We can safely say that people are generally tired of all the changes happening at Google Search.
There’s one “animalistic” update after another and the craze doesn’t seem to end anytime soon.
So, how do you market your site on Google Search after Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird? What has died permanently and what is alive and kicking?
Article Spinning – Dead
Article spinning was an interesting SEO technique. The whole thing was about taking an original, albeit usually low quality article and then generating a new version of it by spinning some words or sentences.
Such article would then go on to be submitted to hundreds of spammy article directories for the sole purpose of getting a link.
This doesn’t work anymore. Google has figured it out.
Exact Match Anchor Text – Dead
Exact match anchor texts have stopped working probably a year or so ago. These days, building links with your exact keyword in them is the shortest way to making your site obsolete.
Buying Links – Risky But Works
The simple fact is that Google has no way of accurately telling which links have been paid for and which have been attracted naturally.
There’s simply no chance they will be able to make the guess every single time, especially if the fact isn’t advertised anywhere. However, if someone fails to remain discreet about the whole thing, you can get penalized.
Private Link Network – Works
In essence, a private link network (or a private blog network) is a network of sites that you own, which you then use to build links to your main sites.
The idea is that neither Google, nor anyone else knows that you’re the person behind the network. The only way this can go bad is when you fail to keep things managed properly.
Shallow Guest Blogging – Almost Dead
Matt Cutts likes to call a lot of things dead for the sole purpose of scaring people into abandoning certain techniques. However, there’s very little chance that Google is as good at finding shallow guest posts as Matt wants us to believe.
First of all, shallow guest posts are posts created purely for SEO. Usually, they are poorly written or put through an article spinner.
Eventually, they will die. Today is not the day, though.
With all of the above in mind, we have to remember that affiliates need to be especially careful when employing any of the techniques. It’s a known fact that Google has never been fond of affiliate sites.