Reciprocal links were once the thing to do at the turn of the century.  Many feel a reciprocal link negates the value.  This does not seem to be the case.  One cannot say all reciprocal links are bad.  For example if the New York Times interviewed me and linked to this site, I most certainly […]

If Google Webmaster Tools says that your site has been penalized, there are some actions to take.  Unfortunately, not every penalty can be removed.  Not every site will recover from a penalty.  If you had a good site with quality linking that historically was “natural”, but during a period of time went spammy, then there […]

If a directory charges a fee to do a manual review and the directory is relevant to your sites topic, pay the fee.  This is a business decision, not a search decision.  Yes, you are spending money for a link on a web page.  But that page is a relevant directory. There are paid directories […]

Google says press releases including anchor text do not help search rank.  While not all press releases are spam, pr web, business news wire, etc will allow you to put what ever links you would like.  As such, this is a spam.  Anchor text and keyword stuffed releases offer no value. Some press releases are […]

Can the link disavow tool be used more than once?  Yes, use it more than once.  However, disavow a different collection of URLs each time.  Do not disavow the same URL more than once. The bigger question is whether or not to use it at all.  Some may be concerned that Google is using this […]

The age of search engine optimization is moving from the wild, wild, west where the one with the most keywords stuffed into meta tags won to an era where human readable content that adds value overall is the winner. That being said, assigning authority to this human-readable content is Googles mission.  Google attempts to return […]