Weekly SEO news: 12 March 2013
Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

On a new web page, Google shows live examples of web pages that have been removed from Google's index. These pages use aggressive spam techniques such as automatically generated gibberish, cloaking and scraping content from other websites. Is your website in danger?

In the news: Google has penalized another link network, Google announces major algorithm updates, Google gets another anti-spam patent, YP results are better than Google, Yahoo and Bing, and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Google publicly shows spamming websites
On a new web page, Google shows live examples of web pages that have been removed from Google's index.

According to Google, "these pages are examples of 'pure spam.' They appear to use aggressive spam techniques such as automatically generated gibberish, cloaking and scraping content from other websites."

Obvious and not so obvious web spam

Some of the pages that Google shows on the website are obvious low quality pages:

web spam example one

Other pages look like regular websites. These websites usually use hidden text, cloaking or other spam techniques that are not visible to website visitors:

web spam example two

Do not spam Google

Google is serious about removing spam from their search result pages. For that reason, you should avoid spam methods to promote your website.

Spamming is not the same as search engine optimization

Unfortunately, many spamming tools are labeled as 'seo tools'. If you find a tool or service that promises you to 'dominate Google' or 'thousands of automatic backlinks' then it's extremely likely that you have found a spamming tool. Although these tools work for some time, Google will penalize your website sooner or later if you use them.

Optimizing your website for search engines is not the same as spamming search engines. Real search engine optimization is beneficial to your website, search engines and searchers.

Save time and money

You will save a lot of time and money by avoiding offers that seem to be too good to be true. It’s very likely that you will pay a lot more if you opt for the ‘quick and easy’ and ‘fully automated’ solution that will lead to a penalty and lost revenue.

The tools in SEOprofiler are spam-free search engine optimization tools that play by the rules. They will help you to get your web pages on Google's first page for your keywords. If you haven't done it yet, try SEOprofiler now for $1 (this offer is available once per customer):

Free trial Test full version for $1


Create a free trial account now or test the full version for only $1.

2. Search engine news and articles of the week

Google penalizes another link network

"Last month, Google’s Matt Cutts announced that he was 'taking a look at a naughty Russian link selling software'. Discussions on black-hat forums indicate that the Russian link network SAPE links has been penalized by Google.

Webmaster who used this network indicate that their website rankings have been downgraded. This wouldn’t be the first time that Google penalized a link network."



GoogleGoogle’s Matt Cutts on upcoming Penguin, Panda & link networks updates

"Matt said that there will be a large Penguin update in 2013 that he thinks will be one of the more talked about Google algorithm updates this year. Google’s search quality team is working on a major update to the Penguin algorithm, which Cutts called very significant. [...]

Matt also announced there will be a Panda algorithm update this coming Friday (March 16th) or Monday (March 18th). [...] Matt said that they will release another update in the next week or two that specifically targets another large link network."


Sitelinks now available to Bing Ads customers targeting the UK

"Sitelink Extensions allow you to promote up to ten more pages of your site, with dedicated, actionable text. Showing these additional links below your ad means deeper engagement with your potential customers, enabling them to connect directly with the most relevant and important portions of your site."



Matt CuttsGoogle’s Matt Cutts awarded patent on detecting hidden text  and links

"A system detects hidden elements in a document that includes a group of elements. The system may identify each of the elements in the document and create a structural representation of the document. [...]

The system may also determine whether one or more elements of the group of elements are hidden based at least in part on locations or other attributes or properties of the one or more elements in the structural representation."

Blind study finds YP local results beat Google, Bing, Yahoo

"In November 2012, YP search results were found more relevant compared to Bing local, Google Maps, and Yahoo! Local. Users were satisfied with YP.com search results 86% of the time, compared with 83% for Google Maps, 82% for Yahoo! Local, and 74% for Bing local."


Search engine newslets
  • Video: Should I use pushState to update my URLs instead of #! to manage Ajax navigation? Answer: Google can handle both.
  • EU imposes €561 million ($731 million) fine on Microsoft — with Google in mind.
  • Celebrating Google Play’s first birthday.
  • Bad merchant? Google may drop your rankings later this year.
  • Discussion: a March Google update?
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3. Recommended resources

Get a detailed SEO audit of your website for $1

Doing a regular audit of your web pages is important if you want to make sure that search engines can index all of your pages. The more pages your website has, the more likely it is that there are many errors that have to be corrected.

The new website audit tool in SEOprofiler automatically checks your web pages once per week. Then you get a report that shows all the issues that should be corrected. By correcting these issues, you make sure that search engines can index all of your pages correctly. Here’s a screenshot of the overview page:

seoprofiler

You can get the website audit tool and all other tools in SEOprofiler for our special offer price:

Free trial Test full version for $1


Create a free trial account now or test the full version for only $1.

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4. Previous articles
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