Why Google says you should report backlink SEO spam

I’m going to talk about how some of the old SEO practices just don’t work anymore, and a couple of surprising things I’ve learned in the past few days. I received an email from someone who’s basically a web spammer. He sent me a link of guest post sites that he called a private blog network. I’ve been asked about these at conferences recently, and my answer is always to avoid them.

The way I see it, trying to get backlinks before the content is like trying to get applause before the performance. Backlinks are supposed to be a reward for creating good content. I looked at this list and immediately thought it was all rubbish. So I tweeted it to John Mueller and Gary Illyes at Google. I shared the list, and then took a look at it myself.

On the first site I picked at random, they were selling backlinks off the front page. The site had article titles that made no sense and was basically a site I wouldn’t want to be associated with. Not only that, the site wasn’t even indexed.

This is a great reason to keep up with your disavows. If someone’s using negative SEO practices on you, you need to make sure these sites aren’t attached to yours in any way. If you see a site that ranks above you and is using this type of spammy backlinking, you should report them to Google. If that site’s doing the wrong thing, it will only make Google a better search engine. Keep checking your own backlinks and disavow every time you find someone’s using negative SEO practices on you. It’s a constant process, but it’s one you can’t afford to get behind on.

This article was originally published on stewartmedia.com.au

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