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Do Tiered Links Keep Guest Posts Indexed? What Google's Policy Says
Link Building

Do Tiered Links Keep Guest Posts Indexed? What Google's Policy Says

Tiered links are sold as a way to keep paid guest posts indexed. What Google's link spam policy says, why posts drop out, and how to get one back in.

SerpCrest EditorialNov 4, 20267 min read
107 posts
ChatGPT Has Its Own Search Index. Here's What OpenAI Has Confirmed, and What Decides Whether Your Pages Get InAI Search

ChatGPT Has Its Own Search Index. Here's What OpenAI Has Confirmed, and What Decides Whether Your Pages Get In

OpenAI's help docs describe ChatGPT workspaces using an indexed, cached web. What's confirmed, what's vendor inference, and why discovery and links matter.

Julian HayesOct 4, 2026
The Local Microsite Playbook Trending on YouTube Reads Like a Google Spam Policy ExampleLink Building

The Local Microsite Playbook Trending on YouTube Reads Like a Google Spam Policy Example

A viral YouTube playbook pitches city-by-service microsites, Google Sites link shields and expired GBP domains. Google's spam policies name most of it.

Julian HayesOct 4, 2026
Bing Is Testing a 'Recommended By' Label That Credits a Publisher and Links to a RetailerSEO Strategy

Bing Is Testing a 'Recommended By' Label That Credits a Publisher and Links to a Retailer

Bing is testing a 'Recommended by' label on product results that names a publisher but sends clicks to retailers. What's known and what isn't.

Julian HayesOct 4, 2026
A Tracking Parameter on AI Overview Links Turned Out to Be a Browser ExtensionTechnical SEO

A Tracking Parameter on AI Overview Links Turned Out to Be a Browser Extension

A parameter on AI Overview links looked like Google adding attribution. The report was corrected: it was a browser extension. What to check in your own data.

Julian HayesOct 4, 2026
Four Spam Updates in Seven Months: The Gaps Are Shrinking Faster Than Recovery TakesSEO Strategy

Four Spam Updates in Seven Months: The Gaps Are Shrinking Faster Than Recovery Takes

Google's 2026 spam updates arrived 92, 55 and 37 days apart. Recovery takes months. Here is what the shrinking gap means for a site cleaning up.

Julian HayesOct 4, 2026
A Spam Link Attack Hit One Site Thousands of Times. Its Rankings Barely Moved.Link Building

A Spam Link Attack Hit One Site Thousands of Times. Its Rankings Barely Moved.

A documented negative SEO attack grew from 1,956 to 5,058 spam entries, yet rankings held. The headline link count doesn't add up, and here's why that matters.

Julian HayesOct 4, 2026
Is a Backlink Directory Listing Safe Under Google's Scaled Content Abuse Policy?Link Building

Is a Backlink Directory Listing Safe Under Google's Scaled Content Abuse Policy?

Google's scaled content abuse policy never names directories, but its link spam policy does. Here's where the line sits between a safe listing and a risky one.

Julian HayesOct 2, 2026
How to Track AI Traffic in GA4, and Why Some of It Shows as DirectTechnical SEO

How to Track AI Traffic in GA4, and Why Some of It Shows as Direct

GA4's AI Assistant channel misses part of your AI traffic. Build a custom channel that catches more, see which tools drop the referrer, and check your logs.

Julian HayesOct 2, 2026
Four Studies Say Schema Markup Boosts AI Citations. The One That Tested It Found Almost Nothing.Technical SEO

Four Studies Say Schema Markup Boosts AI Citations. The One That Tested It Found Almost Nothing.

Several studies report large AI citation lifts from schema markup. The study that tested cause and effect found almost none. Here's why the numbers disagree.

Julian HayesOct 2, 2026
The Backlink Directory Playbook for a Brand-New SaaS Launch: What Moves the Needle in Month OneLink Building

The Backlink Directory Playbook for a Brand-New SaaS Launch: What Moves the Needle in Month One

Two founders tracked real directory-submission data against Search Console. Neither submitted to more than 15. Here's what works in a SaaS launch month one.

Julian HayesOct 2, 2026
Half Your Backlinks Will Be Gone in Three Years. A 1.3-Million-Link Dataset Shows Why.Link Building

Half Your Backlinks Will Be Gone in Three Years. A 1.3-Million-Link Dataset Shows Why.

A 1.3-million-link survival analysis shows half of all backlinks vanish within three years, and almost never because the source page died. Here's the data.

Julian HayesOct 2, 2026
The IRS Vanished From Google Search This Week. Nobody Reporting on It Agrees on Why.Technical SEO

The IRS Vanished From Google Search This Week. Nobody Reporting on It Agrees on Why.

The IRS and other .gov sites lost Google visibility in late August 2026. The leading explanation is an admitted guess, not a confirmed diagnosis.

Julian HayesAug 28, 2026
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