Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

| This News Blog is dedicated to bringing news, information and innovations targeting the Search Engine Optimisation industry.

Black hat SEO blamed for GoCompare Google penalty

GoCompare has slipped down Google’s rankings as a result of what search experts believe to be a penalty imposed by the search engine.
 
The insurance comparison website has slipped from top spot to seventh in Google’s search results for the keywords car insurance, which is likely to be a serious hammer blow to the company’s profit figures.
 
According to Patrick Altoft, Google is understood to have slapped a penalty on the website for buying links, a tactic that breaches its webmaster guidelines.
 
The search giant has not confirmed this speculation, however internet monitoring service Hitwise has investigated the impact of the demotion on GoCompare visitor numbers, revealing an 87% drop in traffic.
 
Confused.com appear to have benefited most from GoCompare’s SEO gaff, as it wrested number one ranking with an impressive 77% jump in traffic to its website.

There is much speculation surrounding the penalties with buying links, something that will no doubt be a hot bad of discussion at this weeks SES conference in London, specifically at the Linking Strategies session on Wednesday, for which I'll be one of the speakers, 
"Staying Under the Wire"....bring it on!

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