Google's John Mueller: I'd Avoid Link Building In General

[shasha]

In a Google+ live hangout with Google's John Mueller on last Friday morning, John answered the question, "is link building in anyway way good?"...

...John said, "in general, I'd try to avoid that," that being any link building. John added that focusing on link building will probably going to lead to more problems for your site versus actually help your site...

The conversation is at minute 55:40 mark

Source

The question is will you stop building links?

 

[T J Tutor]

Google has been touting that content is King for years. Content is of the utmost importance. However, if that's all there was to it, then Google wouldn't be examining link structure on our sites.

 

[searchnetics]

What they said:

"Don't build links because it can harm your site."


What I heard:

"Don't build links because we lose Adwords revenue that way."

 

[Sweet]

the big G is playing hard nowdays

 

[azgold]

Of course they're saying don't build links. It's been important for years and they seem to be on a mission to make things difficult and unpredictable, turn it all upside down.

I think it's another reminder not to lean too heavily on Google alone for your income and business. Elsewise, you could find it all gone overnight.

I'm no expert but my theory is, take care of your readers/audience first and worry about Google last. Loyal readers will return and hopefully bring others; Google doesn't give a crap about you. I'm not saying to totally ignore G, I'm just suggesting that the priority be the people who visit your site.

 

[azgold]

Got my webpronews this morning and there is an article discussing what G is replacing link value for.....accurate knowledge. G has developed a way to check the validity of your content and assign it a knowledge trust score.

By the way, it mentions forum content in there.

Not implemented yet and who knows if they'll ever really do it. Interesting read, nonetheless and this is one that I actually hope they'll use.

Should Facts Outrank Links As A Google Signal? | WebProNews

 

[ironbull]

John Mueller is not as retarded as Matt Cutts, but still Google Propaganda is ridiculous.

 

[T J Tutor]

John Mueller is not as retarded as Matt Cutts, but still Google Propaganda is ridiculous.

Perhaps, it's not their rhetoric that I give consideration to, it's the actions of the SERPS which we must act on. I have a number of content and continuity sites. This requires implementing measures required so as to not be penalized. I have the same level of love/hate as everyone in this business, however, when someone has a gun to our head as do the SERPS, we have to play the game to avoid penalties and negative impact by them. Much of our industry can survive and do well without the SERPS, but content and continuity sites are not able to do well without them.

 

[T J Tutor]

Got my webpronews this morning and there is an article discussing what G is replacing link value for.....accurate knowledge. G has developed a way to check the validity of your content and assign it a knowledge trust score.

By the way, it mentions forum content in there.

Not implemented yet and who knows if they'll ever really do it. Interesting read, nonetheless and this is one that I actually hope they'll use.

Should Facts Outrank Links As A Google Signal? | WebProNews

Yeah, that is just a discussion. If you read these two articles on the same sight you will see that Google has new ranking algo's in the mix.

How To Set Up App Indexing For Ranking In Google
Google has already implemented this ranking signal

Google Ranking Signal Not As Pressing As You Thought
Still important, but you don't need to rush so much

As for the content value systems by the SERPS, I find some of it helpful because it's a solid architecture content site owners can implement for some very clear competition. When in small valuable niches, as am I, it makes easier to pound the competition.

 

[azgold]

Yeah, that is just a discussion. If you read these two articles on the same sight you will see that Google has new ranking algo's in the mix.

How To Set Up App Indexing For Ranking In Google
Google has already implemented this ranking signal

Google Ranking Signal Not As Pressing As You Thought
Still important, but you don't need to rush so much

As for the content value systems by the SERPS, I find some of it helpful because it's a solid architecture content site owners can implement for some very clear competition. When in small valuable niches, as am I, it makes easier to pound the competition.

Knowledgeable content is at least something tangible, something everybody understands and can reasonably accomplish without a degree in website structure and coding. That's why I like the idea.

G's algo changes always seem a bit mysterious (aka deceptive) and ethereal to me. Feels like they're going, "Nanner, nanner, nanner," after each one. They've gotten snooty and pompous.

Anyway, this is all so much rhetoric. There is no predicting the changes anymore. They may or may not do anything.

TJ, I had some trouble with those links but it may be me. I let Microsoft update my computer a couple of days ago (mistake) and it's gone into 'snail' mode.