| SEO Algorithm Factors | Cross-linking Penalties

Avoiding Engine Algorithm Penalties
(Tips)

Content Below at a Glance: Penalties Overview | Unnatural Backlinks | Google Reconsideration Request
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Penalties Overview

It is official! Search engine algorithm penalties do exist, according to Matt Cutts, SEO spam worker at Google.

Webmasters should avoid any probable penalty. This is done by first understanding all superior info on maintaining a search engine friendly site found at Google Webmasters, youtube's Google Webmaster Central, and Yahoo! Search Indexing. The next step is to follow those rules. This will reduce unknown algorithm penalties attached to your website(s).

Motivation: Minimal SE algorithm penalties account for a chunk of the reasons for high keyword rankings. Reasoning Ratios Why a Site Ranks High for Keywords shows this!

"When in doubt, don't." - Benjamin Franklin
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Unnatural Backlinks

The penalty people seem to talk about the most is when your site gets tagged with unnatural backlinks. We should think about how we have manipulated and distributed our backlinks. Then, we should fix the unnatural parts. An answer from JohnMu - Google Employee supports this.

A superior resource to back-up the existence of a cross-linking penalty can be found at: Search Content Quality Guidelines - What Yahoo! Considers Unwanted: Sites excessively cross-linked with other sites to inflate a site's apparent popularity.

Thy Hosting Tips shows webmasters the work needed, to minimize the possibility of a cross-linking penalty.

Tip: Matt Cutts on "Is there such thing as building too many links?"
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Google Reconsideration Request

At Google, a reconsideration request (redirects to sign in), after fixing a probable algorithm penalty, should help. While doing this, what you will find, written by Google, is: For sites that directly profit from traffic, evidence of good-faith is important.
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"There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has the right to blame us." - Oscar Wilde
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This resource can be added to any site:
url: http://www.thyseo.com/algorithmpenalties.html
title: Engine Penalties