Did Google Just Penalize Another Link Network? SAPE Links

Unconfirmed reports are surfacing throughout the SEO community that Google has penalized yet another link network. The rumors within the industry are that the link network targeted by Google is named SAPE links.

Webmasters who have used the SAPE link network are reporting that their sites have taken hard penalties within Google, resulting in a huge downgrade in ranking. Not all webmasters agree it is the SAPE link network but feel it may be a different network all together.

There are forum thread discussions at Black Hat World and Black Hat Group that have webmasters and SEOs claiming it was SAPE. One webmaster wrote:

Anyone that use SAPE links see huge drop in rankings today?

Many agreed, but not all.

This would not be the first link network targeted by Google. Google has penalized link networks several times over the years, most recently the BuildMyRank.com link network. As I said then, I am surprised webmasters and SEOs still use these types of networks. To build your rankings on networks of links that can be penalized in a second by Google, just doesn’t seem wise to me. It is a short sighted SEO technique that I wouldn’t want to mess with.

Google has gone on record over and over again that paid links can result in a penalty. Google penalized a major floral website just recently for advertorial links. If Google made anything clear, they will ruthlessly go after link networks and paid link techniques.

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, tweeted about a month ago that he was investigating “naughty Russian link selling software.” SAPE link network is run by Russians.

We have emailed Google for a comment about this story and are waiting to hear back.

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• Google’s Jaw-Dropping Sponsored Post Campaign For Chrome
• New York Times Continues Paid Link Outing Stories, Looks At Online Flowers Industry
• Google Chrome’s Paid Link Penalty Now Lifted
• Google’s PageRank Update Goes After Paid Links?
• Dilbert Cartoon: Caught For Paid Links On Google

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.