So far in this series we have discussed the positive steps you can take for those wanting to know how to get to page one on Google.

It is equally important, though, to consider the things that can result in your ranking being downgraded. As discussed earlier, Google considers links to your website as a positive indicator of the quality of your content and this will be factored into where you page will be ranked.

In the past, if you had dozens of links from other websites, Google assumed that you had relevant and interesting content and this was a factor in how your website was ranked. As a result, Webmasters saw that link building was an essential strategy for improving the visibility and authority of their sites and developed their strategies to increase the number of inbound links.

However, once the value of backlinks became understood, it wasn’t long before people looking for shortcuts tried to game the algorithm in their favour. Sites were set up specifically just to link to every page on your site… for a fee!

If you paid a premium, you could end up with dozens or even hundreds of these sites linking to your pages. Often all under the control of the same operator.

Once Google spotted that these practices were becoming more common, they launched the Penguin update to address this.

Penguin aimed to ensure links that appeared genuine (by being from a relevant site or from an authoritative source) upgraded the rankings of the websites to which they were linked. Sites that had spammy links were downgraded.

Guest Posts

One way to grow your audience is to submit guest posts to other websites. The site publishing your content will usually allow a backlink to your website so this can help with your ranking as it is a genuine link.

In May 2017, Google Webmasters warned about the risks of accepting Guest Posts:
“Lately we’ve seen an increase in spammy links contained in articles referred to as contributor posts, guest posts, partner posts, or syndicated posts. These articles are generally written by or in the name of one website, and published on a different one.

Google does not discourage these types of articles in the cases when they inform users, educate another site’s audience or bring awareness to your cause or company. However, what does violate Google’s guidelines on link schemes is when the main intent is to build links in a large-scale way back to the author’s site.”

Vet your Guest Posts

At Jeppstones we have occasionally sought guest posts from experts that we personally know. We have also been approached to publish guest posts before and where we know the people involved or are able to verify who they are, we are happy to publish them.

We had one occasion when someone asked to submit an article. They sent it through and although it was informative, if short, there was an issue with the contributor’s identity. During our vetting process we saw that although the author had published a number of articles in the previous month, prior to that, there was no other presence of them on the internet.

Everyone has to start their internet presence somewhere, it was possible that this might be their first job.  So we asked for verification. We asked if they could send us their LinkedIn page but they said that they didn’t have one. We asked if they had any Social Media presence and again, they responded that they had none. We were surprised that someone writing about article websites and getting them published on other sites, had no other internet presence.

The author had provided a picture of themselves. Google image reverse search showed that the picture was of a European football player. Needless to say, we politely declined and told the author that we would not be publishing their post as it didn’t meet our editorial guidelines.

If we hadn’t asked for verification and published the article, it could have had a detrimental effect on our ranking. Google Webmasters offered useful advice in the above link:

“When Google detects that a website is publishing articles that contain spammy links, this may change Google’s perception of the quality of the site and could affect its ranking. Sites accepting and publishing such articles should carefully vet them, asking questions like: Do I know this person? Does this person’s message fit with my site’s audience? Does the article contain useful content?”

Matt Cutts explained a few years ago that knowing who the author is and if they are an expert on the subject, would become a factor in ranking an article:

So if you are going to accept an article from a guest, make sure that you can verify that they are an expert in their field and also who they say they are.

Failing to do so can run the risk of publishing content that is low quality and from an unverified source. If Google assesses that this is what you have done and it is a pattern that is repeated, your site might get downgraded.

Peter Horgan is the founder of Jeppstones.

You call follow Peter on Twitter: @PeterJeppstones