I'm still not convinced by Panda/Penguin...
-
Okay, granted, it's still early. But supposedly Panda/Penguin has "changed SEO" so spammy back links from web 2.0 sites (like Squidoo and Hub Pages) won't be worth anything, right?
Why then, did I get a Google Alert yesterday (for one of the keywords I'm trying to rank for) for a Squidoo lens that has not only pushed a certain website up to top 10, but overtook my top 10 spot (pushing me back to page 2 or 3)?
It's pretty frustrating (doubly so on an already poopy Monday!) to try to be all white-hat with link building, including writing good content (which I do), and yet get beat consistently by other folks who are clearly doing the grayish-hat stuff.
Thoughts?
-
Thanks for the reminder of that post – had completely forgotten about it!
-
Personally, it's only helped me as it's knocked down a couple of truly horrible backlink spammers in my niche...but I still think Penguin is bull. I should not be able to hurt competitors, period. And for all of those that say "A good backlink profile will trump the bad links"...that may be true for Amazon and SEOmoz, but for the Barbecue Restaurant in a Pop. 20k town on the interstate, it can mean disaster. It's bad enough with all of the fake reviews going around, but add in the fact that 20 bucks can get your competitor 20k bad links compared to their 5 good ones, it's going to make a huge difference.
Search engines cannot should not operate like this. They should be moving forward instead of backward, it's simply not fair to the real businesses that try to do good. They need to focus on rewarding the good instead of punishing the bad. Heck, regardless of fairness that's just good operant conditioning technique. Anyway, there's got to be a better way...
-
I think Google really wants to return SERPS which are naturally popular and circulated through the internet. As with any intent, once its known it can be exploited.
The whole industry that has sprung up around SEO can be considered in a small sense, a way to manipulate the search engines intent. If on one hand as a search engine you're going to give credit to a website that many other websites link to, then you also have to know that once that is understood there are going to be people and companies who will exploit that.
In a perfect world one would build a website, make the website great and enjoy top position in the search engine. In our world, one makes a website, makes its great and watches droves of copy cats decimate it by manipulating the search engines.
We all struggle with it. Personally, I have worked in 2 completely different industries and seen the exact same things happening. You get to a point where you say, well I can't rank unless I do X, so you do, then something changes and now you look like a chump. While the real exploiters work on a way to get a round it, only to re-market their solution in greed. It can be quite frustrating so I really do understand your plight.
That said, I like to wear the white hat, treat my customers, viewers and website followers as my best tools, because they are. If you're running an e-commerce site, treat a customer like they are worth 100x whatever profit you made from the sale. Keep your tools sharp, help them help you. If you treat somebody well, give them the necessary tools to let others know your site is a great place to do business, then the referrals, whether it is just word of mouth, anchor links or social buzz will come back to you.
Zappos.com is the model of customer service, and you know what, Amazon realized it and purchased them. In all fairness to Amazon.com I have spent well over a 100k personally with them and I have never once had a bad experience. Of course there has been issues with stuff I bought, but they treated me like I spent a million dollars with them and took care of each issue well over my expectations. Those 2 companies operate at a level I only wish other major sites would.
Now I'm a web guy, I have competed with Zappos and Amazon and still do to this day. But here I am giving them a glowing review. I'm still one of their customers and competitors and have nothing bad to say about them without being a liar. I hope those who use the sites I work on, have the same feeling, and strive every day to make that a reality.
My thoughts...
-
I completely understand and agree. I think it's a constant cat and mouse game.
I don't know if you have read this post by Will or not, but if you haven't do read it: How Google Makes Liars Out of the Good Guys in SEO
-
Don't believe everything you read. Vary your link profile, promote with quality content and stay consistent.
I still have lens' on top of 200 million plus result terms that have been sitting there for years with only other web 2.0 sites linking in.
What is working for me is daily content creation and at least 2 tiers of promotion.
The top level being higher level social sites (think pintrest) being promoted by second tier links such as bookmarking and the profile based social media sites.
This really is a content game in my eyes and my method usually takes a minimum of five pieces (video,article etc). These are placed strategically along the top tier and promoted on the second tier and yes I am still using squidoo in my procedures.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Are good directories still worth submitting to
Hi guys we have launched a new site and need to get some links is it still worth submitting to (paid and unpaid) directories like Yell.com - obviously we would only consider the non spammy ones cheers
Link Building | | odysseytravels0 -
Are charity/sponsorship links good, bad or just useless?
Some facts: We will probably only doe this 2-3 times a year (we have hundreds of links coming in each year from organic sources). This is for a really prestigious charity website with very nice link profile from other non-profits, news organizations, and even government websites. We will get a logo on their sponsorship page, with a link back to our site. Some articles say Google considers this "buying a link" and will therefore penalize you. Or at best, this will have no effect. And here's a Search Engine Land article saying the exact opposite. $1,500 is a lot of money. So I just want to make sure I'm not wasting it -- or worse -- getting penalized.
Link Building | | Brand_Psychic0 -
I've watched a few backlinks disappear from our inbound link search.
After inquiring to Moz.org about this, they suggested this might be due to a new feature that was rolled out, however, this 2 year old backlink still hasn't shown up and I'm a little concerned. Has anyone else experienced this?
Link Building | | Deacyde0 -
Root Domain Link for Affiliate's Link
It seems my affiliate link: http://www.hrmsplugins.com?partners=21 is not being considered as a "root domain" backlink when this link is used on their website. Is there a reason for this?
Link Building | | delphia0 -
Does anyone have a list of bad site's. I should not be on or submit to?
My Gatlinburg Cabin Rental site is losing ranking on the keyword "gatlinburg cabins" I was wondering if anyone had a list of site's it should not be linked on so I can demote them.
Link Building | | GatlinburgMan0 -
How do you use anchor text post Penguin?
I have a client with several businesses within the same industry - Each of these businesses have their own websites. So, I have a few questions with this in mnd: **When using anchor text (exact keyword phrases) on his website pages, how many links are safe to use per page? And if I want to interlink between his businesses, is it better to use exact keyword phrases to link or just a straight URL link for those other businesses? **When guest blogging or using an external blog of our creation, is it best to use exact keyword phrases (and how many) or URL links? I want to make sure I am not over linking - help? thanks a lot
Link Building | | BenjaminDonley0 -
Joomla's weblink component, do the links count as backlinks?
If your using the default Joomla weblink component do the links you add to others sites count as backlinks to those sites? example: http://www.yakangler.com/helpful-links/26-fishing-blogs-sites
Link Building | | mr_w0 -
Where/should I post my press release/articles on my own website?
I have started a long-term article marketing campaign and press release distribution. I will have about 4 articles and press releases in total every month. Although the press releases will not be self-promotional, sometimes they will be talking about a certain product that we unveil. The question is, due to the high quality of these press releases, should I put them on my website as well as publish them on third party websites? If so, because they target a specific service/product which we already have a dedicated page on our website, wouldn't that put Google in the position of choosing between the two pages? I was thinking to put them on my blog and link internally from there with the keywords that I target on those pages as anchor text. The same question for articles. Any suggestions?
Link Building | | echo10