Big Link Network Taken Down

[Keszi]

Well, this was expected... I'd say.

I have a feeling that if 2011 had major changes in the SEO world (to focus more on the quality vs. quantity), 2012 will have a bigger impact on search results.

[Syed1]

I always assumed Google would have 1 or more staff dedicated to manually hunt/ look out for link building networks. It doesn't take couple of hours to get a list of dozens of these popular networks where hundreds/ thousands people buy and exchange links. If anything I am surprised it took Google so long to catch up to them.

What would be even more interesting to see is if they are able to catch up to all the 'participants' in this network and be able to discount all those links

[Copstead]

2011 was an interesting year in the Google index cleanup.  It will be fun to watch 2012 and see how far Google goes.

[DannyNolan]

Great to see Google making examples of certain groups out there like this, but that being said are they doing it quick enough and are they leaving themselves, and us, wide open to short term gamers of the system.

There a lot of talk out there about how White Hat SEO will prevail, which is of course true, but I can't help feeling these opportunists whilst i'st taking so long for them to be taken down are taking a significant market share at any given time.

[jeffreytrull1]

I refuse to believe this comment in the BMR blog post: "In our wildest dreams, there’s no way we could have imagined this happening."

Please.

They had a great run, and I bet they made some serious $$ during the lifetime of this product (which they had to know wouldn't last forever).

[EGOL]

lol.... right... that did hit really high on my BS meter.

[AlanMosley]

Well we may all see a rise in rankings as thier users take a hit, good news.

Let use know if you see some evidence of incresed rankings. as this was not the only netword to have ben taken down latly

[PathMarketing]

Interesting. I knew this was coming when my daily Google Alerts started becoming full of absolutely crappy blog network posts that were obviously spun or written by someone with neither command of language nor authority on the subject matter. I blame/credit the noobs.

[EGOL]

Most of my "alerts" are from crap on sites.google.com

[PathMarketing]

Lol, it's true. You want to see a real wasteland, check out any products that are offered via Amazon affiliate sales. There are reams of pages of spun product descriptions with Amazon affiliate links. Mostly on blogspot and sites.google.com

Ironic, no?

[EGOL]

lol... thanks for the report.

Those are probably the guys who have already been banned from Adsense. 

[JustDucky]

When I read that part of BMR's post, I heard Claude Raines saying "I'm shocked that gambling is going on" and Peter Lorre saying "Your winnings sir".  B.S. indeed.

[AlanMosley]

Casablanca?

[JustDucky]

Yes ! (I apologize for the double posting).

[MKaloud]

We used Build My Rank for a few months (canceled our subscription 3-4 months ago), and got a notice from Google about unnatural links last week. We also have several unpaid media mentions, so I am not sure if Google is talking about Build My Rank or something else. Is there a normal time-frame in which Google takes action to recalculate Page Rank for people linked to the de-indexed Build My Rank articles? We just started subscribing to SEO Moz and are still learning how to check out our backlinks and Open Site Explorer.

[jenadams]

I think the one thing that people like to forget is that everything related to SEO is done to manipulate positioning.  Everyone is buying links one way or another.  If someone is paying for SEO services they have bought a link.  If someone is in a link directory, they have bought a link.  If you have taken the time to ask a customer to give you a positive review on Google maps then you have manipulated rankings and paid for it too.  There is still an opportunity cost with everything and if time is money, you have spent money on your efforts.  Is it any better than what BMR did?  In many ways no.

[UnderRugSwept]

I'm really glad this happened. I have been so disillusioned with Google for awhile. So much crap and spam ranks and continues to rank, and it can be really discouraging. It's nice that they're finally cracking down; it makes me feel safe about my choices and I hope to see my competitors drop in the SERPs soon, since they've been spamming all over the place.

[daugherty]

Does anyone have a list of websites that BMR was sending articles too? We have a Outsource SEO company that i think is using some kind of automated link building software. Im afraid the links they have built have been seen as spam and has caused our rankings to drop. I just want to make sure they werent using BMR and we are being penalized for it