It seems as though SEO has become a dirty word the in recent months. And with good reason too. Between the umpteen different updates since the first Panda update and emphasis on backlinks – the SEO world has been shaken to it’s very core.
The emotionless machine that is Google’s search engine has brought the hammer down on webmasters. That hammer consists of several parts and each is now scrutinized more than ever. One of these parts, backlinks, has been a point of extreme contention between webmasters and the machine lately.
Unnatural links notices were sent out by the thousands notifying webmasters that their site has been linked to unnaturally. Accompanying this notice, typically, was a swift drop in rankings and traffic. This one particular course of action, maybe more than any other is a tough pill to swallow. It means that the old ways are dead.
Building one way anchor text backlinks is risky business these days. Too aggressive and you’re cut off. Too consistent and you may be cut off just the same. Understanding how to please Google has never been more akin to blind folded archery than it is today.
Google hasn’t only taken away an important traffic stream (and for many, our income streams) but they’ve demoralized the trade of SEO’s.
Today – Google announced they’ve released the “disavow links” Tool.
Between this and Bing’s equivalent tool, webmasters now have more control over the links they want pointing to their site.
What You Need To Know
Google’s tool will allow you to disavow individual links as well as entire domains worth of links. If you don’t want any links coming from Facebook – you can (just an example).
Search Engine Land made a good post on the specifics of how to use the tool here.
The Bottom Line
Ed Dale said it best in his recent blog post
Google just crowdsourced SEO enforcement!
Google’s new tool is going to help them pinpoint exactly where those pesky “blog networks” and “link farm” domains are. What’s worse is they’re getting you to do it for them.
Ed puts it this way
Google, simply need to cross-reference the domains of the submitted sites and for the first time can easily target all of those automated blog networks.
He’s 100% on the mark.
Google continues to plunge the knife into the small business publisher while they encourage them to sharpen it at the same time. Now that’s deadly efficiency.
Wow, what a great post. Nice to see what little tricks Google is up to. Im sort of turned off by Google. I think a lot more people will be turning to Bing soon, if Google doesnt get their act together.
Google is nearing its end.They wont dominate search for long.It’s impossible to regulate everything on the net.
I’ve been saying for atleast 2 years now that i’m tired of trying to please Google. The day that it is announced that there is a new big player in the game will be the best day of my life. They got too big for their own good.