Penguin 3.0 struck 20 days ago and roll out is ongoing.
Google's Webmaster Guidelines prohibit such SEO techniques as:
- Large scale link building
- Key word rich links
- Sale and purchase of links which pass Page Rank
These techniques are targeted by Penguin 3.0. Does this mean back-linking jobs are on their way out?
Very good question!
1. Large scale link building is only detected if you leave a digital footprint. So the only way to determine this is if you are doing the link building yourself. If you are buying from micro gig sites, for $5, then there is a huge chance that person is selling those same links to everyone else. LEaving a big digital footprint.
It kills me when I go to these micro gig sites, (I used to resell micro gigs on ebay and other sites) and these people are saying "0 footprints" but after a few jobs with different clients I had I notice its the same links everytime. Big NO NO! Used Google disavow immediately.
2. I've been telling people for the last year to stop using keyword rich links. Especially keyword anchor text. Another bad do.
3. Again, you have to check the source. How many OBL's does the page have? How many buyers have used the same links? There are some good sellers out there, but with outsourcing SEO you better know what you're doing.
I build a monsterous first tier manually. I even do some second tier stuff manually. Social signals and such. Then I can pretty much blast away with what I want. I don't look for long term rankings anyway. Most niches become competitive eventually and it's always wise to keep moving.
Now if you are branding a site, I would do first tier and second tier manual. Put out 1,000 pieces of UNIQUE content as quick as you can. I mean like 100 pieces of content a week. Submit to high PR sites, diversify your links, anchor/non-anchored, profiles, etc...
Then it is extremely important to diversify your linking strategy. If you go and Google images of linking strategies, you see very neat, and organized linking strategies. This too is a digital footprint. It's not natural. It's like, a GMO in the SEO industry. IT's created and not healthy. YOu need your strategy to appear organic!
Cheers
