|
|
Is It Really the L A W?
(Article Contributed By Marie, of Sex Story Text - Posted on February 19th, 2010)
A little while ago there were some interesting moves by Google ... not in their search engine or in Adwords/Adsense ... but in the public domain that really concerned quite a few people.
There were several not-so-subtle attempts by Matt Cutts to link black-hat webmasters ... those people who always want to push the envelope to get better search engine rankings ... with criminals. It seemed that there was an attempt to get people to believe that if you weren't following Google's guidelines then you must be some sort of criminal and Mr Cutts even tried connecting black hats with those who were involved in kiddie porn.
As I said, it wasn't very subtle and it really was totally out of order for him to suggest anything of the sort. But then it seems that many Google employees seem to think that they are the lawmakers when it comes to the Internet and if you break their "laws" then you must be a criminal.
It's a sad reflection on Google and the people who work there and it's also quite alarming because obviously the people at Google seem to think that they are totally outside some of the real laws that relate to some aspects of the Net. Copyright laws are just one of the areas that spring to mind where Google thinks that the real laws don't apply to them and I'm sure that we can all think of others.
When it comes to the real law the ends never justify the means but then, when it comes to the rules that Google wants us to play by we're not talking about real laws are we?
Sure, Google has rules about what you should and should not do if you want to get a listing in their directory. That's perfectly reasonable ... even the local mall has rules about what you should and should not do while you're inside the mall but they are not laws just as Google's rules are not laws.
Of course Google would like webmasters to think of their rules as laws because that increases the likelihood that we'll actually comply with Google's rules. Most webmasters don't really want to break the law so, if Google can convince us that their rules are laws, then they know that they will have a far easier task of getting webmasters to comply with those rules than might otherwise be the case.
So don't be fooled into thinking that Google's rules are in anyway laws that you shouldn't break. But at the same time don't think that you can go ahead and break the rules that Google has set without incurring any sort of penalty. Google is entitled to set any rules it likes for you to follow if you want to get your sites listed in their directory and they are entitled to set penalties if you disregard those rules.
However, that doesn't mean that you should break those rules ... it doesn't mean that you shouldn't push the limits just to see how far you can go ... it just means that you should be careful and not do any testing with sites that are important to your success.
And why should you push those limits and run the risk of getting sites blacklisted by Google?
Well there's no better way to get a clear understanding of what the limits might be than to push against your perception of them. What you learn as you push the boundaries can also help you work more effectively within the limits. That's what most of us did as kids ... we pushed at the community's boundaries and now that we know what they are we work within them.
There's also a little matter of it being one thing to set rules and to expect webmasters to comply with their rules but who says that Google actually enforces them in an even-handed manner ... or even knows when people break the rules?
Yes, Google says that it enforces their rules and Google says that it knows when people break the rules and there are plenty of examples of sites getting whacked by Google when it finds that they break the rules ... but there are plenty of other examples in Google's own directory of sites breaking Google's rules and not getting caught.
You only have to start looking at competitors' sites and their inbound links and sooner rather than later you'll start to see linking schemes that are obviously against Google's rules. You will find sites that are interlinked despite the fact that they have absolutely no relevance to each other ... you will find paid links, link farms and all the things that Google says you must not do with links and you will see that those links are passing considerable value to the sites that they're pointing at.
You'll also see doorway pages that are passing link value to help boost the importance of the sites that they lead to ... you'll see keyword stuffing ... hidden text and plenty of other examples of what you shouldn't do. And yet, despite the fact that most of the sites you will look at are chasing very competitive terms, you'll see that Google hasn't penalized them at all.
In fact Google probably hasn't even noticed what's going on right under its nose. Perhaps the fact is that Google can't obviously see what people are doing ... or if they can ... perhaps they're very slow at finding sites that break the rules. Why else would they encourage webmasters to report those rule-breakers that we might come across?
So don't be fooled into thinking that Google's rules in any way equate to the law ... because they don't. Google is not the Internet's Sheriff ... they break enough of the real laws themselves without any feelings of remorse to ever be able to claim the high moral ground ... so don't be afraid to push the limits.
But do be aware that if you're caught breaking Google's rules you will pay a penalty so don't do any testing with sites that are too valuable to lose. And once you know what the limits are then work within them.
Looking for some quality text for your paysites? Sex Story Text provides quality written work for webmasters world-wide! Check out their website at http://www.sex-story-text.com.
Go Back to The Porn Resource
|
|
