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John Mueller Answers What to Do About Link Building

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John Mueller Answers What to Do About Link Building

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about link building practices in an Office Hours hangout. Mueller outlined Google’s passive and proactive actions against certain links and offered suggestions for a better way to acquire links.

Is it Necessary to Spend Thousands of Dollars for Links?

The person asking the question noted that he watched many link building YouTube videos and read case studies that demonstrated that link building is necessary for best rankings.

The question asked:

“…The question is on link building practices. So we …approached many… companies… they say they will charge thousands of dollars or ten thousands of dollars to get the link… from the home page or the news sites and…

They also talk a lot… about …we should get a high authority …link and stuff like that.”

Next he explained how companies he approached showed him examples of sites that were high ranking because of their link building.

The person continued:

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“…they also showcase that okay, see this is a site which is ranking high on …Google and …they have taken our service and they have paid us.

So if you pay us then your site will also rank because we are going to put …your site backlink with the good article on the home page…”

Are “Such Practices” Necessary to Rank in Google?

Next he questioned the wisdom of spending money on what he perceived as low quality link building, what he called, “such practices,” implying manipulative practices.

He seemed troubled that according to the link building claims, Google’s search rankings reward manipulative practices that cost thousands of dollars.

He continued the question:

“I don’t think that it is wise to put money in such practices or not. Like what are your opinion, like what are your final wordings?

And one more thing. …There are a lot of people over at YouTube and they’re writing a lot of blogs also like these are the best link building practices, you do this… and you do like that and they are charging a lot of money but we don’t want to engage in such stuff like that.”

The person asking the question ended by asking:

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“We just want to know… what we should do now?

Screenshot of John Mueller in the Office Hours Hangout

Screenshot of Google's John Mueller answering question about links
Google’s John Mueller paused to answer the question about what to do about link building

How Google Treats Manipulative Link Building

John Mueller related how Google treats artificial links:

What should you do now

I think that’s a super complicated question because there’s no one answer for everyone.

So I think first of all, like you probably recognized, artificially building links, dropping links on other sites, buying links, all of that is against the webmaster guidelines.

And we take action on that algorithmically, we take action on that manually.

And the actions that we take include demoting the site that is buying the links, demoting the site that is selling the links.

Sometimes we also take more subtle action in that we just ignore all of those links.”

Screenshot of John Mueller Explaining How Google Handles Paid Links

Screenshot of John Mueller explaining how Google handle's links

Google: Paid Links Have No Effect

Google’s John Mueller says paid links have no effect:

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“For example if we recognize that a site is regularly selling links but they also have other things around that, then we often go in and say okay, we will ignore all links on this website.

That basically means …a lot of these sites are things where people still sell links because it’s like they can sell it and they find a seller then of course they’ll try to do that.

But those links have absolutely no effect.

So that seems like a big waste of time from my point of view.”

Mueller Describes Non-Black Hat Links

Mueller ends his answer by suggesting Google-friendly link building tactics.

His first suggestion is the classic create content and tell others about it approach. It’s an oldie but a goodie but it can work.

Mueller suggests to build it and tell others about it:

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“That said, I do think that there are ways that you can approach the topic of links in a way that is less black hat where you’re buying links from other sites.

But where you’re actually kind of actively creating content that you know will attract links and then going out and reaching out to other sites and saying hey, we have this interesting content, don’t you want to take a look at it.

And …kind of encouraging them to link to your site but without this kind of exchange of value, exchange of money, all of that.

And that’s something where some people are very experienced in doing that and they can really kind of guide you to find those topic areas that are interesting for other people.”

Building Links to Product Pages is Hard

Creating content and telling others about it isn’t always an appropriate strategy for an ecommerce website.  An ecommerce website offers products, not articles.

Attracting links to product pages is one of the toughest kinds of links to acquire because people generally don’t feel enthusiastic about certain products and when they do feel enthusiastic the typical ecommerce store is one store of out thousands selling the same product.

The problem with attracting links to product pages is that it’s extremely difficult to make the case that one store out of thousands is more deserving of a link than the other stores selling identical products.

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The tactic of building content to help rank a product page rarely works because the links acquired for that content boosts the content and not the products.

One can internally link from the content pages to the product pages and that might help.

But I’ve rarely seen that happen, even for content pages that went viral.

There is simply no replacement for a direct link to a products page.

Here’s what John Mueller said about acquiring links:

“Where if you’re selling refrigerators then obviously a category page of refrigerators is not going to be very interesting for other people.

But if you can create a survey around refrigerators that is somehow fascinating to others that’s something that’s a lot more interesting for people where they say, oh… here’s this really cool survey about refrigerators.

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Did you know that they were like this or they were invented like this or whatever.

That’s the kind of thing where you’re creating something that other people find interesting that other people want to link to.

From my point of view that’s the kind of link building that I have less of an issue with because you’re creating something that other people are linking to it because of what you’ve created.

But it’s not that other people are linking to your content because you’re giving them money to do that or because you have kind of these back door relationships with the other site.

So that’s kind of the direction I would take there.”

Mueller Warns Against Link Building Shortcuts

Next Mueller turns away from offering constructive suggestions for building links and returns to discouraging short term solutions because they can get you banned, don’t go for short term rewards at the expense of long term success. That’s pretty much what he advised (you can watch the video below if you’re interested).

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Links More Important than Popularity?

Some sites have built-in advantages that help them acquire links.

For example, a wildly popular store cannot rank for their key terms, forcing them to pay to rank for those terms. Their popularity is driven through social media.

A keyword phrase that the popular store should rank has a search result that has in fourth place a regional brick and mortar with stores in a handful of rural states.

Site A is the wildly popular store and Site B is the regional store.

Google Trends Showing Search Popularity of Two Online Stores

Google Trends of Popular Clothing Store Versus Less Popular Store

Site A is wildly popular online with tens of millions of followers on social media.

Site B has social media followers in the low six figures.

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The Google Trends graph makes it clear that there is enormous search traffic for Site A’s brand name but Google ranks a relatively unpopular website as #4 for a highly coveted two word keyword phrase.

The relatively unpopular Site B is a regional site that acquires many links from regional news media sites. They also have live links (with coupon codes) from “influencers” which seems to indicate an active promotional campaign.

How Popular is Site A?

Here is a Google Trends graph showing how Site A is nearly as popular as McDonald’s:

Google Trends Graph Comparison with McDonald’s

Screenshot of Google Search Trends for McDonalds

As you can see, site A is nearly as popular as McDonald’s but it can’t outrank a regional store that happens to have decent links…

Circling back to the person who asked John Mueller the question, one can understand the frustration that is inherent in the question that was asked:

“We just want to know… what we should do now?

Citation

Watch John Mueller answer discuss link building at 1 minute mark:

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Understanding the Impact of Google’s November 2024 Core Update on Global Search Rankings

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Understanding the Impact of Google's November 2024 Core Update on Global Search Rankings

Introduction

In November 2024, Google launched its latest core algorithm update, a broad refinement designed to enhance the quality of its search engine results. Rolling out over approximately two weeks, the update continues Google’s ongoing commitment to delivering more relevant, useful, and high-quality search experiences for users worldwide. This article explores the nature of the November 2024 Core Update, its potential impact on websites, and strategies for site owners to adapt and thrive in its aftermath​.

1. What Is a Google Core Update?

Core updates are large-scale changes to Google’s search algorithms. Unlike targeted updates aimed at specific sectors or issues, core updates broadly impact all regions and languages. They reflect Google’s effort to re-evaluate how content is assessed and ranked based on relevance, usefulness, and reliability. Previous updates include significant releases like the March and August 2024 updates, illustrating the frequency and scope of these changes​.

2. Goals of the November 2024 Core Update

The November update focuses on refining the quality of search results. According to Google’s official statements, it seeks to amplify genuinely useful content while reducing the visibility of content primarily designed to manipulate rankings without meeting user needs. This effort emphasizes Google’s consistent push for “people-first” content—engaging and useful information that serves users, not search engines​.

3. Key Features and Characteristics of the Update

  • Global Impact: The update affects search rankings on a global scale and is not confined to any particular industry or niche​.
  • Rollout Duration: Spanning about two weeks, the rollout’s timing allows Google to fully implement algorithmic changes and assess their effects.
  • Broad Adjustments: The update doesn’t target specific sites but involves systemic reassessment across Google’s ranking systems.
  • Dynamic Search Environment: This core update follows in the footsteps of the August and March 2024 updates, representing a year of significant search result refinement​.

4. What This Means for Site Owners

  • Traffic Fluctuations: Websites may observe shifts in rankings and traffic during the update’s rollout and subsequent completion. These changes highlight the dynamic nature of Google search and require continuous monitoring and adaptation​.
  • Recommended Actions:
    • Wait and Analyze: Site owners experiencing changes should wait until the rollout’s completion before making significant adjustments.
    • Utilize Google Search Console: Compare traffic and ranking data from before and after the update to identify potential areas of improvement.
    • Focus on High-Impact Pages: Pages with notable drops in ranking should undergo thorough content evaluation using Google’s guidelines

5. Recovery and Adaptation Strategies

Recovering from a negative impact due to a core update may take weeks or months as Google’s systems adjust and validate content changes. Site owners should prioritize delivering high-quality, reliable, and user-focused content. Specific steps include:

  1. Content Evaluation: Assess content against Google’s guidelines, focusing on readability, user satisfaction, and factual accuracy.
  2. No Quick Fixes: Avoid superficial changes aimed solely at improving rankings. Sustainable improvements are more valuable and impactful​(November 2024 core upda…).
  3. People-First Content: Ensure content serves real user needs, as opposed to purely SEO-driven objectives. This aligns with Google’s long-term priorities for search quality​

6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Updates

The November 2024 Core Update continues trends observed in previous updates like March and August 2024. While each update has its nuances, their collective goal remains consistent: bettering search quality and delivering relevant results. Comparing data from these updates can reveal patterns and offer insights into Google’s evolving criteria​

7. Broader Implications for the SEO Industry

Google’s ongoing core updates underscore the critical importance of a user-centric approach to SEO. For digital marketers and SEO specialists, adapting strategies to these updates involves staying informed, using reliable analytics tools, and keeping content fresh and engaging. The need for adaptability is paramount, as Google continually shifts the parameters of what defines quality content

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Conclusion

The November 2024 Core Update serves as a reminder that Google’s algorithmic changes are not designed to punish but to reward helpful, authentic, and user-focused content. Site owners and marketers who embrace this philosophy are better positioned to weather core updates and even benefit from improved rankings and traffic over time. By maintaining a focus on user experience, transparency, and relevance, creators can align with Google’s evolving standards and thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape

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Google Warns About Misuse of Its Indexing API

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Google Warns About Misuse of Its Indexing API

Google has updated its Indexing API documentation with a clear warning about spam detection and the possible consequences of misuse.

Warning Against API Misuse The new message in the guide says:

“All submissions through the Indexing API are checked for spam. Any misuse, like using multiple accounts or going over the usage limits, could lead to access being taken away.”

This warning is aimed at people trying to abuse the system by exceeding the API’s limits or breaking Google’s rules.

What Is the Indexing API? The Indexing API allows websites to tell Google when job posting or livestream video pages are added or removed. It helps websites with fast-changing content get their pages crawled and indexed quickly.

But it seems some users have been trying to abuse this by using multiple accounts to get more access.

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Impact of the Update Google is now closely watching how people use the Indexing API. If someone breaks the rules, they might lose access to the tool, which could make it harder for them to keep their search results updated for time-sensitive content.

How To Stay Compliant To use the Indexing API properly, follow these rules:

  • Don’t go over the usage limits, and if you need more, ask Google instead of using multiple accounts.
  • Use the API only for job postings or livestream videos, and make sure your data is correct.
  • Follow all of Google’s API guidelines and spam policies.
  • Use sitemaps along with the API, not as a replacement.

Remember, the Indexing API isn’t a shortcut to faster indexing. Follow the rules to keep your access.

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This Week in Search News: Simple and Easy-to-Read Update

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This Week in Search News: Simple and Easy-to-Read Update

Here’s what happened in the world of Google and search engines this week:

1. Google’s June 2024 Spam Update

Google finished rolling out its June 2024 spam update over a period of seven days. This update aims to reduce spammy content in search results.

2. Changes to Google Search Interface

Google has removed the continuous scroll feature for search results. Instead, it’s back to the old system of pages.

3. New Features and Tests

  • Link Cards: Google is testing link cards at the top of AI-generated overviews.
  • Health Overviews: There are more AI-generated health overviews showing up in search results.
  • Local Panels: Google is testing AI overviews in local information panels.

4. Search Rankings and Quality

  • Improving Rankings: Google said it can improve its search ranking system but will only do so on a large scale.
  • Measuring Quality: Google’s Elizabeth Tucker shared how they measure search quality.

5. Advice for Content Creators

  • Brand Names in Reviews: Google advises not to avoid mentioning brand names in review content.
  • Fixing 404 Pages: Google explained when it’s important to fix 404 error pages.

6. New Search Features in Google Chrome

Google Chrome for mobile devices has added several new search features to enhance user experience.

7. New Tests and Features in Google Search

  • Credit Card Widget: Google is testing a new widget for credit card information in search results.
  • Sliding Search Results: When making a new search query, the results might slide to the right.

8. Bing’s New Feature

Bing is now using AI to write “People Also Ask” questions in search results.

9. Local Search Ranking Factors

Menu items and popular times might be factors that influence local search rankings on Google.

10. Google Ads Updates

  • Query Matching and Brand Controls: Google Ads updated its query matching and brand controls, and advertisers are happy with these changes.
  • Lead Credits: Google will automate lead credits for Local Service Ads. Google says this is a good change, but some advertisers are worried.
  • tROAS Insights Box: Google Ads is testing a new insights box for tROAS (Target Return on Ad Spend) in Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns.
  • WordPress Tag Code: There is a new conversion code for Google Ads on WordPress sites.

These updates highlight how Google and other search engines are continuously evolving to improve user experience and provide better advertising tools.

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