Reviewing some small but annoying drop in G referrals since last week, I'm seeing quite a few examples where the sites that outperform mine (and sometimes even hit SERP #1) are only supported by a bunch of links from one-page typepad and wordpress doc com spam blogs. Well, that and the squeedoo.com lens. Basically, all are supported by backlinks from one-page user-submitted content, inherently susceptible to spam. I thought we left that phase behind us a few years ago, no?
Oh, and another interesting expample of one-page (no-page? read below) site suddenly getting promoted in Google is this: I have a page that's critical of one particular item being promoted on TV. It's been on #2 to #4 spot for years on the name of the product, usually just below the manufacturer's site. The manufacturer has probably hired some PR remediation services which pushed my site to #10. But what's interesting is that #9 is a private (!) login-only blog at wordpress.com . That is, there is no content whatsoever, it's a password-protected page, just a login form. Its subdomain is the keyword itself and it's on wordpress.com domain, that's it. Nothing else to vouch for that page except a few links from blog comments on absolutely unrelated blog sites. What gives?
Is this another one of Google's anti-spam tweaks gone wrong or are spam blogs at free blogging services sites no longer considered all that bad?
Is anyone else seeing this?
