Google Allows Some Linking Schemes As Okay

Barry caught that Google amended its webmaster guidelines (the holy bible of not getting banned from the search engine), changing the wording on reciprocal linking schemes in a small but very significant way. Before, it said:
Examples of link schemes can include:
Link exchange and reciprocal links schemes (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)

Now it says (emphasis mine):
Examples of link schemes can include:
Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (”Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)

The change, especially because of the specificity of it, represents a change in policy by Google. While Google would like to ban all linking schemes, it has certainly lost the battle in that regard to all the hungry SEOs (and evil spammers), so it’s allowing the more innocent. Many SEOs say that there are certain supposedly “black hat” techniques that only an idiot wouldn’t use, since staying competitive is impossible without […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg