In an interview, former Google web-spam member Andre Weyher gave more information about the way Google detects web spam. The most important facts and statements can be found in this article.
1. How does Google detect web spam?
Google uses on-page signals such as keyword stuffing or hidden content. They also judge the quality of the web page content. Any type of scraped, synonymized or poorly written text is seen as a spam signal.
2. What are commercial keywords and how do they influence your backlink profile?
A commercial keyword is a keyword with a high search volume or a keyword that has a high financial value, for example “cheap flights” or “car insurance”.
If 90% of the anchor texts in a backlink profile are commercial keywords, it is likely that the backlinks are spammy, especially if there are thousands of these links.
Andre says that a natural backlink profile usually has non-commercial keywords in the anchor texts (long tail keywords, the URL of the website, etc.)
3. On-page optimization is a key element of any SEO strategy
Andre Weyher is very clear that on-page optimization is very important:
“On-page tactics are often overlooked, while in reality they should be a key element in your SEO strategy. […]
Be very thorough about your basic elements like titles, descriptions and H1/H2 headers. People are so focused on putting the most expensive fuel in their car (link building) that they totally forget about the basics like putting wheels on it (on page elements).”
IBP’s Top 10 Optimizer is the perfect tool that helps you to optimize all on-page signals of your web pages.
4. Which link building techniques work with Google?
Automated link building puts your website at risk. Successful link building is very similar to relationship management:
“If your website is about cheese production, reach out to people in the milk industry, like I mentioned before, relevance is the new PageRank.”
Andre also says that you shouldn’t dismiss directories completely. Good quality, moderated directories, or niche directories are still worth looking in to. The quality of the pages that link to your site is also important. Three links from authentic pages will do much more than 1000 links from spam blogs. Quality is more important than quantity.
The link building tool in IBP will help you to find high quality websites. It also helps you to keep track of your link building activities.
If you are a regular reader of our weekly newsletter, the above won’t come as a surprise to you. Andre Weyher confirms the tactics and methods that we’ve been recommending for years.
If you’ve used IBP in the past to promote your website, chances are that your rankings are better than ever before. If you haven’t used IBP yet, do it now to make sure that your website gets the best possible rankings on Google:
Article by Axandra SEO software
1 thought on “Inside Google: a former Google web-spam team member gives tips”
Thanks for this relevant post I appreciate your resources and also believe that Non-Spam websites make the world a better place. 🙂 My approach is to actively pursue adding value to the industry. My reward might be getting fantastic back links to my website and lots of new customers, or it may just be the knowledge that I don’t contribute to all the “noise”.
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