Google’s Paid Links Algorithm Update
Google Paid Links Algorithm Update
Just around the first of September (a few days ago) Google laid the smack down and tweaked their Algorithm. If you’ve visited a webmaster forum in the past few days you will notice it’s all the talk. Some webmasters are calling Google evil and bitching about the update. I’ve heard comments like:
They (Google) make it harder for sites to have some what of a chance in SERP’s and force them to purchase paid links through Adwords.
I’ve given up trying to rank well in Google and now just focus on Yahoo and MSN.
What a complete load of shit! First off their is a huge section of webmasters out there that don’t know there ass from a hole in the wall. They read a few post in a forum and have some basic success with a three or four word search phrase on MSN and think they are SEO’s. I’m going on five years in the dotcom world and I’m still learning stuff everyday but settling for 25% of the search engine traffic is like going to play professional baseball with a dream of only playing in the minors.
Anyway… Google’s recent algorithm update seems to target paid links. Most webmasters have noticed the change in SERPS. Some search keywords disappeared all together when others either dropped or gained a few. Why???
Well… that’s easy.. Google has said now for a long time that they will get better at detecting paid links. Some links stick out like a sore thumb. Here is my list of the top three types of links that are easy for search engines to detect.
1) Footer Links
How natural do you really think this looks??? Most are below the copyright… how important is that link really worth??? Nothing!
2) Site-Wide links
Most site-wide links are purchased… so why count them???
3) Links with the word “sponsor” or “advertising” near them
Duh! This one is a no-brainer.
Keep in mind Google doesn’t care if you are buying a link for traffic or for PR… they treat it the same way. Once they detect that the link is paid they simply discount the link so it won’t pass PR. I’m sure in some cases the link *might* not even be paid but these are few and far between.
So what are the best links to get??? Well… during this update my big sites have been virtually unchanged and one has actually moved up a decent amount. The one that moved up has tons of natural links from articles, bloggers, radio stations, newspapers and industry leading websites. Those links within the content have really sent me above the sites that had tons of paid links.