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In a video answer from Google's Matt Cutts he explained that of the 700,000 messages Google sent out to webmaster via Google Webmaster Tools in the first two months of the year, only 3% of those were link related.
Matt Cutts seemed a bit upset that webmasters assumed that most of the Google Webmaster Tools notifications were link related. He set the record straight that only 3% of the 700,000 emails - that is about 25,000 emails - were link related.
Matt Cutts went on to say that 90% of those notifications are black hat related. What is black hat? He did not say but it can be anything from cloaking to white text on a white background - I'd assume.
Here is the video:
Forum discussion at Google+.
Comments:
Yakezie
12/04/2012 02:30 pm
So what is the reason for the other 97%?
Vermont Design Works
12/04/2012 03:01 pm
Hey Barry, you've got the comma in the wrong place.... Cutts said under 25,000 - not "about 2,500". In fact 3% of 700k is 21k, if we want to really be sticklers.
Tim
12/04/2012 03:12 pm
Does anyone know how long it takes to get re-ranked in SERP's after revoking a penalty?
Barry Schwartz
12/04/2012 03:22 pm
Oops, thanks!
Josh
12/04/2012 04:36 pm
Why can't he ever go into detail about other messages? It would be nice to know what Google's sending out to other black hat webmasters. I hate these videos, they're always too vague.
Guest
12/04/2012 04:45 pm
Edit; Nevermind misread post. :)
ethalon
12/04/2012 04:51 pm
Have you tried asking around black hat forums about what types of messages Google has sent them? I would imagine that since Matt is basically calling them out in this video that the forums should be buzzing.
Josh
12/04/2012 04:56 pm
Honestly, I try to stay away - but that might be a good idea just for the lulz. If you see anything, please tag me or link me to it. I'd love to see what's really going on.
Marie Haynes
12/04/2012 05:00 pm
The weird thing is that I have heard of MANY webmasters with unnatural links warnings but have not heard of a single "black hat warning". Now, it's possible that the black hats just don't want to share about their messages but I find it hard to believe that 600000+ people would be quiet about the messages they are receiving. What are these black hat messages?
Robin331
12/04/2012 05:33 pm
google is totally black hat, so it send mail to google webmaster? ads above fold, top5 cheat ads, misleading ads, more ads than real content, auto-content scrapper site, bad user experience (lot of 404 errors in help/settings page), this list can continue long time.
Robin331
12/04/2012 05:34 pm
it not about time, it about your anchors chart + penguin looks need to unpenalize your site first.
Robin331
12/04/2012 05:36 pm
google was not able to access your site and similar things. Really absolutely un-informative emails, but at current time lot of such emails. However monitoring services not reporting anything with servers, looks it google problem only.
Tim
12/04/2012 05:57 pm
How about manual action? Talking about showing up in SERP's after revoking manual action... THX
Robin331
12/04/2012 06:07 pm
manual action is only one thing, it lower your ranking for some time period and for some reason. If it removed - combination of other reasons works. Like if you have lot of exact anchors - removal of manual penalty not will help. I know even few sites which ranks with manual penalty, so it just a factor - not ban.
Josh
12/04/2012 08:12 pm
Start with B end with S :]
Doodles
12/04/2012 08:17 pm
I believe this was reported a little after that Google sent out generic messages with something like "techniques outside the webmaster guidelines" and then went on to give links as an example. So, everyone concluded it was about links at first (it was a bit later they mentioned that only a small proportion were about links and it was a generic message). Now the messages are more specific, according to various reports by Matt Cutts and SEO blogs. To be honest, it's not really weird that Google sent out generic messages (and even less weird that most people concluded they were just about links). The amount of blackhat stuff going on had become excessive and tougher stance was finally being taken.
Robin331
12/05/2012 05:09 am
it funny what no webmasters even agree with their webmaster guidelines and it funny what search engine which must just index content and allow peoples to search it - making now everything to hide useful content sites deeper and deeper or remove it totally. google future - no content, but we want all your money and your ad clicks.