A reminder about links in large-scale article campaigns
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Thursday, May 25, 2017
Lately we've seen an increase in spammy links contained in articles referred to as contributor
posts, guest posts, partner posts, or syndicated posts. These articles are generally written
by or in the name of one website, and published on a different one.
Google does not discourage these types of articles in the cases when they inform users,
educate another site's audience or bring awareness to your cause or company. However, what does
violate Google's guidelines on link schemes
is when the main intent is to build links in a large-scale way back to the author's site. Below
are factors that, when taken to an extreme, can indicate when an article is in violation of
these guidelines:
Stuffing keyword-rich links to your site in your articles
Having the articles published across many different sites; alternatively, having a large number
of articles on a few large, different sites
Using or hiring article writers that aren't knowledgeable about the topics they're writing on
Using the same or similar content across these articles; alternatively, duplicating the full
content of articles found on your own site (in which case use of
rel="canonical",
in addition to
rel="nofollow",
is advised)
When Google detects that a website is publishing articles that contain spammy links, this may
change Google's perception of the quality of the site and could affect its ranking. Sites
accepting and publishing such articles should carefully vet them, asking questions like: Do I know
this person? Does this person's message fit with my site's audience? Does the article contain
useful content? If there are links of questionable intent in the article, has the author used
rel="nofollow"
on them?
For websites creating articles made for links, Google takes action on this behavior because
it's bad for the Web as a whole. When link building comes first, the quality of the articles
can suffer and create a bad experience for users. Also, webmasters generally prefer not to
receive aggressive or repeated "Post my article!" requests, and we encourage such cases to be
reported to our
spam report form. And lastly, if
a link is a form of endorsement, and you're the one creating most of the endorsements for your own
site, is this putting forth the best impression of your site? Our best advice in relation to link
building is to focus on improving your site's content and everything—including links
—will follow (no pun intended).
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle discourages large-scale link building schemes through contributor or guest posts when the primary motive is link manipulation, not user value.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eArticles with excessive keyword-rich links, widespread publication across numerous sites, or low-quality, duplicated content may violate Google's guidelines.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsites publishing such articles risk lower search rankings due to perceived quality issues, emphasizing the need for careful vetting of guest content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle penalizes websites creating link-focused articles as they degrade the web's quality and user experience, recommending genuine content improvement instead.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters receiving aggressive article submission requests are encouraged to report them to Google's spam report form.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google has observed a rise in spammy links within guest, contributor, or syndicated posts. While these articles are acceptable when informative, they violate guidelines when primarily used for large-scale link building. Key indicators of violations include keyword-stuffed links, wide distribution across numerous sites, content from uninformed writers, and duplicate content. Google advises sites to carefully review articles, use `rel=\"nofollow\"` tags on questionable links, and focus on content quality over link acquisition to avoid impacting their website ranking negatively.\n"],null,["Thursday, May 25, 2017\n\n\nLately we've seen an increase in spammy links contained in articles referred to as contributor\nposts, guest posts, partner posts, or syndicated posts. These articles are generally written\nby or in the name of one website, and published on a different one.\n\n\nGoogle does not discourage these types of articles in the cases when they inform users,\neducate another site's audience or bring awareness to your cause or company. However, what does\nviolate [Google's guidelines on link schemes](/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#link-spam)\nis when the main intent is to build links in a large-scale way back to the author's site. Below\nare factors that, when taken to an extreme, can indicate when an article is in violation of\nthese guidelines:\n\n- Stuffing keyword-rich links to your site in your articles\n- Having the articles published across many different sites; alternatively, having a large number of articles on a few large, different sites\n- Using or hiring article writers that aren't knowledgeable about the topics they're writing on\n- Using the same or similar content across these articles; alternatively, duplicating the full content of articles found on your own site (in which case use of [`rel=\"canonical\"`](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls), in addition to [`rel=\"nofollow\"`](/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/qualify-outbound-links), is advised)\n\n\nWhen Google detects that a website is publishing articles that contain spammy links, this may\nchange Google's perception of the quality of the site and could affect its ranking. Sites\naccepting and publishing such articles should carefully vet them, asking questions like: Do I know\nthis person? Does this person's message fit with my site's audience? Does the article contain\nuseful content? If there are links of questionable intent in the article, has the author used\n[`rel=\"nofollow\"`](/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/qualify-outbound-links)\non them?\n\n\nFor websites creating articles made for links, Google takes action on this behavior because\nit's bad for the Web as a whole. When link building comes first, the quality of the articles\ncan suffer and create a bad experience for users. Also, webmasters generally prefer not to\nreceive aggressive or repeated \"Post my article!\" requests, and we encourage such cases to be\nreported to our\n[spam report form](/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/report-spam?pli=1). And lastly, if\na link is a form of endorsement, and you're the one creating most of the endorsements for your own\nsite, is this putting forth the best impression of your site? Our best advice in relation to link\nbuilding is to focus on improving your site's content and everything---including links\n---will follow (no pun intended).\n\nPosted by the Google Webspam Team"]]
