The links schemes or link schemes are for Google any link placed to manipulate the search engine ranking. And they are seen as an attempt to manipulate Google’s guidelines. Google considers the following link schemes:
- Includes exchange for money, for goods, services or shipments of products.
- Exchange of direct links if you link to a page and they link to yours.
- Guest post campaigns or market many articles.
- Services or programs that create links.
- Request a link as part of a contract agreement.
Google also considers unnatural links to be link schemes, such as ads or advertising that passes PageRank. Links in low-quality directories, hidden links, and comments in forums are even frowned upon. Seeing your website’s backlinks will help you understand which links point to your website and what tags they have.
Get to know the Link spam update, the new Google algorithm update
Links have always been the subject of debate within SEO. They help position websites since Google takes them as recommendations from other sites to yours, but it must always be done carefully to avoid being marked as spam.
Google announced its latest algorithm update: Link Spam Update. That it seeks to make its algorithm more effective in identifying and removing spam links, the rollout began on July 26 and will take at least two weeks to complete in all languages.
In the Google Search Central blog, they explain this update in detail. They mention that it is part of their efforts to improve search results quality and fight against link spam or link schemes. The recommendation is that you follow Google’s best practices, which they will explain later. In addition, you must create quality content and improve the user experience. They say that this will always be better than manipulating links.
Partitioned, Guest and Affiliate Links
From Google’s information, it is understood that the spam link update emphasizes sponsored links, guest content and affiliate content. At the beginning of the Google ad post, they indicate that they understand that creators look for different ways to monetize their websites and blog and that these methods have led them to create outbound links. If those links are excessive or not marked correctly, they could violate Google guidelines. In short, with this update, Google wants site owners to pay more attention to how they handle links in content where there is an exchange of value.
Link Scheme Best Practices
The Google Search Central post on the Link Spam Update indicates that links are ways in which the search engine understands what content may be helpful to people and that it may be suitable for the sites that receive it. They clarify that “as long as it deserves them.” Sites must tag links when something is exchanged for them between two domains—specifically, affiliate, sponsored, and guest post links.
Affiliate links
Affiliate links are a way that blogs and websites earn income. It is about making product reviews or shopping guides that include a link to a product. Google does not see this practice badly as long as it is done well. To have affiliate links that Google well sees, you must mark them as rel=” sponsored”, whether they have been created manually or dynamically. If sites don’t do this, they may get a manual penalty from Google, which can affect the site’s ranking.
Sponsored post links and guest post
Google understands this is a way to monetize blogs, which are articles written on behalf of one website to publish on another. They are frowned upon if they are done with the primary intention of gaining links.
If sponsored or advertising links are used, that is, paid links, they must be marked with rel=” sponsored”. At the same time, those for writing guest posts should be marked as rel=” nofollow”, according to Google’s recommendations.
In the new version of WordPress, it is straightforward to mark these options when you edit the post: If you don’t follow Google’s link recommendations, you may receive a manual action, which is a penalty.
Link spam update is the new update of the Google algorithm. It would help if you were prepared for it and take care of the way in which you mark the outgoing links and the ones you receive to your website.
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