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Discussion Forum

Web Sites – Rules Change for 2009

Lawrence | Posted in Business on March 16, 2009 07:18am

I know that lots of you guys have websites and that you are finally starting to see some business from them. You spend plenty of money making them as good as you can and you are investing your time and energy trying to help people find them.

I know that most of you don’t really understand much about why some sites may rank higher than others. It is a complex thing to get your head around, however the rules have just shifted in a very dramatic way.

It is a cat and mouse game between Google and the SEO people and Google has just played a trump card.

Paying for links is no longer being tolerated by Google. That means that if you are selling or buying links and a competitor knows that–you are at risk of being delisted from Google.

The days of directory sites are dead.

The phone book people will have to put a nofollow tag on all website links or risk being delisted by Google. (nofollow tags let google know that this is a paid for link and it will not count as a vote for that particular site–simply that Google’s spiders should not follow that link or add value to that link because it is ocurring on your site)

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/selling-links-that-pass-pagerank/

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/

Matt Cutts is the guy that runs the Anti Spam team at Google.

He actually helps make the rules and his team doles out punishments.

You can interpret the rules any way you like… I just thought you may want to know that the rules have shifted.

Time to invest in creativity, or content. It is also a good day for people that are hoping to rank better for their given niche specialty. IN a few months there may be considerably less spam between you and your customers.

Tough for Taunton, since they sell ads.

Good for Niche Contractors that want more people to find them in Google.

I for one wish Taunton could be an exception to the rules because I see them as a noble company. I think it is an authority site and should therefore be exempt.

Fact is that google is experiencing a revenue downturn and they need to compete just like any other company. As with most things Google does, it has competetive and noble intentions. Cripple the competition and make the internet a better place in one brush stroke.

Will this put the kaibosh on your marketing plans?

Anyone from Taunton care to comment? Will you stop selling ads on your website or sell through Google?

L

 

GardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it! Decks Blog

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Replies

  1. davidmeiland | Mar 16, 2009 07:52am | #1

    The issue for me--and I understand SEO and have SEO'd my site pretty well--is that there are a ton of non-paid-link sites that show up on searches where I show up. I still rank pretty well but a bunch of what is basically junk is listed first. Examples:

    citysearch.com

    superpages.com

    servicemagic.com

    contractors.clicksmart.com

    topix.com

    merchantcircle.com

    hire-contractors.com

    yellowbook.com

    dex-knows.com

    and on and on and on and on.

    If some of those sites go out of business I'll be much better off. Until then it's hard to get on page 1 of some common searches.

    Oh, and FWIW, web referrals are near zero for me. It's all word of mouth. I know guys in other markets who get web action, though...

    1. seeyou | Mar 16, 2009 02:05pm | #3

      I spent a couple of hours one day and listed my old site on some of those "citysearch" type sites. Free listings only. Don't know how much it actually helps business, but I get hits from it.http://www.quittintime.com/      View Image        

    2. User avater
      Lawrence | Mar 16, 2009 03:05pm | #5

      We get plenty of referrals and word of mouth--but the web gives us literally thousands of qualified leads a year.

      Yes, many of the paid directories will go down, and the other directories that don't offer anything but web links will be minimized.

      LGardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it! Decks Blog

  2. joeh | Mar 16, 2009 09:07am | #2

    And all those Google ads that show up everywhere are somehow different?

    Joe H

    1. User avater
      Lawrence | Mar 16, 2009 03:08pm | #6

      The google ads are what google uses to make their business profitable.. and stay profitable going forward.. and improve the search engine in the future.

      They are not in business to help their competitors market for free on their search engine.

      They own those ads... they want everyone to buy adwords... and those adwords don't help the advertising websites rank better in the organic listings.

      The issue is paid link schemes designed to manipulate google results.

      L

       GardenStructure.com~Build for the Art of it! Decks Blog

    2. User avater
      Luka | Mar 16, 2009 05:57pm | #7

      Exactly.If a website takes down their 6 or 7 ads, and allows google to circulate thousands of different ads on their website, then they are ok.If Google keeps this up, they are going to 'compete' themselves completely out of the competition.They should find some way to directly affect their direct competiton, and not just use a broad brush approach that punishes anyone who wants/needs to make a profit with their website.Who do they think they are ? Microsoft ??? ;o)

      Edited 3/16/2009 11:03 am by Luka

      1. User avater
        FatRoman | Mar 16, 2009 07:29pm | #8

        As far as I'm able to see (and boy it could be stated MUCH more clearly in the discussions), you've got two distinct items:Purchasing general advertising. Google's adwords would fall into this section, as would a lot of other forms of advertising. Like Taunton taking ads for DeWalt, say.Purchasing back links from another site which are designed to scam search engines (particularly Google) by attempting to fool the SEO algorithms. This advertising is designed to manipulate the data that is used to determine where a site ranks for a particular search string.Maybe it's easier to think of the difference between receiving an email from Lee Valley telling you about their specials this week, and another email from some phony name in Russia offering you all the v!@gra you can use.Google's not cracking down on advertising. They're cracking down on sites that attempt to game the Google system. Does that mean that some of the revenue that used to be used to buy back links will go to Google's ad words instead? Probably. But it's not, to my understanding, a direct correlation as to why they are cracking down. It's probably more primeval than that. If there's a critical mass of phony info manipulating the way Google determines page ranking, then users are going to start to be far less interested in utilizing Google's search.I reserve the right to be entirely wrong on this too :)'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb

        View Image

        1. MikeSmith | Mar 16, 2009 07:55pm | #9

          thanks to you and Lawrence and the others... i find the information very interesting.see you this week !Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

          1. User avater
            FatRoman | Mar 16, 2009 08:17pm | #10

            Looking forward to it!See you on Friday.'Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it' ~ Chinese proverb

            View Image

        2. User avater
          Luka | Mar 16, 2009 10:18pm | #11

          Thank you. That explains it a bit more clearly.As originally explained, it seemed like Google was trying to drive out all advertising on the net, unless done through them.
          ....

          Proud participant in the witless protection program...

          1. User avater
            Huck | Mar 17, 2009 01:06am | #12

            I don't know how it will all pan out, but when I type in "Bakersfield remodeling contractor" for a search, I like to see my site show up (that way I know someone searching might actually find me).  I usually do, but often behind or among a lot of sites that are paid referral sites, which I kinda resent, because almost none of them are actually Bakersfield remodeling contractors, with the exception of Dream Makers Kitchen and Bath, who often show up on page one also, and are actually a real contractor, not a referral site.

            Don't know if that makes sense.

            A lot of those referral sites have contacted me to sign up, but I tell them No, I'll just go with my website as it is.  And I get a ton of calls offering to put me on page 1 for a chunk of money.  Heck, I'm already there! 

            Anyway, I won't miss those referral sites.

            --------

             

            edited to add: the three I use to test my standing is Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com.  I just did a test, and I get ServiceMagic, YellowPages, MagicYellow, CalFinder, RenovationExperts, etc. etc.  All referral sites."...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn

            bakersfieldremodel.com

            Edited 3/16/2009 6:12 pm by Huck

          2. davidmeiland | Mar 17, 2009 01:42am | #13

            The referral/directory sites I listed above... I am on a number of them, I never did anything to get there, and I don't know if they are considered "paid" or not but I doubt it. I'm hoping some of those will drop out because no one actually uses them or pays them. Who knows...

          3. User avater
            Luka | Mar 17, 2009 03:22am | #15

            As dinosaur said, I am a search user, too.And I do have to say, the experience would be better without all those wannabe referral sites.I did a search the other day, and 17 pages of hits came up.I waded through all 17 pages, to find only two legitimate sites. Well, that's not true, I waded through 12 pages, and came up against the statement that they had pared out all the 'duplicate' pages. You know, the ones where the referrers, refer back to themselves...I'm thinking someone, somewhere has been paid money to tell a lot of people how to do those referrer pages, 'for fun and profit'.....

            Proud participant in the witless protection program, for 50 years, now...

          4. HARDWOODGUY | Mar 25, 2009 05:47am | #16

            I actually met Matt before he was known as the go to Google Guy...and they're always looking at looking to knock the gamers out of their index.

            5-6 years ago affiliate sites were a problem with Google. Now they're gone. It's just a matter of time in my opinion those directory listings will disappear along with the redundant epionion related article sites.

            As the CEO of Google said not long ago the web has become a cesspool.

            http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-10063363-80.html

  3. seeyou | Mar 16, 2009 02:05pm | #4

    That's good info - thanks.

    http://www.quittintime.com/      View Image        

  4. User avater
    Dinosaur | Mar 17, 2009 02:58am | #14

    I hope it will help smaller outfits get visibility when the paid-referrel sites get knocked out of the game. And as a search user myself, I absolutely hate it when a search turns up five pages of directory sites instead of the home page of the actual company or product I'm looking for. So this could be a good thing for everybody except the directory sites, which are sort of parasites to begin with.

    I don't invest much effort into SEO for my (very, very) basic website; for me the site is an adjunct to more traditional marketing efforts like stuffing flyers and business cards into screen doors in targeted neighbourhoods. It enables me to supply a potential client with colour images of my work without having to pay the very high cost of printing them, and it enables me to add new images and information almost instantly...something I couldn't do if I'd printed up 10,000 expensive flyers.

    It's possible for my site to come up on the first page of a search, even so, but you have to search first for remodelers in my region, and then perform a second 'search within results' using at least one unique keyword that can be found somewhere on the site.

    I can hope that Google's new rules will help bump me up to page one of the initial, regional search, but I'll have to wait and see.

    Dinosaur

    How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
    low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
    foolish men call Justice....

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