Google and link inflation.

[ThopHayt]

I think I finally see where Google is going with their strategy. They don't want to phase out backlinks... but they're going to make them as expensive to produce as possible.

Time used to be that a few hundred .02 cent links from a Fiverr blast could rank a keyword longterm. Then Google killed the "pure spam" links and people moved onto Web 2.0 links and blog posts. Web 2.0's require a lot more time/thought to set up and write properly than "pure spam" links did. But now even the Web 2.0 links have little value. So people are moving on to Private Blog Networks. These PBN's are a pain in the ass to create compared to even high quality Web 2.0's, and are becoming expansive to create as well as the price of good aged domains goes up.

Everything Google does seems aimed at not making it impossible to rank with "fake" blackhat links, but EXPENSIVE to do so. In this way they weed out more and more players.

Given this what might their next move be? If I were to guess I'd say that they start penalizing PBN's with too many different URLs being backlinked to. This would make it impossible to buy links on other people's PBNs cheaply as they will be severely limited to how many URLS they can have on a site. This will either A) Force people to pay to build their OWN networks, or B) pay scalper inflated prices to get on the few slots available. Either way it becomes MORE expensive to blackhat and Google wins.

So keep a sharp eye out for this in coming updates. I've got a feeling...

 

[keyser]

Have to agree link building has certainly become harder over the years but it certainly helps me as an SEO, when barriers are higher it means less people enter. When they were low and spammy links ruled it was easy but there was much more competition, you just have to go with the flow, find something that works and not tell anyone

 

[SerpEvil]

yes,everything is about money here,every update is also for them to make more money = ADWORDS

 

[ThopHayt]

yes,everything is about money here,every update is also for them to make more money = ADWORDS

I don't think that's the case. They want to rule out spammy SEO, not SEO in general. All they want is to keep the average Google user happy so that they have an audience to serve Adword ad's to. In the long run I think the key is to not "look" like blackhat content-wise and link-wise. So while I'm sure that making SEO more expensive to operate pushes some people to paid advertising with Adwords, Google is more obcessed in making sure that their search results are more likable to the average user searching with it than Bing's.

 

[learnquick]

I mentioned something very similar in Expertpeon's post here: http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/691938-price-inflation-pbn-sites-how-google-making-backorder-providers-millions.html


I think SEO folks are driving the cost of PBN sites up and are creating their own demise. We will do it ourselves.


We all know how well PBNs work right now, and we're all buying good domains. Some of us were lucky and got a ton of sites for the cost of hand registration; others weren't.


If the price of PBNs get out of the reach of the average SEO person, which they are quickly doing, and Google continues to value high quality links, those in Internet marketing will have few choices to get traffic to their site. They will have to focus on public networks -- and risk getting a penalty -- or use ADWORDS.


I don't think this is a conspiracy theory or what-have-you. I think SEO folks know what works and are trying to exploit it right now.


Granted, many of us will figure out how to game the algo in the future, I'm sure.


But what about those who are just jumping on the PBN bandwagon and want to rank their sites but can't afford a dozen high quality domains at $1000 a pop?


Yeah, the answer is ADWORDS.

 

[ThopHayt]

Well let's face it, what Google would LOVE to do is cut backlinks out of it's formula entirely. They've tested it, and can't pull it off quite yet... but the fact that they tested it shows you that they're looking into it. Don't think for a minute that the second they find a good way to make an effective algorithm without using backlinks that they won't jump on it. But the truth is that for now they need backlinks as a basic metric to use as a reference point. And if Chrome OS, or Chrome browser ever fully "take over" they may have just that. Meanwhile their best bet is to "raise the price to rank" until all but the big boys can't afford to use SEO.

The theory being that is a company/site can afford to pay $3,000 a month to rank organically then they are probably a better source for authority than some guy spending $50 anyway. Which does make sense. They raise the quality of people's content by pushing out the small guys who couldn't afford good content anyway. If you can afford the $3,000 (or whatever it might be for X niche) to rank I'd wager you have a pretty good website.

The only way around this is to go viral and generate massive buzz and therefore the traffic to make Google rank you without crazy expensive backlinks.

 

[finnol]

Yes, Google target to everyone depends on Adwords for make money from online. Google update only benefit for google.