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It feels like every six-months or so a new story comes out how SEOs are manipulating the Google search results, or at least trying to manipulate the Google search results, by taking advantage of link drops in popular online magazine web sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur and Inc. Stuff we have covered here numerous times. In fact, these types of sites a year ago tested nofollowing some links that were getting them in trouble with Google, and even if they didn't, Google came out and said they can ignore those links from sites like those.
That being said, it didn't stop BuzzFeed from publishing an article named One Of The Web’s Most Prolific Online Marketing Writers Has Been Promoting His Clients In Articles For Forbes, Entrepreneur, And Inc. Magazine. So the SEO industry had a blast with it. I want to share some fun tweets:
Today in news that shocks everyone but people in the SEO community: https://t.co/9YmRdCAGKj
— Amanda Orson (@amandaorson) July 2, 2018
It seems like this sort of thing is a big story once every couple of years. The publishers & clients are often the same, but Google keeps ranking them. This one caught @neilpatel buying links (although he denies it). https://t.co/XwibFu1Wus
— 🅑🅔🅝 🅒🅞🅞🅚 (@Skitzzo) July 2, 2018
I can't believe Forbes still ranks for anything. Between their interstitials, the paid links, the spammy content, auto play videos, etc it's just an awful website.
— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) July 2, 2018
You can replace [Forbes] with [Neil Patel] and that statement is still accurate. 🤷♀️
— Lisa Barone (@LisaBarone) July 2, 2018
Wait SEOs were selling links in articles & @neilpatel was buying them? #sarcasm https://t.co/88VJ3qALUU
— uosʎᗡ sıɹɥƆ (@ChrisLDyson) July 2, 2018
Transparency typically wins.
— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) July 2, 2018
Bad news day for SEOs selling links in Forbes, Huff Post, etc as BuzzFeed calls out a pair of high profile marketers: https://t.co/C9LBRRyfUg
I’d say if you’re paying for links in any of the mentioned publications, and hope they carry any “SEO value”, besides wasting money, you’re being naive! https://t.co/JIVfGsJ66W
— Pedro Dias (@pedrodias) July 2, 2018
This whole thing reminds me of when Google had to respond to blog bribes story from The Outline.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
