Thoughts on Over Optimization for External Factors

[SEODinosaur]

I’m worried because I don’t want to lose my rankings due to an external factor (aka competitor) Most of the competition I had were doing black hat stuff and they are all gone. However they were doing black hat stuff. It’s only a matter of time before they realize what they are now capable of.

[McTaggart]

I once did a blog post and ended up with several hundred exact match pieces of anchor text hitting an internal page (I did not syndicate content but a major blog took my post, wrote about it, linked back to my website, syndicated cotent). If you look at the link profile on my site you get less than 150 backlinks coming in on even the most popular page, then a mad spike on an internal page. I wonder if that pattern alone may flag an over-optimization penalty?

PS> One thing I'm learning about this SEO lark is white hat can become grey hat can become black hat. You have to be very strategic, though that's sometimes virtually impossible!

[SEODinosaur]

I cant tell you the answer to that, there are too many different opinions on the matter. What do they count? what dont they count? Now they are indirectly claiming to count what other can do to your site as well. In other words hurt your rankings. (aka negative SEO)

[McTaggart]

For the first time I've been approached by somebody wanting to do negative SEO, which isn't a good sign really. From what I understood, this involved pointing hundreds of horrible backlinks from porn/gambling sites. Let's hope my competitors don't bite!

[randfish]

I'm working on trying to bring that practice to light and, hopefully, help stop it (if possible): http://www.webpronews.com/can-your-site-lose-its-rankings-because-of-competitors-negative-seo-2012-04

[randfish]

Hi Donnie - my point with today's WB Friday video is to hopefully suggest and help site owners to make their sites shiny and clean, so that even if some bad links point your way (everyone gets some bad links - they're a natural part of the web) or someone from Google manually reviews your site or a compeitor sends a spam report to Google about you, you'll be largely immune.

Having a site that focuses on fantastic user experience and mixes in a balance of good keyword targeting, accessibility and SEO best practices is the best way to avoid any untoward action. I'd only be really worried about this update if you've been doing serious manipulative link acquisition and spammy on-site tactics that you haven't cleaned up.

Best of luck!

[McTaggart]

That's good to hear Rand - I'm checking my backlinks a little more often since that encounter...

[Mcarle]

Exactly, I think that many web designers/SEO people go one way or the other...

Spammy meta tags

Garbled text

Repeated title tags

Those footers that list every cityand keyword in the dictionary

And ALSO link farms & bought links...

Most GOOD SEO designed sited avoid those things, so Google can see if all the sudden a bunch of weird spam links show up from "Porn sites or link farms"

If sites start dropping because of negative SEO Google with evolve again to combat that, just like they evolved from google bombing.

[SEODinosaur]

This is a very brave move Rand! I must say. I really hope this case study pans out. After all what were doing as good SEOs is helping the web evolve via education/entertainment/experimentation/etc.. the list goes on. If Google can really decipher good from bad while understanding and preventing malicious attacks I will be very happy. Thanks for your response.

[SEODinosaur]

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