
Why did the October spam update crush so many sites? Important for all SEOs and website owners!
Search News You Can Use - SEO Podcast with Marie Haynes
SEO Secrets - How Penguin Changed Your Life
If you've been hit by the spam update, this could be your penguin story. I filmed a whiteboard Friday for Moz years ago where I talked about some legitimate ways to get links. It's a few years old, but it's still very relevant. There aren't any shortcuts though.
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Speaker 2
In noble, the crematory is now gone, but Marsha's mother continued to live on the, on the big property. No word if she's still around. I'm not sure. I'm sure she absolutely was. Brent Marsh served his full 12 year sentence and was released in June 2016. He walked out with his attorney, Posten, the mad as a how to guy. He told the media that his client was going home to Walker County in Georgia. Since then, Marsh has laid low and not given any further explanation for his bizarre behavior. Because he was placed under 75 years of probation,
Speaker 1
he's probably under some sort of court supervision for the rest of his life. Right. I think that's probably for the best. Maybe what? So, and is he allowed to leave Georgia? Because I would if I could. If I was him. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Yes, he absolutely could have because this is, his
Speaker 1
community would be pretty happy for him to, but the probation doesn't mean he has to stay in the state. Not that I know of. I'm not sure. Because it was a, was it a federal? What are they federal? I don't know. Anyway, I think there was, no, it was a mixture of state crimes. Because it, yeah, potentially under the probation, he needs to stay.
Speaker 2
Which would be bad if he's like, this community hates me.
Speaker 1
I don't know what I'm going to be. Can I imagine the community wouldn't want him there? Yeah. So why would, unless, yeah, just, uh. Whoa.
Speaker 2
Oh, it's so,
Speaker 1
uh, it's so unsatisfying. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Sorry, there's no
Speaker 1
explanation. Well, I feel like that's, he's like, I can't offer an explanation. But give us whatever the explanation is. Just give it the families must be like going, I tell us. Even if it's something. Is it because you would just, we're slack in your, yeah,
Speaker 2
because you just not be fucked or like, is it? Is this fun for you? What's the deal? Yeah, exactly. Even if it was just like the incinerator was playing up for a couple of months and then I got too behind and it overwhelmed me. Yeah. And I know this isn't a real excuse, but that's the truth of one. Yeah, totally. I think that would be more satisfying than just like, I can't tell you. So then, then, then I'm assuming the absolute worst. Then I'm assuming something really sinister and creepy. Whereas if it's just like, it got away from me and I was stuck in this spiral, I've still really mad at you, but like. But if there's at least some closure. There's some closure. Totally. A memorial for the unidentified remains because remember one third weren't positively identified was unveiled in the Tennessee Georgia Memorial Park, marking the place where 133 bodies that couldn't be identified are at rest. It reads, may they and their families have everlasting peace and consolation. The crematory building and all other structures associated were torn down by 2005. Also Brent's mother Clara signed part of the property where the crematory was to become a trust, making sure what became the resting place of bodies for many years will never be developed. Oh, wow.
Speaker 1
I have to
Speaker 2
keep that as open area.
The October 2022 spam update had a massive impact on many sites. Many of these were "niche sites" - not overtly spammy, but still breaking Google's spam guidelines. With this update, it looks like Google's AI spam fighter - SpamBrain has gotten much better at finding unnatural links - links made for SEO purposes.
This is an important listen, even if you were not impacted by this update.
Buy Marie's Quality Rater's Guidelines Book/Checklist:
https://mariehaynes.com/book
Google's Spam Policies (If you were hit, you likely were doing one or more of these things)
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies
Google's guidelines on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content
What Google has said about guest posting:
https://www.mariehaynes.com/google-guest-posting-recommendations/
Gary Illyes talking to Danny Sullivan about links being labeled as "footer", "penguinized" and so on:
https://searchengineland.com/googles-link-labels-260892
What links can you get that comply with Google's Guidelines?
Marie's Moz Whiteboard Friday. It's old, but still good.
https://moz.com/blog/what-links-comply-googles-guidelines-whiteboard-friday