Google’s Matt Cutts: We’ve Taken Action On A Large Guest Blog Network

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced really early this morning on Twitter that Google has taken action on “a large guest blog network.”

Cutts previously warned the webmaster and SEO community that guest blogging is done, at least for SEO and link building purposes. Well, it might not have been done — it obviously still had and has some impact on Google’s algorithms for Google to have gone after and taken action on a large guest blog network.

Here is Matt’s tweet:

Today we took action on a large guest blog network. A reminder about the spam risks of guest blogging: http://t.co/rc9O82fjfn

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 19, 2014

Matt did not specifically mention which network was hit by this but you can rest assured that those who participated in the unnamed guest blog network will soon see an unnatural link notification in Google Webmaster Tools. That likely will lead to a ranking drop for the site and specific pages.

You can also rest assured that Google will continue to target guest blog networks and other link networks in the near future. In fact, just see our related entries below for the link networks Google has targeted recently.

The belief is that Google specifically went after MyBlogGuest.com. If you Google their name, it no longer shows up in the search results. Plus, Ann Smarty, the owner of the network, wrote a blog post after Matt Cutts said guest blogging is dead, proclaiming her network will not nofollow links. Rae Hoffman’s tweet is where we discovered this:

It looks like MyBlogGuest was the “winner” – not appearing on branded terms RT @mattcutts Today we took action on a large guest blog network

— Rae Hoffman (@sugarrae) March 19, 2014

Update: Now we know. Ann Smarty confirmed it on Twitter but doubts the publishers will be hit. I suspect the publishers will indeed be hit:

[Official] Even though #myblogguest has been against paying for links (unlike other platforms), @mattcutts team decided to penalize us…

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) March 19, 2014

I don’t think our publishers will be penalized, but let’s ask @mattcutts :)

— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) March 19, 2014

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and 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 social media at @rustybrick, +BarrySchwartz and Facebook. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio and disclosures, click over here.

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