Google has just updated their Google Webmaster guidelines page with clearer and more detailed guidelines.
If you scroll down to the quality guidelines portion and the “Quality guidelines – specific guidelines” section, you will notice that those specifics are now hyperlinked to more details.
- Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
- Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.
- Don’t send automated queries to Google.
- Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.
- Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
- Don’t create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
- Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
- If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.
I may update this post with more information, after I dig deeper into the pages and listen to Matt Cutts at Google talk about it on the Penalty Box Summit session at SMX.
Related Topics: Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central
So basically – nothing new?
I mean, this is what we’ve been hearing for years. No changes in tactics needed for SEO types.
The only thing that gets me is “Don’t send automated queries”. How do they know the queries are from the person who owns/controls the site?
Reporting of paid links is new, I think.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66736&topic=8524
Yep John, that’s so new that I didn’t (yet) covered it in my first take on the update;) Well, the news is old though, at least when you consider Matt’s blog posts official announcements.
What I like is that the Googlers in charge really tried to write for their audience, that is Webmasters and Web developers, not (only) search geeks. Hence the news is that Google really cares. Since the revamp is a funded project, I guess the few paragraphs where the guidelines are still mysterious for the great unwashed, or even potentially misleading, will get corrected soon.