Google, and the History of Link Building.
I can't begin to tell you how sick I am of reading articles and
posts that mention the two words "Google" and "penalty" in the
same sentence!
So many webmasters are walking on eggshells these days when it
comes to Google, and it just doesn't need be.
The most common question I see is "If I do this, will Google
penalize me?"
Let me help you ease this nonsense.
Just like anything in life, there is a portion of common sense
that needs to be implemented when optimising a website for the
internet. When you come across a technique that you may be
questioning in the back of your mind, just think it thru.
You may want to sit down for this one. It may blow you away ;0).
The fact of the matter is, Google rarely penalizes webmasters
for anything. Yep, that's right..you heard me...RARELY!
Why is this, you may ask?
Well, it's quite simple. Google didn't become #1 in search
because they were the best at penalizing the most sites. They
became #1 because they have an excellent way of solving
problems. You see, when you hear webmasters complaining that
they were penalized, well in most cases, it's just not so.
Google knows the tricks of the trade, and to maintain their
title as 'The king of search', they need to be constantly
studying different techniques webmasters are using to try to get
better search engine rankings.
Google has mastered the term 'devalue', because that is what
they actually do.
Remember back in the day, when all links were created equal?
That's because back then, most people linked to your site
because it had good content that they thought their users would
be interested in, so the links were themed, and they didn't
require a link back to them. That is why a lot of the older
sites on the net have high rankings. They have many one-way
links pointing in.
People caught on.
Then you had webmasters scurrying to get any link they could get
their hands on, to point to their site. Didn't matter to them if
the links made sense. There were links from gambling, adult, and
free games sites, all pointing to an education site. It didn't
make sense, so...
Google caught on.
Google found ways to figure out if these links were relative.
Those that were not, were 'DEVALUED', not 'PENALIZED'.
People caught on.
Webmasters were also getting smarter. Next came the 'reciprocal
links'.
The trading or bartering of links between two related sites. "If
you put my link on your homepage, I will put your link on mine".
To this day, still very effective, but....
Google caught on.
Google decided this was good. Lot's of good sites linking to
each other BUT, this link schema isn't quite as good as if site
A, linked to site B, without site B linking back, so Google
'DEVALUED' the links, not 'PENALIZED' them.
People caught on.
Now people are buying links to their sites from any other sites
that have high pr. Thus giving them a one way link and a PR
transfer. Not a bad idea, but...
Google caught on.
Google is thinking, "Now why in the world would this quality PR8
web hosting site have a text link to this PR2 Viagra site?
Pretty easy answer huh? So Google 'DEVALUED' this type of link.
People caught on.
Now people are buying RELATED links on RELATED sites. This is
good!
Personally I see nothing wrong with this, and I don't think
Google does either. This is called 'Advertising', and it is a
common, normal, honest form of advertising and marketing for
your site. If you look back to the very beginning of the
internet, and the first example I gave you, this is almost
identical. The only difference is that back then, most people
linked to you for free, today, you have to pay.
Does that make all of the other link building techniques
worthless? NOT AT ALL! It just means those types of links aren't
as valuable, so it will just take more of them to create the
same effect.
Well, I am hoping you see my point here? I could go on forever
on this subject. The main point is that webmasters need to
understand the difference between something being 'DEVALUED',
and something being 'PENALIZED'.
Being penalized for something is when you are doing something
bad, wrong, illegal, or immoral.
Being devalued, just means that the topic in question is being
saturated, and is no longer rare or unique. In order to keep
competition and honesty, there needs to be a new and better
means developed to maintain an edge.
So next time your site drops in rankings at Google, before you
scream 'Penalty', make sure that Google just didn't tweak their
algo to devalue your technique.
