Category Archives: Search Engine News

According to Search Engine Land, Google has been sending out warnings about having “artificial” or “unnatural” links pointing back to your website. Many people have been getting warning messages from Google about link violations. According to Google, although it may appear that Google is just beginning to put its foot down on bad link networks is nothing new. Google has been silently distrusting links for some time, however now it’s decided to be more vocal about the action it’s taking against these types of link networks.

Search Engine Land gave this example of one of the violation warning messages from the Google Webmaster Help forum:

Dear site owner or webmaster of _____,

We’ve detected that some of your site’s pages may be using techniques that are outside Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate PageRank. Examples of unnatural linking could include buying links to pass PageRank or participating in link schemes.

We encourage you to make changes to your site so that it meets our quality guidelines. Once you’ve made these changes, please submit your site for reconsideration in Google’s search results.
If you find unnatural links to your site that you are unable to control or remove, please provide the details in your reconsideration request.

If you have any questions about how to resolve this issue, please see our Webmaster Help Forum for support.
Sincerely,

Google Search Quality Team

If your website receives a warning similar to the one above, it is violating Google’s quality guidelines and is in danger of being permanently discluded from the search results! Make sure to take this kind of warning very seriously. Review the guidelines and make the necessary changes to your website so your customers will be able to find your website in the search results.

Check out the top SEO, search engine and Internet marketing industry news stories from around the Web this week.

Google Eliminates Another Link Network, BuildMyRank.com
Google’s battle with websites that try to get around the search algorithms in order to manipulate search results seems never-ending. However, according to Search Engine Land, on March 19, Google deindexed one of these websites, BuildMyRank.com.

Facebook Timeline Provides 46% Lift in Brand Page Engagement
According to a recent study by Simply Measured, brands are getting an average of 46% more engagement with Facebook Timeline. Read more details about the study here.

How the Web Uses Anchor Text in Links
SEOMoz recently conducted its annual ranking factor summary and found that page level link metrics are the most important ranking factor when paired with domain level link authority features. Read more here.

Despite Bing’s Rise, Google Still Dominates Search
According to Statista, while Google has been dominating Yahoo for several years, Bing has been steadily climbing. Check out the rest of Statista’s findings in this Inforgraphic.

Twitter Turns 6: From 140 Characters to 140 Million Users
According to Search Engine Watch, Twitter celebrated it’s 6th anniversary by announcing that is now has 140 million users.

Check out the top SEO, search engine and Internet marketing industry news stories from around the Web this week.

Bing Fires Two Marketing Execs Over Vendor Issues
According to Search Engine Land, Microsoft recently fired two Bing executives for “mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement.”

Google Shares 7 Tips With Free Web Hosting Sites to Avoid Penalties
Google recently shared reasons why it will remove websites from its index. The main reason why a website would be removed is if it doesn’t meet Google’s quality guidelines. Google’s main objective is to rid its index of spam websites that its users have no need for.

Too Much SEO? Google’s Working on an “Over-Optimization” Penalty for That
According to Search Engine Land, Google’s Matt Cutts made an announcement that Google is working on a search ranking penalty for websites that are “over optimized” during a panel at SXSW. The new penalty will be launched within the next few weeks.

9 Hot Social Networks to Watch
Although they haven’t had the same amount of success as Facebook and Twitter or the seemingly overnight success of Pinterest and Foursquare, these social networks are worth paying attention to. Don’t miss out on these 9 up-and-coming websites designed to connect people online and in real life.

Bing, Not Google, Favors Wikipedia More Often in Search Results
According to a recent study, when you conduct searches on Bing you’re more likely to see Wikipedia in your search results than for the same search on Google.