Google Linking Practices – An Update

In Google’s newly released webspam report, the company reveals how it dealt with link spam in 2018. Link spam is one of three types of spam discussed in the report. Other standouts include spam on hacked sites and user-generated spam.

Link spam refers to any type of link building practice that violates Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Google stresses the value of links as a search ranking factor when explaining why it’s important to fight link spam. “We continued to protect the value of authoritative and relevant links as an important ranking signal for Search.”

Egregious link spam is dealt with swiftly, Google says. A number of link building practices were even made less effective last year. Here is a quote form the Google webspam 2018 report:

“We continued to protect the value of authoritative and relevant links as an important ranking signal for Search. We continued to deal swiftly with egregious link spam, and made a number of bad linking practices less effective for manipulating ranking. Above all, we continued to engage with webmasters and SEOs to chip away at the many myths that have emerged over the years relating to linking practices.

We continued to remind website owners that if you simply stay away from building links mainly as an attempt to rank better and focus on creating great content, you should not have to worry about any of the myths or realities. We think that one of the best ways of fighting spam of all types is by encouraging website owners to just create great quality content. Resources such as the SEO starter-guide highlight best practices and bust some common myths and misconceptions related to what it takes to appear well in Google Search results.

Reporting link spam is also a great way to assist us in fighting against this type of abuse and to help preserve fairness in Search ranking.”

We recently published another blog on poor quality links which can be viewed by clicking here.