How does Google detect and penalize spammy websites?
1. Google's Googlebot detects spammy websites by using on-page signals such as:
- Keyword Stuffing
- Hidden Content
- Poorly written content is also seen as a spam signal
- Any type of duplicate or plagiarized content that is copied or scraped from other sites
In addition to Google's On-page signal, they also use the backlink profile of a web page to detect
spam by analyzing backlink components like:
- How many links are there in total?
- What is the quality of the pages that they are coming from?
- Are the pages “genuine” or do they just host links?
- What anchor texts are being used? (Link text is also known as anchor text)
- What is the ratio of commercial versus non-commercial anchor texts?
2. What are Commercial anchor texts or Competitive keywords and how do they influence backlink profiles?
A commercial keyword is a competitive keyword term that has HIGH monthly search volume or a HIGH financial value, such as: "Injury lawyer" or "Accident attorney"
- If 80% your anchor texts on a page are backlinks to commercial or high competition keywords, it is likely that the page of content on your site will be seen as spammy
- A natural backlink profile usually has non-commercial keywords in the anchor texts
3. On-page optimization is very important and plays a key factor for your SEO strategy:
Good on-page SEO tactics must be part of your online marketing strategy which is being detailed about the basic elements on the pages of content such as:
- Title Tags
- H1/H2 headers
- Meta descriptions
Off-page SEO (link building) is like
filling your car with premium gas but on-page SEO elements are like the wheels on your
car.
4. What type of link building practices work with Google?
Think of link building like relationship management. If your website is about asset management laws, acquire backlinks that are relevant to financial and legal industries.
- The quality and relevance of backlinks are key to PageRank.
- One backlink from authentic page will do much more than 500-1000 links from spam blogs.
- Quality is always more important than quantity when it comes to backlinks.
