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As I reported last night during my live blogging - but things get lost there - Google is going to punish yet another link network in the next week or two.
Which network? I do not know yet, but I am sure that information will surface via the SEO forums when it does happen.
Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, announced this last night during his SMX session. He said that in the next week or two, Google will go after yet another link network. He also confirmed they did target a link network a week or so ago, but did not name which network was targeted exactly.
Like I said in the past, I am still surprised webmasters with long term goals for their web sites participate in these networks. Google has continuously gone after link networks in the past, even dating back as early or before 2006.
What can you do to prepare? Well, it is a catch 22. If you remove your link network links, your ranking will decline. If you keep them, Google may penalize the network and your site anyway. Long term - work on adding real links to your site and remove those network links.
Forum discussion at Google+.
Comments:
Praveen Sharma
03/12/2013 12:29 pm
Is there any update on their last caught - Sape? Is it back (like Interflora in advertotials case as it was a big brand) or still penalized?
Mike Dammann
03/12/2013 12:31 pm
Must have been from alerts stemming from disavow. Understandable move.
Barry Schwartz
03/12/2013 02:13 pm
No.
Jack SEO Consultant - Eemes
03/12/2013 09:20 pm
This is where it begins buddy! Huge blow for all the link networks. Lol i knew this would happen some day or other.
Mensusa James
03/15/2013 06:16 am
How many link networks are available? can you list out those links?
Lilacor
03/17/2013 07:55 pm
Sape is still intact and fully available. More details about it you can fine here: http://seofen.com/what-is-sape/. Don't listen to all this gossip around the World Web. Experts with serious practice in the area have confirmed the network is still working as good as before.
Dave
04/03/2013 06:20 am
Is there any news on this, are they still going to hit a link network?