GSA SER AFTER Penguin 4.0

quinnmodel

OK So According to Google:

Penguin 4.0 is devaluing links instead of demoting a site is an important step to a better relationship with Google, for all marketers and site owners.

Penguin 4.0 counters Negative SEO. Devaluing the links removes the (algorithmic) barb from NSEO.

The Penguin 4.0 move to devalue spam links—as opposed to demoting entire sites—is the best news to come out of Penguin 4 so far. This is what SEOs, business owners, and marketers have wanted from Penguin since day one.

So Truly Most all the links we use in GSA will no longer help with ranking. Google Absolutely knows that GSA SER Is the Most used tool for link spam these days. i myself did a test of blasting over ONE million links to a page i gave ranked on page 2 of google for the main keyword. After more than a week, the page has not budged. Not One spot up or down. Proving that  Google is just not counting these type of links any longer as they stated about Pengiun 4.0.

Also These type of links seem to no longer Power Up using Tiered links any longer.

I have been using GSA SER for years and have never seen it be so non effective.

Would like to hear other users experiences after Penguin 4.0.

shaun

It takes around 10 days just for Google to workout if they are going to keep a link in their index these days never mind if they will give a benefit of it to the target site. So waiting a week after a 1 million link blast proves nothing.

In my oppinion the main problem with SER is that it's much harder to index its links, and then there is a much longer waiting period for any benefit for that link to be added to the target site.

cherub

If Google is being truthful about Penguin 4.0 devaluing rather than demoting, then this is a great thing for automated link builders. You can fire what you want at your test sites and are more likely to be able to see what works. If the default SER platforms don't work for you, script some others and start your testing again. And as @shaun said, 10 days is nothing. Give it a month.

quinnmodel

Nah I don't have to give it a month. i have been doing SEO for many years. i know Exactly how certain pages respond to SER. With certain pages The Upward movement was AWESOME literally after a couple days. Think really high authority pages like Reuters. Now the GSA SER links are NOT budging the pages like before prior to Penguin 4.0. That is a Fact. Something has changed BIG time!

michty6

Seems like you wanted to start a discussion - then immediately shot down the valid points that both the posters made.  So what exactly is the point of this thread?

the_other_dude

Perhaps firing 1 million links at a page tripped a filter that is designed to combat rank modifying spam and nseo, therefore all incoming links for a period of time are disregarded/sandboxed (transition rank filter)?

shaun

So you claim to have been doing SEO for many years but fail to understand how often it changes or the need to test and adapt?

JudderMan

"I understand SEO; an ever-changing, test-driven, difficult industry that is controlled by a data-hungry giant that pools resources from everywhere, yet don't want to move, learn, be fluid and learn some more even if what I'm doing isn't working as well as it was in August."

Come on man, time to just swallow your pride and figure out a new strategy. FWIW I haven't used SER for 5-6 months but can guarantee that I'd manage to figure out a way to only use it again to rank sites. I'm building big brands now so want squeaky clean link profiles, but when I do start using SER again it will be similar to what I was doing before, except T2 only.

kijix84

none of the sites i've ranked with SER have shown any noticeable fluctuations. so uh, yeah, working same as normal for me.

Tim89

I don't think it's the platforms that will not work in the future or cause any problems, it's the statistics/quality of the domains that are using these platforms that SER supports.

Building and using your own lists should combat this issue and still increase rankings.

quinnmodel

Thanks Tim89

Well I was Correct!!!

Google is telling us that low quality backlinks will simply be ignored with Penguin 4.0

They’ll just ignore them.

shaun

Remember 5 years ago when Google said the same? That spam wouldent work?

I still say the main problem is indexing. Have you tracked the indexing rate of a segment of your 1 million URLs? Or at least alive checked them to see how many are still there?

donchino

Looking at this debate it seems to me "problem is indexing" by shaun could be G's method for "backlinks will simply be ignored" by quinnmodel... I mean, not indexing the links would be a good way to ignore them, right... one way or another, the problem remains same

quinnmodel

Well Indexing is not a problem per  say. In other words the index rate is no different for me prior to Penguin 4.0.

Many of the links are on pages that are already indexed like Blog Comments, image comments, guestbooks, trackbacks etc. For Indexing I create site maps of between 100 -300 of the links and only Index the sitemaps. Within 2-4 days anything that Google will index WILL be indexed although there are many pages that Google Will Never index no matter what  like Joomla K-2. A Lot of those no mater what will never index. So for mre the index rate is the same as  prior to the 4.0 Update.

Also i see some have said that a million links was overload but it was never ever overload before. I am talking about ranking very high authority pages that just do not get penalized. These are Pages like Rueters etc.

I run 3 different licenses on different servers and i can create the million links fast. Like i said, Before Penguin 4.0 These Blasts to pages like Reuters would within a few days rank super fast.

After Penguin 4.0 NOTHING. It is as Google doesnt even See Them. No change up or down. I know someone said  i should wait a month. The problem with that is that Never ever before Pengiuin 4.0 would there be a wait. Within a few days most all keywords were ranked Page one. ALWAYS. I am talking for years this worked.

So that is why I have Now Come To the Conclusion:

Google is telling us that low quality backlinks will simply be ignored with Penguin 4.0

They’ll just ignore them.

antonearn

@quinnmodel Totally agree from what Ive seen so far since the update. Trustrank is therefore key and I think that Serengines will play a big role now and in the future since all the Trust it passes compared to other shitty platforms. Its just my 2 cents in the debate.

seohub

Pengiun 4.0 is fab news, simply because I can try wonders on the same test site until I find what works.
It's an algo buddy and it WILL have flaws - just need to find them.

JudderMan

^^^Exactly - trial and error without the wait.

Tim89

I am currently updating EI to give an indexing rate of around 70%-80% index rate 24 hours from submission, I've been using this indexing system for testing purposes already and even though indexing is NOT an issue for me while I was in the testing phase, I also noticed only slight increases when "spamming" using spammed lists, I also tested this out using a "premium" type lists where I simply filtered my list to only specific targets which were not spammed to death, all indexed root domains and decent Majestic stats, this worked wonders when using these targets to tier to my PBN posts.

Do you know what 5 years can do in terms of algo changes/progression? Google has said previously, around a year ago that they have now started to look deeper into the backlinks of your backlinks, so it's not just a case of lets all spam a three tier structure or get all fancy with linking strategies, it's making sure that all of your tiers are of decent quality, from good link sources/neighbourhoods as a 2nd or 3rd spammed tier pointing to your good quality tier 1 links will yield minimal benefits if any.

As I mentioned in my previous paragraph, some people use SER to spam their links in order to get them "indexed" because of the recent "indexing problems" but this is simply devaluing your links of importance and wasting resources.

Have you ever tier'd your PBN posts with more PBNs? Works amazingly well, why? because they are all decent high metric domains, linking from one to another.

Seo_Gladiator

I agree totally with Tim89 .  Scraping your own targets is where it's at, it's a pain in the ass, but necessary in MHO.  

I think Serengines will help with quality as it hopefully grows into more platforms.  Just build 2 tiers with serengines and blast low outbound links and properties with high domain authority.  Quality will always beat out quantity. 

Doon

GSA is a waste of time

Sven

@Doon so GSA as a company is a waste of time or you mean SER ? What makes you think it's like that? It's not like you are a new user and should have gathered some knowlage about SER over the time it seems?!?

shaun

@tim89 Are the links you are tracking 70-80% indexed rate after 24 hours made by SER on contextual domains you don't own? If so I will give it a try once you ship the patched version as currently using spam on T3 to index links has a much higher index rate than your paid service.

Tim89

@shaun Yes SER links, sources that I don't own.

Spamming links with crappy quick link sources in order to get them indexed in my opinion, as it is now, will devalue the property.

It will be around 2-3 weeks before the update will actually be released but once it has been released price of plans will change and I will also set up a free plan for users to try.

viking

have to get my two-cents in here. i mostly agree with the long-timers comments. clearly the playing field has changed. while we all speculate on what it means for seo, remember it is all anecdotal right now. I think G has clearly devalued certain links, not to hurt spammers, but to hurt the negative seo which is pervasive online. I test this on a few websites and ripped tons of links with exact match anchors. After a month, the page hadn't moved one bit. These links were all SER links. Then I blasted one of my sites that ranked with tons of SER links, though a bit more broadly for anchor. The needle didn't move. The observation I made there was that SER links at a Tier 1 just don't matter any longer.

If that observation is on-point, then it doesn't make sense to use SER in the way it was used in the past. We have to adapt and evolve. As others have pointed out, the value of SER now may be as an analytical tool to quickly assess the value of certain types of links/platforms. That is not the best case scenario for those of us who have relied on SER for SEO success. But, again, SEO is about staying ahead of the curve and adapting when the playing field changes.

In terms of how I am tiering now, I have moved away from SER and only do PBN and 2.0's at Tier 1 + 2, and soon at Tier 3. This may become a footprint in the algo so at Tier 3 I will sprinkle in some SER links to even things out. The key being not to waste resources on links that don't add value.

For my MS I have managed to navigate a bumpy 30 days and now my stuff is back where it was for the most part. I think that is from the value of my PBN's more than anything else. Can't stress enough how important it is to have a real PBN set up.

JudderMan

@viking bang on, buddy.

Johan

There seems a misconception still doing the rounds that SER = trash links and that it no longer works because Google have devauled the trash. Can only use it now for T3 etc etc ...

I've always pointed SER directly at my money sites. I still do and will continue to do so. Why? Because I don't build trash with it. 

End of the day, it's just a tool. And a very good one. How you use it is up to you.

antonearn

100 % agree w you @Johan

710fla

I only post to sites in English, French, Spanish and German with OBL under 500.

If I'm building tier 1 links I stick to only English sites and it's mostly for link diversity rather than link juice.

I used to set my OBL limit to 100-200 but honestly people are going to keep posting to these pages so you really have no control over OBL. I still try me best to avoid spammed out sites.

bencrabara

@Johan how do you filter out bad sites?

Johan

@bencrabara I scrape my own lists using Scrapebox and I have an account with Ahrefs that I use to filter the junk, I find it's pretty reliable. The other thing you can do with Ahrefs is basically steal your competitors backlinks. I have the PI tool from GSA which I find useful to sort out the sites I can build, it's not essential but it helps keep things organised and the sites that are valuable that SER can't build to I send them over to my VA to do it manually.

The key is that they're all pointing at the money site. I see people all the time blame the tools, there was someone on another thread saying "GSA SER is dead" or some other crap. No it's not. It is if all you do is SPAM with it but that's not the fault of the tool.

I still think building Web 2.0 is essential and tiered link building does help power up the links but don't make the mistake of thinking that SER is just for trash or indexing purposes, it's so much more than that.

@710fla Agreed about the OBL, it's not worth worrying about it, you just reduce your targets if you're too picky. Just build niche relevant backlinks from sites with good metrics and let Google worry about how much weight to attach to the links. 

The latest Penguin is like Xmas come early IMO.

710fla

@bencrabara if you have Scrapebox you can filter your links with Moz metrics using the Page Authority plugin.

@Johan agreed it's all about how you use the tool.