Szook® Blog SEO - Pozycjonowanie i optymalizacja

 Szook: Hello Kaspar, you work for Google. Can you tell a bit more about your responsibilities

Googlarz: Ever since I joined Google I’ve been working on the quality of our natural search results. While spam reduction in the search engine result pages (also known as SERPs)   remains my main objective, I also enjoy communication with webmasters, as you know. This happens through various channels in a few languages. My favourite is definitely personal communication in the course of events as the Google Day in Warsaw last year when we had a chance to meet and have a chat face to face.

Szook: Many people believe attempts to optimize a site’s rankings are perceived by Google in a negative way.

Googlarz: This is something I would strongly disagree with. If an SEO makes an effort to improve a site’s crawlability, opens new, original content sources to search engine bots and increases the visibility of a site while staying within our guidelines, there is no reason why Google should perceive this in a negative way.

Szook: Looking over top queries I realized that there was not a single site in the SERPs that actually used white hat techniques. Does this mean that white hat SEO is pointless because it does not work?

Googlarz: I would not agree with this statement that white hat SEO is pointless.  I’ve seen a lot of great sites in the Polish Google index performing according to the value of their content. Now have there been sites using techniques outside our guidelines coming up in the SERPs? Yes, it has happened. But this does not mean that white hat SEO is fruitless. On the contrary. Particularly, since we have communicated Google’s stand on link exchange schemes by the end of last year we have seen a positive trend. Anyone who wants their site to build up reputation and maintain it, is well advised to heed Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. I’m using every opportunity given to remind webmasters that a site’s reputation takes time to build and can be easily lost if shady techniques are in use. You were mentioning results you assumed used these kind of techniques. Why don’t you escalate them through the spam report in Google Webmaster Tools, as you have done successfully in the past? As you know, these escalations help improve the quality of our index and make the Internet a better place for everyone eventually.

Szook: Can a quick increase of poor quality links lead to some sanctions by the search engines

Googlarz: You are asking me something a lot of people are interested in - can a competitor harm my site reputation by adding links randomly? Occasionally we have seen situations where negative SEO was showing some results, but not through link exchange schemes. And no, I am not going to contribute to speculations on how futile these attempts were. Let me tell you that time spent on adding or generating links in order to harm competitors is time well wasted.

Szook: What is your opinion on link exchange schemes passing PageRank? Can participating in them harm a site and if yes, in which way?

Googlarz: Link schemes that pass PageRank do violate Google Webmaster Guidelines and they are likely to impact the reputation of a site that does participate in them.

Szook: Link exchange schemes have existed in the Polish market since 2004 and to this day their use has been beneficial. Are any more massive efforts against sites using them to be expected?

Googlarz: On the one hand, as much as PageRank passing link exchange schemes might be beneficial for a short period of time, I would not expect any advantage from them in the longer term. On the other hand, the loss in reputation they can cause can be substantial and outweigh short-term results. And yes, you can expect us to be focused on this issue in the months to come.

Szook: Is auto generating search queries in order to monitor the number of indexed sites and their positions something legal according to your terms of use?

Googlarz: The purpose of Google Search is to organize information and provide accurate results to our users, not to provide information in order to improve rankings. Therefore auto generating queries is a violation of Google’s Terms of Use, in particular of section 5 of our Terms of Service and if done excessively can trigger a lock based on IP address. Also, since we tend to take personalization factors into account, automated ranking checks are less and less significant because they’re not necessarily similar to what actual users see. It’s probably better to check your logs (e.g. Google referrers) to see what searches are bringing you traffic.

Szook: Within the webmaster community there’s no strong consensus on the impact of PageRank on the actual position of a site in the SERPs. Low PR sites do come up higher in the SERPs then high PR sites. However, based on my experience it’s easier to rank with deep documents of high PR sites without making much of SEO efforts. My conclusion is that these days, it’s more beneficial to work on a site’s reputation and PageRank growth, rather then to try to get as many back links as possible. What’s your take on the impact of quality links vs. the quantity of links on the overall performance of a site?

Googlarz: I would not focus on PageRank building, since this is something that’s rather out of the hands of a webmaster but I agree regarding reputation building through great content. I met webmasters who tend to believe this was a tough and a long term process. It’s true that great content is hard to come by over night but I see new sites gaining reputation all the time. Blip.pl is a good example of rather young site growing visibility in the SERPs through great content. So my answer to your question is yes it’s a much more promising strategy to focus on the quality of the content, that would help to gain quality links that stand the test of time, rather then desperately trying to get as many links as possible. In a long term on topic, merit based links are going to impact the performance of a site more then many, low quality links.

Szook: Let’s say I have on my site a banner in the header. Is it alright to use hidden text under the image or shall I use alt=”Advertising Banner” markups?

Googlarz: As long as users and bots get to “see” the same content, you should be within Google’s guidelines. Having the exact same and not too spammy content on and beneath the image should be fine. Once you start hiding content, for example in order to increase keyword density or links your site’s reputation is at stake.

Szook: Does an on topic, moderated directory with outgoing links require the use of rel=nofollow?

Googlarz: In the Polish market there was a time that the reputation of directories suffered a bit since they have been used on a large scale for spamming. That is why webmasters moderating legitimate, on topic directories are concerned. But they shouldn’t be. If you have a moderated, high quality directory with content that does add value to the Internet, there is no reason for nofollowing your outgoing links. However, let me point out that requiring back linking is a clear violoation of Google guidelines because this is building a reciprocal link exchange scheme rather than gaining merit based on reputation. Webmasters demanding backlinks to their directory should not be surprised if it does not perform as well in the Google index over time. Same applies to directories requiring registration fees, which might be seen as paid linking.

Szook: Many SEOs say you guys do not tackle Black Hat SEO techniques because the sites positioned do not violate any guidelines, only their spammy backyards do. Therefore, only thanks to SEOs does Google know how to rank sites, especially those for top queries.

Googlarz: I think Google was already doing a pretty good job indexing and ranking sites before people started optimizing their sites so they would perform in our index Let me assure you we do tackle black hat techniques, no matter which ones you are referring to.

Szook: Does using AdWords have an impact on organic search results?

Googlarz: No. Paid search has no impact on natural search.

Szook: While I was participating in the webmaster help forum community, I figured there’s a lot of webmasters asking why their site has been penalized. Many times, the question is being raised the day after traffic from Google has dropped. What is a reasonable time frame for a webmaster to actually have reasonable concerns?

Googlarz: That’s a great question, I am glad you asked it. We run tests and updates continuously. Also the web evolves, new sites gain reputation and back links. There are other factors that play a role, too as well like national holidays or simply great weather that invites for out door activities rather then working at the computer. Therefore SERP’s fluctuate constantly and one or two days discrepancies are not significant in any way and should not alarm anyone. If there were no results for the site operator query or a general trend showing traffic from Google decreasing over a period of time, I’d say a few weeks as a webmaster I might be concerned. First thing to do would be to compare the site against Google Webmaster Guidelines. It’s probably also worth to think about any recent changes on the site. Has its structure been changed? Has it been participating in link schemes? Has it been hacked? If you don’t find any hints that way, it is best to seek for a second opinion on the Google Help Forum. Once a potential issue is identified I’d go ahead and ask for reinclusion after fixing any problems on the site.

However, you would be surprised how many times sites escalated on the forum are completely fine.

Szook: I have bought a domain that has been penalized by Google in the past. What do I have to do?

Google: So, if you purchased a used domain with a dodgy past, the first thing to do is to remove whatever spam might have been on it and to apply for reconsideration. If you explain the situation briefly, it’s likely your site will get a fair chance to rebuild reputation and regain trust. The same applies to expired domains which get hijacked by spammers for some time. Once you regain control over your domain and clean up what many times is cheap-viagra-free-vicodine-style content, simply explain what happened and you will often be fine.

Szook: A hypothetical case: I run a commercial site offering SEO services. I don’t want to add too much content to it but I have another site where I write about SEO stuff. Can I link from that one to my commercial site?

Googlarz: Is it all on topic? Will users be interested in it? If the answers are yes - go for it. Just mind to keep the linking ratio at a resonable level. Pointing to dozens of domains might look suspicious.

Szook: Which SEO’s should be avoided?

Googlarz: If an SEO would not be able to tell exactly how he or she intended to increase a site’s visibility for search engines, I would be rather careful. I would recommend getting a clear commitment to white hat ethics, otherwise there is a chance some shady techniques will be used. And as we have seen in the past, that can cause more damage to a site’s reputation in the long term than good. In our Help Center there is a article with specific recommendations regarding this topic. And of course, check references.

Szook: How does the Polish SEO industry look in comparison to other countries?

Googlarz: About two years back I would say it was different from other countries in terms of techniques used by SEOs. As of today I would say the remaining difference is in the number of market players. It looks like in the Polish market there are still fewer participants, considering the size of it and comparing it to other countries. I assume it will continue growing in a similar way we have seen it maturing over the last years.

Szook: How much spam is being generated in Poland in comparison to, for example the US, Germany, UK?

Googlarz: Spam does not know borders, I’m afraid.

Szook: I met you personally and I got to know the company. It looks like you guys are normal people working in a nice environment. Still, a lot of people affiliated with SEO perceive you guys and particularly the Search Quality team in a negative way.

Googlarz: First of all thank you. And yes, you are right–the work environment at Google is exceptionally good and the atmosphere is great. I appreciate working with this special bunch of people. I know what you mean when you’re saying there were webmasters who have some negative feelings about the Search Quality team. It’s understandable people get upset if their sites do not perform in the Google index as well as they wished. But let me assure you no one person in my team wishes any harm to webmasters’ work. To the contrary. It’s certainly in our best interest to see a lot of high quality sites in the index, since this is also something that determines our work results. In fact, many people working on Search Quality at Google, including myself, are webmasters themselves. So in the end, I believe we are all members of an exciting industry. 

Szook: What would you suggest to someone just starting to do SEO?

Googlarz: Read a lot! There are great sources for all kinds of questions. Obviously being familiar with our guidelines is crucial but there are also FAQ’s and our support groups as you know. I’d go further and look for industry blogs, like yours or Marta’s and many others. And of course I’d join the industry community on PiO in order to learn from other people’s experience and to draw my own conclusions. Lastly there is a great Guide about SEO written by my colleague and good friend Brandon. If I was a beginner SEO, I’d not miss out on it.

Szook: Since Feedburner has been taken over by Google, does the number of subscriptions impact a site’s performance?

Googlarz: No, it does not.

Szook: Many users complain about their sites being penalized for too many incoming links due to link exchange schemes they claim not being responsible for. Is this really happening?

Googlarz: Incoming links are one signal we surely look at but it is by far not the only one. Think for example of the age of links, something that we also take into account. But it doesn’t stop there. So if you see all of sudden a lot of poor quality, incoming links pointing to your site you should not be alarmed because it just means that some vicious minded competitor wasted some time, fruitlessly trying to harm your site’s ranking instead of improving their own site.

Szook: Can using Google statistics have an impact on the sites performance in the index

Googlarz: No, using Google Analytics does not impact your site’s position in the SERPs. 

Szook: Google does not approve of PageRank passing link exchange schemes, simultaneously allowing advertising with AdWords.

Googlarz: Exactly! It makes sense because AdWords is a targeted adverting program not passing PageRank and not being abused for SEO purposes.

Szook: There are Analytics and AdWords certificates at this point of time. Does Google have any plans to offer any SEO certificates, doing so to promote services that use the right techniques?

Googlarz: This is an interesting thought, however I am not sure if the idea is applicable. Offering such a certificate could potentially give an advantage to corporate webmasters versus less solvent site owners. Currently I cannot confirm any such certificate programs being planned

Szook: Users searching for the same query do not always get the same results. Does Google intend to personalize results based on users’ behaviour?

Googlarz: Different results on the same query do not necessarily indicate personalized results, as you might be using different data centers depending on the traffic load and your location. However our results are being personalized if you are signed in with your Google Account. There is much more to know about Google’s Personalized Search but I will not reiterate the information here. Instead I invite anyone interested to have a look on our FAQs.

Szook: In the course of the GoogleDay event I’ve learned that apparently you guys are working on natural language analysis. With Polish being a rather complex language, have you been able to proceed with it well?

Googlarz: At this point of time I can not go into deatils but yes, we do continue to improve our semantic analysis for both understanding documents and queries better.

Szook: With a site in Polish, does the physical server location have an impact on the site’s ranking?

Googlarz: The physical location of your server can have an impact on your site’s position in the SERPs for certain queries, for example geographical ones. But this is again just one signal we take into account. Another would be the top level domain. Unless your site has a country-specific top level domain like .pl/ or .de/ you can use the geo localization tool in  Webmaster Tools to tell Google which country your target user group is located in.

Szook: Google’s home page is designed in a very efficient way. Does design efficiency as loading speed and a reduction of server requests through expire tags and css sprite, impact a site’s performance in the Google index?

Googlarz: Surprisingly few sites in the Internet are being designed in an efficient way. Or even in a way meeting some sort of standards. If we gave them some sort of bonus we might not see many of the sites currently ranking in the top ten results. Having said that, I’d like you to imagine a heavy site that gives the bots a hard time in crawling them. Well, if we constantly have a hard time crawling a site, that might impact the crawl rate, effectively reducing the refresh rate in our index. Currently lean coding is a good thing but if you just ensure the site is accessible to the bot you should be fine, too. However, as you know we keep on experimenting and evolving our ranking algorithms, which is why I would not rule out the possibility of counting new factors in the future.

Szook: Using Sitemaps to allow or deny Googlebot access to documents within a site, what is the best PageRank distribution strategy?

On another note, please keep in mind that you can not disallow indexing documents using Sitemaps.

Szook: If my contents are being scraped and used on many other sites without my approval, can this affect my site’s reputation?

Googlarz: I would not be concerned about this. People ask me about this all the time and my answer is still the same. You would be surprised how accurate Google algorithms are in determining the original source of information. Has it happened that scraped content sites have ranked higher then the original source? It has. But over time, this is not something that occurs on a regular basis. My take is that this is not an issue to be concerned about.

Szook: I happens that an optimized document ranks for keywords it has not been intended to rank for. Occasionally users seem not to appreciate these results either, as indicated by high bounce rate. Is there a way to inform Google that a particular document is not meant to rank for particular keywords, as some option in Google Webmaster Tools that says block these keywords?

Googlarz: Currently there is no way of blocking the ranking of a document for certain keywords. The best way for a webmaster of changing the way Google sees it is analyzing the document itself and changing the content accordingly.

Szook: A lot of webmasters blame their competitors for using link schemes in order to harm their sites rankings. Have you guys thought of allowing webmasters to accept or reject back links in Google Webmaster Tools, so everyone has full control over their incoming links?

Googlarz: As I said in my post on links this is not something webmasters should be concerned about. We hear the suggestion to allow accepting or rejecting links through WMT from different sources and we are certainly looking into it, however at this point of time I would not see this as a high priority project.

Szook: Hacking and injecting malware seems to be a rising trend these days. Does malware on a website impact the site’s ranking beyond the malware warning message in the SERPs?

Googlarz: If a site’s security gets comprimised but the content is not being affected generally there should be no long-term effects, though it’s possible that there are fluctuations in the short term as the site needs to be re-evaluated. That applies to sites that happen to be hacked and abused for malware distribution. 

Now, if the hacker changes the content of the site, e.g. he injects a ton of hidden links on it, that is a different story. In that case Google might make an effort to reach out to the webmaster in charge and inform him/her about a scheduled temporary removal of the site from our search results. The mail we would try to send includes also information on where to look for the hacked content and how to apply for reconsideration once the site has been fixed.

Szook: Many webmasters consider intext links more valuable then footer links for example. Personally, I doubt that, since it seems to make sense to refer in the footer to related sources if I’ve published an article on a particular topic, right? In text links however would make the user interrupt reading in order to open the linked source or to scroll back and forth after finishing reading. Looking from both an SEO and a usability point of view what is the better way to do it?

Googlarz: I would not underestimate users and their ability to cope with different navigation scenarios. In my opinion in text links do not constitute for a worse usability experience then footer links. I hesitate to give a strong recommandation on the one method or the other, since I think both ways are fine. It really comes down to what the webmaster decides is the best user experience for his target group.

Szook: Does Google recognize sub domains, free alias services, regional and functional domains?

Googlarz: Yes it does. There was a minor glitch with regional domains in Google Webmaster Tools but we were fortunately able to fix this quickly.

Szook: How comes that PageRank updates seem to happen quite irregularly? When is the next one coming up?

Googlarz: As you know Google PageRank is still an important factor for us and we calculate it constantly. However we don’t want webmasters to over obsess about PageRank as it is in constant flux. Therefore, while we push PageRank updates for the Google Toolbar now and then, we prefer not to announce it in advance or elaborate how we choose the timing.

Szook: Webmasters happen to choose rather generic keywords. For example a webmaster running a forum on cars wishes to rank for the term forum. Or someone running a real estate business in Stettin targets the city name. I many cases both of them would have to wait long time any result, if they would ever see any. And even then the incoming traffic might not be the most desired one. It seems no different with AdWords campaigns. I’ve been running some tests on that, analyzing the quality and quantity of the traffic. What would you suggest, what is the best practice if it comes to defining keywords so a webmaster does not end up targeting too broad terms?

Googlarz: That is an interesting question. One way that seems to work quite well particularly for single topic sites is a quick survey among your friends and family. By simply asking them to describe the site in their own words you get an idea what users might be searching for. It’s not a very scientific method but it shows surprisingly good results. It’s worth to keep in mind that user behavior is constantly evolving and that we see more and more queries that contain more then one or two words. That is good news because it allows webmasters to draft content that will attract more specific traffic to their sites. It’s also important to, if appropriate, adopt the language of the target group, like slang for example. Lastly I would make sure to look into synonyms of defined keywords, as users might use them while searching for the contents of your site.

Szook: If you were looking for an SEO consultant, how would you make your choice?

Googlarz: I would probably optimize my site on my own But seriously, if I was looking for a trustworthy SEO consultant first thing I’d do would be to ask my friends. There is nothing like a recommandation from someone you trust. It is also a good idea to review our document on Google Help Center describing how to find an SEO. A strong commitment to white hat SEO and transparency on what would be done on the site are essential. I would be very carefull to choose an SEO that makes any strong statements regarding actual rankings, because this is something no one can really guarantee.

Szook: Does reporting spam to Google make any sense? Many webmasters raise that question on the help forum and express their doubts if the reports made were ever reviewed.

Googlarz: That is a question I hear a lot and I understand the disappointment webmasters can experience after reporting spammy sites and not seeing any immidiate impact. Let me elaborate a bit on the process we use for spam report escalations. We get a lot of these and also a lot of great leads among them. The way we sort the reports is by the impact the reported sites might have on users. Let’s say there is a site being reported a lot of users come across in the SERPs — it’s likely we will prioritise this site review over sites that are less visible in our serach results. The review process is manual and done by Googlers, despite any other rumors

The outcome can vary, depending on what is going on on the site. It can be manual action being taken, if the site violates Google Webmaster Guidelines. Many times however it would impact the development of our algorithms allowing Google to scale up search quality efforts. Therefore you might not see an impact on a site in our SERPs right away, however your escalation was not in vain.

Szook: About a year ago link schemes were widely used but these days they seem to be little popular. Did you see any trends regarding link schemes and regarding their use by webmasters?

Googlarz: I am glad you are asking this. You are right, twelve months ago the awareness for potential harm the use of PageRank passing link schemes can cause to the reputation of a site was relatively low. Fortunately, our efforts to communicate on this topic seem to show results and we see fewer and fewer webmasters jeopardising their sites’ rankings by participating in SWL’s. The topic is still one of our focus areas and I am optimistic that our next steps to come will show an even greater impact and hopefully contribute to further reducing the use of PageRank passing link schemes.

Szook: Let’s talk about Google Caffeine. I had a look on Matt Cutts’ blog post regarding upcoming algorithm updates. My guess is the vast majority of these changes will kick-in in English before it will be effectively visible in the Polish index. However I hear a lot of people saying and I read on a number of blogs Caffeine changes were gradually visible in Polish results, too. However, in my personal opinion it is going to take a bit before any change will be clearly visible and English results will be affected first. Can you share any insights on the roadmap scheduled?

Googlarz: To be honest I would not expect Caffeine to cause a lot of visible changes in the SERPs in any language. Any recent changes users might see are unlikely to be related to Caffeine, since it has not been rolled-out yet. My guess is they are regular index updates. Now, once Caffeine is fully rolled out there might be slight differences power users take notice of but that’s about it. Caffeine is meant to improve our infrastructure and to help serving results faster and more accurate, rather then to shift rankings. You are right regarding the road map, the roll out will happen gradually over time but again this is not something we would announce in detail ahead of time.

Szook: I’d like to prepare the next interview as a podcast. Is that possible?

Googlarz: I am looking for new channels to communicate with webmasters and I guess we can  look into this.

SEO google, positioning, search, search quality team, SEO