SMX Sydney | Avoiding Search Engine Penalties | Greg Grothaus-Google
I managed to have a chat to Greg last year on the boat ride, he’s great, awesome to see him back again. Let’s hear what he has to say on Avoiding Search Engine Penalties.
google.com.au/webmasters-Greg’s most important take away
- Ranking is the process by which S.E’s order results. In 2009 google released 500 ranking adjustments
- Penalties are downward ranking adjustments, reserved for removing spam, malware, phishing etc
- Penalties are a tiny fraction of ranking changes.
SPAM= Sites Positioned Above Mine.
If you are making pages only for S.E’s, you are on the wrong track.
Sneaky redirects are a form of cloaking. Poor quality links and paid links that are not disclosed are also examples of spam. Google is ridiculously good at this (according to Greg).
Avoid
- Reciprocal links
- Hidden links
- Bad neighbourhoods
- Outgoing links that could affect your reputation
Bad links simply won’t pass any value.
How Google handles spam
- Google will tell you through GWT that they think you are being spammy. Fix it and then submit a re-inclusion request.
- Prevent spam through captcha, moderating and being careful with logins and passwords.
It was a little disappointing that Greg’s presentation was almost exactly the same as last year, good for people who haven’t heard it, a little boring for people who have.
