Jeff Walters October 17th, 2007
So many things are misunderstood about Google and their optimization algorithms. Unless you’ve been around for a while, some things seem like a big mystery. Why Blog Spamming Software can ruin your Google rankings (SERPS), is one of them.
Back in the days of early search engine development, people would use the latest buzz phrases to try to capitalize on recent events. For example, if Iraqi militants was the buzz of the week, then building a page on “Iraqi Militants” could potentially drive considerable traffic to your Web site. Google caught onto this very early into the search engines’ development and has taken it a few steps further.
Google has designated a Web site based on the links for the Web site; both internal and external. This has essentially themed Web sites and made it difficult for the Web sites to suddenly “switch” their theme or topics, because Google has what I like to call a built-in delay for its search results (SERPS). It can take several months, or even years, to penetrate the top 10 for a highly competitive “off-theme” topic. On the other hand, if your Web site has already been themed with the buzz phrase for a while, then you will most likely benefit from the traffic.
Google has also been keen to monitor the development of inbound links over time. Link building tools have been around for a while and come in many different forms. Many link building software packages can help build incoming links. Some of these link build software packages build them way too fast! It is my belief, and that of many others in the SEO community, that Google is tracking the change of these new inbound links over time and using it as a comparison in it’s algorithm. If you build new links too fast, as compared to the past, you will be penalized or possibly completely dropped from Google. Have you ever heard of the -30 penalty or the dreaded -90 penalty?
For example, let’s say that you have been building 10 inbound links per month for the past few months. Then you buy the latest link building software, or blog spamming software as I like to call it. You then build 3000 links, using your new software, from unprotected blogs all over the Web. That’s a 30,000% increase in your inbound links. Google is sure to flag your site. Call it what you want, but it’s surely to be viewed as a unfair advantage. It will not appear to be a natural link building campaign and you’re sure to be penalized, when caught.
On the other hand, if you use the software to slowly increase your inbound link building, you might be able to pass it off as a natural increase in link building. I believe this is the key to any link building strategy; and in general to most of today’s SEO. Make everything look as natural as possible. Stay away from anything that would appear to be software driven, including link building.
Cheers,
Jeff Walters