compelling and give something more to a reader. He obviously references...

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Give Examples: Is Google Lying To Us?

Give Examples: Is Google Lying To Us? If any of you read some of the comments left on the stuff I write here, you will see some of the anger and actual hate some webmasters have towards Google and even myself. They think that I am paid by Google to feed you things that they want you to hear and believe all in an effort to set you up and make you all fail. A WebmasterWorld thread started by goodroi asks webmasters if they feel Google is actually...

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Google's Matt Cutts: The Nofollow Can Only Hurt You When...

Google's Matt Cutts: The Nofollow Can Only Hurt You When... Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, posted a video yesterday on the question of, "can nofollow links hurt your site?" The answer is no but there is a "corner case." If you absolutely spam links in a way that is so evasive and so annoying that people know you by name, then Google may take action. Even if the links are nofollowed, Google may take action against very large scale...

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Google: Alright, We Will Give You One Year Worth Of Top Search Queries In Webmaster Tools

Google: Alright, We Will Give You One Year Worth Of Top Search Queries In Webmaster Tools On Friday, Danny Sullivan reported at Search Engine Land that Google is planning to give webmasters a year worth of top search query data within webmaster tools. Currently, Google only provides 90 days worth of this data. They do so because they stripped away the referrer data years ago, with some reporting 70%+ in [not provided] results due to this change. So...

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Only 7% Claim Full Recovery From Google's Penguin 2.0 Update

Only 7% Claim Full Recovery From Google's Penguin 2.0 Update Yesterday we covered the poll results of those impacted by Penguin 2.0 and today I wanted to share the results from our June poll asking how many of you recovered from the Penguin 2.0 update. We had over 600 responses to the poll and 68% said they did not recover, why 17% said they partially recovered and 7% said they fully recovered. 8% said it did not apply to them. You can compare...

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72% Were Hit By Google's Penguin 1.0 Or 2.0 Algorithm

72% Were Hit By Google's Penguin 1.0 Or 2.0 Algorithm Google's 2.0 Penguin update went live over 3 months ago and we ran a poll shortly after asking how many of you were impacted by this Penguin update. We had almost 1,500 responses since launching the poll and the results were pretty significant. The question was: How Were You Impacted By Google Penguin 2.0? The results: 53% said I Was Hit By Penguin 2.0 19% said I Was Hit By Penguin 1.0 & Did...

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Poll: Does A Manual Action Removal Impact Google Rankings?

Poll: Does A Manual Action Removal Impact Google Rankings?  I see many threads with complaints, excitement, sadness and fear in the forums. Most have to do with Google rankings. It goes like this... The webmaster says something like, "my rankings and traffic from Google tanked," now I look and I have a manual action." Few days later they come back in and claim they submitted a reconsideration request and then days later, they yell with...

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Reports Of Another Google Update : September 4th

Reports Of Another Google Update : September 4th I am seeing some early signs of a possible major Google update currently underway. The chatter has definitely spiked in the early morning hours of today, September 4th. This comes shortly after an unconfirmed August 21st update. In fact, that update post has well over 250 comments and a bunch of recent ones this morning reporting the update people are seeing this morning. The WebmasterWorld...

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Book Reviews Markup Comes To Google's Data Highlighter

Book Reviews Markup Comes To Google's Data Highlighter Google launched the data highlighter tool in December to make it easier for website owners to add rich snippet data to their web pages. Google last added six new data types a few months ago to the tool and now has added support for book reviews. Google's Pierre Far announced on Google+ that the data highlighter now officially supports book reviews markup. You can use Data Highlighter to...

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Google's Matt Cutts Issues Subtle Warning To Ghost Networks

Google's Matt Cutts Issues Subtle Warning To Ghost Networks Last night, Matt Cutts tweeted that he is working up several "ghost-related puns for a spam network." I suspect they are working on targeting more and more link and spam networks and it is thus on his mind. I would think this spam topic is always on his mind, since he has been working in this area for over ten years now. That being said, the pun he shared was "They try to look super...

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What Are Slow, Gradual Declines In Google Referrals?

What Are Slow, Gradual Declines In Google Referrals? I see a lot of different web sites, with a lot of different problems. From manual actions, to huge drops after a major algorithm update, to hacked sites, to sites that block Google by accident. The ones that always make me wonder are the ones that aren't hit hard one night but rather see a slow but consistent decline in organic traffic from Google. I am sure you have seen them yourself...

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