Contrary to what Google has said for years, a recent change in Google's algorithm has now made it possible for an unethical competitor to cause problems with your Google ranking.

The issue goes something like this:

Google started giving heavy weight to links for ranking.

Webmasters took notice and started getting links however and wherever they could.

Google recognized that this was becoming an issue and started penalizing sites that have excessive and unnatural linking patterns.

Site owners realized this and started getting links to competitor sites.

Google swept those innocent webmasters out of the rankings with the rest of the spam.

Find out more about how Google Bowling works and what Google might be able to do about it in today's article: "Google Bowling" by Michael Pedone.






About the Author

Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.

Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.