Alrighty,
as Google is rolling out their world-wide “private blog network slapping campaign”, you may or may not have received a message that reads like this:
Google Webmaster Tools notice of unnatural links detected to http://www.yourdomain.com
Dear Site Owner or Webmaster of http://www.yourdomain.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 additional questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Yours sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team
and of course as this has just started, there is a LOT of speculation as to what the right way is to do now.
Should you try to find those ‘unnatural’ links and remove them (good luck if you’ve been getting them from a private blog network that’s effectively out of business now), or just ignore the warning, wait for the dodgy networks to be de-indexed, find your site at what probably corresponds to its ‘natural’ position anyway and then start building ‘proper’ backlinks from there on.
Well, before we go there, let me address another question that’s been as old as, well, Google:
Should you, or should you not use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools?
Let me put it this way:
I’ve got this friend who did outsource quite a bit of his SEO to a firm who were also getting backlinks from private blog networks.
Now, he had some of his sites in one Google Webmaster account, and others in another Google Webmaster account.
All sites were taken care of by the same SEO company, so all of them received the same kinds of backlinks, including low quality ones from private blog networks.
Here’s where it gets interesting:
ALL (as in every single) site in one of the Webmaster accounts got the same message AND every single site in that one Webmaster account had a significant drop in rankings for almost all keywords that were responsible for Google traffic.
Not a single one of the sites in the other Webmaster account got the message, nor did they have a drop in rankings or traffic.
DESPITE getting the same types of backlinks!
Of course, we can only speculate at this point, but here’s my take:
ONE of the sites in the Webmaster account where all sites got the warning had pretty substantial traffic levels, significantly higher than all the others.
NONE of the sites in the ‘unharmed’ Webmaster account had traffic levels that might give your average Google accountant nightmares (“mhmm, I wonder, are we sending that traffic because that site really is so popular, or did they try to manipulate Pagerank?”)
Therefore it seems that IF you have sites with significant traffic levels and you’re under scrutiny because you’re participating in evil-pagerank-manipulation-schemes, then ALL sites in that account will come under scrutiny and, well, you’re screwed.
My advice:
- don’t attempt to manipulate Pagerank (especially by using private blog networks, or anything else where Google can do the same as you, submit something with a unique signature and then easily find out where all the ‘dodgy’ properties are) and
- don’t have multiple sites in a single Google Webmaster account if you have anything to worry about
Back to the “you’re screwed” – What to do after getting Panda-Slapped
Well, tell ya the truth: the jury is still out on this one!
Nobody really knows, simply because it’s all pretty new. Yes, there have been Panda slaps before, but the scale of “notice of unnatural links detected to…” notices is pretty new.
Some say just sit it out (but do NOT stop building links, that’s just like immediately admitting that you were up to no good), others say: “remove the links, grovel, admit you did a foolish thing and submit your site for re-consideration”.
The problem is that in practice, it’s pretty much impossible to remove the dodgy links, and just telling Google that it’s impossible won’t cut the mustard.
So, at this point I can’t and won’t give advice, maybe an opinion:
if it were me and I had the option of removing a substantial amount of the offending links, I’d do it and then go groveling.
Otherwise I’d continue building normal links that can’t be traced as easily, making sure to use NOT just my main KW, but also terms like “click here” etc to mimik ‘normal’ backlinking, but most importantly, I’d start building link-magnets to make sure people link to my content naturally!
So, what’s the way forward for 2012?
Well, at this point I just have to use the good ol’ “LOL” – laughing out loud, as I seem to be going round in circles:
until mid last year I was all about lots of little sites.
I then shifted to the “authority” site model, for lots of reasons (easier to focus on one task, more ranking power due to authority of site, easier to attract real authority links, etc, etc, etc).
However, and this is a biggie: in the real world, a lot of people (me included) use SEO (in the sense of backlinking) to get higher rankings and hence more traffic and hence more income. Yes, I know, that’s trying to “manipulate Pagerank”, but that’s just the way it is (incidentally, interesting concept here: is it now possible to sink another person’s site by blasting it with rubbish links?).
Now, the moment you’re starting to rank for big juicy terms, your traffic is going to go up significantly.
And that’s where the Google scrutinizer will have a good look.
All in all: I still think the authority site model is the way forward, however in terms of driving traffic with ‘natural’ search engine results, it’s turned (IMO) into a much longer term game.
And there are bills to be paid in the meantime.
Meaning: I’m back to the ‘little’ sites that fly under the radar, and – when you’ve got enough of them – make a very decent income as well.
And whilst they are making money, I’ll still pursue the authority site model, just a little bit slower (hey, isn’t that a line from a song?). Now, in order to accelerate the process a little, I’ll be using affiliates for these authority sites, meaning I’ll give away free reports which then contain my affiliates’ affiliate links (using e.g. cookie-monster), or of course (and that’s the primary aim anyway): develop my own products for which I’ll need affiliates anyway.
Now, there is some really nice synergy here:
Using the ‘under the radar’ sites, I can quickly and easily test markets and see where there are real buyers as opposed to freebie seekers (my tattoo-adventure did teach me a lesson;-), and then build them out into authority sites (actually, I wouldn’t do that, because the ‘micro/nano’ sites would often enough be based around exact match domains, whereas for authority sites I would use simple, easy to remember names, completely ignoring keywords!) – so I would then build authority sites based on the results I’m getting from the ‘tiny’ ones.
(and I have no idea why I typed ‘would’ as I’m doing it, so read it as unrequested advice: “if I were you…”;-)
There you have it!
Let me know what your strategy is for 2012
Veit
PS: my results so far from those micro/nano sites is this:
the more information is available for free (partly because tons of product creators and/or affiliates are trying to attract prospects by giving away free content), the more it’s difficult to get any sort of response – whether it’s clicks on Adsense, optins, comments on blog (very important for SEO in 2012! You want social interaction, comments, and backlinks!)
Example: “weight loss”: pretty darn tough to get any visitor love unless you’re a real authority (read this as: hard to make this work with a quick’n dirty affiliate blog when you don’t have real knowledge of the field).
“yeast infection”: a whole lot easier (apart from getting FB likes;-), not so much free content around, people aren’t constantly bombarded with commercials, there aren’t that many magazines dedicated to the art of getting rid of your fungus, …
Anyway, here are some resources that might help:
Guru Spy Code: http://www.warriorplus.com/linkwso/t7w1x0/6096
The idea behind this is simple: find out what the Adsense/Amazon/product-gurus really DO (as opposed to tell you), then replicate it. Some mindboggling stuff in there, very well explained with a main PDF to get the overall idea, then additional videos to explain it step-by-step if you need more information. One of the main applications for me will be to use the Guru Spy Code method to find affiliates for my own cookie-monster/own product sites and find examples of good sites in those micro/nano-niches I’ll be using as ‘fast-cash’ and testing-ground for ‘own products’-authority sites.
NanoNiche Goldmine V2: http://www.warriorplus.com/linkwso/g5ln6k/6096
This course is a really nice little course on finding those micro/nano niches (niche is the wrong word here) where you can compete without the dodgy backlinking (I’ve got one nanoniche site that’s ranking on page 1 of Google without ANY backlinking, and it’s making me around 3 Euros in Adsense per day, and I haven’t even tested any CB or similar products on there). One reason in particular why I really like NanoNiche Goldmine is that Rob takes a ‘solid’ (business oriented) approach, you’ll love his Instant Separation Technique – and look out for Rob’s take on the good ol’ “pick a niche that’s an inch wide but a mile deep” – it’s something I’m doing with 90% of my micro-sites!
