After the last Google algo update, sitewide links are not treated the same any more and it’s no secret to anybody who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last few months. Infact, I have heard people referring to what happened as “sitewide links penalty” – even some well respected and known SEOs with proven competence were talking about a penalty Google places on sites that have sitewide links to them. I must admit I was the one believing in the penalty theory as much as every other person did.
Recently, however, I have read this post on sitewide links by Patrick Gavin and it suddenly dawned me: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SITEWIDE LINKS PENALTY!
If you haven’t understood yet what I mean here’s a simple explanation: say you have a site that has sitewide links on 3 sites and each of those sites has, say, 20 pages. This means, according to the old algo, that you had 60 links pointing at your site. When the new algo has been enforced all the sitewide links have been discounted, ach of them now being considered as one link. How many links does your site have now? – Right, 3! If that caused a drop in your SERPs it only seems logical…