Google banned links pages??

[Jack Norton]

Anyone should read this :)
I noticed last week an incredible drop on referrals and wondered what happened. Then they (Terragame site owner, very good affiliate) told me that Google changed his algorithm and now completely remove all pages with the word LINK either in page name (links.htm) or in the page itself (Check those friend links).
While I really don't understand this move, I'd like to suggest anyone to simply change their page names from links.htm to partners.htm and so on. Also change phrases like "More links" to "More developers" or "More friends" and so on.
That should work, until google will ban any site that doesn't use adwords :mad:

[Adrian Lopez]

Anyone should read this :)
I noticed last week an incredible drop on referrals and wondered what happened. Then they (Terragame site owner, very good affiliate) told me that Google changed his algorithm and now completely remove all pages with the word LINK either in page name (links.htm) or in the page itself (Check those friend links).
While I really don't understand this move, I'd like to suggest anyone to simply change their page names from links.htm to partners.htm and so on. Also change phrases like "More links" to "More developers" or "More friends" and so on.
That should work, until google will ban any site that doesn't use adwords :mad:What do you mean they remove all pages with the word "link" on it? A search for the word "link" reveals 188,000,000 hits, while a search for "links" reveals 274,000,000 hits. Furthermore, a search for links.htm reveals 2,730,000 hits.

Are you referring to something else about Google?

[simonh]

Jack probably means that links pages are no longer used as part of the PageRank algorithm, however this does not necessarily mean such pages are removed from Google.

[Jack Norton]

Yes exactly :p
I meant that before if you had 10.000 link from a standard LINKS.HTM page, you could have Google Rank of 8, now you have Google rank of zero or almost... :eek:
I already changed my page so anyone linked from me can sleep well ;) It would be kind if you can change your link to mine too (I've made links exchange with many devs here).

[cliffski]

read this a few other places too. I changed my links page name. can't do any harm...

[samnova]

Any URL's with this information ?
I'm about to re-apply for AdSense, as I got turned down with a OLD website.. all new now.
So I guess I will ask about this issue in my email to them.

Cheers,
Sam

[Redclaw]

Actually I think there's more to it than google just disregarding pages named "links".

They seem to be disregarding ALL reciprocal links from their calculations.

Do a search on google for the following:

link:www.blitwise.com

In the past, this would have shown lots of link backs coming from retro64.com, mking.com, etc. because they all share those button links on each page of their respective sites. But now, almost all of those backlinks are no longer showing up.

So it seems if site A links to site B, and site B links back to site A, google disregards it. It's not that the pages have been removed from the search engine, but just that the link is no longer used.

Seems kinda stupid really. I read that the whole point of this was to stop big link swapping database sites (you know, when a company has like 20 websites, each with 1000 pages of nothing in particular, but they all link to each other thereby boosting their rankings) from dominating the listings. But I don't see how this will be accomplished by this change because there are ways around it.

This looks more like a blanket measure that will do more harm to the legitimate link exchangers than those it intended to target.

Looks like you added your link to the forum just in time Mike. :D

[GameStudioD]

I have been doing website development a lot lately and there are too many people taking advantage of Google. Rank manipulation, insane link exchange sites, adsense fraud, people making sites just for high paying adsense words, etc.

I am glad that Google changed their algorithm and there is probably more changes coming soon. Google needs to preserve its integrity as a search engine. As soon as people dont find what they want because a company is manipulating the situation, Google will become useless.

Look at your 'partner' page, Jack, how is that beneficial to anyone or anything but your search engine rank? Are your customers just begging for more links?

[Jack Norton]

Look at your 'partner' page, Jack, how is that beneficial to anyone or anything but your search engine rank? Are your customers just begging for more links?
I don't know how many referral I give to those sites.
However I have stats for mine :)
From several other sites, who have links pages like mine, I get from 20 to 50 more daily visitors! Yes, some sites bring me more daily visitors than Google.
I really think that the links exchange doesn't benefit only the page rank at all...and surely I won't stop doing it if it can bring me and other devs sites (both friends and not) more exposure and sales ;)

[Andy]

I was guessing this to Jack just by yesterday that all our attempts to dance along of Google music is such a big..... :(
And looks like this is really so.

[simonh]

Looks like you added your link to the forum just in time Mike.
Well Retro64 is the top-listed site for the search term 'free computer games', and on the first page for 'computer games', so I don't think these recent changes have done Mike any harm :)

[arcadetown]

They seem to be disregarding ALL reciprocal links from their calculations.

I see what you're talking about with your site but we didn't see any effect on our many reciprocal links. Try putting a space in there like "link: blitwise.com" (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=link%3A+blitwise.com&btnG=Search). You'll see more links. Not sure why G does it to some sites but it's doing it to yours. Also note, some people claim google toolbar no longer shows updated PR (hasn't updated for 3 months now) in an attempt to curtail PR link swapping.

Tried recently to search for hotel for a get away. See why G is cracking down as a bunch of useless referral sites dominate the first few pages of listings.

[Mike Boeh]

Well Retro64 is the top-listed site for the search term 'free computer games', and on the first page for 'computer games', so I don't think these recent changes have done Mike any harm :)My stuff all stayed the same, and I do some major link swapping with my long-time buddies on the homepage...

I am thinking about going back to targeting "downloadable games", "game downloads", or "download games". They all brought me more traffic than "free computer games" does now, which surprised me. I still think "free game downloads" is the best, but there are hundreds of others to try too; I originally picked "free computer games" because everyone else was targeting "free game downloads", I guess because Pavlina was....

I have watched dexterity's alexa ranking drop a lot since he's no longer top dog for that phrase (free game downloads). Of course, these forums may have contributed a lot to his traffic too, take a look at this:

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=http://forums.indiegamer.com/#top

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.dexterity.com

Alexa is always fascinating. I wish the toolbar didnt record my online buying habits :)

[anothersomething]

It appears Google doesn't like people exchaning links for the sole purpose of SE ranking. In my opinion this is a good thing because it will give a a better oppurtunity to new webmasters to get link exchanges (people will be linking for traffic and not worry so much about PR) with established sites.

Also, i've noticed Yahoo! cares a lot about keyword density. I found an angelfire.com page in the top 50 for "download free games" because it was filled with "download games free games great games for pc download computer solitaire pacman all games for free we have everything all great games are free download breakout arkanoid blah blah..."

On google I doubt it was in the top 1000.

[arcadetown]

Think all that's being said is G will ignore links on links pages for link popularity purposes. The reciprocal link thing am doubtful about. Anyone seen these discussed in SEO forums? Personally think links and promotion are far more important, if combined with proper SEO the search traffic will follow.

@Retro64: what about "Free Game Download Free Computer Games"? Might see hits for combinations you didn't expect like "Game Download Free" or "Download Free Computer Games" for example. Could hurt placement for highly competitive keywords but probably not by much if any. Like you said top keywords are tough so why hang your hat on one keyword.

[lexaloffle]

Dear Webmaster at http://www.indiegamers.com

We have visited your site and found it both interesting and informative. We would like to propose a partnership arrangement with your site which will boost your google page rank and provide you with new customers and greater profit. Please add a link to us, and we'll find someone who is linking to you that you are not linking to and link to them. Or, we could flip a coin to see who gets the PR.

Regards
Metanet Information Mediation Services Inc.

[anothersomething]

Dear Webmaster at http://www.indiegamers.com

We have visited your site and found it both interesting and informative. We would like to propose a partnership arrangement with your site which will boost your google page rank and provide you with new customers and greater profit. Please add a link to us, and we'll find someone who is linking to you that you are not linking to and link to them. Or, we could flip a coin to see who gets the PR.

Regards
Metanet Information Mediation Services Inc.

lol

Pretty soon google is going start finding banning page a if it links to b which links to c which links to d which links to e which links to b which links to f which links to a.

[jmiller]

If you are ever banned from Google here are some good fixes:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=378789

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=365207

[Anthony Flack]

No matter what Google do, people will find ways to exploit it, and then Google will have to change its algorithm again. No wonder they're so secretive.

[princec]

I worry a lot about the implications of a monopoly in the search engine ecosystem.

Gone from Google == out of business.

Can we live with this situation? We are all more or less 99.9% dependent on Google one way or the other now Download.com is useless. Either that, or we're forced to submit to the big online games portals. This is deeply distressing.

Cas :)

[Anthony Flack]

What, you think all sales come from people typing "free game download" into google? (of course, I'm sure it doesn't hurt to top that list...)

[Chris Evans]

Yeah, I'm kind of glad I don't get much traffic at all from Google. Well okay I'm lying, I wish I got more traffic from them, but I do worry about the Google monopoly. I find it troublesome that a single quirk or adjustment in Google's search algorithm can sink or swim a lot of businesses.

I know a lot of people love Google, but I don't understand why almost everyone is embracing their search engine monopoly. Even if they're a good company, it just gives them way too much power and limits our options.

When I ran couple of sites from '98 - '01, my search engine traffic was fairly evenly distributed for the most part. I got quite a bit of traffic from Yahoo because I was listed in the directory, but I still got a fair amount from other search engines such as Excite, Alta Vista, InfoSeek, and others. Now in '04 those search engines barely register a blip. Google now accounts for about 80 -95% of a lot of site's search engine traffic.

This is why you see so many people freak out everytime Google changes the pagerank. As Indies it's to our advantage if there are more viable search engine options out there. If Google stays the only big player, imagine what happens if Real partners with Google and creates a dedicated sponsored game section. Basically the same thing that happened to download.com...

Anytime things consolidate and we have to deal with gatekeepers, it's not a good thing for Indies.

[princec]

An awful lot of them seem to :/ And it's not just indie game developers either... it's anybody trying to run an independent business on the Internet.

Cas :)

[James C. Smith]

It is a little trouble to consider the power Google has. But I am glad they did what they did in this case. As a user, I want my Google searches to return the most relevant results not the results who used the most clever tricks to make Google think it was relevant.

As a developer of a games destination page, I don’t get overly concerned about my web site’s ranking in Google or other search engines. I don’t that is the most important way to find new customers.

[Rainer Deyke]

It is a little trouble to consider the power Google has. But I am glad they did what they did in this case. As a user, I want my Google searches to return the most relevant results not the results who used the most clever tricks to make Google think it was relevant.

The problem is that they filtered out many relevant links, while not stopping clever tricks at all.

[DFG]

Anyone seen these discussed in SEO forums?

We had been discussing it over at WebmasterWorld for 2 years, it was bound to happen.

The truth is Google is an insanely simple algorithm and they are protecting it the best they can. When you can get 20 good link partners and use whatever anchor text you want and rank on those terms = insanely simple algorithm.

What we are seeing now is just filters on top of that simple algorithm. Turning off or turning down reciprocal link weighting is 1 tool to combat what they feel is falsely manipulating their algorithm. You can argue this all you want but it doesn't change the fact they will do what they want regardless of how you feel about it. They are in a big business, the hottest stock on Wall Street and the darling of the NASDAQ. They MUST protect their algo at all costs. Roll with the punches....or wait till MSN releases their new engine next month.