Link Spamming in the Age of Google Penguin 4.0

• Updated on: 2018-11-16
• Read original article here

Some argue that link spam is booming due to the Google Penguin 4.0 release.

There seems to be a perception this iteration of Penguin is kinder and gentler to spammers.

This, in turn, has purportedly led to a link spam renaissance.

However, to fully understand the current algorithm, it’s helpful to understand the history of Penguin

Penguin, when first rolled out, was unlike any previous Google algorithm update. Introduced on April 24, 2012. It was designed to combat and demote websites engaged in link schemes.

Here’s how the Penguin algorithm has evolved:

Google’s Penguin algorithm ran independently from the core algorithm prior to Penguin 4.0. It was the first time that Google placed a negative value on spammy links, rather than just ignoring them.

Penguin updates and refreshes were completely random. This created a huge problem for websites demoted by Penguin. Even after cleaning up link spam, little, if any, improvement ever occurred before an algorithm refresh.

Penguin 4.0 is now baked into the core Google algorithm.

Bad links are once again, for the most part, ignored, rather than assigned a negative value.

Because Penguin now runs in real time, it won’t take several months or even a year to recover.

Because the latest Penguin algorithm runs in real time, one should, in theory, be able to determine pretty quickly if a particular link scheme is working.

Without the risk of adding negative value to a link profile, some webmasters are taking a more aggressive approach to acquiring spammy links.

There’s no question that some have had success in manipulating the algorithm.

That said, people have been successfully manipulating the algorithm since its inception, and I question whether it’s really any worse now than ever before.

The most egregious link spam seems to come in three forms.

It’s a safe bet that you get emails like the following one that I received, on a regular basis:

You know who else gets these emails? The Google spam team.

Even if these links do provide some value today, (which is debatable) the likelihood of them providing any lift over the long haul is nil. Guest post abuse has been on Google’s radar for years and anyone who engages in the practice does so at their own peril.

Once again, I have to look no further than my Inbox for an example:

Would you like to take advantage of PBN Links and more than 30+ types of links and social media optimization spread over a wide range of anchors? We continuously working for ranking over 600+ sites from the last couple of years found more active now; would you be interested in giving it a go? Here’s What You Get When You Purchase: – Unique & Hand-written contents – The most important factor – Natural indexing blogs – We don’t ping them at all – Trust flow and DA are high enough to bring your site good juice (The Average Domain Authority 20 – 25+ and Trust Flow 10+) – Every Link is Unique IP and we have a variety on links lookup. – Whois Protected and NO Footprints – Popular crawler blocked.

My favorite part is the discussion of no footprints (like every site being whois protected and blocking “popular crawlers”)

Do you seriously think Google can’t spot PBNs? The chance of building long-term success with a PBN strategy is slim to none.

Most PBNs are built using expired domains with legacy backlinks.

Some webmasters don’t bother with the trouble of building out a network and choose instead to simply redirect an expired domain to their site.

I recently had had a prospective client find out the hard way how this can backfire.

If you were paying close attention above, I mentioned that bad links are, for the most part, ignored. But not always.

Even before Penguin rolled out, Google had spam filters in place to detect and demote websites engaged in spammy link activity.

Those filters still exist, today, as chronicled in this email exchange with a prospective client:

I hope you’re doing well. I’ve got an ongoing contract gig with a small business called Redacted.com. As you can probably guess from the name, they help people with (redacted – insert the trophy phrase of your choice here) I’m proposing an approach to SEO for their site and want to include link building as a tactic. They’ve used someone else for that in the distant past… But I’ve always liked you and the results you’ve been able to get, and would at least like to propose using your company to them. Could you let me know what your pricing looks like these days for doing link building …

I always get nervous when clients decide to “help” us out with link building and go rogue.

It’s particularly difficult when the spammy tactic gets some traction.

Before you go out and buy a bunch of expired domains to redirect, check out the next email:

I just wanted to run something by you that may/may not impact our project. So our focus is on the keyword (trophy phrase) largely due to its high search volume and kind of a recent bump up inpositionthat seemed to make hitting 1st page a possibility. Butlatelythe position has started to tank a little. On June 14th, we were in 18th position, but 4 days later we had slid to 71th somehow. I’d like to get your thoughts on why we’d have such a pronounced shift in position. And looking at this trend line for (Trophy Phrase) from Search Console it looks like we had a drop at the beginning of May that lasted 2 weeks, that I hadn’t picked up on before. It seems tome,if we’re in the 18 – 22 rangethen 1stpage is at least a possibility, but at 70 it may not be. The one thing we did that could have impacted things was a domain redirect for the exact match domain site to [redacted].com on 6/9. Please let me know your thoughts on possible causes, and if this change, or volatility, changes your thoughts on the project. Thanks,

Well, it didn’t take a lot of research to figure out what the problem was, and I laid it out very directly for the prospect in my reply:

Spammy tactics like 301 redirects can work – but often it’s a temporary lift.

In this case, the heavy density of exact match anchor text links was not ignored by Google.

In fact, the website was demoted for having those links. Once the redirect was removed, the website recovered.

The biggest changes with Penguin 4.0 include it being part of the regular algorithm and running in real time.

Equally important is the way that toxic links are treated – usually given no value rather than a negative value.

Link audits and disavow file submissions should now result in faster relief.

Penguin is an algorithmic event, not a penalty, therefore a reconsideration request isn’t necessary (or even possible).

The costs associated with a Penguin recovery can far outweigh the “savings” associated with building a website on a spammy foundation