Google, and the History of Link Building.

I can't begin to tell you how sick I am of reading articles and posts that mention the two words "Google" and "penalty" in the same sentence!

So many webmasters are walking on eggshells these days when it comes to Google, and it just doesn't need be.

The most common question I see is "If I do this, will Google penalize me?"

Let me help you ease this nonsense.

Just like anything in life, there is a portion of common sense that needs to be implemented when optimising a website for the internet. When you come across a technique that you may be questioning in the back of your mind, just think it thru.

You may want to sit down for this one. It may blow you away ;0).

The fact of the matter is, Google rarely penalizes webmasters for anything. Yep, that's right..you heard me...RARELY!

Why is this, you may ask?

Well, it's quite simple. Google didn't become #1 in search because they were the best at penalizing the most sites. They became #1 because they have an excellent way of solving problems. You see, when you hear webmasters complaining that they were penalized, well in most cases, it's just not so.

Google knows the tricks of the trade, and to maintain their title as 'The king of search', they need to be constantly studying different techniques webmasters are using to try to get better search engine rankings.

Google has mastered the term 'devalue', because that is what they actually do.

Remember back in the day, when all links were created equal? That's because back then, most people linked to your site because it had good content that they thought their users would be interested in, so the links were themed, and they didn't require a link back to them. That is why a lot of the older sites on the net have high rankings. They have many one-way links pointing in.

People caught on.

Then you had webmasters scurrying to get any link they could get their hands on, to point to their site. Didn't matter to them if the links made sense. There were links from gambling, adult, and free games sites, all pointing to an education site. It didn't make sense, so...

Google caught on.

Google found ways to figure out if these links were relative. Those that were not, were 'DEVALUED', not 'PENALIZED'.

People caught on.

Webmasters were also getting smarter. Next came the 'reciprocal links'.

The trading or bartering of links between two related sites. "If you put my link on your homepage, I will put your link on mine". To this day, still very effective, but....

Google caught on.

Google decided this was good. Lot's of good sites linking to each other BUT, this link schema isn't quite as good as if site A, linked to site B, without site B linking back, so Google 'DEVALUED' the links, not 'PENALIZED' them.

People caught on.

Now people are buying links to their sites from any other sites that have high pr. Thus giving them a one way link and a PR transfer. Not a bad idea, but...

Google caught on.

Google is thinking, "Now why in the world would this quality PR8 web hosting site have a text link to this PR2 Viagra site? Pretty easy answer huh?
So Google 'DEVALUED' this type of link.

People caught on.

Now people are buying RELATED links on RELATED sites. This is good!

Personally I see nothing wrong with this, and I don't think Google does either. This is called 'Advertising', and it is a common, normal, honest form of advertising and marketing for your site. If you look back to the very beginning of the internet, and the first example I gave you, this is almost identical. The only difference is that back then, most people linked to you for free, today, you have to pay.

Does that make all of the other link building techniques worthless? NOT AT ALL! It just means those types of links aren't as valuable, so it will just take more of them to create the same effect.

Well, I am hoping you see my point here? I could go on forever on this subject. The main point is that webmasters need to understand the difference between something being 'DEVALUED', and something being 'PENALIZED'.

Being penalized for something is when you are doing something bad, wrong, illegal, or immoral.

Being devalued, just means that the topic in question is being saturated, and is no longer rare or unique. In order to keep competition and honesty, there needs to be a new and better means developed to maintain an edge.

So next time your site drops in rankings at Google, before you scream 'Penalty', make sure that Google just didn't tweak their algo to devalue your technique.