Avoid A Google Penalty! How To Use Online Press Releases To Avoid or Repair The Google BLOOP

Posted on 01. Feb, 2012 by Christine OKelly + in Search Engine Optimization

Each year, a new Google penalty seems to rear its ugly head. Sometimes, it comes in the form of a true “penalty” that punishes your site for violations of Google’s stated policies. Examples include guestbook spamming and buying paid links without the nofollow tag. Other times, the penalty comes in the form of an algorithm change. A recent example was the Panda (or Farmer) update that knocked the wind out of several high-ranking sites. With so many possible missteps, it’s hard to know which approach to take when optimizing your online press releases.

In today’s post, we’re going to take a closer look at one of the newer search penalties that has actually been around for years. It’s called BLOOP, or the backlink over-optimization penalty. It has a direct impact on how your website ranks in Google. We’ll show you how to write and distribute your PRs to avoid falling into its trap.

The Google BLOOP Explained

First, like with most things related to its algorithms, Google plays its cards very close to its chest. You’re unlikely to find Matt Cutts or anyone else associated with the company speaking directly about BLOOP, or how to avoid it. Cutts occasionally provides insights into creating content that ranks well, but his comments are usually pretty vague (for good reason, since people would otherwise try to “game” the system).

Having said that, a lot of search data have pointed to two factors that can hurt your site in Google’s search listings. The first one is the growth of your inbound link profile. If it grows too quickly, it will appear unnatural, which is the exact opposite of what Google wants.

For example, suppose you have a site about dog training called “Dog-Gone Bad Manners.” By writing guest blog posts and submitting articles to a few online directories, you’re able to build 5 links to your site each day. Now suppose that your site suddenly gains 5,000 links during the course of a week. It appears unnatural to Google. It looks to them as if you’re trying to “game” their algorithm. There’s a good chance your site will get BLOOPed.

The second factor involves the anchor text you use in your backlinks. Suppose your dog training site has 5,000 links pointing to it, each of which says “Fort Worth TX dog training.” To Google, there is no way that level of consistency would happen naturally. If folks were linking to your site in a natural way, some of your links would probably have the following anchors:

dog training classes
this site help me get my dog to stop eating my house
Dog-Gone Bad Manners
puppy training site
click here (yes, “click here”)

So, what might happen to your site if you over-optimize the anchors you use in your online press releases? Right. Your site could get BLOOPed.

Aack! I’ve Been Penalized or Am Afraid I Might Be… Now What?

If you’ve been penalized or are afraid you might, it’s time to start building backlinks in different types of related yet natural terms other than the five you’re trying to optimize for. Get a look at your link profile by entering your URL on Backlink Watch or Blue Backlinks. The goal is for the anchor text column not to appear completely homogeneous. There’s nothing wrong with having anchor text in your target keyword, but you need to mix it up in a way that looks and feels natural.

Don’t Worry About Specific Penalties (Nor Their Silly Names)

Getting caught over-optimizing your press release backlinks – building too many too fast or using too-similar anchor text – may hurt your site. Or, it may not. Nothing is guaranteed, and your results will differ from everyone else’s. That’s one of the frustrating truisms about SEO.

Here’s a better approach: forget about the penalties, including BLOOP.

Think of your online press release distribution as part of your long-term marketing strategy. Publish news announcements on a regular basis to prevent a massive, one-time influx of links. Also, you probably have a list of target keywords that you want to rank your site for. If you’re using that list for the anchors in your press releases, you’ll naturally avoid using the same anchor in every link. In other words, you’ll avoid being BLOOPed without even thinking about it.

“Going Natural” With Your Press Release Optimization

Optimizing your press releases will improve the way they rank in Google and the other search engines. That much is clear. So, continue to put your main keyword in the title, and sprinkle a couple of your secondary keywords throughout the body text. Also, use good anchors for your links. But beyond that, realize that Google wants to see things progress naturally. Don’t try to game their algorithm. Cloaking pages, building doorways, spamming guestbooks, building IP-related networks, and using 302 redirects will cause more harm than good over the long run.

Interesting Fact…

According to Wikipedia, the word “bloop” (not the acronym we’ve been talking about) is “The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency and extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown.” You can have a look at a spectrogram of a bloop an hear what a bloop sounds like here. (I just thought that was too interesting not to share!)

Your Turn!

What types of Google shenanigans have you or someone you know tried to make work, but had dismal long-term results?

21 Responses to “Avoid A Google Penalty! How To Use Online Press Releases To Avoid or Repair The Google BLOOP”

Liyya

01. Feb, 2012

I speak with clients every day that want to know what Google ‘snake oil’ we can recommend to get at the top of the search engines by the end of the week — so NOT going to happen! LOL — I love how this post just breaks things down and puts the real on why you should do the things the ‘organic’ way when it comes to SEO — I mean it’s referred to as Organic Search for reason.
Jackie

01. Feb, 2012

Great information, Google never ceases to amaze me! Slow and steady always wins the race.
Karen

02. Feb, 2012

There’s something to be said for patience and perseverance. It’s amazing how many companies use the same keyword for all of their anchor text links, or ask how fast their press release will ‘work.’ This blog makes me think that successful SEO is like losing weight.. slow and steady will get the results that LAST.
William

02. Feb, 2012

Good insights. Question. If your anchor text is your URL, isn’t per se that it will be the same everywhere? What suggestions do you have to solve that problem?
Chris Harris

02. Feb, 2012

This is right upto some extent but if one has to do brand promotion or brand name then how would one want to optmize? I totally don’t believe in Blooping to be honest.
Richard Teahom

02. Feb, 2012

Link spamming has always been a big “no” for as long as I’ve worked in the industry. Though its nice to know there is a way out if you are penalised, there’s not much offered in this article
Hiring Now

02. Feb, 2012

I think it is better to avoid massive press release on free press release sites and link directories. If a web site is really worthy, visitors will come back.
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Joshua

02. Feb, 2012

Great information here guys! Google is going more Social as well so that is something to really keep in mind.
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Kristie

02. Feb, 2012

Love that you guys emphasize writing natural, valuable content that is non-spammy is the way to go. I am a big advocate on content marketing for seo and press releases. This just shows if you do it with integrity, your marketing will WIN!
Christine OKelly

02. Feb, 2012

@ Kristie — YES!! Valuable content and integrity wins every time.

@ William — great question! If your keywords are in your URL, that’s not an issue (that’s GREAT for SEO!) It’s natural and normal for people to include full URLs when linking to a site, and since your one URL is what it is, it is naturally always going to be the same.

The URLs embedded in anchor text links are what can start to make your link profile look fishy if there are way to many links in the exact same word or phrase. That wouldn’t naturally just happen if people who had no interest in your SEO were organically linking to you. Hope that answers your question!
Bec

02. Feb, 2012

This is a great post. Not only does it highlight why those quick link building sites don’t work, it explains it in simple terms that everyone can understand. Thanks so much.
Amber

03. Feb, 2012

This is a great post for understanding organic SEO! As often as asked, no there is no secret trick for gaming the system to get to the top fast. It’s all about creating relevant, useful info for customers with natural optimization… on a regular basis.
WEBFocus

06. Feb, 2012

Great info and nice of you to explain the origin of ‘The Bloop’!
Keep it up,
cheers,
Vince
Crimson Penguin

10. Feb, 2012

As a web designer and SEO myself, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked about BLOOP. In my opinion it should certainly be a consideration but as long as you stick to white hat methods in creating your backlinks, you should be fine.
Mike

17. Feb, 2012

Great article. I’d never heard of BLOOP before and this post not only explains what it is in simple terms but, more importantly, the things you can do to avoid being BLOOP’ed!
Thanks

Mike
Trisha B. McHugh

21. Feb, 2012

Google are full of surprises if you don’t understand it. But thank to post like this we are ready and prepare in some changes in google.
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Ynna

25. Feb, 2012

Thanks for sharing this important tips. I never known that Google gives penalties. good thing I read your post. Thanks again!
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Charlotte

27. Mar, 2012

It is so interesting to see the different points of view from this reputable sources. I think it makes the most sense to send out a press releases when you know your target audience is searching online. Your realtor example was a great one if customers are searching for homes mostly on the weekends, then that would clearly be the best time to send out a press release to capture this audience. Thanks
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William

31. Mar, 2012

Thanks for this tip, which transcends press releases. Do you have any thoughts about links to pages within a web site and the anchor text for them? For example, I have pages with related but separate (retail) items. Would it affect ones Google results if you used identical anchor text for different interior pages? Does Google count external inbound links to interior pages as part of the total backlink count? Or are they totaled separately?
Christine OKelly

04. Apr, 2012

Great question William! From an SEO standpoint, I would recommend not using identical anchor text to point to different pages. Ideally, each page of your site should be optimized for a different keyword phrase. Anchor text that points to that page should be in that keyword, logical variations of it, and other terms related to the keyword. I hope I’ve understanding your question correctly and provided you with the answer you were looking for. If you have any other questions, just let me know!
Dave Albertson

07. Aug, 2012

Google penalizes spammers and rewards honest original commentary, it’s like karma for websites.