Ask Any Google Question!

Winchester

Winchester

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While it is no where near complete, I do have an extensive knowledge on Google products, policies, practices and theories. Because of this I am willing to do a Reddit Style AMA (ask me anything) and I'll do my best to provide an adequate answer.

Obviously I can't answer a question like:

"Whats the best way to rank #1 on Google"

There are probably better SEO experts out there more geared to answer that question anyway, but if you have questions like:

How does Google deal with X?
How can I do X within Product X?
Does Google view X positively or negatively?
What is Google's policy on X?

Or even other questions related to Google and how they work etc, if you can think of it you can ask it, I am even willing to discuss and guide you in the Google certification exams (although I will not provide the answers).

My experience with Google comes from a multitude of sources, and if those sources are public (such as books, videos and seminars) I am happy to cite them if need be. For less common knowledge where my insights are from other sources I reserve the right not to cite them in order to better protect my access to information.

I shall run this thread for about a week actively and after that it will be a lower priority of mine, Let's get started shall we?
 
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Q) How can I stop Google from dynamically changing my meta information on SERPS?

A) http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/377830-warning-google-now-changing-some-preferred-title-meta-descriptions-serps.html#post3589385
 
Thanks Winchester!.

I have just one question that's bugging me. If you have a somewhat broad niche site with enough content, like reviews, tips, news, forums, etc., will the site be hurt by adding related affiliate links, like Amazon's?. Do you think it matters if it's already established or not?.
 
Analytics or no Analytics?
Webmaster Tools or No Webmaster Tools?
 
roamer said:
Thanks Winchester!.

I have just one question that's bugging me. If you have a somewhat broad niche site with enough content, like reviews, tips, news, forums, etc., will the site be hurt by adding related affiliate links, like Amazon's?. Do you think it matters if it's already established or not?.
Click to expand...

Google does not treat these as outbound endorsements and tries to limit their impact (note if they are shortened by a non-official shortner i.e. bit.ly then google will not recognize them as an affiliate link and will follow them) for this reason it is best for SEO purposes to keep them in their natural state and declare them as no-follow

themidiman said:
Analytics or no Analytics?
Webmaster Tools or No Webmaster Tools?
Click to expand...

Always! These tools offer nothing but benefit to you, it is only logical that with Google being able to better sort, co-ordinate and utilize metrics of your site you will benefit, you will also benefit from the metrics you receive and using them to improve your user experience. It is important however to note that Google can use these tools to gauge site relation and therefore its best to keep professional sites to one account and less professional sites (ones that may be more spammy) on (a) separate account(s)

Troshi said:
This question :) http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/white-hat-seo/383100-benefits-comments-blog-posts.html
Click to expand...

After recent updates blog comments are less valuable in the eyes of Google since anyone can declare anything in them, they therefore manage less positive linkjuice. That being said however if a spider is reading them it will still see them as page associated content. The best thing you can do in this situation is make sure your comments are no-follow, and if you do get spam ones you want to use, remove any links and alter the text to make it more associated and non-duplicate before posting
 
Hi,
I have one question. I am going to send a reconsideration request for my cpa site. Should I remove the aff links or just make the site more user-friendly ?

Thanks in advance!
 
Glad this page came up. I have a strange problem.

I need to promote a brand, let's say it called "Star Dogs", but during the promotion I am not allowed to use the anchor text of "Star Dogs".

Is there a way I can some how rank well for the search term "Star Dogs" without actually using the anchor text in my link building?
 
I respectfully disagree.

But firmly and entirely disagree. It's been hinted at and suspected in a number of threads in various circumstances and niches over the years that google analytics might actually have been the very cause for loss of ranking and de-indexing of different websites.

While I certainly agree there's no definitive evidence of this, it's totally reasonable to assume that a company whose core business involves advertising and this accounts for the largest part of their corporate profits might and likely WILL do everything to profile each website that might hurt their revenue model. Weeding out all those websites not adhering to their quality standards.

They've built an empire based on ever-evolving, ever-perfecting tools in order to -understandably from a corporate stand-point- maximize their revenue by profiling your content the best way possible. Assuming they won't use Analytics or GWT to help removing potential offending site is wishful thinking at best. Irresponsible at worst. So many alternatives out there: use piwik and you won't have to wonder whether or not the big g is snooping on you.

And let's face it this is a BH forum, so most of OUR (dozen? hundreds?) websites won't certainly comply with those quality standards. As they say, better safe than sorry.

Regards.

Winchester said:
Originally Posted by themidiman
Analytics or no Analytics?
Webmaster Tools or No Webmaster Tools?

Always! These tools offer nothing but benefit to you, it is only logical that with Google being able to better sort, co-ordinate and utilize metrics of your site you will benefit, you will also benefit from the metrics you receive and using them to improve your user experience. It is important however to note that Google can use these tools to gauge site relation and therefore its best to keep professional sites to one account and less professional sites (ones that may be more spammy) on (a) separate account(s)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Please tell me how does Google deal with Y ?
 
FireTheWild said:
Hi,
I have one question. I am going to send a reconsideration request for my cpa site. Should I remove the aff links or just make the site more user-friendly ?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

It's hard to say without knowing the other parameters to your site, in general try and follow the rule of thumb of making them no-follow and user friendly. I've found (but have no positive proof yet) that binding them to an image (ie a button) also seems to be favourable.

Greeneye said:
Glad this page came up. I have a strange problem.

I need to promote a brand, let's say it called "Star Dogs", but during the promotion I am not allowed to use the anchor text of "Star Dogs".

Is there a way I can some how rank well for the search term "Star Dogs" without actually using the anchor text in my link building?
Click to expand...

On site SEO does become a big deal but I can't understand why you couldn't anchor "star dogs" as it will be naturally anchored other places. If this is a CPA thing and you aren't allowed to use the term "star dogs" you should note that such a rule normally only applies to purchased placements such as advertisements or Google Adwords bidding. Outside of strong onsite seo there is little you can do, some will suggest that if there is a link to your site commonly placed with text mentioning star dogs it will help as long as it is thematically relevant :)

sirgold said:
I respectfully disagree.

But firmly and entirely disagree. It's been hinted at and suspected in a number of threads in various circumstances and niches over the years that google analytics might actually have been the very cause for loss of ranking and de-indexing of different websites.

While I certainly agree there's no definitive evidence of this, it's totally reasonable to assume that a company whose core business involves advertising and this accounts for the largest part of their corporate profits might and likely WILL do everything to profile each website that might hurt their revenue model. Weeding out all those websites not adhering to their quality standards.

They've built an empire based on ever-evolving, ever-perfecting tools in order to -understandably from a corporate stand-point- maximize their revenue by profiling your content the best way possible. Assuming they won't use Analytics or GWT to help removing potential offending site is wishful thinking at best. Irresponsible at worst. So many alternatives out there: use piwik and you won't have to wonder whether or not the big g is snooping on you.

And let's face it this is a BH forum, so most of OUR (dozen? hundreds?) websites won't certainly comply with those quality standards. As they say, better safe than sorry.

Regards.
Click to expand...

You clearly failed to read what I said correctly, note that if you have spammy sites keep them on individual accounts and especially away from your valued sites. It should come as no surprise to you that spammy websites get swept up more easily the more attention you draw to them; and most of the studies I have seen that mention loss due to analytics talk about using one analytic account not many.

Google does have a vested interest in using it's other products which provide it with further insight metrics and increased exposure, both Matt Cutts blog and many other academic papers by Googlers point to this, keep your sites separate and thematic and their wont be an issue.

Also to speak to your point about "the type of sites we have here" blackhatworld isn't about sketchy sites or spammy sites, we are about educating ourself on the system to create an optimal site, some of the sites owned by members of BHW are in fact higher quality sites than those of anyone else

deki33 said:
Please tell me how does Google deal with Y ?
Click to expand...

I feel your aiming to make a humorous post - and you missed.
 
Does Google view CPA sites as bad to their bots?. Does Google penalize CPA sites?
 
patomica said:
Does Google view CPA sites as bad to their bots?. Does Google penalize CPA sites?
Click to expand...

Hi Patomica,

I imagine you mean a CPA landing page rather than a CPA Network, the only way I can think of a CPA site being penalized in anyway is if your outbound link is do-follow you will loose some value, or if you are low on content or don't follow your basic on-site SEO steps.

Otherwise there should be know way for the bot to identify you any differently than any other page. Although, a site with a number of valuable pages is better than (but won't always outrank) a single page site in Google's eyes.
 
I searched about this on the forum but I'm still not sure if this is the way to check if my backlink is indexed by Google.

Website A links to me on 5th December. My backlink will be indexed when I see the following message?

This is Google's cache of websitethatlinkstome. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT.

Another question. If I get a backlink on an older page that wasn't indexed for a while what service do you recommend I should use in order to get my backlink indexed faster?
 
ionutpop said:
I searched about this on the forum but I'm still not sure if this is the way to check if my backlink is indexed by Google.

Website A links to me on 5th December. My backlink will be indexed when I see the following message?

This is Google's cache of websitethatlinkstome. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT.

Another question. If I get a backlink on an older page that wasn't indexed for a while what service do you recommend I should use in order to get my backlink indexed faster?
Click to expand...

Best way to check if your backlink is seen is through Google Webmaster Tools, verify your site and then go to:

Code: 
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/external-links?hl=en&siteUrl=YOUR SITE HERE

It displays ALL incoming links unlike other backlink checkers which can only see partial inbounds.

If your link hasn't been seen by google I personally recommend "linklicious.me" I have had nothing short of great success using their service.
 
Thank you for your answer.

Btw, what do you think about my theory with checking cache:websitethatlinkstomedotcom? If it's there, it means it was crawled yet.
 
ionutpop said:
Thank you for your answer.

Btw, what do you think about my theory with checking cache:websitethatlinkstomedotcom? If it's there, it means it was crawled yet.
Click to expand...

It's viable in certain cases, it depends if the backlink in discussion was around since the page creation, or later on in a comment or modification. Then you'd have to check not only if it is cached, but rather when it was last cached. It works but webmaster tools is far easier.
 
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