Our favorite search-engine-to-bait has done it again. The Webmaster Help Center at G now states that recip links are against their TOS. (yepster, that link is nofollowed. Prolly the only link this blog will ever have that is nofollowed)
Are we seeing the white flag of defeat? Is Google admitting that they cannot police their own serps? This latest insult to innocent webmasters is way over the top.
The move by Google to trap webmasters who (gasp) buy links (shudder) by having the competition rat them out, was bad enough. That simple fact should tell you how evil they are or aren’t.
Their (presumably) highly paid PHD’s haven’t been able to write an algo that says ‘hey look, this site is buying links’. So they throw the guilty webmaster a warning shot across the bow. “If you buy links, we’ll get the guys who want your spot in the serps to tell us all about it. Whether you do it for traffic or not, you’ll be one of the usual suspects.”
Now then, those same PHD’s cannot write an algo that says ‘hey these guys are trading links just to get ahead in the serps’. So, the logical next step is to have your enemies rat you out. Again. The warning shot has been fired.
Yes, Google, you do have problems with your serps. No, I don’t feel sorry for you at all. It’s entirely your own fault for believing the ridiculous idea that a link is a vote for a webpage.
Mr. Michael Martinez, over at SEO Theory, has a very interesting post. Followed by a response by a Googler and a comeback by Mr. Martinez. No, I’m not going to post a trackback to SEO Theory. Even though we share almost identical thoughts about this (and other Google screw ups), I don’t know if Mr. Martinez would appreciate being associated with this, obvious, BlackHat. There is a link to SEO Theory on the right under the blogroll heading. Go and read his post.
Alright Google, hear this: I would never have considered a move to Black Hat SEO if the webmaster playing field were level. As I alluded to in my parody here, following the advice of your webmaster guidelines, while dealing with your Web Apartheid practices, will almost guarantee obscurity.
The WWW isn’t just about information. It is not just about blogging, or social interaction. It is also about shopping. A webmaster trying to sell a product, whether his own or as an affiliate, faces almost insurmountable odds against getting an unsolicited link from competitor or a closely-related-but-different web page.
When you add your (unstated) requirement that the page giving the link must have Google trust and/or authority to rank highly, you left many, if not most, of said webmasters with the choice of buying links or trading links.
Buying links is out. Now trading links is out. A great many web pages are now out.
Wise up Google. Do away with the link advantage in your serp positioning algo(s). Use a link from one page to another page as a conduit to more information. But don’t assign anything to the link. After all, a link is just a link. Treat them as a pipeline to new webpages and 99% of your serp spam problems will evaporate. Overnight. Guaranteed.
Hey. It’s your search engine. It’s your ad delivery network. How you choose to run it is your business. If you keep up the evil stuff though, more and more webmasters will turn to the dark side. And, that’s where I come in. I’ll help them regain a reasonable position in your serps. And, they won’t have to buy or trade links to do it either.
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Damn. Got a little heated up there. Up on the soap box and the like. Back to being happy tomorrow.
~dink
