Cog SEO Blog

Posted By Melanie Prough on April 2, 2009

I am at this point totally confused! Why is it that webmasters and SEOs are completely taken by surprise, that selling links which manipulate PageRank are now not within Google’s guidelines? Have we no foresight, or ability to understand the principals of Google’s desire for an un-manipulated index for it’s users? Lets face it change is hard, but is it not the absolute nature of the web? Where would we be now if the search engines had not gotten out of the Meta spamming age? The fact is, the search engines are charged with the dutiful task of providing a clean, valuable resource to their users.

If you live under a rock, the new guideline for bought and sold links can be found here, within the Webmaster Help Center. Excerpt below…

Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it. Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating.

However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

The easy explanation is that “advertising links” cannot pass PageRank. If you think about this, in just it’s essence, it’s really very simple and necessary. If you have a sold link on your site for the purpose of “advertising”, then it should be “nofollowed” or the resulting page blocked from indexing. That would be the nature of an “advertising link”. However, if the link is allowed to pass PageRank, then you are in fact selling and manipulating PageRank.

I have a directory, with very stringent guidelines for listing. No one can purchase a listing in my directory, they can however purchase sitewide “advertisement” links….Which are “nofollowed”, as they are for the purpose of advertising. I think as a group webmasters and SEOs tend to spend too much time trying to “beat the system” instead of obtaining a clear focus on what is being asked from their web sites in order to be successful. Clearly, penalizing link selling was in fact a natural evolution of Google’s mission. My 12 year old could have predicted it.

I think Matt Cutts did a great job of providing a “visualization” of this necessary step in Google’s undertaking, and even responsibility to improve their index. I very strongly suggest you read it, and put yourself in both a searcher’s shoes, and Google’s shoes as the provider of services to their users. Again, humans are never comfortable with change , but how can we expect growth and evolution to occur without change?

There is currently a great Q&A going on at Google’s Webmaster Blog, wherein Matt himself is fielding questions and providing specific advise to webmasters. I think as a community we have to appreciate Google’s and specifically Matt’s effort to advise us and keep us in the fold. If you really put your thinking cap on, you would realize, Google has no responsibility to provide us with the “key to the city”. We should in fact appreciate their effort, and if we wish to be successful…Conform.

Many webmasters / SEOs are not taking the opportunity to better their skills or increase their knowledge. Instead they are participating in threads like this one in Google Groups (where Matt Cutts is also fielding questions), as an opportunity to be negative, judgmental, and plain wasting Matt’s time. If Google was my “baby” I would be taking action to improve it as well. How on earth can we be so condescending of Google’s efforts to do exactly what we strive to do….Improve our product (web sites).

So the moral of the story is this….Change may not be comfortable or easy, but necessary for growth and success. Do not fault Google for it’s efforts to be successful, we all in fact strive for success in our lives and endeavors.

Peace and SEO

Melanie Prough

Categories: All About Links
Tags: Google, Google Search Results, Meta, Reputation, Spamming, Web Search, Webmaster, Webmasters