It is though not that new, but, still requires a review. Matter relates to Google Indexing and roaring Webmasters who have lost their rankings.
In BigDaddy Google has changed a lot of codes in their algorithm to locate and penalise sites that use blatant SEO tricks to win a high rank in SERPs for specific keywords and also those sites that really add no value to its visitors.

I have seen many webmasters simply shouting out to spell out their frustration and looking forward to optimise their sites for MSN even. You can check out this link Complain About Google to find people shouting at Google. They are utterly frustrated because some of them, if not all, have consumed Google juice and now being deprieved of that.

Apart from employing known SEO tricks- like using hidden text, keyword stuffing- a site may be de-indexed by Google for it being not so valuable.

To be more specific Google may not list sites that allow webmasters to list url in exchange of Money or a Link Back, as Google thinks that they do not really offer anything new to its visitors.

LinkExchage/Link Trading was one practice that the Webmasters used to adopt a lot to get a high PageRank and resulting in a high position in Google SERP. Now the latest changes in the algorithm has struck those websites that would take part in such programs as well.

Google apprears to be more skeptical about the links pointing to your pages and also taking into account different other factors including the ratio of Inbound Links to Outboud Links, PageRank etc. to gauge the importance those Inbound links vouching for your website before awarding your site with a PageRank.

In fine, apart from employing know SEO Tricks, a site that does not provide fresh information to its visitors ("or what value does it add - as Google says it) will find it hard to get indexed in Google anymore.

Well, the thing is that Google is at least attempting to battle all the hacks used against them. People are going to complain either way. I hear these people complaining about their sites moving up and down constantly. Well, that's how it is in the real world. You can't expect one site to always have the monopoly and be at the top of the list; likewise, what if a new site is built that is far better than this one site and deserves to be in the top position? By doing this at least Google is going to ensure that people will update and make their sites better.



I do think that link exchange/trading is a good thing, but many sites do go overboard. Recently I visited a site that sold clothes and on their links page they had about 50 different links all to highly irrevelant sites. Just how is that supposed to help a person who came to the site hoping to find links to more clothing sites? They can complain all they want, but...it's rather futile. It all comes down to this: If your information isn't good, you don't deserve to be listed that high up. And if you do get listed that high up, you don't deserve any loyal visitors.

This post has been edited by Arbitrary: Jun 18 2006, 12:58 AM

I agree with Arbitrary about the Link Trading/Link Exchange. Some of it is just ridiculous. The main reason people do it, I think, is to get more visitors, but usually it is on some totally unrelated website. If your going to get visitors that way then why should your rank be higher. I don't plan on doing any Link Trading/Exchange for my site. I just find it pointless. Though I would like for my site to have a good amount of visitors, I would like them to visit out of interest, not because they saw my link on some page and were just curious.

Perhaps some link exchanging with related sites would improve the number of willing and happy visitors. I do a bit of link trading/exchanging, but I try to limit my numbers to relevant sites and not just some random site that asks me for a link exchance. I once registered at this site made entirely for link exchanges hoping to get some good related affiliates, but then I ended up turning down most of the requests.

Arbitrary, I totally agree with you. I do not find it wrong to do a link exchange with relevant site, but to do so with irrelevant site is really ridiculous. For example, I have this blog, that I run with the intent of providing quality content. I have had a few people contact me to do a link exchange, but I had to turn it down because I did not find any of them in relevance with the topics I blog upon, and neither did I find them to maintain a level of quality.

Another point to note about Link-Exchange is that it simply spoils the very spirit of how Google measures the importance of a webpage (Page Rank). People are, actually, not referring to your website direct, instead they are placing your link on their site in exchange of a link back to their sites. Apart from that, people are simply trading links ( both buing and selling) openly.
Google also has marked this and they seem to be more skeptical in trusting IBLs to your website. It is also heard that they are now calculating the ratio of IBL to OBL to justify their importance.
A popular forum for Webmasters has recommended absolute NO to link exchange.
In view of the changing scenario, link exchange does not seem to be safe anymore, if you want to see your site in Google SERPs.

Regards,
Sid

Yeah, but I guess most people started with Link Exchanging because they all wanted to hack Google and make sure their site ranked high. I suppose if Google hadn't revealed their secrets about ranking websites it might've been a bit better, but then everyone would be suspicious about the validity of Google's methods.

Btw, if these forums are saying that link exchanging is no longer good for a website's health, what's Google's new formula for ranking websites? I still see some of the old Google hacks working....

Yet to chalk out that formula or may be, there is no such formula. However, I'm keeping a sharp watch on latest developments that are taking place in Google SERPs. Months ago, Google had a problem with hyphenated-domain names as site: operator was not working with those domain names. Now they have overcome that problem. Still the "G" requires a lot to do to make their SERPs SPAM FREE. Now the BigDaddy has shown its effect in terms of reducing SPAMs, still there are sites like you have referred to. So the battle is not yet over, and neither the SPAM SEOs nor the Google is going to take a delicious slumber.

However, if you can see a spam site in Google SERPs you can always report it to Google, and if you are really serious about it, you have to shout a lot in different forums so that Google guys can see it and take urgent action.

Regards,
Sid

yeah, i agree with all of you. I never really taken the time to notice this stuff until i just read it. thanks