My Take on Google’s Deindexing of Blog Networks

April 11th, 2012 | 14 comments

blog network deindexing I know, I know, I’m late to the party. Everyone else and their brother have already told you one of the following regarding Blog/Content networks:

- The sky is falling and all blog networks are worthless.
- The sky MIGHT be falling, proceed with caution.
- The sky is NOT falling and people are overreacting.

But, as a regular user of LinkVana (LV) and 1WayLinks (1WL) and also as someone who personally knows and communicates weekly with the owners of both of those networks, which happen to be two of the most popular and effective blog networks on the market, I can tell you that I’m not worried about Google’s deindexing of BuildMyRank (BMR) and although I obviously can’t say for certain, I honestly don’t believe that LinkVana or 1WayLinks will be going away anytime soon.

The sites within the networks of both LV and 1WL continue to have a very high index rate and many of those sites continue to pass a great deal of authority to the sites they link to.

I confirmed the high indexing rate from the owners themselves and the continued amount of high authority passed as a long-time user of both networks. Both networks are ran by VERY SMART internet marketers! Both of which I know very well and both have put into place some very creative and effective measures to reduce the SE footprint left for SE’s to pick up. I don’t know how BMR was setup, but it obviously left some heavy footprints.

Could Google still figure out all of the sites in each of the networks? I’m sure they could break the law by creating an account with both networks and use other shady techniques to figure it out. They could rely on users to report the links via webmaster tools, which they have been doing. And by doing that they can probably find a few of the sites in the network, but not the entire networks.

Google has done things like this in the past and they have successfully “nuked” a small percentage of the top network’s sites, but they always recover. The fact is, the guys running these networks have been in this game for a very long time. And while the possibility of Google discovering and nuking all of the sites in these networks is there, in my opinion, which was formed on insider information, I believe it is highly unlikely. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

I even added a fresh, unindexed site to the 1WL network a day after I head about BMR’s de-indexing. The site was indexed on the SAME DAY and the entire site, including all new posts, are fully indexed in google today!

But even if that likelihood was high, the fact is the networks are currently just as powerful as ever. And unless you rely solely on them for your backlinks, you have very little to worry about. I mix in links from LV, 1WL, Web Directories, Social Bookmarks etc. and continue to get excellent SEO results on just about every phrase I target.

14 comments

bj (1 comments.)
11th April, 2012 at 3:30 pm

I think your point about not depending on any ONE link building technique is important. According to what I’ve been reading about the purpose of the Panda update, it’s key. Too many people were gaming the system, and Google had to react, unfortunately.

I haven’t yet used blog networks, and admint to having some trepidation about them after the recent dust-up regarding them. But curiosity will probably have me trying one on a new site with nothing to lose just to test this out myself!

Thanks, Josh.
Gary Lambert (6 comments.)
11th April, 2012 at 4:51 pm

Yes I agree with you. I think it is a scare tactic by Google. I got several of the 700,000 emails Google sent out. Worst case scenario they devalue the links coming from these Blog Networks. If they started giving out a negative values on the Blog Network links rogue SEO’s would be able to take out the competition instead of compete with them. I am still using Linkvana on some site but I am diversifying my link building even more now.
Ron's Copy-e-writing Blog (11 comments.)
11th April, 2012 at 6:05 pm

It’s like building a machine gun and shooting around at times!
Carl Friedman
11th April, 2012 at 11:43 pm

Always watch the money. It seems that much of the time the guy telling me “the sky is falling” is also trying to sell me something to protect myself. I guess hype sells.

Thanks for the sensible approach, Josh.
Stef (68 comments.)
12th April, 2012 at 3:12 am

@Carl

The guy telling you “the sky is not falling” is also trying to sell you something. I guess ‘lack of knowledge’ sells.
jen
12th April, 2012 at 5:29 am

I think we should not rely too heavily on blog networks. We can diversify our strategy in building links, social media, press release, guest blogging, etc. Though it takes time but our links we build look very natural and Google loves it.
Alan's Internet Marketing (4 comments.)
12th April, 2012 at 8:03 am

I’m not a big buyer of back-links but appreciate it’s pretty much inevitable if you want to rank… and there’s nothing to feel guilty about if you have a decent site.

Are you using ‘buffer sites’ to build your bank-links or still going straight to your main sites?

Thanks for sharing your opinion.
Josh Spaulding
12th April, 2012 at 12:56 pm

@ Alan – I don’t use “buffer sites” no need. Every so often a big “the sky is falling” thing goes around where everyone is talking about how we much change everything.

I continue to do the same things and continue to rank high. Link building never really changes.
Eddie (8 comments.)
12th April, 2012 at 6:07 pm

Seem like every time Google changes something, the sky is falling.
With the panda update it was the end of affiliate marketing and now it is the end of blog networks.
I agree with Josh, that link building will not really change. I keep focusing on article marketing and web 2.0 and that seems to work.
It is a constant changing world and you have to adjust a little.
No more one keyword post, but lsi keywords is doing it for me,
Thanks for the post.
Eddie
Angie Berg (52 comments.)
15th April, 2012 at 6:37 am

The lure of blog networks has always appealed to me because I do hate spending time building links to my site. It’s probably my least favorite task.

I decided to try out a blog network link building service mid-2011 on one of my sites that was not yet a big earner (less risk if it was a mistake).

I received a recommendation from someone to use a guy/system in the Warrior Forum (which I don’t frequent), so gave it a try. Ironically, within weeks of them beginning the link building, the site in question tanked in a big way.

That may be simply coincidence and something else came into play, but it made me once burned twice shy for sure.

I’m a big fan of Ken Evoy (SBI founder) and use their site building program (love it). Ken’s motto is “Keep it real!” when it comes to link building as well as all aspects of site building and business building.

I figured I can’t really go wrong if I continue to follow that ethos, so I suppose I’m not likely to get involved in a blog network any time soon, no matter how tempted I am.

I’m genuinely glad it’s working for you, but I’m too much of a “Nervous Nelly” to risk my current rankings and growth on it.

Always interesting to read your perspective, Josh.

Blessings,
Angie
Chip (1 comments.)
17th April, 2012 at 1:24 am

Thanks for the informative post. Really good information can be hard to find and this is what I was looking for. I will return often to see what else you have to say. Google never makes it easy. Good job with the blog.
Will D (3 comments.)
21st April, 2012 at 10:22 pm

Personally I don’t think Google is just being mean cleaning out the stables. They are a business afterall. They want relevant content for their searchers otherwise they are toast.

The way I see it if you are not gaming Google then you can sleep well at night, I know I do.

Strange but I’ve seen an upward move in my ranking for certain keywords I never ranked for before. Seems some websites that were before me were gaming Google or Google got it wrong.

If yoy are providing good content you are safe and if not…here today, gone tomorrow.

Thanks Josh for your very timely and always relevant info.

Will
Grady Pruitt (3 comments.)
25th April, 2012 at 8:57 pm

I have to admit first of all that I have not used Linkvana, One Way Links, or BMR. I would think, though, that as long as the content on these networks was high quality, then they should be able to survive. I think that the goal was to reduce the effectiveness of sites with low quality user experiences to boost rankings.

Definitely some things to consider in the wake of this latest update! Thanks for sharing.
erda (8 comments.)
16th October, 2012 at 9:31 am

The most important part what I think as a webmaster is, don’t be a part of such link distribution network. I have seen many webmaster to thinks that collecting links on generic kps has become so easy with these website. But I personally believe the thing which can be obtained easily is never beneficial in long run. So, if you need to add value to our website, be cautious about what links and referrals you are collecting from web.