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Matt Cutts
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1 year ago
in Before I deal the FUD "I’m going to ask you to put on your regular user hat" on Andy Beard - Internet Business Systems Discussion
Hi Andy, I mentioned in both the first and second paragraphs that I was investigating the query "radiosurgery"; My first screenshot also only used that anchortext, so that was the query I was digging into.
In my experience, when a user types a broad query such as "radiosurgery" they typically want overviews, tutorials, and introductions to the topic rather than a) paid posts showing up in the search results, or alternatively b) websites that received links mainly from paid posts.
I did research into the site buying links, but decided not to highlight that site because it was beside the point. But I'm aware of not only braintumortreatment.org but also things like truthaboutradiosurgery.com (which has a lot of duplicate content compared to braintumortreatment.org) that appear to be by the same person. Ultimately when writing the post I decided that running multiple sites with duplicate content was beside the point of the paid link post, so I consciously decided not to talk much about the site receiving paid links in my post.
In my experience, when a user types a broad query such as "radiosurgery" they typically want overviews, tutorials, and introductions to the topic rather than a) paid posts showing up in the search results, or alternatively b) websites that received links mainly from paid posts.
I did research into the site buying links, but decided not to highlight that site because it was beside the point. But I'm aware of not only braintumortreatment.org but also things like truthaboutradiosurgery.com (which has a lot of duplicate content compared to braintumortreatment.org) that appear to be by the same person. Ultimately when writing the post I decided that running multiple sites with duplicate content was beside the point of the paid link post, so I consciously decided not to talk much about the site receiving paid links in my post.
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There is a fair amount of duplicate content in those 2 sites, but they are still not your usual thin affiliate sites, too much care has been taken with references and the registration symbols for the trademark. No Adsense in sight - looks like an SEO experiment to me by someone being very careful but still taking care to offer quality information.
One of the posts you highlighted is using gamma knife as anchor text.
Another links through to the gammaknife.org site
http://www.millionbabyboomers.com/baby_boomers_...
That site is owned by Elekta
Domain ID:D51642222-LROR
Domain Name:GAMMAKNIFE.ORG
Created On:12-Jan-2001 11:54:34 UTC
Last Updated On:05-Dec-2007 09:57:30 UTC
Expiration Date:12-Jan-2009 11:54:34 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Group NBT plc aka NetNames (R60-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:059628353-NETBEN
Registrant Name:Elekta AB
Registrant Organization:Elekta AB
Registrant Street1:BOX 7593
Registrant Street2:Kungstensgaten 18
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Stockholm
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:103 93
Registrant Country:SE
Registrant Phone:+46.858725597
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:Marika.Yeung@elekta.com
Admin ID:059403066-NETBEN
Admin Name:Marika Yeung
Admin Organization:Elekta Instrument AB
Admin Street1:BOX 7593
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Stockholm
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:103 93
Admin Country:SE
Admin Phone:+46.858725597
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:+46.858725500
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:Marika.Yeung@elekta.com
Tech ID:70710230-NETBENT
Tech Name:Netnames USA Hostmaster
Tech Organization:NetNames USA Inc.
Tech Street1:NetNames USA Inc.
Tech Street2:430 W. 14th # 401
Tech Street3:
Tech City:New York
Tech State/Province:n/a
Tech Postal Code:NY 10014
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+44.2126274599
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:+44.2126275744
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:tech@netnamesusa.com
Name Server:NS59.1AND1.CO.UK
Name Server:NS60.1AND1.CO.UK
The "braintumortreatment" site is registered by the same person as "truthaboutradiosurgery" and their house seems to be for sale. I can't find a direct employment connection with Elekta but the sites do not smell like affiliate sites.
Matt, if your argument is that some non native speakers of English who don't know much about SEO are writing about topics they don't know a huge amount about, for close to minimum wage, fair enough, but that is the blogosphere with or without paid posts, and if they weren't writing paid posts, they would be creating MFA sites and chosing their content based on high paying adsense keywords, not based upon their knowledge.
If a political candidate decided that a certain aspect of healthcare was important to them, and their supporters linked through, I am sure that would also be a fairly irrelevant result.
If someone wasn't earning money from writing a blog post, the money would go to someone else for a different way of promoting a website, outsourcing articles, press releases, viral content such as screensavers, free reports, Wordpress Themes etc
At the end of the day a few low end blogs who have hardly any links themselves on a particular topic from other authorities shouldn't affect search results very much, and if they do there is something wrong.
Blogs with higher authority are likely to be more topic focused, and reviews are ordered more for professional opinion or marketing.
As an example I am currently deciding if I have time to review Wordze, a keyword research tool.
They haven't requested any links at all in the review, I didn't need to request that I have full editorial control.
I could use an affiliate link and not use nofollow, and that link could well pass juice through redirects.
Opting to just use a normal editorial link, for some reason Google would want me to stick nofollow on it.
Either way I would still get paid for my time, experience, and for the exposure I give.
At the end of the day the payment is more of a token gesture of respect for my time, and the only influence is on whether I write about them, or maybe about whether Google Reader might eventually give some control over private RSS subscriptions, or how many more results Technorati give for links to older blog posts, or maybe why people should move to Feedblitz for email subscriptions because they are CAN SPAM compliant.
$130 is just one hour of a competent SEO's time, maybe 2 at a stretch if they are cheap in the US.
If I spend a few hours on a review of Wordze, they can't be buying a link from me.
Even if I disagree with people I still give them SEO friendly links, because that is better for my readers.
Rules need to be fair and equal... common sense needs to prevail and it shouldn't take years to clear up grey areas
It is going to be fun seeing how many articles are written about things like Payday Loans on Google Knol