Spotted this inside article ranks. RE: "The Great Google Blog Network Slap"

Announcement

NOTICE You may be well aware that Google has deindexed some other blog networks quite drastically. All in all ArticleRanks has not seen much deindexing going on, since the beginning of the year we have had about 20% of the the network deindexed (So quite a little increase, but this is always expected) - But we are getting 20-40 new sites added daily so it kind of counteracts this. We think the reasons other networks have been hit quite bad is because: 

- They make reports easily available of published URLs, This list then gets reported to Google.
- They are mainly private networks which are a lot smaller and if wiped out are a lot harder to restore.
- They post garbage to all sites, with no media.
- They are solely wordpress based sites which are easier to spot, we not only have wordpress but support tons more platforms.
- They do not post to relevant sites or even relevant categories like we do.

This being said we are also planning on adding a big batch of PR sites to counteract this even further - Plus we have some new improvements being implemented into the backend 

For the last 2 months Google have been sending out MASS notifications to website owners via webmaster tools. Now this is triggered and done with the algothirm. This in our opinion is a scare tactic, we don't believe this is usually followed with a penalty. 

The reason we believe for this message being sent is Google are forcing people to self report themselves. We already know some networks got hit around 90%+, so all it would have taken is one or two users receiving that auto notification, getting scared and then saying to Google, but I only used such network for links (possibly even sending them reports as Google have been asking for these), and its basically bye bye to all them sites in their link profile or the ones the algo deem as low quality, effectively wiping out a chunk of sites in any given network. Or they could also possibly do it algothirmacally, I mean any sites that have been sent this notice, they start panicking and removing the links its a sure reg flag and those domains get deindexed and the cycle continues. 

Its a very clever, but sneaky approach by Google because it reduces human intervention and overheads when the algo is initially triggering off the messages. This year they have already sent around a million webmaster reports so even if they get a response from 2% it is well worth it for them. Its just too much of a coincidence that the messages started going out in bulk around feb time and now an onslaught. 

Alot of people have basically been ranking solely using networks - So what happens they get the notice, then their rankings drop, so they think they have a penalty. But its not a penalty its just because they lost a big batch of links so it has the same effect. A penalty would happen straight away, losing the link juice takes 3-4 weeks and this is when most people notice a drop in their rankings. 

Please note the above information is only a theory from us after analyzing data of ours and third parties as well as speaking with many users, as no one knows 100% except Google. 

Please remember if Google are giving penalties out for link building, then they could have an even bigger issue on their hands with negative SEO, the guys over at Google are far too clever to open such a loop hole. 

All in all we think this is a scare tactic so
1) Google get more data
2) Google may possibly give a 30 days penalty after the notices (So whoever ignores them panics and does file a reconsideration request) - But I highly doubt this due to the nature of ranking drops, it usually happens 4 weeks or so after the notice, when people are contacting them directly.
3) People just overall get scared and stop using blog networks completely. (Which is Google's main aim, scare people enough and make them thing that blog networks do not work and they will stop doing it)

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