So, finally it would appear Google have taken action against link spam and banned Go Compare - the spammiest of link spammers. Go Compare appear to, not only have been kicked out for car insurance, but don’t even rank for their name.
It appears however, if you scroll through the serps, they are 51st for most terms - e.g. car insurance. Could this simply be a plus 50 penalty?
Anyone want to place bets on when they will return?
As of about 4.30pm GMT today, the Google toolbar ceased showing any green bar ratings for PageRank. All sites are now grey. Does this mean the end to PageRank as we know it or is this simply a glitch? What would the loss of visible pagerank mean to link brokers and buyers?
IMHO - this could be the most effective way Google could combat link spam…
Your thoughts?
Lets dissect the current top three for the phrase ‘car insurance’ in Google UK.
How are they there? What techniques are they using and do they abide by Google’s Guidelines? Lets take a look at the three sites:
Go Compare
First, lets cross the standard SEO on page tactics off the list shall we…
‘Car insurance’ present in the Title, H1 Heading and approx 3 times in copy, as well as in several navigational links pointing back to the home page.. all pretty standard.
Moneysupermarket
Same story here really. ‘car insurance’ present in page title, H1 heading, about 12 times in copy (with density of around 6%)
Tesco Finance
And again, Car Insurance present in title, H1 Heading, 6 times in copy and in navigational links from around site.
So - no variation in any of the ’standard’ on site tricks, no indication of any on-page spamming, no doorway pages, cloaking or BMW style Javascript redirects, just plain well built HTML.
So how about we look at page 11. Result number 101. What is so different to the site at 101 to the big 1,2 and 3?
So what are Isure doing wrong to be one hundred and first? A quick glance below the fold of this (particularly ugly) site will tell you - not that much different to the big 3. Car Insurance in Page Title, H1 Heading and 11 times in copy as well as in 5 headings, a total of around 6%. Now although slightly spammier in keyword density than say Go Compare, certainly not breaking any rules.
Now lets turn our attention to links. Firstly the numbers. Yahoo Site Explorer tells us:
OK - so Yahoo is not the most reliable of link tools - especially for numbers, so lets have a look at some of the link sites themselves.
Clearly, all 4 sites have been purchasing links. Look at GC1 - plain old link buying. Approach a site, offer some cash, up goes the link. Money Supermarket have found a novel way in MS2 with non-rel=nofollow’ed links from most of the major papers - this example being the ‘best buy’ section in the telegraph. Example IS1 - some form of network. Links in straplines, easy to detect one may think - perhaps hence the PR1 of the link site, and poor position of I-sure? Perhaps most interesting of all, check out TF3 - very interesting. Look at the other sites on the page with similar links, now look at this Agencies client list…?!
Plenty of questions now spring to mind. Considering Google’s crackdown on paid links, how can these sites still be there?
Matt Cutts - what are your thoughts?
As a web master for an insurance company you may be asking - how can I even expect to abide by Google’s guidelines and rank in the top 100 if site number 101 is using paid links?
If companies are paying so much for these links, are these results actually very natural? The companies with the deepest wallets ranking the highest?
And see who are in the top 10 natural results.
Biggest brands? Biggest Comparison sites? Deserved of their positions?
Discuss…!
