“The trick with this is that you hopefully get all of these indexed well through organic search. But Google has figured out that’s not a good user experience, so they’re starting to discount it.”
“If you think this trick will last long, it won’t at all.”
It’s actually one of the oldest techniques on the internet. Back in the 1990s, when early web developers were starting websites they would exchange links with other webmasters to share the traffic.
That worked when the internet was small enough to share. Now, it’s exploded beyond what anyone thought possible. And people are using bought links in a different way, to make sure they’re getting traffic to their site even though it may be through irrelevant gateways.
On the face of it, this is a hard one to nail done. After all, Google can’t possibly know if you’re paying for links.
But Daniel Bailey, head of search at Switched On Media, says Google can tell if you’re placing links on websites that have absolutely nothing to do with what you’re offering.
“It has ways to find these links and figure out if it’s relevant. If not, there’s an assumption these could be paid links.”
“Some sites are so obvious – they’ll just say “buy a link”. It’s such a dumb way to do it. You can probably still get away with it, even though it’s still not Google-approved.”
“Besides, it’s unfair. A site with a bigger budget can kill a site with a smaller one.”
But there’s a better reason you shouldn’t use paid links: Google is starting to value them less.
According to Bailey, the use of relevant, constantly updated content and social interaction is beginning to matter much more.
“They’re still important. But they’re becoming less important.
It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Instead of just making sure each page on your website is individually tailored to that piece of content, some sites will take that content, and then publish it twice.
Twice the content, twice the chance that Google will find it and think you’re actually updating your website more than you actually are. You’re getting twice the benefit with half the effort.
You may have heard of a little update called Google Panda. Last year, the company unleashed this massive update and it had a huge impact – especially on those companies using duplicate content.
It was a huge turning point in SEO, and one of the distinct points where Google started focusing on original, rich, relevant content. Content creation, in other words, became more important than ever.
So not only will Google find your duplicate content and punish you for it, there are actually plenty of companies doing it and not actually realising they are – due to one simple oversight.
Mike Hudson, SEO director of FirstClick, says when a company has its website accessible with a “www” prefix, and without it as well, then you’re actually creating two different versions of the site.
“It’s the most common mistake I see. For search engines, they figure it’s duplicated content. Normally what you need to do is divert one to the other.”
One of the best ways to get your site to the top of Google rankings is to stick as many keywords on your front page as possible. Make sure they’re all relevant, and the Google Bot will do the rest.
But some sites will make sure to do that, and then cover it up entirely by blending the text in to the background colour. Even though you may not see it, it’s still against Google’s regulations.
