To most of the website owners this remains an unresolved question yet. To me, Google is the mastermind of all masters…. News-maker as well as News-breaker … Director, Producer, Marketer of multi-trillion dollar project – In fact all the name and fame is exclusively reserved for Google. Don’t you think so?
Will you call it a monopoly?
It is no wonder that Google has been trying everything possible to be the fortune-maker in this web world.
And, why not so? You being the market leader in search engine business are born to rule this world… dictate the terms and your own policies …anytime anyway you want. We the consumers of this web-based business can only watch the game-show and save our back…nothing else. It’s like following and listening to our almighty boss for everything we have been asked to do – does not matter if it hurts our business or the consensus.
Why I am saying this?
Recent Google updates (I am not sure how many are there in waiting list) have shaken the SEO world once again. Again a new bunch of protocols have come in place. People again started thinking alternatives to survive against Google’s ever-changing SEO policies.
Let us take a look at the recent ones:
1. Private Blog Networks – Build My Ranks, Linkvana, ALN have been hit strong followed by websites that have been using it for linking for long time.
2. As an advertiser you cannot build bulk links from poor quality, low volume contents that are used only to feed search engines, not human visitors.
3. Over-optimized websites are most likely to loose ranks and potential visitors. There is also a good chance to get de-indexed.
4. Paid links won’t get much value from SEO point of view.
5. Multiple website holders are getting penalized for commercial use of blog networks. It means you can not do much with Google Adsense for your 100s of websites. Even you cannot link out to similar kind of websites day in day out just for SEO purpose.
There are so many guidelines and warnings from Google’s top SEO analysts, search engine specialists and spokesperson – You must have already read these news .
Will Google ever stop doing frequent changes?
I don’t know… I hope only the G duo (The almighty God and Google) know it. In fact every new day there is a message update– Do this – Don’t do this – Try some alternatives – Avoid incurring penalties and all. The list goes on and on.
Who are the sufferers?
Obviously SEO service providers, webmasters and advertisers – all three
Advertisers who have already shelled out tons of dollars into this marketing format are feeling insecure. Some of them have been thrashed also by rank drop and traffic count. It is like creating an alarming situation for advertisers – “to proceed or not”?
Webmasters and optimizers who collected pool of backlinks once upon a time are trying to shed off their responsibilities ASAP. Thousands of links are being removed from hundreds of websites everyday. It looks like they are trying hard to get rid of the link-stigma and act honest to Google. The competition to take corrective measures is everywhere (Google and God knows how many there still waiting).
The after shock of these announcements is so high people are not really thinking about building further links. Even if they think so now they are conscious about choosing resources. It just did not stop there.
Plans are never-ending –for Google and so for its subsequent followers:
Every step link builders are taking to confront the issue is becoming more and more challenging. Unfortunately webmasters and SEM specialists can only wait for next update till they plan some alternatives. In fact they can never reach to a definite conclusion since Google is uncertain and its changing policies are only permanent.
Google’s share into this:
In fact Google never produce or let people consolidate the SEO standards. Only speculations prevail and that is how SEO industry is moving forward – I am not sure where exactly and how progressive is the move. It is just about creating hype, terror and dropping site ranks in the interval of 3-6 months. There are some experts, engineers from Google, SEO analysts and writer who keep you updating what Google wants and what not.
My questions are –
1. WHY IS GOOGLE NOT CREATING A STANDARD/PROTOCOL FOR ALL WEBMASTERS AND ADVERTISERS?
2. WHY EVERYTIME PEOPLE WILL FACE SAME TRAGEDY AND THEN START FINDING ITS REASONS?
3. WHY GOOGLE EXPERTS ALWAYS WANT TO MAKE IT NEWS AND PROVE THEIR EXISTENCE IN THIS SEO WORLD ONCE MORE?
4. WHY NOT GOOGLE CLEARLY STATES – DO THESE AND DON’T DO THESE WELL IN ADVANCE BEFORE PEOPLE START EXPLOITING THIS WEB WORLD?
5. WHY WILL SEO BE CALLED AS TRIAL-AND ERROR METHOD?
What we see and believe is that – Google is completely monitoring us and our activities.
Some more straight-forward questions:
What exactly Google wants to say or wants to prove to other online giants?
How they are going to rule online marketplace – by ruling SEO world?
Who support their principles – Advertisers, webmasters or Google itself?
Why they are creating turmoil every time when rest of the world is living in peace?
Why Google is against website promotions? Does it really conform to what it asks others to follow?
Is their any standard being maintained and if it is so – is it different for Google and Non-Google world.
If doing SEO is punishable then why should Google run Adwords campaign for advertisers?
If SEO is a paid activity and Google wants natural promotion, then Google should not display sponsored ads in SERPs.
Why should Google have all the fun in this Search Engine Marketing field? Is this because most of us are heavily dependent on its service?
It’s time to find your own answer
No matter what Google wants us to do, we have to move along with it only. Yet you should have a sensible head on your shoulder. Listen to all analysis, speculations, suggestions, guidance and comments – but act what you think is feasible and the very best.
Smart ways to deal with such ups and downs:
Don’t believe in hypes like a blind – Try to understand why this craze is so and how long this is going to stay
Understand what is being said to you to do – is it something being warned or suggested for betterment? You never know if it is a gimmick or not.
Memorize if you have violated any of the SEO rules that might have led to the issues being discussed now.
Do you really fall in the trap of “Bad Guys” in the book of Google or you are just too afraid to imagine it? Introspect your marketing policies carefully.
If you are doing correct and confident about doing so, never get diverted from your focus. For example, if you are doing article submission in quality article directories or building quality reciprocal links there is nothing to hide from Google. Google never said you to stop these activities. The fact is that Google always try to tame its followers. However it does not mean all its moves are irrelevant or unworthy.
In most of the speeches given by experts you will see there is a tendency to alarm webmasters to change their existing plan. Don’t just fall in this trap, rather wait a while, understand your stand and liability to what has happened and then come to a conclusion. Never take any major decision in haste. It will only affect your rankings and the quality investment you made.
Sometimes it is better to go by your gut-feeling. Let people give you hundreds of suggestions. If you know you have done something really wrong, take action on that, else don’t just blame all the good work you did so long. It is not wise to scrap all the good quality links that you bought once upon a time.
Just give me a simple answer – How would Google understand if a link is paid unless and until you build a spam-looking backlink profile for your campaign? What differentiates a paid link from an unpaid one? It is nothing but the quality of the site you are using for backlink.
What if you are getting one way banner link from a theme-based, high-traffic quality blog? Will it be treated as paid link just because you made a payment to the bog owner? No, it is not. If you develop links systematically and from various sources nobody can prove you wrong ever. Selection of paid link source and frequency of building backlink is important here. This defines if you are right on target or making a hole -diluting the overall effect.
Conclusion:
So, no more frightening, no more confusion and no more scraping your old links – Measure your every move carefully. You never know extra precautions may put you in different trouble more than what you faced earlier.
Admin
Beatrice McGraw
Aarif Habeeb
Regina Deemer
Kristel Kinne
7 comments
Though this is not my forte, I would second you for one thing that Google should not changes the algos so frequently when an entire industry follows the dos and don’ts. Google should provide a guideline clearly and should update the algos after a certain period of time so that people can understand how to proceed.
Yes, it is true…. if you want to prove your domain leadership there is no point playing fool over others. Let people know the facts and figures from horse’s mouth …..why to hide it once and then blow it all of a sudden? If you have something to say or instruct, don’t wait for others to commit mistake….rather speak out and help them well in advance.
Do not build links = You are safe
Then how would SEO run? What about the whole industry and the advertisers? How will Google evaluate a site ? Is it only by measuring page visits, visitors and Social media appearance?
Then how would SEO run? – thing is why Google would care abt SEO. All they care is great users experience. And i do not think that they are going to spell the beans abt the secrets of getting to the top. So keep guessing .. Is it only by measuring page visits, visitors and Social media appearance? yup .. but links are still important and should be acquired naturally .. now do not ask Google how you are supposed to get links naturally, i had a tough time when asked this question .. phew
cont..
Quoting you “If SEO is a paid activity and Google wants natural promotion, then Google should not display sponsored ads in SERPs.” I would say money does matter for everyone and Google is no exception. On one side, paid inks are punishable and Google prioritizes paid advertisement on top of organic search – should I not think that Google wants to tell “if you are ready to pay money then pay me i’ll pave your way to top, why paying a third party for that?” … 😉 … Jokes apart, algo changes are necessary to clean up the internet, to weed out low quality sites. The focus is on Semantic Search now.Top article directories like Ezine felt the heat after the Panda update. But was it unjust? Wasn’t Ezine becoming a trash for garbage content? The quality of articles on Ezine have dropped greatly during the 1 0r 2 years before that. So it was necessary.Google will never give a complete list of guidelines. You’ll have to collate it. Following Webmaster Guidelines to help Google find, crawl, and index your site would help. Some simple rules are -1. Crawl-able content2. Informative, useful, quality content that will enrich the web3. If possible update webpage with fresh content4. fewer two-way links 5. one way links from good, relevant sites, (high PR would be bonus)6. Keep your web page meta title. meta descriptions and content optimized, (i.e., naturally use keywords, key phrases in it keeping the meaning and quality intact) and not over-optimized (i.e., excessive use of keywords and their variations)7. Avoid over optimized footer links across the site8. No black-hat practices like cloaking or hidden content 9. Avoid too much of internal linking with same or similar keyword in the anchor text. 10. Share your content via social networking platforms. Good content is sure to get response (=traffic to your site). Here i must say, Google will give priority to +1s more than FB or Twitter mentions. what do u think? And finally, as Google says ” Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. ” fix it into your head. If you have useful content and you promote through social media you increase the chance of getting natural links to your site. But you can not sit on that. If you want to break through into top 10 you’ll still have to rely on backlinks which is the backbone of SEO. Though link building is not easy anymore, it still pays. Make sure that you bring link from a relevant and standard website. And there is nothing to say about those who depended on paid Blog networks like BMR or LV. It is clearly written in Google Webmaster Guideline, still quoting the lines here -“avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links “So, this Penguin update is a warning from Google – don’t act too smart!. God (read Google) is watching you… and it has always happened that when the world becomes full of ‘sin’ God appears as the destroyer as well as the savior. So is Google …the God of web world. 🙂