Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
If Google discover for example that Statcounter is selling backlinks and ultimately classify the site as "Bad Neighborhood", one might expect sites linking to Statcounter to be affected.
Yes but "if" is speculation. IS Statcounter selling baclinks? Would G classify the site as Bad Neighbourhood? Would sites be affected?
What's the reality?
The accounts of ranking trouble that I've seen always seem to be related to other Google problems, especially around major algo shifts and so on. And for everyone suspicous of statcounter, there are thousand of users seeing no problem. Logic seems to dictate that there is no problem, per se -- no systematic Google penalty or demotion or whatever.
Also it's important to differentiate between Google PageRank and Google rankings -- they are very different.
PR doesn't concern me really. It's the rankings that are more important.
I suppose only Google can definitively answer this question.
I still keep the statcounter code, since it really helps to quickly check visitor statistics especially during the development phase.
Logic seems to dictate that there is no problem, per se -- no systematic Google penalty or demotion or whatever.
Thats right, ted.
However, following the same logic, there are two logical explanations:
- Statcounter is not selling backlinks and there is no systematic Google penalty or demotion or whatever.
- Statcounter is selling backlinks but Google hasn't noticed that yet therefore there is no systematic Google penalty or demotion or whatever.
IMO all PR10 (and maybe PR9 too) sites should be kept under surveillance and should have annual Google health certificate or badge. That way people will have faith in the system and we would have avoided near-paranoia concern ;-)
High PR and/or high traffic sites naturally attracts advertisers. And if the site owner yields to such offers, the site itself can become a spammer.
High PR and/or high traffic sites naturally attracts advertisers. And if the site owner yields to such offers, the site itself can become a spammer.
Well said!
And allow me to add:
High PR sites naturally attracts backlinks buyers interested in boosting their PageRank. And if the site owner yields to such offers, the site itself can become a spammer. ;-)
I have a couple questions. First, do any other metrics companies break down
browser market share? Bill Tancer or Compete, do you have any Firefox vs. IE data?
OneStat, StatCounter, or eXTReMe Tracking, whaddaya got for us?http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/my-firefox-vs-ie-stats/ [mattcutts.com]
...he placed a rel=nofollow attribute only on the link to statcounter, and some people have made a fuss about that. But maybe Matt just felt they didn't need any more PR juice, you know? He certainly was addressing them quite amicably in his request for any browser stats they might be willing to share.
Webmasters mostly advised to avoid having outbound links especially on their own homepages. Reason is to avoid "diluting" the PageRank of the homepage or lets say to avoid passing PR juice to other sites.
Of course you become suspicious when you see for example a high PR value site having on its homepage a list of say 15 outbound links (without rel=nofollow and neither affiliate links) under name RECOMMENDED, PARTNERS, LINKS etc..
Usually, that is the way backlinks selling for the purpose of boosting PageRank looks like!
So...
If It Walks Like A Duck And Quacks Like A Duck Its Probably A...... :-)
As selomelo mentioned correctly in his previous post, Statcounter posted on their blog on March 25th, 2007:
Folks,A few months back, StatCounter was approached by an advertiser, offered lots of $$$, and asked to include a spyware cookie on all of our member sites…we refused on the spot.
And thats of course great.
To avoid any "misunderstanding" of Statcounter position on selling backlinks, one would expect Statcounter to post on their blog or here on this thread a statement to the effect:
Folks,
The several outbound links you see under section "RECOMMENDED" on the left side bar of our pages are not paid backlinks. To avoid any misunderstanding, we are adding rel=nofollow to all the said outbound links.
Looking forward to hearing from StatCounter!
Hi reseller,
You can't miss the links but, paid for or not, do you think anyone using sc's services is in jeopardy of being penalised by Google?
Only Google can answer that.
[edited by: tedster at 8:43 am (utc) on April 8, 2007]
For the first time I see AdSense spots on StatCounter pages. The spots are located under the section which list the several backlinks under name RECOMMENDED.
Maybe those AdSense spots have always been there, and its me who haven't noticed that.
Maybe StatCounter studying the possibility of substituting the list of several "RECOMMENDED" backlinks by AdSense spots in future.
Who knows.
One of the backlinks under "RECOMMENDED" on StatCounter pages, belongs to a Link Exchange Network. On the top of the homepage of that particular Link Exchange Network you read:
Exchanging links with other websites is the fastest and easiest way to increase the link popularity and search engine ranking of your website.
And I thought that a site of PR10 like StatCounter would respect Google Webmaster Guidelines, which include:
Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.
Oh well...
How to report paid links [mattcutts.com]
Hidden links [mattcutts.com]
By the way.. [mattcutts.com]
Thanks Matt. Highly appreciated.
