New google spam link update

[PaulEchere]

What is the downside of adding the "sponsored" tag to an aff link?

[BetterWorldCasinos]

Ever since I set my first steps in the world of link building, I've been amazed by how it was possible to do so without raising flags and being penalized. And then I'm talking about content links, not even the real spammy homepage links or links in comments/reactions etc.

I came to accept that at least at that time, I thought too highly of Google's Algorithm/semantic capabilities - I mean if I can spot a paid link in the blink of an eye, why can't Google? Especially in iGaming/gambling, we can safely assume 99% of the links, on sites that are not directly about gambling, are paid for. Filtering our at least half of these should be easy without affecting the lighter shades of grey, no?

In short, I think this update was long overdue and might be very disruptive.

Having focussed on placing our links in real quality content that is relevant, worth reading and engaging, I feel confident that even if we would be hit, we would be hit less hard than our main competitors. (Then again, I might be too arrogant and full of myself - my total experience in the field is still less than 5 years.)

When it comes to action: for at least the next few weeks we have put our link building just to see how big of an impact this will have and how this impact differs from site to site. With regards to changing tags from nofollow to sponsored, this has little priority, as this is not the main risk for being penalized.

Personally I hope it will be the big one and that will justify/pay back all the hours I invested in providing endless feedback to and guiding our writers towards quality content that is not 13 in a dozen.

[newcustomeroffer]

Specifically targeting guest posts and sponsored links

...and suddenly it seems like the volume of guest post email spam I've received the past couple of days has increased markedly. All from gmail accounts - a cynic would think some of these are honey traps.

[PROFRBcom]

Specifically targeting guest posts and sponsored links

...and suddenly it seems like the volume of guest post email spam I've received the past couple of days has increased markedly. All from gmail accounts - a cynic would think some of these are honey traps.

I get tons of these every day.

Every single one from a gmail address I toss in the bin by default.

Even if they were legitimate (most are just 3rd party contractors/spammers), I would not use the services of anyone to do things that Google dislikes via a Gmail account which Google reads. That is just stupid.

[BetterWorldCasinos]

I get tons of these every day.

Every single one from a gmail address I toss in the bin by default.

Even if they were legitimate (most are just 3rd party contractors/spammers), I would not use the services of anyone to do things that Google dislikes via a Gmail account which Google reads. That is just stupid.

Talking about Google reading Gmail, wouldn't the same go for Google Docs/Sheets etc? Also how many use gmail to import/manage their other email accounts?

I don't trust offers/emails from anyone using a free email service. If you're not professional enough to have a domain/website/email setup for your business, your a scammer, or at least an amateur.

However, I've used those people in the past as cheap/free outreach, got them to filter/curate their list of sites the way you want, quickly double check the metrics and relevance and you might just find some usable sites

[PaulEchere]

I guess that will (or potentially might) also affect "testimonial" pages with hundreds of links. By the way, what is the downside of tagging an affiliate link as "sponsored"?

[wonderpunter]

Anybody notincing anything yet? not seen anythign extreme myself

[newcustomeroffer]

Anybody notincing anything yet? not seen anythign extreme myself

Nothing outside of normal daily ups and downs that I've seen, no.

I guess it will take time to wash through fully, even after the change itself is complete - feels like an iterative impact as pages are crawled and links accounted for, rather than a big step change but we'll see.

[chaumi]

So many things going on fairly simultaneously (as in their impact has potential to filter through somewhat slowly/over time) that it's not going to be easy to work out what's caused any movements noted.

[PROFRBcom]

Talking about Google reading Gmail, wouldn't the same go for Google Docs/Sheets etc? Also how many use gmail to import/manage their other email accounts?

I don't trust offers/emails from anyone using a free email service. If you're not professional enough to have a domain/website/email setup for your business, your a scammer, or at least an amateur.

However, I've used those people in the past as cheap/free outreach, got them to filter/curate their list of sites the way you want, quickly double check the metrics and relevance and you might just find some usable sites

Yes, that goes the same for using Google sheets and **** like that.

Retarded.

[baldidiot]

By the way, what is the downside of tagging an affiliate link as "sponsored"?

You're marking it as an advert. Fine in small doses but if your site has a lot of affiliate links on a page then that's a lot of adverts.

[chaumi]

By the way, what is the downside of tagging an affiliate link as "sponsored"?

You're marking it as an advert. Fine in small doses but if your site has a lot of affiliate links on a page then that's a lot of adverts.

Suspect it might go a bit further than just how this looks on the surface.

So....yes having a lot of obvious affiliate links on a page (and telling them specifically that that's what you're doing) might have some negatives.

But the question might be...why are they doing it?

And the answer might (partly) be......

Assuming everyone has at least been nofollowing their affiliate links.....

The nofollowing isn't (fully) achieving what they want
There is evidence (and this might be some kind of veiled confirmation) that nofollow still passes some juice
They want to stop the juice going to the operators from all the affiliate links, and for some reason that can't do it with nofollow
So they come up with another way

So that theory suggests that marking the links in this way is unlikely to hurt the affiliate site itself (at least in the short/medium term)


If the theory is right though, what I don't get is how they would differentiate an affiliate sponsored link from a bought sponsored link. Or more to the point, whether they are clever enough to be able to do it.

Let's say they decide to eliminate every site that sells links and tells them they do. It makes no sense that they would want to risk getting an affiliate site caught up in that, given that (strong) affiliate sites are providing the answers to queries well enough that in turn keep searchers coming back to search again. (although...as we know...none of that means they won't do it)