So if you use Google's webmaster tools to index and monitor your site and you get a message like this one below, what do you do? Panic?
Dear site owner or webmaster of http://example.com/,
We've detected that some of your site's pages may be using techniques that are outside Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.
We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you've made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google's search results.
If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.
If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team"
The first thing I would do is ask who is doing your SEO (search engine optimization)? The practices described above, that Google is cracking down on with its releases of the "Panda" algorithm updates this year, are known as black hat SEO (that is bad in case you were wondering). Trying to cheat the system is never the right thing to do in life anyway, right? So, now those who are employing these techniques for themselves or others are getting their hands caught in the cyber cookie jar.
I can't tell you how many calls I have received where I am told that someone signed up for an automatic SEO service on a website and paid a monthly fee, with initial results that gradually turned into nothing. Sure you can find their website on Google while they pay for the service, but no one is calling their phone. And when they stopped paying for the "service", their site disappeared from the search engines.
So what are "unnatural links"?
I have recently run into website business listing sites that are free, but require a reciprocal link. The reciprocal link they want you to post on your website has nothing to do with business listings, but is for some obscure business that is obviously paying the creators of the site for these deceptive links. When you find 20 sites that all look the same but have a different required reciprocal link - one for a Winery in California, and another for an Anger Management Clinic in New Jersey - you get suspicious. Do both of those products and services have anything to do with YOUR business? If not, and I'm guessing unless you're John Steinbeck, they do not, they have no business being linked from your site.
Dear site owner or webmaster of http://example.com/,
We've detected that some of your site's pages may be using techniques that are outside Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.
We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you've made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google's search results.
If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.
If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team"
The first thing I would do is ask who is doing your SEO (search engine optimization)? The practices described above, that Google is cracking down on with its releases of the "Panda" algorithm updates this year, are known as black hat SEO (that is bad in case you were wondering). Trying to cheat the system is never the right thing to do in life anyway, right? So, now those who are employing these techniques for themselves or others are getting their hands caught in the cyber cookie jar.
I can't tell you how many calls I have received where I am told that someone signed up for an automatic SEO service on a website and paid a monthly fee, with initial results that gradually turned into nothing. Sure you can find their website on Google while they pay for the service, but no one is calling their phone. And when they stopped paying for the "service", their site disappeared from the search engines.
So what are "unnatural links"?
I have recently run into website business listing sites that are free, but require a reciprocal link. The reciprocal link they want you to post on your website has nothing to do with business listings, but is for some obscure business that is obviously paying the creators of the site for these deceptive links. When you find 20 sites that all look the same but have a different required reciprocal link - one for a Winery in California, and another for an Anger Management Clinic in New Jersey - you get suspicious. Do both of those products and services have anything to do with YOUR business? If not, and I'm guessing unless you're John Steinbeck, they do not, they have no business being linked from your site.
Did you get that or did you need the visual?
We are looking for more SEO "riddles" like this, we're having a contest!
We are looking for more SEO "riddles" like this, we're having a contest!
Why? Why does Google care what is bringing links to and from your site? It's all about relevance. Search Engine's service to us is to bring back relevant results to the search query typed in to that long rectangular box at the top. And, do you really want someone calling your local servicing business from across the country? Will that far away person even call your phone on the outside chance they clicked on your totally unrelated link on the site they were first on?
Don't get caught up in the many black-hat SEO scams out there, where the measurement is only based on page rank or hits on your site. Hiring a reputable company like MC Design & Services, LLC, who will get to know your business intimately and manage the links coming to and from your site so that they will be seen by the potential customers who will actually make your phone ring, is one of the most crucial decisions you can make that will impact your marketing ROI.
Contact Us for a FREE consultation.
Don't get caught up in the many black-hat SEO scams out there, where the measurement is only based on page rank or hits on your site. Hiring a reputable company like MC Design & Services, LLC, who will get to know your business intimately and manage the links coming to and from your site so that they will be seen by the potential customers who will actually make your phone ring, is one of the most crucial decisions you can make that will impact your marketing ROI.
Contact Us for a FREE consultation.
