Google Guy Matt Cutts just uploaded a video to try to "debunk" the myth that they sent out over 700,000 un-natural link notices.

He says that over 600,0000 of THOSE notices were for "black hat!" And only about 25k were for UN-natural linking the myth that they sent out over 700,000 un-natural link notices.

He says that over 600,0000 of THOSE notices were for "black hat!" And only about 25k were for UN-natural linking. Here is the video.

So I am wondering... what the heck does THAT "Black Hat" message look like?

We sure have a TON of examples of the famous "UN-Natrual" link notice but where are the "black hat" notice examples? What do they look like?  What do they say?

If you got one, please post it here!

But I am thinking most Black Hatter's don't put their sites in Google WebMaster Tools so those notices to them probably went unread! I mean, come on, if you were doing Black Hat, would YOU put your site in the cross-hairs of Google? I know I wouldn't and didn't! lol

So, I thought, ok, let's see if one of my de-indexed blogs got a notice, so I found one that was still up (no content on it any longer) and see if it had gotten a notice. And sure enough, it did! But there is NOTHING in this letter that says anything about Black Hat!

 
So if this is the notice he is referring to, and they sent them out to all the blog network sites, then that would mean there were about 600,000 sites that were doing the "grievous" job of ranking those 25k customers? LOL

My old networks only account for 20k of those, and as far as I know, I lost the most, so who else got hit in large quantities? Or was it just thousands smaller network owners? But then again, can we ever believe what comes out of Matt Cutts? Let me know what YOU think below. And please, if you got a message in Jan--March that wasn't a Link Notice, let's see it!

cheers,

Dori Friend

p.s. And how totally uncool he would wear a Panda t-shirt on one of these videos! The below comment says it all and I totally agree..

"I really don't think it is very funny the wearing of penguin and panda stuff. People have been drastically hurt and business destroyed by these updates. In many cases I have seen the webmaster doing nothing at all wrong with the websites from a algorithm perspective." -Jaan Kanellis 

And for that, Matt wins the ___________ award! Again, you can fill in the blank! http://seosmurfs.com/

p.s.s. Now for the "Shameless Plug." SeoNitro's Network is Closed to new people, but we are making buffer site networks to help keep your money sites safe. Click on the graphic below for more details on Buffer Site Networks.

We are looking for skilled people who will take on the role of Site Development Associates. If you are talented, organized, reliable, efficient, have a good understanding of Joomla and WordPress, and know how to change themes, change headers, move modules/widgets, and edit images, we want you!

We already have site development processes in place and we will train you in those. You will also be assisting other team members with their workload.

To be a success in this role, you...

• Have excellent English communication skills
• Love getting the job done quickly with an attention to detail
• Love working on the internet
• Have a basic understanding of SEO
• Have fantastic experience in Joomla, WordPress, web design/development, and image editing
  
• Love learning new things, especially on the internet
• Are self disciplined with good work ethic
• Are self-motivated and able to work unsupervised
• Work well with a team
  
• Have a strong sense of integrity and honesty
• Have reliable internet access and power source
  
• Have full time availability

• Full time work-from-home position
• Long term employment
• Bonuses for over-delivering
• Important responsibility
• A stable environment with room to grow
• A positive and friendly team
• 15 days Paid Time Off every year (you will start earning PTO credits after three months of service)
  
• Paid Christmas break and paid birthday day off

To apply for this fantastic opportunity, send an email to careers@seonitro.com. Attach your resume to your email and answer the following questions in your application:

1. What is your primary reason for applying for this position?
2. Are you willing to work on any shift assigned to you?
   
3. What days of the week are you not available?
4. What hourly rate would you expect to be paid? Note: This is not the rate you will be paid; you may be paid more or less, depending on your skill level.
5. Do you have a computer in good working order and an unrestricted broadband internet connection?
6. How regularly do you use the internet and for what?
7. What web programming/design systems/languages do you know? Please provide details as to what level, etc.
8. Discuss any previous experience that you have with web design and development, Joomla, WordPress, and/or Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
   
9. List any services you have had direct experience with for the purpose of web design and SEO
   

We are again looking for talented people who will take on the role of SEO Customer Support Heroes. If you are a talented, organized, reliable, efficient writer and communicator who really enjoys solving problems and takes pride in your work and keeping customers happy, we want you!

We have the systems, tools and plans to promote our websites we just need star performers to help us support our customers after we have them hooked on us.

Here are a few more tasks you'll be working on:

1. Activating Customers in our system
2. Using kayako help desk software
3. Documenting questions and updating knowledge base and FAQ
4. Building pages on web2.0 sites (squidoo.com & hubpages.com)
5. Link building
6. Blogging using wordpress
7. Problem Solving
8. General administration
9. Assisting other team members with their workload

To be a success in this role, you...

• Have excellent English skills
• Have experience in customer service
• Pride yourself on your problem solving and organizational skills
• Love getting the job done quickly with an attention to detail
• Love working on the internet
• Have a basic understanding of html and seo
• Have fantastic experience using MS Word, Excel and Outlook
• Love learning new things, especially on the internet
• Are self disciplined with good work ethic
• Self-motivated and able to work unsupervised
• Have a strong sense of integrity and honesty
• Have reliable internet access
• Have full time availability

What We're Offering

• Full time work-from-home position
• Long term employment
• Bonuses for over-delivering
• Important responsibility
• A stable environment with room to grow
• A positive and friendly team
• 15 days Paid Time Off every year (you will start earning PTO credits after three months of service)
  
• Paid Christmas break and paid birthday day off

One final thing before you apply, if you're just looking for a job to put in some hours or you just want to make a little extra cash, then most likely you're not the person we're after, i.e., no lazy people, and no one who is not committed to being the best.

To apply for this fantastic opportunity, send an email to careers@seonitro.com. Attach your resume to your email and answer the following questions in your application:

1. What is your primary reason for applying for this position?
2. Are you willing to work on any shift assigned to you?
   
3. What days of the week are you not available?
4. What hourly rate would you expect to be paid? Note: This is not the rate you will be paid; you may be paid more or less, depending on your skill level.
5. Do you have a computer in good working order and an unrestricted broadband internet connection?
6. How regularly do you use the internet and for what?
7. Do you know basic html? If you do, please provide details as to what level, etc.
8. Discuss any previous experience that you have with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and/or Customer Support.
9. List any services you have had direct experience with for the purpose of SEO and Customer Support.

For the Advance SEO Seminar participants who were not able to register on 25 September 2012, another registration session will be held on 26 September 2012, 8:00 to 9:00 AM Pacific Time, at the Mark Twain Salon, on the first deck of Delta King.

And the seminar agenda can be viewed on http://dorifriend.com/SEORockstarsAgenda.pdf

We got a bigger room at the hotel where the Advanced SEO Intensive is taking place.

And let us tell you, we have NEVER, EVER seen so much SEO brainpower in the same room EVER!! Not just the peeps we have speaking, BUT also the peeps in the seats!! :::thumbs up:::

Really, even Dori was shocked at the "who is" list that is coming to this thing.

But, the biggest room at the hotel only holds 100 and we are at 73 already, so we can only squeeze in 27 more and it is absolutely first come first served.

Here is the tentative schedule of the event..

Tuesday, Sept 25th
--------------------------------------
5pm- networking cocktails and registration

Wed, Sept 26th
--------------------------------------
9am- The State of SEO
10am- Panda/Penguin Recovery Case Studies
11am- Panda/Penguin Tactics
12pm- RANKING Using Cloud Cover

NETWORK LUNCH

2pm- Intro to Blog Networks
3pm How to Purchase Expired Domains for Blog Networks
4pm- The Do's and Don'ts of Blog Networks
5pm- Round Table Discussion: Over Optimization and How to Overcome It
PRIZE Vote for Person Who Gave Tip of the Day

NETWORK COCKTAIL HOUR (optional)

Thursday, Sept 27th
-------------------
9am- SEO Metics: How to Reverse Engineer
10am- On-Page SEO: Post Panda Do's and Don'ts
11am- RANKING Images: Showing up in Google Images AND Google Results
12pm- Fix It For Me: Trouble Shooting Attendees Mistakes

NETWORK LUNCH

2pm- RANKING New Sites: Best Practices Revealed from 12 SEO Rockstars
3pm- RANKING Ecommerce Sites: The Sexy Truth of Making Zillions
4pm- RANKING Videos: Showing up #1 in Google Results as Well as YouTube
5pm- Round Table Discussion: How Do I?
PRIZE Vote for Person Who Gave Tip of the Day

NETWORK COCKTAIL HOUR (optional)

Friday, Sept 28th
--------------------------------------
9am- RANKING Branded Searches: Google WANTS You to Brand
10am- RANKING Parasites: Take ALL 10 spots on the First Page!
11am- RANKING Local SEO: Showing Up Everywhere!
12pm- SEO Makeovers: Trouble Shooting Attendees Sites

NETWORK LUNCH

2pm- RANKING With Social: Using Social Media to Rank Sites
3pm- RANKING With Press Releases: The NEW Blognetwork that ROCKS
4pm- Reputation Management: Pushing Down A Ranking
5pm- Round Table Discussion: Open
PRIZE Vote for Person Who Gave Tip of the Day

NETWORK COCKTAIL HOUR (optional)

Saturday, Sept 29- Network Party Day at Dori's Ranch
--------------------------------------
10am- Transport Begins to Dori's Ranch (will go all day back and forth)
11am- Avalable All Day

-Horse Back Riding
-Swimming
-Paddle Boat
-Fishing: Bass Pond, Bring your own gear
-Open Bar
-NETWORKING

LUNCH: Sandwich Bar
Entertainment: Hal Gamble, Guitar Balladeer

2pm- Olive Oil Tasting
3pm- Zinfindel Wine Tasting
4pm- Cocktail Party: 40s Music to Stir the Martini Up

DINNER: BBQ and the Trimmings
~Surprise~
Entertainment: Rock The House Band
Announce SEO MVP: The Person Gave the BEST Info All Week!
-All event speakers will be working it hard in the room AND in the bar to win THIS coveted prize!!

Lisa Parmley of InlineSEO.com asked to do an interview with me, so I had so much fun ranting about Google, I thought I would post it here so we can all either rant together, or argue about what is coming next! LOL

Here it is..

 Lisa: Hi Dori, I really appreciate you taking the time to give me an interview. That was really nice of you to reply to my email so quickly! I asked a few questions here, I know my readers would be interested in as much detail as you're willing to share. 

Q. I know you've been doing SEO for a long time, exactly when did you first get started running an online business?

Well, I have been online since 93’ and my first email address was dori.friend@applelink.com which was Apple Computer’s internal email network (I use to work for them) but my FIRST online business was in 2000 and it was called TheLogoGuru.com but I got so enamored with Internet Marketing after attending an industry seminar in 2001 I just drifted away from that business and went head first into SEO and have never looked back.

Q. If you're willing to share it, what was the first business idea you put together?

Back in 1985 when the MAC came out (and yes that dates me! Lol) I was heavily into HyperCard, which was the FIRST piece of software that used “hyperlinks.” (can you imagine? Lol) I created a product called MACINFO.

It was just a directory of Macintosh products of the day but the novel thing was that you could “link” and “jump” around and get to information you wanted, so it was non-linear, which WAS pretty novel at the time! lol.

Two MORE novel things about that that first product was ..

1) I was sent a cease and desist letter for using “hyperlinks” by the guy who had the patent on it (Apple squashed that pretty quick) and,

2) at the first HyperCard conference where I was showing my wares, my booth was next to the guys who did a pretty cool animated product that eventually turned into the best selling game “Mist!”  

Q. Did you start out with SEO right away as your favorite source of traffic?

Actually, I think I started out buying PPC traffic for TheLogoGuru, But in 2002 I had gotten heavily into SEO with a buddy of mine. Together, we created a piece of software that let us put sites and content up in MASS!

This is in the day when on-page optimization was all you needed, so it was typical for us to put up 50k page sites and crank in long tail traffic in hordes! We had been doing well with affiliate stuff at Commission Junction but when Adsense came to town, it quadrupled our income almost overnight and we dance a jig for 3 years on that business model! ;-)

So yeah, you could say SEO was my favorite source of traffic right from the start. :-)

Q. Compared to what getting top rankings were like when you first got started, what do you see as the biggest changes to SEO over the last decade?

Wow, well, the biggest “change(s)” I have seen in that last decade have all happened in the last 6 months! I mean, things are always changing, SEO has always been a moving target even on a good day, but the last 6 months have been just horrendously HUGE. But since the infamous “Florida” update, things changed at a lower pace then what has just happened to the industry.

And those gosh awful “un-natural link notices!” Oye!

It is almost like we are turning full circle back to 2003-04 where on-page optimization counts as much as incoming links.

From about 2007 to six months ago, I didn’t give a squat about ANYTHING on-page! I could rank what I wanted just by using inbound links.

Even, if there was NO content on the page let alone “quality” content! Lol (that by the way was another HUGE myth Google had everyone chasing for years, that content was king, cause back then in SEO, LINKS were KING, period! ) And to some extent they still are, but Google has really up’ed their game so now there is an ever-increasing amount of variables that we didn’t seem to have to pay as much attention to back then. And, on-page is back.

I had always paid attention to title tags, but now we have to really pay attention to ad to content ratios, bounce rate, time on site, inner linking over optimization and an entire line up of Panda disqualifiers.

Off-page, we are calculating things like “link density” and “referral ratios” for the first time. This is stuff we (or I should say “I”) would never give the time of day before.

Q. Do you have any funny stories of ranking? Like a site you built that should have never ranked, but was getting out-of-control awesome rankings in the search engines? Would you care to share what top rankings for a particular key phrase or phrases have meant to you in terms of money?

OMG I have some GREAT ones right now!! But unfortunately I can’t share with your reader’s cause the data is reserved for my workshop attendees in September, but I will say this, it goes against, everything Google says is true. Crazy insane stuff even “I” didn’t believe until I saw it with my own eyes!

But, as far as rankings for super killer keywords go?

I have had my share of page one monster terms, like “blinds,” “payday loans,”  “cover letter,” “area rugs,” “slipcovers,” “weight loss,” etc.. But it is my SeoNitro clients that REALLY hit them and of course I can’t share those, but I do have a funny story about one that a customer was trying to hit for a killer keyword.

It was for the keyword “Toner.”

I was sitting at the bar (which I do lol) at one of the industry events and was talking to this guy next to me and he asked me my name and I said, Dori. He then said, “oh, do you know a gal named Dori Friend?” and I said, “well as a matter of fact.. I do.” Lol

He then preceded to give me a 30 minute dissertation on Dori Friend’s system SeoNitro and how it didn’t get his site to page one for “Toner” after a couple of months and so he angrily quit and signed up with Brian Horn (whom by the way is actually a friend of mine, in my seo mastermind group and will be speaking at my event in September!) and that Brain was SO amazing he ranked his site on page one in the matter of weeks.

I listened to EVERYTHING he had to say and took it ALL in! I mean how often to you get a customer’s viewpoint like that, it was SO unfiltered! Remember, we were AT the bar and this guy was drinking!! Lol

And then, I paused and looked at him, and I said, “You DO know I AM Dori Friend right?” Lol And, OMG he turned 50 shades of purple!! LOL it was actually pretty funny. He really didn’t put together that I was THAT Dori! Lol He felt SO bad for saying all the things he said about me not knowing it was me but I just thanked him! It was actually the best “take home” from that event for me!

Then later, I then went up to Brian and ask him how in the hell did he rank that guy so fast for “toner” and he said, “Not much.. you had already done all the heavily lifting for me!”

And THAT is SEO for ya! Ya win some, ya lose some! LOL

Q. It seems to me that Google is really learning toward brands, almost every health search I do anymore has webmd and the mayoclinic near the top. Do you think there's still room for the little guys (and girls)? And if so what's the best strategy for them?

Yeah, when this all started, SEO gave the little guy a chance to compete and more often out compete the BIG Corporations. And THAT is what really made SEO so fun and exciting!  For the first time, small business were able to show up on the national level and bring in customers from all over the world.

It totally gave the middle class a bump and I don’t understand how Eric Schmidt, (Google’s CEO) can go on record for “being” for small businesses, when it is obvious that they just kicked small business’s teeth in!

Even Google’s poster child for Adsense, “AsktheBuilder.com” has come out to say Google’s changes have nearly destroyed their business. And these are the guys Google gave us as a THE example for a great Adsense Model.

So, room for the little guy?

Yes, I believe so. We just have to “look” like the big guy now! Remember, GoogleBot is still just a spider sending back information to the mother-ship. So, the game is the same as it always has been, to feed the BOT whatever flavor of the day it is.  LOL

Q. What do you think are the top mistakes small business owners are making when it comes to getting high rankings?

In no particular order..

-wasting time taking links down because they got an un-natural linking notice
-linking “just” to their homepage
-linking with the same anchor text over and over again (over optimization on exact match terms)
-not linking to their site using their Brand and URL in the anchor text
-not linking to their inner pages (which coincides to many just to home page)
-not paying attention to on-page optimization (never thought I would be saying THAT! Lol)
-listening to Google

Q. What are your top 3 methods for getting links?

1) Blog Networks (of course) lol
2) Press Releases (which  FYI for the exception of about 145 major news pick-ups you can get with the $200 paid release at PRWeb, news sites are really just glorified blog networks)
3) Fiverr

Q. You're so tapped into the SEO industry; I bet you can give some pretty good predictions.  Where do you see the SEO industry in 2 years?

Well I don’t know if you can listen to me on predictions! LOL Cause I would of never in a million years predicted the things Google has just done to the industry in such a short amount of time. But, ok, I will give it a stab. LOL

I think by this time next year the SEO industry will have caught up with the changes that have occurred in the last 6 months and once again have a standard “best practices” that work and work well again. We are coming really close to this already through all the testing we have been doing.

Then give it anther year to hit the two year mark and Google will probably do another switcheroo on us! Lol

And at the same time, I think more emphasis will be placed on multiple methods of generating free traffic with social media being at the forefront of that.

Q. What about 5 years?

I hope we will see the emergence of another significant search engine (or multiple) diluting Google’s current monopoly and ability to somewhat “control” the industry.

But Bing/Yahoo is slowly increasing in market share and then there the development of verticals like YouTube and Facebook. We don’t really see them so much as “search engines” now, but YouTube already generates a TON of free traffic from internal keyword searches for those who are ranking “just” in YouTube, so I think this is one of the types of venue of free traffic I mentioned above we will be seeing more SEO attention placed on.

Q. What are your predictions for Google Plus? Is it worth the typical small business owner's time to get started on it or will it fizzle out?

Jury is still out. Lol

But, right NOW, I see more of a SEO factor to ranking on Google with Facebook shares and likes. And, that could change, that is just at THIS moment in time a TON of Google Plus’s seems to be over optimizing a bit so I wouldn’t go hog wild on getting them but instead focus Facebook shares and likes and probably more on shares.

Q. Google will supposedly come out with a link disavow tool.  If so are you going to suggest people who've gotten unnatural links warnings to use it sparingly or just disavow pretty much everything linking back to their site? 

Unless we have data that shows us that a webmaster regaining their rankings or show “any” type of improvement at all from using such a tool, I will say it’s a waste of time and don’t bother with it.

Now if such a tool does come out, we WILL test it and test the crap out of it to get our own data, and if I have to eat crow on the above statement, I will. Lol,

I just don’t put much credence into they un-natural linking hype. I just HAMMERED a site in one of my test using ONLY links from de-indexed blogs and I didn’t even GET the notice!! Talk about un-natural linking!! Lol So, until Google becomes more transparent to what that actually means, everyone who is reacting, is shooting in the dark.

Q. Do you trust what Matt Cutts says?

HAHAHA Trust? Hmm. Let’s say this, I trust that he has Google’s back (of course) and tows the line with industry rhetoric that places the fear of you know who into webmasters and plays them like a fiddle. Do I believe ANYTHING that comes out of his mouth? Mostly no. 

And like I said above, I have data that I would just LOVE to share with your readers, (but can’t) that goes directly against what Google and Matt Cutts tell us.

So, I will say this, learn how to read between the lines and “really,” only listen to test results rather then hear-say, EVEN (or ESPECIALLY) when it comes from the mother ship as THEY, like the rest of us, are looking out for numero uno. So unless you are a Google share holder (and a couple of my retired friends are! Lol) then that is NOT you, and is certainly not me! So test everything or become friends with people that DO.

And let me rant for a moment if you will.

Google was a start-up that depended on the grassroots efforts for publicity back in the day. They courted the SEO Professional. And it was the SEO Professional that in-part has been responsibly for Google’s success. We WERE the grassroots army that shouted from the rooftops to all offline business to GET ONLINE. Not only did we educate them on SEO we educated them on PPC. WE did that!! So for Google to come back and WACK us on the side of the head for continuing to do SEO is, well, incredibly distasteful and heartbreaking.

And for those who think you are “White Hat” and are a Google darling, think again. Except for making your site easier to crawl, ANYTHING you do to try to increase your rankings is considered “manipulating” the search engines and IS very much against Google’s terms and conditions!

So the very nature of SEO itself is now against Google’s terms and conditions!!

In a recent video I watch Matt Cutts say they weren’t against SEO and he then went on to explain the role of a SEO professional from “his” eyes.

What he described was a PPC, Conversion and Marketing expert. Three things I am NOT. Even though PPC is about traffic, it is NOT SEO and “conversion and marketing?” Paaaleese, those two, are NOT SEO!

And even though some SEO Professionals fit into the “Internet Marketing Professional” model and help small businesses out with all of that stuff, most of us JUST DO SEO, which equals going after and getting FREE TRAFFIC AND ORGANIC RANKINGS, plan and simple!

OK, stop me before I break something! Lol ;-)

Q. You've been a major player in the blog network arena (if not THE top player) and I know there has been a major shake-up. I'm sure you've got something cooking now like a better version of a blog network, or maybe even something completely different.  What can we expect to see from you in the future?

Oh yeah, lots in the popper! And yep, better versions of blog networks OF COURSE, lol, as they are STILL work and they STILL work very well. And actually, since everyone is busy taking “down” their links (which I believe is doing more harm then good for them) we are having an easier time ranking new sites! 

I am also building private networks for customers and will probably eventually create a monthly site package so people who can’t afford the pretty big chunk of change it costs to buy the sites for a major network, can grow it gradually.

I also have a super ninja Advanced SEO Workshop happening in September which is actually turning into a major SEO Event. J

Because I have most of the guys from my elite SEO Mastermind group (which by the way we all pay $2k a year to be in it, so it isn’t your average popsicle, Perry Belcher, Keith Baxter and Brian Horn put it together and pulled in best of the best in all areas of SEO!) the brain power in the room (and in the bar lol ;-) is going to be like no other SEO event that has ever been held. I am pretty excited for it!

And last but not least, we are also working on some tools. The first one to come out will be http://www.linkdensity.com which I built because “I” needed to know my anchor text link density and not tool was reporting it yet.

It was strange cause I felt something happening with links last year, so I actually had an earlier version of this that I was using last November. But now that it has become industry significant to NOT over-optimize your anchor text link density, I decided to fancy up the tool and release it.

It is still in beta and is still free right now, but probably won’t be for long as it costs a bundle in processing and pulling API information on all those links we are analyzing.

And then after all that, maybe.. I will go to Disneyland! ;-)

Again, thank-you so much for taking the time to answer these questions! I know my visitors will get a lot out of it.

Sincerely,

Lisa