Are You Surprised That Google Doesn't Like Paid Blog Networks?

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Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 6:51 PM

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Subject: Fw: Are You Surprised That Google Doesn't Like Paid Blog Networks?

Maybe it's time to stop obsessing over meaningless links 

Google has been cracking down on lesser quality content littering its search results a great deal over the past year - probably more than any other time in the search engine's history. Obviously, to those who follow the search industry, the Panda update has been leading the charge in this area. 

Google has been de-indexing blog networks that webmasters have essentially been paying to get links. Do you think this will improve Google's results? Share your thoughts in the comments. 

One way that content, including some lesser-quality content, has been able to manipulate Google's algorithm is through paid links, and linking "schemes". Google has long had policies against these things, and has not hesitated to penalize sites it busted. See JC Penney and Overstock.com incidents from last year, for a couple of examples (not necessarily the best examples of low quality, but of getting busted). Google even penalized its own Chrome landing page, after paid links set up by a marketing firm were discovered. 

Penalties like these can greatly hurt sites. There was talk that Chrome's share of the browser market was impactedby that penalty, and that's Google's own property.Overstock blamed Google for its ugly financials when it reported its earnings earlier this month. 

If such penalties can have such an impact on brands like these, think what they could do to lesser-known brands. 

Google is now cracking down on blog networks, which have added sites to their networks in exchange for fees. BuildMyRank, in particular has received a lot of attention.