Ok, so I don’t normally do this, but it’s a nice little tool so why not.

Basically what SpamFlag does is help with the link auditing process, which as anyone in the SEO field will know is the most soul crushingly dull task that our industry has to offer.

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN GPWA MAGAZINE  – I’ve linked to the online version.

Manual, algorithmic, Penguin, Panda…You’ve probably heard one or two of these terms used in conjunction with ‘Google’ and ‘Penalty’ in recent times. In fact, there is currently so much confusion and misinformation about penalties – especially their diagnosis and removal – I thought it was high time I got to grips with the issue in these pages in the pages of GPWA.

So you think you have a penalty? What next? Unfortunately all penalties were not created equal, and understanding how your site has been affected and why is key to rectifying the problem.

This is a quick post, but I’ve heard a lot about this recently and whilst http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/interflora-what-really-happened.html offers some interesting information on the matter and I’m hugely inclined to agree that the volume of advertorials here was just insane. That is NOT the only cause.

The fact is their backlink profile was pretty poor anyway. See below

Well, I recently sat on a panel in Barcelona with Dave Naylor and we had something of a spirited discussion about this, now he had a little bit more info on this one than I did having been a Beta tester. I was actually a little sceptical as to whether or not we’d ever actually see the thing, he on the other hand granted knew better.

And now that it is here I have to wonder whether or not we will see any real changes from this, the tool itself in my eyes is not going to be our silver bullet, it will most certainly not be a get out of jail free card.

This was written to train new office staff, as it now seems that my blog is moving in that direction – so industry vets looking for dramatic insight turn away now.