The Evolving Google Panda

[ThopHayt]

I was reading recent SER article: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-changed-panda-algorithm-24389.html

I wanted to highlight a quote from Gary Illyes "What was true 5 or so years ago, might not be now." I think this is important because SOOOO many of the people I see here have barely changed their mind set in the recent years. I see threads asking how it is possible somebody's site is being outranked by a site with "only" X links. The majority of people in SEO are stuck in looking at SEO as a numbers race. They race for simply MORE links, they race for better 3rd party metrics in their links... and at the end of they day they are shocked they aren't having success.

As we all (should) know it is now part of the core algo, and as such is in the hands of Google's AI rather than human workers. Simple by crunching the numbers the AI can see the cracks that we all used to exploit. It understands "the game" on a sheer statistical basis. So I'll just leave you all with this thought... if you want to trick an AI that is looking for people who try to trick it, then you CANNOT use the same tactics that the bulk of abusers are currently using. Because the BULK of abusers is what the AI is focused on. We've all heard the "build your link profile for tomorrow, not today" but I feel that this phrase is becoming more and more true EACH and every passing day.

-ThopHayt

 

[sTimPunk]

Agree.
Stone age did not finish because we ran out of stones.

The changes in modern world are happening way faster than before.

If we do not evolve, we will become extinct.

 

[MisterF]

Which also confirms quality over quantity.

 

[ThopHayt]

Which also confirms quality over quantity.

As well not getting caught up in things like 3rd party metrics. I feel that relevancy and traffic-to-the-link are two major factors that virtually nobody talks about. I've spent a decent amount of both money and time recently experimenting to search for good sources of links that will get good traffic to the page that my backlink is on. IMHO this is THE metric of the future. Mark my words. I can give a shit what the TF/DA/PA/RT/BS score of the page is... if it is on a relevant topic and is getting traffic to that page then it will be a valuable link. Soon I'll prove this, I just haven't figured an easy enough way to scale this across enough different platforms to make it viable.But the difficulty is part of what makes it valuable as well, the fewer blackhatters who exploit something the less it is on the Google AI's radar for attack.

-ThopHayt

 

[davids355]

great post. Totally agree but even so I am guilty of the same thing and you are right, got to think and do differently to the majority. And most definitely quality over quantity is key.

 

[The Curator]

(cough) High Quality Content (cough)

 

[sTimPunk]

High quality content from Native Speakers who set up a PBN full of articles written by AI bots and pass the originality test. The backlinks are hen created and articles shared across the social media accounts that had thousands of likes/followers from the bot activity programs installed and ran on VPS over the last several months. All done just to monetize the CPA and affiliate network programs

Everything works so good that everyone implementing the above method has already bought a "junk" island off of Maldives and retired there with their Indonesian or Thai girlfriend/wife.

 

[hippo123]

As well not getting caught up in things like 3rd party metrics. I feel that relevancy and traffic-to-the-link are two major factors that virtually nobody talks about. I've spent a decent amount of both money and time recently experimenting to search for good sources of links that will get good traffic to the page that my backlink is on. IMHO this is THE metric of the future. Mark my words. I can give a shit what the TF/DA/PA/RT/BS score of the page is... if it is on a relevant topic and is getting traffic to that page then it will be a valuable link. Soon I'll prove this, I just haven't figured an easy enough way to scale this across enough different platforms to make it viable.But the difficulty is part of what makes it valuable as well, the fewer blackhatters who exploit something the less it is on the Google AI's radar for attack.

-ThopHayt

Agreed on the traffic portion. Just a few questions.

1) Is the traffic to the overall site or the traffic to the post that is linking to your money site more important?

2) Is the relevancy of the overall site or the relevancy of the post that is linking to your money site that is more important?

 

[ThopHayt]

1

Agreed on the traffic portion. Just a few questions.

1) Is the traffic to the overall site or the traffic to the post that is linking to your money site more important?

2) Is the relevancy of the overall site or the relevancy of the post that is linking to your money site that is more important?

1) Traffic to your post. Obviously for a site to be able to push traffic to your post then the entire site will have good traffic as well, but all you REALLY care about is traffic to your post. Natural REAL readers.

2) Again, both ideally but your post needs to be highly relevant in my opinion. Slipping a link into a barely related topic isn't going to help nearly as much. The link should look reasonable for the site and highly natural for the post.

Again... this is a TALL task. Which is why it is so hard to scale. Which is the main problem/challenge. As I said, I'm still trying to figure it out myself.

-ThopHayt

 

[Nargil]

You can see proof of this in almost every second thread here lately. How is that saying? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing all over again and expecting different results.

 

[Slightlylost]

I'm on board with fact that times are changing, but when I look at my niche and the local seo traffic I see garbage. If G was as smart as ppl give them credit for than why do I have to compete with so many total garbage sites? My competition is a bunch of crap sites, with crap links, just a large marketing budget and huge PBNs all crap sites.... but still they rank on page 1. G can't tell a shit site if it bit them in the ass in my niche.

In my niche garbage spam websites drown out the real local business, so I'm not sure how much credit to give G. They talk a big game but the small niche I am paying attention to shows that G has a lot of work to do. I'm new to all this and I'm trying to navigate in the fog and I'm still green behind the ears. I hear things are changing but my niche is not. Why is that? I'm trying to build my first PBN and I hear all this crap about G and how smart they are getting and it worries me that i could be throwing money away... until I see my niche change i consider this all hearsay....

 

[ThopHayt]

You can see proof of this in almost every second thread here lately. How is that saying? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing all over again and expecting different results.

But it can be very hard to realize it when everybody else around you is also doing the same thing. 99/100 people here still will take the "high metric" link over the link with high traffic or the link with a clean profile. And 99/100 people here who claim to be using "quality content" still define that by simply being readable/original rather than being entertaining/useful. I am 100% convinced that the bar has raised and now engaging content and live traffic matter in your links. Are there still people spamming their way up certain niches? Sure, but that isn't the future for long term success anymore.

-ThopHayt

 

[The Curator]

But it can be very hard to realize it when everybody else around you is also doing the same thing. 99/100 people here still will take the "high metric" link over the link with high traffic or the link with a clean profile. And 99/100 people here who claim to be using "quality content" still define that by simply being readable/original rather than being entertaining/useful. I am 100% convinced that the bar has raised and now engaging content and live traffic matter in your links. Are there still people spamming their way up certain niches? Sure, but that isn't the future for long term success anymore.

-ThopHayt

Agree 100% with you

 

[darulez]

so free traffic and clicks for that copypasteblogger?

 

[darulez]

As well not getting caught up in things like 3rd party metrics. I feel that relevancy and traffic-to-the-link are two major factors that virtually nobody talks about. I've spent a decent amount of both money and time recently experimenting to search for good sources of links that will get good traffic to the page that my backlink is on. IMHO this is THE metric of the future. Mark my words. I can give a shit what the TF/DA/PA/RT/BS score of the page is... if it is on a relevant topic and is getting traffic to that page then it will be a valuable link. Soon I'll prove this, I just haven't figured an easy enough way to scale this across enough different platforms to make it viable.But the difficulty is part of what makes it valuable as well, the fewer blackhatters who exploit something the less it is on the Google AI's radar for attack.

-ThopHayt

then this will be the end of "major authority sites".

 

[The Curator]

then this will be the end of "major authority sites".

Actually I believe it's the way things are going...

 

[ThopHayt]

then this will be the end of "major authority sites".

Satellite sites run by "big boys" like trusted reviews (owned by Time, Inc.) and tech radar (owned by Future) absolutely DOMINATE these days. They have a ready log of sites with massive traffic to push eyeballs and links.

-ThopHayt

 

[aidenhera]

come to think of it if you actually blasted less links than anyone else then it might start thinking they are doin black hat seo cuz their links amount is above the average on first page lulz

 

[ThopHayt]

come to think of it if you actually blasted less links than anyone else then it might start thinking they are doin black hat seo cuz their links amount is above the average on first page lulz

Doubtful on that. Google looks at niches as a whole and sees what is "normal" for them. This is why there are a few niches where you can go black and some where you need to be more careful. Also, Google is not really deducting points for bad links as much as they ignore them. This was done in response to negative SEO causing waves. The main thing I'm seeing change is that QUALITY links and content are becoming more and more important and now it seems that Google is bringing natural traffic into play when judging a link's value. Meaning a link from a high traffic site like trustedreviews is worth more than a link from a private "authority site" that gets 1,200 visits to the whole site in a month. Seems obvious, but many refuse to accept this.

-ThopHayt

 

[Deleted member 964807]

Meaning a link from a high traffic site like trustedreviews is worth more than a link from a private "authority site" that gets 1,200 visits to the whole site in a month. Seems obvious, but many refuse to accept this.

Does this mean the end of pbns effectiveness? Most pbns dont get much traffic so it would seem so.

Do you think getting high authority domains from auctions and using them as a money site will be more effective now with these new google panda updates you're talking about?