Earlier this month, Matt Cutts mentioned that Google was working on a new change in its algorithm that would make GoogleBot much smarter to pick out overly optimized sites ( that rank well in search results ) and penalize them. Although this might sound new and we’re sure that sites will be hit – this is not a new concept. Google has been penalizing sites, but it will be on a much larger scale now.

We believe the sites with an un-natural link profile will be the most exposed to this update. It’s the most commonly used tactic to rank a website and therefore, very easy to target. Google has already started sending warnings of un-natural link detection through Webmaster Tools. Below is a transcript of what the message reads:

Some sites receive this warning without penalties, and some sites are penalized immediately. In either case, you need to start getting rid of such links as soon as possible. Many SEO vendors generate links from blog networks. Google has aggressively targeted Blog networks with the most recent casualty being Build My Rank blog network. This blog network worked magic for a very long time. But those sites and webmasters who participated in this network reaped the benefits of good rankings and now find themselves penalized and some de-indexed by Google completely.

How are we future proofing our SEO work against all these changes?

Below are the best practices which we are following to secure all our SEO work:

• We get you links from different types of websites – this includes regular websites, blog posts, reviews, directories, social bookmarking sites, article syndication, video sharing, press release channels, local directories and even social media profiles.

• We vary the anchor text – target revolving keywords. For example, if you want to rank for “baby toys”; we make sure to also target these keywords in your strategy “baby learning toys”, “baby educational toys”, “kids toys”, etc.

• We get you links from various Top Level Domains (TLD) – While we agree that links from .gov, .edu and .org domains are given high importance, Google would also like to see your site getting links from .info, .net, .co and .biz websites.

• Deep Linking – Wherever applicable we ensure to get links to your inner pages as well. Linking to just the home page can also get you in trouble.

So far, none of our sites have been completely penalized by this change. However, we have been asked to consult on many sites which have seen a sudden drop in rankings. After doing in depth analysis we found the problem was that the website was getting links from spammy blog comments, forum comments and signatures and spammy blog networks. So our advice is to stay away from these type of links. They will definitely be hit by Google in next few updates. To give you an update, Google already has developed some technology where they can detect spammy blog comments on their blog network i.e. Blogger.