Google Takes Down Another Link Network, France’s Buzzea

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter earlier this morning that Google has taken action on another “link network” named Buzzea. His tweet read, “Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).” In addition, Matt added that they are working on a German based link […]

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Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter earlier this morning that Google has taken action on another “link network” named Buzzea.

His tweet read, “Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).”

In addition, Matt added that they are working on a German based link network, “today France; Germany soon,” Matt added.

This is the latest in a long number of link networks Google has been going after over the course of the past few years. Here are some of the more recent stories we have on Google going after link networks:

Buzzea is actually taking offense to have been called a “link network.” In a letter posted on the Buzzea site, Buzzea said in regards to being called a “link network” that they “oppose this assertion since we never stopped wanting to keep the ethical side of sponsored articles focusing on quality and natural links created.”

They did decide to call it quits and in their letter, they wrote:

This marks the end of an adventure for our team but also the end of our collaboration with thousands of publisher sites, agencies and advertisers who have given us their trust.

I suspect in the next week or so, we will see another tweet from Matt Cutts about the German link network they are going after.

For now, those who participated in Buzzea, should expect a notification in Google Webmaster Tools and a ranking reduction. It would make sense to remove those links immediately and stop participating in any link network or something that Google may perceive as a link network.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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