Google has stood by its word and has penalised link networks in two countries. Networks in Spain and Italy have had action taken against them after they apparently ignored warnings from the search engine giant, that there would be consequences should their rules regarding paid links be violated.
Webmasters in Spain and Italy were warned last week about the potential penalties, which were made public in an announcement by Google on Friday. This news was then confirmed in a tweet by Google’s head of web spam Matt Cutts.
A reminder (in Spanish) about unnatural/paid links and that we’re willing to take action on them: http://t.co/uTBdJpRNbw
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 10, 2014
And here’s a reminder about unnatural/paid links for Italian: http://t.co/OoA4dSXqhI#hint#hint
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 10, 2014
The announcement was first made by a Dublin based member of the company’s team for search quality. Google employee Giacomo Gnecchi posted a tweet in Italian about the penalty that had occurred in Italy, by a link network. He said:
“We have undertaken significant action on websites/blogs with paid links that pass PR and its Italian buyers.”
Abbiamo intrapreso un’azione di rilievo su siti/blog con link a pagamento che passano PR e relativi buyer Italiani http://t.co/A10M4FwO16
— Giacomo Gnecchi (@giacomognecchi) March 14, 2014
Another Google member of staff then posted a tweet written in Spanish about the incident and penalisation that had occurred in Spain:
Hoy hemos tomado acción n blogs n castellano qu contienen enlaces d pago pasando PR y en los respectivos compradores- http://t.co/XZxKagJMip
— Javier Perez (@JavierTweeting) March 14, 2014
Unfortunately there is no full translation of what Javier Perez, who is also based in Dublin, said but luckily Matt Cutts went on to provide some clarification of the matter on Friday evening, by posting a general translation and overview of the message that Google were expressing on Twitter. He said:
(Translation: we’ve taken action on Spanish and Italian link networks that violate our quality guidelines.)
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 14, 2014
These are only two examples of the action that Google is starting to take all over the world in a bid to put a stop to any websites that it claims, have acted against its rules and guidelines regarding the use of paid links. There will undoubtedly be more cases like this as Google makes a stand against sites who misuse their facilities. The message is clear, do it right and don’t cut corners. If in doubt then take on the services of a reputable SEO Management agency.
