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What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

mattcutts.com

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Re: What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

#91

Post by charliepinglass »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #36
programminggeek wrote: post #27

I think the biggest problem that Google can't fix is that they treat links as a voting mechanism, and that voting mechanism has value. So, there is a big economic incentive to "buy votes" by buying links. As long as there is a financial incentive to ranking well in google and that the mechanism to rank better is to get links, people with money will buy links in the same way they buy influence in the media, politics,…

Google punishes people that buy links, just like our government punishes people that buy votes. That sets up an incentive to not do it. I would say, this problem is not in the "can't fix" category. Just like in real politics, Google must tread carefully. You can't arrest the president because someone bought votes on his behalf, just like Google can't nuke a site because it has purchased links.

Except Google does nuke sites all the time for buying links...

Re: What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

#92

Post by codeka »

charliepinglass wrote: post #90
codeka wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have anything to back that claim up? You're on hn every time there's a Google story talking about how they're killing smaller sites, acting monopolistic, violating anti-trust regulations or whatever, what is your motivation?

Not the guy you're asking, but thought I'd answer. This may not be referring to true "immunity", but Matt Cutts did say this around the time Panda was first released: "And we actually came up with a classifier to say, okay, IRS or Wikipedia or New York Times is over on this side, and the low-quality sites are over on this side." http://www.wired.com/business/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-f... So there is something tha…

He's referring to a classifier that can tell the "quality" of a site, not the size of the brand.

Re: What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

#93

Post by OGinparadise »

codeka wrote: post #92
charliepinglass wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the guy you're asking, but thought I'd answer. This may not be referring to true "immunity", but Matt Cutts did say this around the time Panda was first released: "And we actually came up with a classifier to say, okay, IRS or Wikipedia or New York Times is over on this side, and the low-quality sites are over on this side." http://www.wired.com/business/2011/03/the-panda-that-hates-f... So there is something tha…

He's referring to a classifier that can tell the "quality" of a site, not the size of the brand.

Google cannot "read" content so in essence it's the size of the brand that matters, unless they suppress it manually via search quality raters.

Brands escape major updates, something we saw especially after Panda. As soon as some major sites were hit, they changed the algorithm. Google does not algorithmically punish certain sites for link buying and other shenanigans. I suspect that after a site reaches a certain level of score (not calling it PR) it's golden. So buying 123456789 comment spam links for "Matt Cutts" on fiver will not do much, but 500 links to mymomscookies.tld will cause them to go to page 10, or dead in the water.

Google doesn't seem to care because small sites don't give them pr problems (Audi and Macys would) and small sites will be forced to advertise, if they want any traffic. Notice the perverse inventive? Cut the free traffic and increase adwords' business.

Re: What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

#94

Post by jcampbell1 »

trevin wrote: post #66
tlogan wrote: post #43

This negative SEO is huge problem now and I'm concern about it. What some bloggers are now doing is buying links to destroy competition. They don't even need to "order" black hat. They just go to fivver and order some of "panda optimized" gigs for $5 (these gigs just hurt - they dont help). And whola.... competition is toasted... I hope this is going to be fixed somehow. EDIT: Also is this is just an "urban legend" o…

It's a real problem. I do SEO for a living and work with hundreds of sites at a large agency. I've seen several hit with negative SEO from competitors ordering link gigs on Fiverr or asking some low quality link provider on Digital Point to build 10,000 links in a short period of time. This has killed rankings for a few sites that I've worked with. It is really easy to get thousands of spam/porn sites to link to a co…

The pendulum has definitely swung the other way. It is now much easier to kill competitors with black hat tactics than it is to promote a business with black hat tactics.

I remember a comment by Eric Schmidt that the best way to combat spam was through "brands". While brands are a component of good search results, I can't think of a more misguided philosophy. If the only advice Google has about where to buy something is to buy from "Amazon" then Google has lost its utility in revenue generating searches. I think the best way to combat SEO spam is through engineering and hard work. Giving all the power to established brands is a shortcut that will ultimately undermine Google's core value to its users.

Re: What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

#95

Post by Uchikoma »

RBerenguel wrote: post #69
OGinparadise wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His name probably has immunity, just as most large brands do. Small/er sites are fried. Deep fried.

Immunity? There's no immunity (supposedly) inside the Google search algorithm. But of course, there's inertia. Big brands have a huge inertia: you can think of a big brand as having thousands or millions of small links that push its ranking up. That is very hard to overcome with these tactics, it's like stopping the sea with a teaspoon.

Exhibit A: How fast Digg came back into the index, a smaller site would never have come back as fast.

Re: What to expect in SEO in the coming months [video]

#96

Post by Uchikoma »

austenallred wrote: post #37
programminggeek wrote: post #27

I think the biggest problem that Google can't fix is that they treat links as a voting mechanism, and that voting mechanism has value. So, there is a big economic incentive to "buy votes" by buying links. As long as there is a financial incentive to ranking well in google and that the mechanism to rank better is to get links, people with money will buy links in the same way they buy influence in the media, politics,…

If Google wants to fight against SEO (of whatever color of hat), it needs to somehow separate the links of people that are trying to manipulate Google and the links of people that are just trying to use the Internet. The closer a spammer's actions appear to that of a normal person, the harder it is to find and devalue those links. Google's updates have been in the recent past are saying (Panda, Penguin), "Well, spamm…

I always have this in my head:

http://xkcd.com/810/

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