Funny link selling story - Matt Cutts tweeted Vince at WebDesign.org

This article on SearchEngineLand made me laugh.

http://searchengineland.com/selling-links-big-brand-heres-dont-tweet-187179

Now let's see what Google does about this clear violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines and how long it takes Google to do something.

Currently this site WebDesign.org is ranked #2 for "web design" on Google (very impressive).

Also this site is a PR6 with many PR5 internal pages and no gray bar pages from what I can see.  I would say this is currently considered a super powerful and highly ranked website by Google.

In the SearchEngineLand article it really made me laugh when I saw what Matt Cutts tweeted to this guy Vince.

Negative SEO article on Forbes - SEO Sabotage

Today Forbes released a very interesting article regarding negative SEO and I am glad.
Hopefully this will help promote this issue and make people aware and put pressure on Google to change some of their lame policies that lead to innocent websites and people being penalized.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/03/18/negative-seo-have-mercenaries-been-hired-to-torpedo-your-search-rankings/

In this useful article Matt Cutts is quoted as saying:

"In my experience, there's a lot of people who talk about negative SEO, but very few people who actually try it, and fewer still who actually succeed." He goes on to say, "I know that there's been a lot of people stressed about this. Whenever we dig into what's actually going on, there's been a lot of discussion but very little in ways of actually people trying to do attacks."

Bullshit from Matt Cutts, Google cannot even find and detect obvious paid links correctly, how can they claim they can detect negative SEO?

I do not believe Google has any clue about how often this really happens.

No Google is NOT Doing Enough to stop this terrible problem of negative SEO.
Google needs to decide which backlinks to count and which ones to ignore, that is their job, not the job of business owners.  It is ridiculous for Google to create this problem, then tell website owners they must do a lot of work to protect themselves from the problem Google created in the first place.

Google SEO Sabotage

Update 9-1-14
Not much has changed since I first wrote this article below.

By: Tom Forrest
Email: tomforrest@htpcompany.com

Hello Google,

Google has created a new industry “SEO Sabotage”, I have seen several cases of this and it is easy to do.  You can now easily have your competitors penalized by Google and your competitors can also easily have you penalized by using bad link building methods and procedures that Google does not like.

This article is one of many real life examples.

http://blog.kevinfream.com/2012/09/01/seo-sabotage
Another good SEO Sabotage article to read. 

http://www.seobook.com/negative-seo
The author (Aaron Wall) is one of the best SEO experts in the world.  Many people are SEO pretenders and do not know what they are talking about, Aaron Wall is a true SEO expert that I respect.

I just found another good SEO Sabotage example and even though I do not know the author, when I read his article I can tell that he is an excellent SEO expert.
http://www.itstheroi.com/google/google-fail-victim-of-negative-seo-still-suffering 

This is Google's latest Disavow information:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-new-tool-to-disavow-links.html

This SEO Sabotage problem is not going away, it is becoming huge and many people are very angry at Google because of this terrible new Google policy that started in 2012.
Please look at what this web site is selling:
NegativeSEOguy.com

It is common sense… webmasters can control who they link to, they can Not control who links to them.  There is no way around this basic fact and now it is leaking out and many people email my company asking if we can sabotage their competitors with “Bad Backlinks” that Google does not like.

Furthermore you are penalizing way too many innocent webmasters.

Just Google “Google SEO Sabotage”  there are many interesting stories to see.

I am just trying to help Google. This is the worst problem Google has created in over five years.
I own Google stock, and as a long term shareholder I am very unhappy and many people knowledgeable about SEO are very unhappy and upset with Google over this ridiculous policy of penalizing web sites for something out of their control, and now the huge increase of SEO sabotage Google has caused.

Thank you in advance for your consideration on this issue.

HTP Company 5 Star Rating

HTP Company

 based on 15 reviews.

This company's business is Search Engine Optimization, Internet Advertising and Consulting Services.

Category:		Internet Search Engine Optimization Services
Address:		30961 Agoura Rd, Suite 215 Westlake Village, CA 91361 (800) 213-8530
Web Site:		http://www.htpcompany.com

Customer Reviews & Ratings

Wes R.       In summer of 2010 I began speaking with HTP Company regarding aSEO campaign. For years our website has struggled to gain a footing on search engines, partly due to a site design flaw and partly due to another SEO company's failure to live up to goals. I was interested to try HTP Company and found many great reviews of their service online. I can report that HTP Company was able to fix the design flaw in our site as well as create a fantastic SEO campaign to help us grow our business.  In a few months our site is now showing up near the top on all major search engines for our keywords. I would definitely recommend hiring HTP Company as they are experts in their field and easy to work with. Posted on 12/20/2012

Mike Georgia       The ranking results from HTP Company are outstanding.  HTP is one of the few company's that I have hired that can handle clients issues properly. They seem to know who I am when I phone them, and they are friendly with me. They understand that their business is technicial and doesn't lend it self to personal relationships, HTP Company really combats that feeling by always knowing who I am and handling any issues in a personal manner, and quickly.  » Bookmark  |  » Send a Message  |  Posted on 12/13/2012 Was this review...? Useful (1) Funny (0) Flag this Review

Everyone at HTP Company has been professional and very knowledgeable. Our website traffic has dramatically and steadily increased since we started working with HTP. I would highly recommend them to any business for SEO. Mich Keller V.P. Sales & Marketing MateStone International, Inc. Posted on 12/2/2012 Useful (2) Funny (0)

Google Updates Their Link Building Policies Again

Google has updated their policies again and it is as confusing or more confusing then ever.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
At the bottom of this Google page, you can put your rating and comments.
I put: Google should just decide what links to count and not count and leave web site owners alone, and stop penalizing innocent web sites.

Google has the average website owner so confused they do not know what to do.  Google continues to penalize innocent web sites and implement their still vague and confusing rules unfairly.  I will say Google is trying, however the results are poor, it certainly does not make anyone who has received an unfair penalty from Google feel any better.
Furthermore when you see all the evil hackers and spammers running wild on the Internet you can not help thinking, why is Google not better at going after the bad guys and why does Google manually and unfairly penalize innocent web sites?

Google has never been willing to admit any mistakes, the best any website owner can hope for is that Google may fix their defects and mistakes over time.  One site www.ichatdev.com had an unfair penalty from Google for 2.5 years, and the website owner never changed a single thing and finally after 2.5 years Google just removed the penalty that should have never been there in the first place.
This is why I always recommend business owners have multiple web sites registered by private proxy and hosted on different servers located all over the world.
I know a guy that has a $50,000,000 per year business, most of it coming from online sales and Google unfairly penalized his main web site, and thankfully he had followed my advice and made a full recovery in less then one year.

Below are excepts from a good article that zdnet wrote.  The problem is after you read this article three times you will still be confused about what Google is trying to do now.

Excerpts from:
http://www.zdnet.com/did-google-just-kill-pr-agencies-7000019182/
However, under the new rules, Google could penalize a PR firm's client web site because it will view the links as an attempt to unnaturally promote the site! Only "natural" growth in the popularity of a web page is allowed.

Tom Foremski does not mention the huge problem Google has created called SEO Sabotage or Negative SEO, which I have seen several cases of and I have helped people write emails to Google explaining they have been a victim of SEO sabotage by one of their competitors.  Google just sticks their heads in the sand and pretends this does not happen, when it has been happening for years now. It is also possible to trick Google to penalize an innocent online business owner via complex duplicate content generating schemes. Google's current policies are just making this negative SEO a huge and rapidly growing problem.  Even when presented with overwhelming proof of SEO sabotage, Google will not acknowledge the problem even exists.
Please click on this link it explains the concept correctly:  http://www.negativeseo.biz

Today Google also put out a bunch of new videos and Matt Cutts seems like a gracious and very nice person, however not one word is mentioned in any of these new videos about Negative SEO or SEO Sabotage.  Google we have seen many cases of SEO sabotage, it does happen and happens often.  If Google makes a nice video and tells me the sky is not blue it is green, guess what Google it ruins your credibility.  Clearly Matt Cutts is a highly intelligent and talented person, who makes great videos, so how can he believe or pretend to believe SEO sabotage does not happen?
If this is what Google honestly believes they are amazingly naive and in denial of the true facts.
http://searchengineland.com/google-releases-six-videos-on-typical-manual-spam-actions-169226


I wanted to research what blackhat SEO forums are saying about Google's new Link Building Policies.  The question was asked:
Can Competitors use Negative SEO and Sabotage your rankings with Google?

Below is a screen shot with the correct answer to this question.

Duplicate Content a very Common Business Owner Mistake

A very common business owner mistake is to accidentally create duplicate content and be penalized by Google.

Many businesses write articles to help promote their business and think that sending that article out and trying to get it published is a good thing. They also put these same article(s) on their web site and do not realize this is against Google Guidelines. It is not easy for business owners to understand all of Google Guidelines, however as the old saying goes "ignorance is no excuse for not following the law".

The following is what I just sent one of my clients about duplicate content.

Google wants each unique article in one place on the Internet. Other wise they will consider it SPAM and will take your site completely out of Google.

This is the case if you have this duplicate content on your site and on others sites at the same time.

Another form of duplicate content SPAM is where the content is not on your site, however is on hundreds of other web pages. Then these sites could be penalized by Google and the links pointing to your site will not be counted as a vote for you by Google. Furthermore if Google saw massive abuse of the same content being placed on many thousands of web sites they may take even more severe actions to penalize the wrong doers.

Important Questions to ask Google

Dear Google,

I have a big client that competes with Molly Maids, this is one that wants to understand Google Places rules fully before they try going into Google Places.

Important Information Regarding Google Local

By: Tom Forrest
Email: tomforrest@htpcompany.com

Webmasters are Afraid to give out any Links

By: Tom Forrest
email: tomforrest@htpcompany.com

I read an article by Matt Cutts of Google and decided to try out Google Knol. This is a beta product by Google and is supposed to feature articles by experts on many different topics from rabbit hunting to search engine optimization. The article that was here can now be found at:

http://knol.google.com/k/gototomcom/why-webmasters-are-afraid-to-give-out/1e6zag6lzbyuw/1#


I am not sure how well Google Knol will work and this is my first test of it. What I am hoping is that many more people will see my article on Knol then would normally see it on my Blog. I will report back on the results after three months.


Please feel free to email any comments to me at: tomforrest@htpcompany.com and I will post them here. Even if you totally do not agree with me I will still post your comments, as I am into freedom of speech, one of the greatest benefits of being an American.


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Big Yahoo Scam the Federal Trade Commission has just Ignored

*

By: Tom Forrest
Email: tomforrest@htpcompany.com

Yahoo puts in paid sponsored results in with the free merit based non-sponsored results for every search results page. This is why in my opinion Yahoo is misleading and deceiving consumers and is violating Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations. Please read the background and details below.


I was contacted by some major news organizations about my previous article and they asked me to cut out the nerd talk so they could understand it better. Below is that non-nerd version.

I am angry that the incompetent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ignored the biggest Internet advertising scam of all time. It has been perpetrated by Yahoo for many years now.

Some people have reported this Yahoo scam to the FTC. However 99% of the general public do not know and understand what Yahoo is doing. Once people do understand it they think that it is wrong what Yahoo is doing and that the FTC should not allow it.

Do you understand the Yahoo Scam?

Do you know what Yahoo is doing?

I mean at a very basic level, 99% of people do not know and that is why it is so wrong and evil. Yahoo puts in paid sponsored results in with the free merit based non-sponsored results of every search results page. This is why in my opinion Yahoo is misleading and deceiving consumers and is violating FTC regulations. Even though they have separate sponsored (paid) and non-sponsored (free) sections on any search, some percentage of the so called merit based non-sponsored (free) results are really sponsored (paid).

From the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
"Advertising must tell the truth and not mislead consumers."

So if Yahoo does not tell consumers a search result is paid for and Yahoo deceives the consumer and pretends like the paid search result is there based on merit only, then Yahoo advertising is not telling the truth and is misleading the consumers. Then if the consumer makes a bad decision based on Yahoo's deception, isn't that wrong?

Yahoo is deceiving the general public.

The below is from Yahoo's web site:

Where are sponsor results shown on the Search results page?
Sponsor Results: Sponsor Results are sites that pay for placement in search results on keywords that are relevant to their business. These listings participate in the Yahoo! Sponsored Search program and appear on Yahoo! Search results pages and other sections of Yahoo!. You'll see Sponsor Results when they're relevant to the specific search terms you used. For example, if you search for "digital cameras," you'll see Sponsor Results for web sites that provide information about or sell digital cameras. Sponsor Results are separated from other results on Yahoo! Search results pages so you can tell them apart.

Now if the above was always true, then Yahoo would not be deceiving the consumers. However since Yahoo is putting paid sponsored results in the free results section, Yahoo is deceiving consumers and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) needs to fine Yahoo and make them stop this evil dirty trick against the general public. Don't you want to know what search results in Yahoo are being paid for and what results are free?

Furthermore Google and the Microsoft (MSN) search engines do not do a scam like Yahoo does, not because they could not make a lot of money doing it. The reason Google and MSN do not do it is because they know it is evil and wrong and they may have problems with the FTC if they did what Yahoo is doing.

Since Yahoo maybe in violation of the FTC regulations Matt Cutts has been promoting lately, I ask everyone who reads this article to write to Matt Cutts asking him to enforce Google's guidelines and the FTC regulations by completely removing all of Yahoo's web sites and all of Yahoo's web pages from the Google search engine. Yahoo is in my opinion the biggest violator of Google and the FTC guidelines in the world. Also, ask Matt Cutts if the Google and FTC regulations apply to all web sites, or just some web sites?

The other sad part of this is how Yahoo treated small webmasters when they started their paid inclusion scam. This was right after they purchased Inktomi. I think I may still have the email Yahoo sent me. It basically said pay us for every click to be in the non-sponsored natural listings of Yahoo or we will kick you out. So I refused because I knew this was totally evil and perhaps a violation of FTC regulations. One of my web sites is still not in Yahoo because I refused their evil attempts to make me pay. The reason it maybe a violation of FTC regulations and Google guidelines, is that when web surfers see these listings in the natural non-sponsored rankings, they are not marked that they are really paid for. This is deceiving the general public.


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