Spammy links may harm your ranking more than you realise.

Google’s ranking algorithm has always been heavily influenced by links back into your site and into particular pages on your website. Last year there was a definite drive by Google employees to try and take some of the emphasis of SEO away from link building but it looks as though, if anything, the playing field is still very much influenced by how many links you have from sites that are authoritative and with links that Google trusts.

For quite a while Google publicity has been talking of Nofollow, not as a way of preserving PageRank (as we know it doesn’t anymore) but instead as a way of not passing trust, of withholding the citation. This is all well and good and means that control of who your links “Big up” ultimately lay with the webmaster.

However in answering questions at this year’s PubCon Matt Cutts has made it fairly clear that Google has its own way of determining the trust relationship of links (one that disregards the follow/nofollow information) – But not what that method might be. Now I’m not jumping on the Google Hating Bandwagon here but I do disagree with their tactic of ambiguity of information.

Link building has and probably always will be a part of Google Optimisation and it may be that by being almost threateningly ambiguous Google is hoping to scare people away from spammy techniques. I’d love to say that it works but it doesn’t. Google isn’t a scary Ogre; they have a primary colour themed logo for goodness sake! So the spammers will keep spamming and the only people stressed are those trying to genuinely build up their business through their website: those who are now second guessing their tactics.

At the end of the day it’s all about experience and demonstrable results. SEO Junkies has those and we intend to keep on getting these results for our clients, so if you would prefer not to be stressed about the latest round of Google scary stories then get in touch with us and see what we can do for your SEO campaign.