WebProNews

Exploring The Google Penalty Box

Pick a number between 6 and 950 and you'll likely find evidence, or at least the antecedent number, for a Google ranking penalty. Webmasters and SEOers are in general agreement Google penalizes, and have dubbed them according to their numeric reprimand: -6, -30, -60, -950, and so on. Google inadvertently in cases has acknowledged such penalties exist, but has yet to present any hard and fast rules.

There's Value In Stumbling

Here's an interesting question put forth by webmasters: What's a link in StumbleUpon worth? Well, it's nofollowed, which means not much in terms of link juice. But there may be an indirect value. Part of that, of course, is branding. It's good to be found in as many places as possible. But another value, as noted at SearchEngineRoundtable, is the chance that somebody stumbles upon your site and blogs about it. If so, you've just earned another endorsement and possibly a good link.

Watch Out For Backlink Sabotage

Here's an interesting question: If a competitor really, really wanted to get rid of me and didn't mind being unscrupulous to do it, could he set up a bad link scheme that gets me tossed out of Google's index? Well, maybe. Let's just say that it might be a good idea, especially if you're just starting out and haven't built the credibility and authority yet, to pay close attention to who's linking to you and how much. It would take a lot, mind you, and your nemesis would have to be pretty determined.

The Horror of Search Engine Penalties & Filters

There are two words that are guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of any website proprietor: penalties and filters. They damage rankings and ultimately may result in banishment from the search engines. However, before panic sets in, let us guide you through the basics of penalties and filters. A penalty is caused by significant violations of a search engine's website guidelines, such as:

Video - How Links Can Drive Value

This is a somewhat basic video about how links can drive value. Props to Stunty for his 12 Different Types of Links and How To Get Them. 

10 Ways To Increase Pages Indexed

For a while now webmasters have fretted over why all of the pages of their website are not indexed. As usual there doesn't seem to be any definite answer. But some things are definite, if not automatic, and some things seem like pretty darn good guesses.

Copiepresse Sues EC Over Links

Google's bete noire regarding linking to news stories is at it again, as Copiepresse filed a lawsuit in its backyard against the European Commission.

Internal and External Linking Values

Wiep Knol put together a fantastic document on internal and external linking values.

Cutts, Sullivan Weigh In On Paid Links

The wild debate about Google's increasingly hardline stance against paid links looks like Wimbledon, with Matt Cutts taking on Rich Skrenta, while Danny Sullivan volleys against Michael Gray.

Newspapers Propose New Indexing Standards

This should come as no surprise from the people who’d sue you to stop you from linking to them: at a publishers’ consortium today, after complaining about the limited nature of robots.txt, the newspaper industry has proposed new standards to prevent search engines (and other sites) from indexing their sites willy-nilly.