Google Will Officially Penalize Websites for Link Schemes

Another one bites the dust. Rap Genius is the latest company to have their website penalized for link building schemes. Organic marketing is something that Google takes very seriously. Websites are supposed to be highly ranked based on the value they provide consumers. Basically, when someone types in a search term Google pulls up websites they think will best match that search term and provide people with the information they are looking for. Link building schemes are a way to trick Google by placing links in blogs, articles, and other websites that wouldn’t naturally appear there. While this is a common tactic, if you get caught it will kill your Google marketing.

Rap Genius has found this out the hard way. The tech start up has been wildly popular and received $15 million in investment capital. They are working with rap artists and celebrities while simultaneously building a large online community of people dedicated to providing information behind the text. People can login and provide pictures and information to explain what a line of text means in songs, religious text, poetry, articles, and more. With the amount of users and followers they have, Rap Genius should have stuck with organic marketing using social media and blogs where their users can naturally promote them. Instead, they started an affiliate program that enticed people to place unnatural links to their website in their blog posts.

Glider founder, John Marbach, found out and wrote a blog about it. When Google read the blog they immediately penalized Rap Genius to the point that their page one search results were moved down to page five and six. They used to come up on the first page of search results for popular song lyrics. Now if you add their name to that search result you won’t find them until page six. They even show up on page five or six for their own name. Google has taken this seriously and hit them hard. While this penalty has been extremely public, companies throughout the country have been experiencing penalties over the past year. Even local shops, law offices, and clinics have been removed from search rankings for practicing black hat SEO. For businesses that depend on Google Marketing to drive web traffic, this can be devastating.

You need to protect your business by making sure that your SEO techniques are ones that Google supports. Organic Marketing is truly your best option because it depends on real people, real relationships, and real information. For example, when you expand your business connections on Google+ and people write a review about you, that is a natural and organic marketing tool. When you increase your Facebook fans, that is also an organic marketing tool. The general rule of thumb is that you should act online like you would in real life. When you meet, customers face to face it is normal to ask for a referral or to ask them to join your mailing list. It would not be natural to walk up to a stranger and ask them to hang your sign in their window.

For more information on protecting your company, Google Marketing, and Organic Marketing contact Local SEO Sites. Our team of experts are standing by to answer your questions.