It seems Google has gone after yet another guest blog network that is being used by SEOs for link building purposes. The link network is named PostJoint and has gone on record that they are different from MyBlogGuest, which was penalized a month ago.
Matt Cutts confirmed on Twitter in a round about way that PostJoint and likely all the publishers in the network, were penalized. I bet they will start seeing unnatural link notifications within Google Webmaster Tools Manual Actions Viewer this coming week.
Matt tweeted:
@techtada any link or guest blog network that claims to have "zero footprints" is waving a giant red flag.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) April 18, 2014Brian White, his colleague spam fighter added a tip:
@mattcutts I've said it before, but if you want your network to have "zero footprints" this goes a long way http://t.co/ZlBPOOBXkG
— Brian White (@brianwhite) April 18, 2014PostJoint was penalized and some of those who participated in the network were also.
PostJoint confirms receiving a penalty, this is a new one named "business model violations" where it says:
UPDATE: They made up this penalty notification. I am so sorry for the confusion.
Google's algorithms are currently unable to detect the difference between genuine and spammy content marketing activities. Platforms like yours mess with our business model leaving us with no alternative but to setup a complex and labour intensive manual operation. As a result, Google has de-indexed your site.
Then PostJoint claims that only 16% of the publishers using their site received an unnatural link notification from Google. I am not sure how they know it was only 16%, that simply doesn't make sense to me.
But then they blow my mind and go bold by saying:
The fact that only 16% of our sites have been hit shows that Google can't infact trace all of the sites using PostJoint.
Man, they are asking for it.
Here are some recent link networks taken down by Google:
- Google's Matt Cutts: We've Penalized A Guest Blogging Network
- Google's Matt Cutts: We Can Take Action On Sites Benefiting From Guest Post Networks
- Google Penalized Link Networks In Spain, Italy & Germany
- Google To Slap Link Networks In Italy & Spain
- Google Targets Poland In Latest Link Network Penalty
- Google Boots Large German Agency & Clients For Link Schemes
- 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
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Note: I am offline today and this post was pre-scheduled to be automatically posted. So if I am delayed in responding to issues or comments, I apologize in advance.
