Link Blog

[Editor's Note: While some may think this article a bit long for a blog post, we feel the information is important enough to warrant wider dissemination.]

By Jake Lowrey

Many in the SEO forums are all atwitter about Google's new and improved Webmaster Guidelines, especially those relating to links. What the guidelines say - and don't say - about links is typical Google-ese. Some of it is just plain common sense, but most seems carefully designed to look good on the surface, while only adding to the confusion.

Let's take a look at the general webmaster guidelines for an illustration. The first tip under the heading "When your site is ready:" reads, "Have other relevant sites link to yours."

Fairly straight forward, logical advice. However, how is Google defining the term "relevant?"

Do they mean if you have a site selling sneakers, would only other sites selling sneakers be considered relevant? How about sites selling socks? Surely they would be relevant to your sneaker site, as would sites peddling shoelaces or shoe cleaner.

But how about a travel site? Could that be relevant to your shoe site? Perhaps it would if the site featured walking tours, but is Google's algorithm designed to pick up the connection? Or would that link be discounted?

No one outside of Mountain View (and only very few inside) knows for sure. Do you take the risk, or pass up a very good link?

Fortunately, Google provides the answer to that one and probably doesn't even know it. The first item under their heading "Quality guidelines - basic principles" says "Make pages for users, not for search engines."

So, if a link from a travel site makes sense for the user, then it is relevant. However, Google may not think so, and devalue the link. G-Dawg seems to want it both ways.

Good/Bad Paid Links

The search engine's stance on paid links is another hot topic for SEO, especially since Matt Cutts from his blog mobilized the Google Minions (those Google apologists who treat the search engine as a god) in reporting any and all paid links. Cutts' comments have since been incorporated into Google's section entitled Why should I report paid links to Google?

It is here that Goolge lays down the law on "good" paid links and "bad" paid links.

... some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying links in order to improve a site’s ranking is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.

Note: This is the only reference this writer could find where Google says outright that paid links violate its webmaster guidelines.

A good paid link is "done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results." These links should include a "a rel='nofollow' attribute to the href tag" or redirect to "an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file." In other words, out of sight is out of mind.

Google assures us that it is working hard "to ensure that it fully discounts links intended to manipulate search engine results, such [as] link exchanges and purchased links."

The search engine also wants everyone to rat out any site "that is buying or selling links." Here is how Cutts suggested the Minions should fill out the spam report form:

As far as the details, it can be pretty short. Something like "Example.com is selling links; here’s a page on example.com that demonstrates that" or "www.shadyseo.com is buying links. You can see the paid links on www.example.com/path/page.html" is all you need to mention. That will be enough for Google to start testing out some new techniques we've got - thanks!

There are two major lessons to be learned here.

• Play nice. You don't want to make anyone mad who will run and tattle to the teacher (Google), making stuff up just to get you into trouble.
• The old ways are dead. If you are buying or selling links, it's time to change your business model. Look for alternatives to straight text links that have nothing to do with the content of the page.

The Internet is fluid; constantly changing. If you don't adapt, you will find youself on the shelf next to the META tag tweakers.

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Jake Lowrey has communications experience as a news reporter, editor and public relations professional. Current assignments include writing for Team Link Network.