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Last night, the spam czar of Google, Matt Cutts tweeted the expected, that they penalized a German link network.
This time, Cutts did not call out which network, instead he said Google went after a Germany agency and their clients over their link network. Which agency? Again, he did not specifically say - which is pretty common.
There are obviously rumors which agency Google targeted but I don't want to speculate without stronger evidence.
Here is Matt's tweet from late last night:
This week we took action on a German agency's link network/clients. More to come in Germany.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 7, 2014We did expect Google to go after German link spam. Google sent a warning earlier this week and when they penalized a French link network a little over a week ago, Cutts said Germany was next.
Now, Matt said that this Germany agency and their clients is not the end of it. Matt added to his tweet last night that there is "more to come in Germany."
Here are some recent link networks taken down by Google:
- Google's Matt Cutts: We're Taking Action Against Buzzea, The French Link Network
- Google's Matt Cutts Calls Out Nailing Another Link Network
- Google Penalizes Another Link Network: SAPE Links
- Google Crushes Ghost Rank 2.0, A Russian Link Network
- Backlinks.com: The Next Link Network Penalized By Google
- Google's Matt Cutts: Text Link Ads Link Sellers Targeted
- Google Penalizes Blog Networks, Did SEOs Use It To Hurt Competitors?
- Beware: Google To Squash Another Link Network Very Soon
Comments:
Barry Schwartz
02/07/2014 02:16 pm
oh, when did they ad all those images of ladies?
soman
02/07/2014 02:16 pm
@barry the Disque ads are annoying. Write something about it too. :)
soman
02/07/2014 02:21 pm
yep. not even the ads wont get shuffled. Its irritating to see the same ad every day. :)
Barry Schwartz
02/07/2014 02:22 pm
Trying to disable them…
soman
02/07/2014 02:23 pm
Do it dude. I cant recollect what i have read on yesterday except those ads :)
Barry Schwartz
02/07/2014 02:25 pm
Disabled the images.
Roger Taiber
02/08/2014 12:50 pm
At the time we don't know in Germany which agency got the penalty. But all people discuss. On sunday we got new dates from Sistrix and Xovi and see perhaps the name. Could be very interested.
Juggernart
02/08/2014 09:45 pm
One agency penalized... ... hundreds other remain. There are many seo companies in germany, you can presume they all buy links for their clients.
Felix Gottschalk
02/09/2014 12:08 pm
I'd would like to know which German agencies got penalised. I was often approached by German link agencies which offer link buying. They can be quite annoying especially if you don't want to buy any links...
Ben Guest
02/09/2014 03:19 pm
Is the war on spam like the war on drugs? So the algorithm can't handle it, and they have to do it manually? Is that what they are saying with these announcements? Maybe I'm reading into this too deeply. Your thoughts?
Ben Guest
02/09/2014 03:20 pm
Exactly. One goes down, another one pops up. Endless cycle, yes?
Ben Guest
02/09/2014 03:21 pm
No more boobs and butts? Ah, come on man. ;-)
Max Pen
02/09/2014 05:02 pm
Yeah pretty much. And the war will never be won.
Max Pen
02/09/2014 05:03 pm
Why even mention this as news, it doesn't really mean much.
Durant Imboden
02/09/2014 09:04 pm
It's about sending a message to clients and prospective clients of the link networks. (Cops may not ticket every speeder or parking violator, either, but when they're seen passing out tickets, some--not all, but some--motorists will think twice before flooring the accelerator or parking on the yellow line.) Addendum: Maybe an even better strategy would be to take down link networks silently, so that link buyers would waste more money before realizing what had happened. That might be a better deterrent than letting buyers know that it's time to turn off the cash spigot.
Nick Ker
02/09/2014 09:16 pm
I think for the most part, the algorithm handles most of the work. Occasionally, someone will find a loophole and attempt to scale it too big and sell it to too many people. Once that becomes obvious, google makes an example of them. Lather, rinse, repeat. Maybe I'm just not seeing the effects so much, since I work for mostly US based sites, but these recent link network busts have not had as big of an impact as previous networks like "Build My Rank". Maybe fewer people use them these days?
dsimms
02/10/2014 03:36 am
Never buy links in-network, If the network gets hit, you get hit, and when you do buy links, then for god sakes do your homework on who you buy from. If you are not willing to do the work it takes to reach your success, then get off the computer, stay on the couch; I guess if you guys were not to lazy, then your sites wouldnt be at the bottom of the google ocean, or in the pit of google darkness, and always link to 1st/2nd tiers.
barbua
02/10/2014 10:49 am
it war on money, just google need more money.
The Hoff
02/11/2014 06:26 am
I wonder if this is meant to send a message to the EU about the whole dominating the search thing?? HMMM
Ben Guest
02/12/2014 02:09 pm
Then they should be pro-quality websites rather than so anti-low quality websites and linking schemes.