My position has dropped

[SteveGerencser]

I'm still not understanding what is considered a quality vs. not quality link. What about affiliates? Are we now supposed to REJECT affiliates b/c their site sucks?

Pretty much. We have had to go through a client's entire affiliate program and flat out reject/block dozens of them. We've put in place some very strict rules for anyone that wants to be an affiliate, and we check. Plus, we have started hammering them about using nofollow, even on redirected links. We have no choice.

---------- Post added at 04:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 PM ----------

Quality sites have useful content and are focused on their visitors and not full of spammy ads trying to make money off their visitors.

I disagree. Many sites exist ONLY to make money off of their visitors. Does that automatically make them useless and spammy?

[ep2012]

Hi Michelle,

Quality sites have useful content and are focused on their visitors and not full of spammy ads trying to make money off their visitors.


Check those that link to you and make note of anyone with sitewide links to your site and ask them to remove them or at least all but one.

I would go ahead and set up Google+ and a Google profile which links to your website as it is supposed to prove you are the author in conjunction with rel="author" at the end of the article (which links back to your Google profile). It will take awhile for those to take effect but it may help prevent scraping of your content. If you notice when you search in google sometime sites with pictures and other info is shown in the listing - these are the result of having a Google+ account and rel="author" set up.

I have a Google + account, but I can't figure out how to use it & I've tried when someone adds me. I really can't stand G & their products. I even went into GA FINALLY & wasted tons of time trying to figure out where all the data is. This new version is soooo complicated compared to the other version. <sigh>

Thank you


Michelle

---------- Post added at 02:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 AM ----------

Pretty much. We have had to go through a client's entire affiliate program and flat out reject/block dozens of them. We've put in place some very strict rules for anyone that wants to be an affiliate, and we check. Plus, we have started hammering them about using nofollow, even on redirected links. We have no choice.

---------- Post added at 04:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 PM ----------



I disagree. Many sites exist ONLY to make money off of their visitors. Does that automatically make them useless and spammy?

So I can't have do follow on my blogs?

My head is just spinning. This is just terrible. So we lose tons of money & then are expected to somehow come up with the money to pay someone to get us back to where we were before? I have done nothing wrong. I never used one black hat method EVER!!! I never even paid for a link.

My site is meant to sell, my blog which is just /blog is meant to educate.

How can they expect all companies to go around & write articles about their industry. That's just nuts. We shouldn't have to be forced into doing this.

What about Yahoo & Bing, did they do the same thing?


Michelle

---------- Post added at 02:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:11 AM ----------

Pretty much. We have had to go through a client's entire affiliate program and flat out reject/block dozens of them. We've put in place some very strict rules for anyone that wants to be an affiliate, and we check. Plus, we have started hammering them about using nofollow, even on redirected links. We have no choice.[COLOR="Silver"]

I take it you don't want to give us your rules

Also if they are posting banners & not text links, is that still a problem?

I remember that banners don't count as much & most affiliates (not all) use banners. I use a combo of both when I'm posting.


Michelle

[SteveGerencser]

So I can't have do follow on my blogs?

My head is just spinning. This is just terrible. So we lose tons of money & then are expected to somehow come up with the money to pay someone to get us back to where we were before? I have done nothing wrong. I never used one black hat method EVER!!! I never even paid for a link.

My site is meant to sell, my blog which is just /blog is meant to educate.

How can they expect all companies to go around & write articles about their industry. That's just nuts. We shouldn't have to be forced into doing this.

What about Yahoo & Bing, did they do the same thing?

Welcome to the new world order. It all depends on how your sales/blog funnel is set up when it comes to how you need to react. And no, Yahoo and Bing are not doing the same thing, they don't depend on links for rankings like Google does.

I take it you don't want to give us your rules

Also if they are posting banners & not text links, is that still a problem?

I remember that banners don't count as much & most affiliates (not all) use banners. I use a combo of both when I'm posting.
Michelle

The rules are pretty simple, they follow the Google guidelines. The difference if one of our affiliates breaks the rule we shut them off instead of waiting for Google to do it.

Links, no matter what for them come in, are supposed to have a nofollow on them if you are being paid or there is money changing hands.

[ep2012]

Exotic,

The internet is the greatest invention ever ... thanks Al Gore. Seriously, who knew you could make a living selling a book on how to become an escort. Never occurred to me.

Think of it this way, at any given point in time, Google creates a profile of the internet and on average, sites have 100 links to them. So if your site has 120 links Google will consider it stronger/better but if on average 50 of the links are from sites with less than 100 links but your site has 75 from those lower quality sites, Google will consider that a negative. I think Google says there are 200 variables that go into rankings/results, so now figure that for all those variables. That is the only conceivable way that Google can rank your content as good or bad ... by comparing it to what the rest of the internet is doing at any given moment in time.

So this goes back to SEO work and if SEO is dead. If your site has 100 back links to it and 75 are anchored with "become an escort" instead of exotic publishing/company name and on average, sites have a 50/50 split with keyword to company name anchored backlinks you raise a red flag.

The only response to bad rankings is make sure your site is clean and readable (by Google), all on page SEO is done to norms (if you dont know, use wordpress) and write content and get it out to more people. If the content is good (as determined by the people that are reading it), more people will pick it up and will naturally link back to you.

There is no magic bullet and unless you have a glaring error on your site ... no quick fix.

Arthur
{edit by mod}

Wish this was the case, but in my industry it's too competitive & people get jealous & vindictive too easily. These types just don't do the same things mainstream people do like link to content, etc. b/c then their interest wouldn't be discrete.

I just found someone who put my page that is copyright on her blog & the link back wasn't even done properly as it was a cached URL or something that didn't even go to my index page, but there's no way to tell her to take it off as she has no contact page.

This is a big problem. Not all industries react the same way & mine is one of the worst as most of them don't even know what they are doing & are very computer or internet illiterate.

I actually went searching for blogs to post on & so far only found one & my post is in moderation & who knows if she's even around to approve it or will b/c I'm her competition.


Michelle

---------- Post added at 04:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:04 AM ----------

Welcome to the new world order.

No comment.

Do you think it's a good idea to submit my site for review to G? I don't want to make things worse.

Links, no matter what for them come in, are supposed to have a nofollow on them if you are being paid or there is money changing hands.

Ok, I'm confused. If someone puts a link on my blog & it's no follow, then it won't count for G, right?

I also always thought that the backlinks to my site have to be within the same industry. Someone just said that's not true. Which is the truth?

Thanks


Michelle

[SteveGerencser]

A link is a link.

The same industry issue about linking is because a lot of people are really stupid. Google said that it helps to have links from relevant websites. Many people took that to mean, in the same industry. They were wrong. A relevant site is anything that could be relevant to the viewers of your site. Take yours for example, it would make sense that a link to a Limo company would be 'relevant'. Right?

[ep2012]

Sheesh & this whole time I thought it was ONLY links in my industry. Now I can start thinking.

Thanks


Michelle

---------- Post added at 05:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:44 AM ----------

P.S. But this means I have to comment on blogs that I may not know a lot about I guess, right?


Michelle

[SteveGerencser]

But this means I have to comment on blogs that I may not know a lot about I guess, right?


Michelle

Not, it means you should comment on blogs that interest you so you can participate in the community. Nothing more, nothing less.

[kool002]

Start updating your site more frequently.

[ep2012]

Start updating your site more frequently.

Does it have to be the index page or any page?

[ep2012]

Not, it means you should comment on blogs that interest you so you can participate in the community. Nothing more, nothing less.

And then leave my URL at the bottom? My URL can't go on tons of blogs for obvious reasons.