SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
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Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#2I've also noticed sites like TheVerge do native advertising in a way that's very hard to tell until you actually see the article. And I don't think I've seen any "Sponsored" or similar tag anywhere close to the article, which I believe is in Google's policy.
Google itself seems to be doing this, too (not properly labeling ads), while telling everyone else not to do it and penalizing them.
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#3When Google replaced other search engines like Altavista back in the last century, one thing that made it so special was that it was fully automated and didn't seem to favor anyone. Nowadays, post-Panda, things seem to have become a lot more murky, and I am not sure whom to thank for that (overzealous SEO folks perhaps who had tried to game Google's algorithm?). I mean seriously, have you ever received one of those "Please remove the link to our website from your website because the link hurts us" requests? At the same time as this article pointed out the new rules don't seem to apply equally, making things even more murky. Curious where we're heading with that...
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#4I didn't read the whole article but from the first example it's not particular strong. Google discourages widget back-links but that's far from considering it black-hat.
There doesn't seem to be any evidence suggesting that Google treat widget back-links differently depending on who the widget is from.
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#51 thing you're allowed to do: Ignore google completely. Build your business in such a way that it works, with or without google sending you traffic. That way you don't need to lose sleep over your rankings and you don't need to panic every 6 months when google updates their algorithms in a major way.
Just treat them like you would treat the weather, enjoy it when it's nice but make sure your business runs even when it is raining. If you're dependent on Google for your traffic you are doing it wrong.
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#6I didn't read the whole article but from the first example it's not particular strong. Google discourages widget back-links but that's far from considering it black-hat. There doesn't seem to be any evidence suggesting that Google treat widget back-links differently depending on who the widget is from.
It gets much stronger
EDIT: Though the vitriol does go off the rails a bit toward the end...
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#71 thing you're allowed to do: Ignore google completely. Build your business in such a way that it works, with or without google sending you traffic. That way you don't need to lose sleep over your rankings and you don't need to panic every 6 months when google updates their algorithms in a major way. Just treat them like you would treat the weather, enjoy it when it's nice but make sure your business runs even when i…
It's such a huge source of traffic that you cannot ignore it, much as you might like to. Of course you're allowed to ignore it, you'll just suffer badly if you do.
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#8I know Matt Cutts is a HN user would love to see him way in as he did on the Rap Genius controversy
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
#9The most egregious example of a huge site doing things that smaller sites are not allowed to do is ...
GOOGLE!
Recently, I've seen its "survey wall" cropping up on more and more sites.
It works like this:
You do a Google search. You see a link to an article you want to read. You click through.
You're met with a message that tells you that if you want to actually read the page, you have to complete a survey.
And the whole thing is powered by Google: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/10/31/googles-latest-conten...
Remember back when Experts Exchange tried to pull the same nasty tactic -- have its cake (get indexed in Google search results) and eat it too (hide that content behind a paywall)? Remember how slimy it was, and how Google penalized it several times, as it tried various other ways to cloak its content?
Well ... Google is doing exactly the same thing.
Re: SEO: 4 things huge sites are allowed to do but you’re not.
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