Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Dont Violate Your Quality GuidelinesPosted by randfish Recently, Moz contributor Scott Wyden, a photographer in New Jersey, received a warning in his Google Webmaster Tools about some links that violated Googles Quality Guidelines. Many, many site owners have received warnings like this, and while some are helpful hints, many (like Scotts) include sites and links that clearly do not violate the guidelines Googles published. Heres a screenshot of Scotts reconsideration request: (note that the red text was added by Scott as a reminder to himself) As founder, board member, and majority shareholder of Moz, which owns Moz (of which YouMoz is a part), Im here to tell Google that Scotts link from the YouMoz post was absolutely editorial. Our content team reviews every YouMoz submission. We reject the vast majority of them. We publish only those that are of value and interest to our community. And we check every frickin link. Scotts link, ironically, came from this post about Building Relationships, Not Links. Its a good post with helpful information, good examples, and a message which I strongly support. I also, absolutely, support Scotts pointing a link back to the Photography SEO community and to his page listing business books for photographers (this link was recently removed from the post at Scotts request). Note that Photography SEO community isnt just a descriptive name, its also the official brand name of the site. In both cases, Scott linked the way I believe content creators should on the web: with descriptive anchor text that helps inform a reader what theyre going to find on that page. In this case, it may overlap with keywords Scotts targeting for SEO, but I find it ridiculous to hurt usability in the name of tiptoeing around Googles potential overenforcement. Thats a one-way ticket to a truly inorganic, Google-shaped web. If Google doesnt want to count those links, thats their business (though Id argue theyre losing out on a helpful link that improves the link graph and the web overall). Whats not OK is Googles misrepresentation of Mozs link as inorganic and in violation of our quality guidelines in their Webmaster Tools. I really wish YouMoz was an outlier. Sadly, Ive been seeing more and more of these frustratingly misleading warnings from Google Webmaster Tools. (via this tweet) Several months ago, Jen Lopez, Mozs director of community, had an email conversation with Googles Head of Webspam, Matt Cutts. Matt granted us permission to publish portions of that discussion, which you can see below: Jen Lopez: Hey Matt, I made the mistake of emailing you while you werent answering outside emails for 30 days. :D I wanted to bring this up again though because we have a question going on in Q&A right now about the topic. People are worried that they cant guest post on Moz: moz/community/q/could-posting-on-youmoz-get-your-penalized-for-guest-blogging because theyll get penalized. I was curious if youd like to jump in and respond? Or give your thoughts on the topic? Thanks! Matt Cutts: Hey, the short answer is that if a site A links to spammy sites, that can affect site As reputation. That shouldnt be a shock--I think weve talked about the hazards of linking to bad neighborhoods for a decade or so. That said, with the specific instance of Moz, for the most part its an example of a site that does good due diligence, so on average Moz is linking to non-problematic sites. If Moz were to lower its quality standards then that could eventually affect Mozs reputation. The factors that make things safer are the commonsense things youd expect, e.g. adding a nofollow will eliminate the linking issue completely. Short of that, keyword rich anchortext is higher risk than navigational anchortext like a person or sites name, and so on. Jen, in particular, has been a champion of high standards and non-spammy guest publishing, and Im very appreciative to Matt for the thoughtful reply (which matches our beliefs). Her talk at SMX Sydney—Guest Blogging Isnt Dead, But Blogging Just for Links Is—and her post—Time for Guest Blogging With a Purpose—helps explain Mozs position on the subject (one I believe Google shares). I can promise that our quality standards are only going up (you can read Keris post on YouMoz policies to get a sense of how seriously we take our publishing), that Scotts link in particular was entirely editorial, organic, and intentional, and that we take great steps to insure that all of our authors and links are carefully vetted. Wed love if Googles webmaster review team used the same care when reviewing and calling out links in Webmaster Tools. It would help make the web (and Googles search engine) a better place.Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you dont have time to hunt down but want to read! Moz Blog
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:00:13 +0000
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