Google: Links Are Not Mandatory For Ranking In Google Search

Google's John Mueller said again that having links to your site is not a requirement and not mandatory for ranking in Google Search. He said this back in 2015 as well, but said again in 2021 that links are not a requirement to rank.

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Google Local Maps Spam Big Cleanup Or Big Mess?

There has been a lot of local SEOs talking about the big shake up in the local results over the past week. It might be related to a local search algorithm update (Google has not confirmed it yet) or might be some spam fighting efforts. But I am seeing both complaints about there now being too much local spam and also folks saying Google has cleaned up a lot of spam.

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Google: We Won't Penalize Your Site For Not Nofollowing Affiliate Links

Google's John Mueller confirmed again that Google won't likely penalize or give your site a manual action if you do not add a nofollow or rel sponsored attribute to your affiliate links. He said this at the 31:58 mark in this past Friday's video.

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SEO Who "Learned A Few Tricks" Landed Large SEO Publisher Job Now Asks How To Do SEO On Reddit

This is somewhat both sad and funny and I thought I should share it here. Via Joe Youngblood, an SEO who has said he "learned a few tricks" was able to sign a contract for SEO work with a big publishing company. But the sad part is, it seems he has "no idea how to do SEO for a large news website and wants tips on what to do next," Joe explained.

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Google: Special Characters Do Not Affect Google Search

Google's John Mueller said that special characters on your page "doesn't affect Google" Search rankings. This is in regards to like checkmarks such as '" or other special characters.

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