Search Engine Optimization

Thats right Google has made the guidelines more clear. During SMX they were slipped into place. Matt said there would be some changes and poof that was fast! I think its great that Google takes the time to give guidence to people that don’t fully understand the rules of fare seo play.

Quality guidelines

These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behavior, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites).

Google Webmaster Guidelines

Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site.

* Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
* Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
* Don’t send automated queries to Google.
* Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.
* Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
* Don’t create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
* Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
* If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

There are more articles in detail on WebmasterWorld “Because Google and especially Google Search Quality Team / WebSpam Team penalize sites which are not in accordance with the guidelines, its of importance to make those guidelines easy to understand and keep them updated as new factors which affect ranking/indexing emerge.”
For those of you that did not know Matt Cutts heads up Google’s WebSpam Team and he does a good darn job keeping it just that spam free.

Thanks seroundtable.com for the heads up on the updated guidelines.