Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Exactly my point. This is why I dont see it being a ranking factor and if it is... they will have to manually determine good from evil.

I still see that stuff too in the more competitive markets. I get the feeling Google simply cannot keep up with all of it even with all of its resources.

Rand replies on this topic here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-penalties-be-passed-via-301-redirect There is not much more I can add. I would love to find the time to perform some experiments and see results first hand. My best guess is some penalties will pass while others will not. This variance would be logical and explain the mixes results which are reported. Some people seem convinced one way or the other. For example, a penalty based on manipulative links would be passed since those links are now pointing at the new site. A penalty based on manipulative on page tactics would not be passed if those tactics are not used on the new site.

Start by checking the number of indexed URL's. This can be accomplished by using the **site:yourdomainname.com **command within a Google search window. If no URL's are indexed then there is a high probability of a penalty, especially if your site used to be indexed. Also search for your exact company name and domain name. If you no longer rank for these terms, where previously you ranked well for your own brand name, a penalty is likely. Lastly check Google Webmaster Tools. Hope this helps.

Dr. Pete has a good post about just this at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/penguins-pandas-and-panic-at-the-zoo.

Medlin04.  I agree with Robert, it's a cost-reward trade-off. Since it's the paving industry we're talking about, how many nice relevant sites can there be ? I doubt there are very many that carry substantially higher PA/DA.  Your customer's competition will face the same problem of available relevant links. Unfortunately, G's continuing attack "freshness", Panda, and now Penguin will continue to favor the sites Robert dubbed "PA-60" sites which have high "authority" but are usually written by content writers who, no matter how good they are, often do not fully understand the subject however experienced and skilled the writer may be. No matter how anyone characterizes it, G's culling websites.  Saves on search, helps sell adwords.   If there is a huge (intentional) weakness in G's formula, it's underweighting relevant small business links out to other sites in the same business.  I believe this part of the algo is intentional because the big sites often sell the advertising which directs the traffic to these small business.

Unsure why anyone would make that as a good answer as it didn't help me at all.

If it's algorithmic then they just need to fix it fast, if it's manual... they still need to fix it fast and then do a reconsideration request. I would guess that as long as you don't have other bad signals it won't really affect your site, but maybe remove the links temporarily just to be on the safe side. SEL just did this, which may be of interest: http://searchengineland.com/google-talks-penguin-update-recover-negative-seo-120463 Note that part where it states "In particular, pointing bad links at a good site with many other good signals seems to be like trying to infect it with a disease that it has antibodies to. The good stuff outweighs the bad."

The one word answer to this will be ‘ware the white hat’ Actually Link Building is a creative game so the limit to link building is your creativity… but here are my recommendations or you can say the type of links that I prefer to build. Build Relationship Research and find the list of people who are active in your industry they can be bloggers, influencers, business owners, review writers and many… try to reach out to them and build strong relationship as this will help you while you will ask out for links to them. Manual Reach This is hectic but somehow you have to do that no matter what… try to build quality content on you website and reach out to relevant websites and people and request link (while being creative) Guest Blogging Reach out to bloggers and offer them to write about relevant topics for FREE. White Papers Research and create a link worthy white papers and allow your target audience to download it for FREE. Usually the FREE get more natural links Launch a Contest This will help you cater new eye balls and if you contest is interesting and informative at the same time you will defiantly going to get links from bloggers and even magazine sites. Press worthy Activity Introducing a product, major changes in business models or anything that is Press worthy will be helpful to get more and more links from Press websites… The ideas are endless… all you have to do is to put down all of them on the paper and see what is possible for you and what isn’t

Absolutely. Don't just share them to be indexed (they will be indexed quite quickly anyway because blogs are usually caught up in no time) - share them to get more traffic and exposure. You want your guest post to be a powerful trust signal - and an actively discussed and shared article will give you a larger boost.

I would definitely NOT redirect a domain that received an unnatural link penalty to a new domain that you're starting fresh on. I wouldn't host that new domain on the same C-block either. If you were running from the cops would you call them and let them know that you cut your hair, changed your clothes and got a new car?

Hi Charles, Thank you for the response. Just to clairify, as I have never had a penalty, or anything like this happen in the past. If Google devalues my links, then I should not worry about removing them since they are not passing link juice? I've never used a blog network, and I have not revived any messages from Google in WMT about spammy links. I appreciate your help. If anyone else has any repsonses, I would love to hear them! Thank you, Pete

Hi ITrogers, I think it's important to note that the strategy you are recommending is forbidden by Google's Quality Guidelines. Please see: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 Specifically: Business Location: Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location. Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. It's critical to be totally up-to-date on the guidelines because they aren't intuitive, making it very easy to accidentally violate them. The strategy your are describing of renting virtual offices where the business doesn't actually exists puts the business at real risk for penalties or banning. Also, because of the Savvy Panda's industry, (website design) he does not have any chance of ranking for his core terms in the local SERPs. Google doesn't handle website design, SEO or certain marketing firms in this way. I hope this helps to clarify things for you and others on this thread.

Since Penguin, I have moved to the #1 position for the KW embroidered patches Nice work!  WooHoo!