Is Zemanta Still Safe
-
I have a quick question, I have been watching a conversation on Google+ where someone pointed out that they have found someone using Zemanta (free) but someone have republished the same article over and over to lots of websites. I think they mentioned 12 detected so far. He was concerned that these links would start to be considered spam because they are all identical content on different urls.
I know Zemanta has been lauded as great and safe before, but John Mueller from Google has commented and stated that it could be considered a link scheme and therefore he "would not recommend" that it is used.
Be good to hear some others thoughts on it!
Paul
-
Looking at some Zemanta links in the wild, it doesn't seem too aggressive. Take for example, the bottom of this blog:
It depends on your goals. From a traffic perspective, as long as the links are relevant, it's fine. I can't tell you whether Zemanta will drive traffic to your particular site (I haven't used it), but it's certainly plausible. It probably depends a lot on your niche and the population of sites using the system.
From an SEO standpoint, my gut reaction is that it's fairly low-risk but may also be low-gain. Google could easily recognize these plug-in links and simply devalue them. I doubt a block of four relevant links is going to get outright penalized - it's more likely Google will just see this as a link-exchange of sorts and simply dial down the volume on those links.
That's not to say it's risk-free (we've certainly seen many link networks get hit in the past year), but I suspect that John was speaking in generalities and not about Zemanta in particular. On the other hand, no tool like this should be seen as some kind of panacea for link-building. It's just one piece of the puzzle for getting exposure and traffic.
-
hi guys,
thanks for the link, it seems that your question posted here, and the one in the Google+ conversation are not the same.
i thought you were asking about duplicates, and just wanted to stress that we simply suggest related content, and that what publishers do with them is entirely up to them. if spammers or anyone else takes that content and re-publishes it, it's a problem that we all have online these days.
the lower-quality links question from Rich is different. I have to defend our user base here, their profiles and their editorial control. we are making sure that only real-life bloggers are using our tools, for real-life posts. of course they will be of different quality, but we've learned that 'quality' is actually not easy to define, so we decided to rather focus on authenticity.
and on the other hand, of course seo professionals would prefer to have control over their links, but we will not allow for it, because the choice to publish something or not has to be editorial decision of the author.
i hope i'm not missing something
best, b
-
Hi Marcus,
Well perosnally I have been using it for brand building, but there is also the fact that it links back at the same time. I publish a lot of content so I get a fair few people linking back to me and it has been great but I need to be 100% as I dont want to unwittingly invoke a penalty.
Paul
-
Hey Paul
You have this straight from the horses mouth as it were, not that I am calling John Mueller a horse.
If you take one article, then duplicate it across other sites this is going to be at best pointless and at worst a negative equity.
I am no expert on Zemanta but you could possibly use this as a way to put more content out there as a branding exercise but I would not add links and you still can't get around the duplication issues.
Some questions to ask:
Do they use canonical URLs to the original source?
What are you trying to achieve here? If it is just links, then this is not the droid you are looking for.
Have a look and report back but I would be very careful.
Marcus
-
Hi Bostjan,
It was a comment made by Rich Voller at this discussion on Google+ where he spotted multiple links from a redistributed article while checking GWMT latest links.
I have emailed Rich and actually he has said that he loves Zemanta but wanted more confirmation before turning it back on. I think the fact a Googler jumped in and said it was bad was why he wanted the confirmation.
Rich was saying that a few lower quality links are not a problem in his case as if there were too many he could either contact webmasters to remove links or disavow them.
I see what Rich was saying but I don't always have time to check my "latest links" section too often and I would be concerned that if that happened too many times it could be detrimental to my sites.
Paul
-
hi all,
i'm bostjan spetic, ceo of zemanta,
thank you for the question, i'd love to hear more about that conversation, but the basic answer to your concern is that this problem isn't really tied to Zemanta in any way. If some someone links to you and someone else takes that article and reproduces it on 12 different sites (with that link included) then you cannot do anything about it. You can hope that google correctly notices stealing of content and ignores those 'same' links.
we are an editorial assistant, we take quality of recommendations as our primary concern, and manual editorial control of our users as the key product principle. I am happy to discuss the 'link scheme' question with anyone, because it simply is not correct or fair in any way.
thanks,
best, b
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Links still showing in MOZ Reports
Hi, we have some links that have definitely been removed from a website but are still showing in our moz reports, and are not showing a date lost... They were removed months ago Why would be still be showing in Moz reports?
Link Building | | Antdxb0 -
Does redirected traffic still contribute to SEO?
My company recently rebranded with a new website (and comparatively lower authority). We've built a bunch of backlinks for our old website, which now redirect to the new one, and I was wondering if these still contribute to SEO? Is there a difference in the SEO effect of a direct link versus a redirected one?
Link Building | | Russell_Chua0 -
How many Directory Web sites still active?
After a long period, near about 6 years I want to know what kind of Web Directories still active? Is that kind of Directory links help SERP for gaining Ranks?
Link Building | | nopain8100 -
If someone were to link to our site on now on an old article (dating back 1-2 years) is that still beneficial if all other variables are good?
I'm trying to build up our external links and am finding lots of opportunities, some of which are on older articles dating back to 2014, 2013 etc. These pieces are relevant to our site and have high DA, I'm wondering if the post date of these articles matter? Thanks!
Link Building | | Postable0 -
Does link wheel still work ?
I'd like to ask if link wheel still work ,if yes, when i can see results?
Link Building | | engmtamous0 -
Is Back Link Building still Good Practice
Since all the updates from Google I'm unsure as to whether I should be pursuing good quality back links and how many per month?for my website www.polesandblinds.com . We don't have a very large back link profile and its at least half of some of our competitors, we are currently active on blogging and the 4 main social sites. Many Thanks I look forward to your suggestions/advice/criticism.
Link Building | | JonnytheB0 -
Hit with Panda, but still confused
Back on March 24th I was hit with Panda. Pretty much all but my main keywords were hit and I was wiped off the board. Luckily I kept my rank with my main keyword which was part of my URL. I have been since trying to figure out what Google thought was spammy with my site. I made changes, but nothing changed except my main keyword. I have been confused as to why I still ranked well with my main keyword, but nothing else. I have read from several posts of others complaining about the same issue. Seeing some keyword rankings go down, but not all. I also have read that if Google thinks even one page is spammy it might effect my whole site. Today I found a couple pages that might have been contributing to the low rankings. I am a scrabble based site and I had several pages that listed many words related to things like 2 letter words, 3 letter words, words that end and start with. These pages would contain from hundreds to over a thousand words and I was linking them all to my dictionary look up portion of my site. I have some other sites that do the same thing but not nearly as much as my main site and they were still doing just fine. I had over 3500 pages giving me warnings in my Pro Account about to many links on a page, but I have been ignoring it because I felt I was helping my users by giving them a less step in having to type the word to search. I have removed all these links except I found a couple pages that were still doing it. I just removed them so hopefully that helps this time. My question is do I have to wait till the next panda refresh or just until the next time Google crawls my site to see the changes. UPDATE: it is not 1.24.2013 It's been a while since I asked this question and just wanted to fill in on the updates and things I have done since then to maybe give some hope to all you penguinizers. My site https://www.wordgamedictionary.com/ has changed quite a bit since I posted this original question. I was hit on April 24th with Penguin and just was racking my brain trying to figure out what I did to get there. Here is some advice I have learned since then. Be Patient - Its going to be a long road to recover from it (I am still recovering almost 1 year later, but I am recovering) Don't Freak Out - Yeah it sucks when you income drops 50% in a matter of overnight, but you can change that. Check your back links (Yes this is beating a dead horse with a stick, but it's true) On page anchor link text - Are they over miss used keywords? Change that. Make it look natural For goodness sake! check for spelling errors ADD FRESH CONTENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would say about something new at least once a week. 3 to 4 is good (unless you are Q and A then you will have much more). Think to yourself "What would keep me coming back to my site?" If you don't have it, they add it Back links are not going to come to you unless you are creative. Sitting there thinking they are going to fall on your lap is dreaming. Back linking is nessary to stay ontop, but you can get them naturally. Experiment a ton and take risks. The more risks you take, the better chance you will eventually succeed. Today I have almost fully recovered from Penguin, but what is awesome is that by taking the natural and pro active method to SEO I have actually increased my overall traffic to my site by double since April 24th. I am still recovering from the original keywords that I was hit at, but whats awesome is that I have gained so much traffic from other keywords that I ended up doubling my traffic. The next time you think you know everything there is about SEO, slap yourself...because you don't 😉 Some nice Link building articles I have found to be good http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml http://www.slideshare.net/RossHudgens/link-building-strategies-2013-edition-15477553 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/advanced-link-building-strategies/53439/
Link Building | | cbielich0