Google Really Might Be Evil … People Can Invent Worse
This might not be of much interest to many of the readers to this site but I thought I’d pen something that’s dear to my heart – if you don’t know what SEO is, move along … move along.
A few days ago, Google rolled out another of it’s world impacting algorithms.
They’ve been steadily fine tuning their search and ranking code in an endevour to what they say makes for a fairer playing field for the production of high quality content as opposed to scoring backlinks from other sites. These backlinks have always been reputed to be of equal importance and I dare say, Google promoted this fact until recently.
In the past, this has meant people also invented ways to scam the Google system by paying for high quality backlinks or devising other methods to obtain them … read ‘Link Farms’ and ‘Link Directories’.
Google has now changed that.
Their algorithm now determines whether you have inorganic or webspam backlinks, pointing to your site.
The Downside?
Think about it. Google’s code isn’t done by human beings. It’s controlled by computers. Smart computers but computers all the same. Computers are unforgiving and unrelenting.
I say this because my GeekandJock site was recently hit by this lovely Penguin code and the traffic plunged into crap.
The thing is, the onus is on me now. There’s supposedly some inorganic backlinks pointing back. Instead of Google simply wiping this webspam links out of it’s register and continuing on, GeekandJock is now penalised and I’m required to track through over 4500 backlinks and make a determination myself as to whether the link is crap.
And then endevour to get the backlink removed from a site I have no control over. This is going to be fun. I’ll persevere.
The Next Evil SEO
Which leads me to what is likely to happen next in SEO world.
Instead of SEO black and white hatters doing good content and content alone, I can shortly see a flourishing industry popping up …. and still using webspam backlinks! That’s not going to go away any time soon.
EXCEPT those next generation backlinks are going to be squarely directed to your websites competition!
Yep, if you can’t win ….
Take down and penalise your competition !!!
…. using the exact same technique that Google is penalising hundred of thousands of websites today.
Do You Think This Is Likely?
Let me know in the comments
About the Author:
Martin writes for his personal ramblings here and mostly about Social Media, the Online Space as well as what his family is up to. Check out his Social Media buttons below and make friends. Also check out his GeekAndJock Relationships Advice website too. Follow me on Google+
Martin – who has written 27 posts on Cooney Marketing Services.
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I am a webmaster and what you have written surely concerns me.I think Google is trying too hard to remove the remove the webspam and in a way its not bad but for some webmasters it can become a nightmare in getting spammy links deleted.Best option will be to make them “no follow”.
On-page SEO in my opinion remains the only sure way of getting recognized in Google.
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Thanks for your visit and comment, Pradeep.
Interestingly enough, there’s already strong evidence that ‘negative SEO’ is being done, to take advantage of this apparent Google loophole.
A good friend of mine also runs a Baby Shoes site for his wife. He just got smashed by10 of thousands of Spammy links directed towards his site and Google has severely penalised the site. And, sadly, all his attempts in getting Google to recognise the flagrant action against him have fallen on deaf ears. Freaking sad really.
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One interesting and potentially sneaky byproduct of all this is if this does come to pass and competitors DO bait links so sites get penalized, Google will become armed with a huge list of Link Farms that they can start taking down.
I know myself that I\’ve been researching web spam links myself to renewable my site. I\’m sure there are sites not yet on Googles\’s \’take down\’ radar that they\’ll get from my list.
Is there a secret agenda for this latest Google Rucus and is this it?
Yep, I won’t link to them but there are already low cost services available for buying heaps of links on dodgy websites to point at your competitors. Shameful practice and you really have to wonder about peoples moral compass.
Only solution … which has always been the only solution anyway … is to keep providing good quality content on a consistent basis and do not rely on one source of traffic / revenue.
Google sell advertising and we’re the product. Period. Depending on your search the first page is littered with Google pushed material, not necessarily the best answer to your search query. They cry about the walled gardens of Facebook etc but that is only because they do not have access to your data so they can push more advertising.
Sorry to hear you got caught up in their latest ‘search cleansing’. Keep pushing out good content and I am sure you’ll get back in their good graces (if that’s important). Do you have a FB page for G&J? :)
GeekandJock Facebook Page is over at https://www.facebook.com/GeekandJock
For traffic, assisting others and hopefully increasing the small profits that the site makes, people are shoehorned into getting back into their good graces. They own the biggest playing field so they own the ball and they make up the rules that you need to abide by – they don\’t have to :)
I do understand that Golden Vision of a fair playing field. But it\’s like piracy and rules, in general – they will always be ways around them, no matter what the blocking attempts. Penalizing good quality sites isn\’t the answer, in my opinion.
And thanks for the visit and comment, Adam.
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And go get a Gravatar too hahaha
I definitely think negative SEO is possible. Hell, it has been for years. Now it should be relatively easy to accomplish. For people sitting in the fourth position, it would be cheap to knock down three competitors. I’m sure its going on as we speak.
As to Google being evil: I’ve always hated that Don’t Be Evil slogan. It’s very self serving and the type of thing that an evil person would say ;) Still, they seem about as evil as the average multi-national company.
Most multi-national companies are pretty evil anyway – that places Google then as evil :)
There war on making a level playing field just allows people to re-adjust their strategies to plot against competitors now. Google have done nothing except shift the goal posts to cause havoc. Anti-competitive link farms will now pop up.
Gosh, this is going to get real messy, real quick, if you ask me!