Matt Cutts openly admits sites can be sabotaged by competitors (Google Bowling)

[mvandemar]

In an article by Forbes magazine 6/28/07:

Matt Cutts, a senior software engineer for Google, says that piling links onto a competitor's site to reduce its search rank isn't impossible, but it's extremely difficult. "We try to be mindful of when a technique can be abused and make our algorithm robust against it," he says. "I won't go out on a limb and say it's impossible. But Google bowling is much more inviting as an idea than it is in practice."

Cutts also points out that any potential for sabotage exists across all search engines. "It really should be called 'search engine bowling,' " he says.

Maybe this will put an end to all of the people who keep saying that if you got penalized you must have deserved it, and cut back on someone of the "Google knows everything" groupies.

-Michael

[jhnrang]

Thats very bad This has become more bad specially people repoting competitors sites as Paid Links.

Also some people might get competitors' sites into bad neighborhood and diminish their reputations

[zexy]

Google doesn't know everything.
They can't inspect closely every single site out there and no algorithm is perfect.

[mikey1090]

how exactly do you google bowl? is it like google bombing?

[bochgoch]

piling links onto a competitor's site

What does that mean?

[thetafferboy83]

Originally Posted by bochgoch

What does that mean?

Competitor launches new site, you give them thousands of spammy backlinks to damage their profile.

Then you add them high quality links, then remove them a week later to make it look like spam as well.

[zexy]

Originally Posted by thetafferboy83

Competitor launches new site, you give them thousands of spammy backlinks to damage their profile.

Then you add them high quality links, then remove them a week later to make it look like spam as well.

It's a war out there

[seo ranter]

Originally Posted by thetafferboy83

Competitor launches new site, you give them thousands of spammy backlinks to damage their profile.

Then you add them high quality links, then remove them a week later to make it look like spam as well.

piling links onto a competitor's site

Notice it says piling ONTO...meaning putting links ON the actual site....not POINTING TO it....

You need to pay close attention to what you are reading before you make false statements..


I'm not siding with Google on this one....but I'm tired of people finding something to blame when their sites are not ranked where they THINK it should be......they blame all these penalties except the site itself...

that's my rant for the day

[mikey1090]

so does it mean adding trillions of link to blog comments etc. so it looks like a link farm???

[seo ranter]

I'm not sure how it is done....but I think blog comments...forum spam...would be ways how to do it...

[SticKer]

this doesn't sound good

[an0n]

Wonderful Google at its finest eh?

[DoA]

There might be some that would practice this, but surely you'd be better spending your time building BLs for your own site??

[seo ranter]

Originally Posted by DoA

There might be some that would practice this, but surely you'd be better spending your time building BLs for your own site??

Someone once told me, If you can't beat them spam them!!!

This is a joke .....

[seoguruji]

I am sure that Google is clever enough and will surely whether someone is trying to sabotage another site. I am 100% sure that this will never happen.

[madkad]

You all believe to much of what fat gutts has to say.

fat gutts is just one guy that thinks he is god cos he works for Google sorry because he is owned by Google.

He will say anything to get a bit of bait out there for suckers to take it and talk about it. Fat Gutts must have some right cracking wip marks on his back in the shape of a big G

[stickysnail]

Its obvious that this is just one method not guaranteed to work. Its a possibility and would take a lot of time and work on the end of the damager. I don't think it's very relevant.

[RobertD]

Originally Posted by seo ranter

Notice it says piling ONTO...meaning putting links ON the actual site....not POINTING TO it....

You need to pay close attention to what you are reading before you make false statements..

I'm not siding with Google on this one....but I'm tired of people finding something to blame when their sites are not ranked where they THINK it should be......they blame all these penalties except the site itself...

that's my rant for the day

you're the one that needs to read it!

"If a new site gains half a million links over the course of a weekend, it looks suspect from Google's point of view," Scott says. "So you make someone look naughty, and then get them caught."

That filtering strategy keeps search results relevant to users despite the meddling of Web spammers. But Scott and other search marketers say it also makes possible a powerful form of negative SEO. Search marketers claim they can frame certain competitors as cheaters by posting thousands of links around the Web, making a competing site look like it's engaging in "link spamming," a tactic that draws the disfavor of major search engines. In SEO circles, this technique of setting up a competitor to be punished for link spamming is sometimes called "Google bowling."

[thetafferboy83]

Originally Posted by seo ranter

Notice it says piling ONTO...meaning putting links ON the actual site....not POINTING TO it....

You need to pay close attention to what you are reading before you make false statements..


I'm not siding with Google on this one....but I'm tired of people finding something to blame when their sites are not ranked where they THINK it should be......they blame all these penalties except the site itself...

that's my rant for the day

Hi seo ranter, thanks for cutting me down to size there, however I feel it could be interpreted quite easily, either way. However, I believe I am correct as you cannot (without hacking) "put" links onto someone's site and I'm sure Google algos take into account comment spam and the like.

It is much more likely that someone will attempt to damage your link profile by making it look like you are spamming to gain better SERPs, this is easily achieved with the method I have outlined.

So, do you really think what I was saying was "false"? Seems you are quite dismissive considering you don't cover the area yourself.... As RobertD so kindly mentions, it is you that needs to read properly before commenting...

[seo ranter]

Originally Posted by RobertD

you're the one that needs to read it!

Dude....I quoted Matt Cutts, not Brenden Scott..who himself admitted that the effects do not usually last long....