HomeContactAbout

SEO: An SEO Red Flag?

Filed under: SEO by TheMadHat |
2/12/08 at 2:07 pm

Okay people. I don’t understand why all of the sudden we have multiple posts on “SEO red flags”…whatever that really means anyway. Can we please just say that all SEO could be interpreted by a search engine as a red flag? I agree with all of these posts, but I also disagree with all of these posts. It all depends on how it’s used so why are we writing about it?

Red FlagNofollow As A Red Flag: So they recommend we use nofollow then use it against us. Nofollow helps the search engines stay away from bad content and keeps them from indexing things that shouldn’t be indexed (in theory. Really it’s a cop-out b/c the Google spam team can’t keep up). The engines are trying to get more and more people to adopt the use of the stupid tag, so why would there be a flag/penalty/review of it. Obviously anything in excess is going to raise a flag. If I drink 117 red bulls in an hour someone will be raising a flag for me at my funeral.

Updating Links As A Red Flag: Updating links? Why is it unnatural to think you’d want to correct links that were wrong. When you change your site architecture all of your links are going to change; or they should anyway. Why would Google want links going to irrelevant pages or anchor text that is wrong. It just makes their jobs more difficult. If I were to eat 4 gallons of ice cream in one night, I’d be sick…or a woman during…nevermind.

Sitemaps As A Red Flag: Uh, telling Google where your pages are only helps them crawl and index your site. If my sitemap goes from 20 pages to 25 million pages…duh. It’s like if I used a 50 caliber machine gun to kill a mouse. There will be some collateral damage.

Links Page As A Red Flag: Everyone knows what I’m talking about. If I have 50 pages of content and 438 pages of links that would be like France getting attacked. They would be raising a flag. A white one but a flag nonetheless.

Do I really need to keep going with this? The point is everything can be a red flag if used inappropriately. Minimal use of blackhat techniques is a red flag. Overuse of whitehat techniques is a red flag. SEO itself is a red flag. Can’t we have some different colors or something? Having a website is a red flag dammit. Hey you…are you reading this? That’s a red flag, you’re out for the season.

PS: My comments are fixed if you had a problem recently :D




26 Comments »

    MyAvatars 0.2

  1. he he… It’s all SEO FUD…. that’s why Matt and Co don’t need to… SEO BLoggers are doing it for them :0) I freakin love it bro… Pealties, Red Flags… beware, the sky id falling. These days Google can just sit backand watch us self-destruct. I think we need a ‘SEO Shrink’ to help us through our fear ad loathing.

    See? You talked about SEO finally… such as it is.

    L8TR Dood

    Comment by theGypsy — February 12, 2008 @ 2:16 pm

    2. MyAvatars 0.2

  2. Great points! I would add to that the overuse/misuse of the word “penalty”…

    Comment by WEBOSIS — February 12, 2008 @ 2:24 pm

    3. MyAvatars 0.2

  3. Alerted of a link to my site, had to come running to check it out :-)

    The idea, at least for me, was to suggest that something that seems perfectly reasonable (i.e. tidying up links) may actually be bad. Redirects are the “natural” way to correct links because that is what a webmaster would “naturally” do. Sending notices to other sites isn’t something a webmaster (non-SEO) would bother with.

    Comment by Marios Alexandrou — February 12, 2008 @ 2:33 pm

    4. MyAvatars 0.2

  4. @Marios Agree and disagree. Sending noticed to other sites is something a non-SEO PR department might do, or even a small business who doesn’t know how to properly do a redirect.

    I think it’s more of a combination of things; aka: too many paid links, too much identical anchor text, then going and changing a link (also possibly devaluing the link age) could hurt but everyone seems to be speaking in absolutes.

    Does this mean we shouldn’t do any link reclamation, even though that’s a standard practice? Or is it that we shouldn’t do any when there is also X, Y, and Z going on as well?

    @Gypsy: lmao “SEO Shrink”. Untapped market. (seoshrink.com already registered though)

    Comment by TheMadHat — February 12, 2008 @ 2:50 pm

    5. MyAvatars 0.2

  5. If using Wordpress….

    Unique descriptions are a red flag
    Meta Keywords are a red flag
    Archives that can’t be indexed are a red flag
    Not having a blogroll on every page with at least 40 entries is a red flag

    Any whiff of any all in one SEO plugin is fatal

    Be careful of using any themes that don’t include the sidebar on every page, much safe to use Wordpress widgets.

    Also…

    Linking to Matt Cutts or any Google blog is a red flag
    Subscribing to a Google blog in Google reader, with the same Google ID you use in Webmaster Central is a red flag

    Comment by Andy Beard — February 12, 2008 @ 10:15 pm

    6. MyAvatars 0.2

  6. @Andy - :) you got it. every thing’s a damn flag. I wish we could get on and just optimize shit and stop being UFO watchers. Thanks for commenting, I’ve been a fan of yours!

    @everyone else: I know my comments are jacking up…working on it. Damn WP update screwed me all up.

    Comment by TheMadHat — February 12, 2008 @ 10:38 pm

    7. MyAvatars 0.2

  7. […] Matt Cutts debunked Eric’s theory about Google red flagging, but the discussion continued to go on about SEO and Red Flags; and The Mad Hat put together a recent list of SEO Red Flag rumors. […]

    Pingback by SEO Red Flags & SEO Misinformation : Let’s Put An End to It — February 13, 2008 @ 10:52 am

    8. MyAvatars 0.2

  8. LOL

    Well said that man The Mad Hatter.

    Comment by PPCblogger — February 13, 2008 @ 11:51 am

    9. MyAvatars 0.2

  9. In a perfect world, what pleases or displeases the search engines would be clear to all. Then the winners would be those who are willing to work the hardest.

    Comment by Green Abode — February 13, 2008 @ 12:43 pm

    10. MyAvatars 0.2

  10. Well said it’s getting ridiculous :)

    Comment by Hobo — February 13, 2008 @ 1:05 pm

    11. MyAvatars 0.2

  11. […] SEO: An SEO Red Flag?, The Mad Hat […]

    Pingback by SEO Company Reading - SEM - Hobo SEO UK — February 13, 2008 @ 8:56 pm

    12. MyAvatars 0.2

  12. I may be just like any other paranoid SEO sucker out there, but the idea that nofollow is a red flag is complete bullshit – taken straight out of someone’s ass…or in this case, a bull’s ass.

    Comment by Jon Henshaw — February 14, 2008 @ 1:22 am

    13. MyAvatars 0.2

  13. HAHAHAHAHAH…people should be less paranoid about tools used to guide traffic through the web, and focus on the nitty gritty of SEO

    Comment by SEO Results — February 14, 2008 @ 7:28 am

    14. MyAvatars 0.2

  14. That was probably the funniest SEO post I ever read! :D
    (haven’t read many, tho)
    Thnx and Greetingz from Munich!

    Comment by Sepita — February 14, 2008 @ 11:01 am

    15. MyAvatars 0.2

  15. Let me see if I have this right.

    Is a red flag a video review and a yellow a penalty?

    Do I have it backwards a red flag is a penalty and a yellow is a video review?

    Do we get a red flag after a video review?

    Well I guess I will have to wear a RED hat.

    Comment by Gary Pool — February 14, 2008 @ 4:29 pm

    16. MyAvatars 0.2

  16. Uh…You only get a flag if you have the proper flag pole :D

    Comment by TheMadHat — February 14, 2008 @ 5:18 pm

    17. MyAvatars 0.2

  17. Hey (link removed for violation of TOS)A, (link removed for violation of TOS)how about (link removed for violation of TOS)comment (link removed for violation of TOS) spam?

    Comment by purposeinc — February 16, 2008 @ 4:15 pm

    18. MyAvatars 0.2

  18. FLAGGED!

    Comment by TheMadHat — February 16, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

    19. MyAvatars 0.2

  19. Well Andy, you are absolute right. A good addition to this post or even as separate posts… The WP Red Flags!

    Some good plug ins are there to help you (automated) with this by the way.

    Comment by lening — February 18, 2008 @ 6:28 pm

    20. MyAvatars 0.2

  20. That’s great! I like it!

    Comment by Dr. Homer — February 19, 2008 @ 11:56 am

    21. MyAvatars 0.2

  21. Personally I think Google controls too much of what everyone does on the web. It is kind of scary that one company has so much control over what is supposed to be a free and open thinking kind of place.

    Comment by tv brackets — February 23, 2008 @ 10:18 pm

    22. MyAvatars 0.2

  22. Nice article for sure, did the HomePage of sphinn with it :)

    Keep up the great work MadHat!

    Comment by Sammy SEO Qc — March 7, 2008 @ 12:40 pm

    23. MyAvatars 0.2

  23. Flagged!!

    Comment by iyinet seo — March 9, 2008 @ 8:11 am

    24. MyAvatars 0.2

  24. I think nofollow links help more fast indexing.

    Comment by cep telefonları — March 14, 2008 @ 3:40 am

    25. MyAvatars 0.2

  25. […] a terrific article on PR Sculpting, as does Dan Thies on using nofollow to sculpt pagerank, and the Mad Hat pitches in on the FUD of Nofollow being a red-flag if you’re trying to maximise the […]

    Pingback by Optimise Your Contact Page, Don’t Nofollow It - Hobo SEO UK — April 16, 2008 @ 3:28 pm

    26. MyAvatars 0.2

  26. […] has written about it on SEJ and there is a discussion on the Sphinn thread. I know that there is a big question about whether nofollowing your navigational links could serve as a signal for Google to […]

    Pingback by Anatomy of a Google Filter/Penalty (or how not to do nofollow PR sculpting) | SEO Scientist - Applying the scientific method to SEO — May 18, 2008 @ 6:46 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment





« Eric Ward Tried To Steal $2,500,000.00 From Me    My Take On Famous SEO Celebrity Nonsense »




Subscribe To Full RSS Via Email

(We will not sell or give away your email address. Ever.)