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Do Modified Links Result In A Loss Of Trust?

Justin Aldridge

A former employee of Google took to Twitter last week to post a rather ambiguous rhetorical question. Pedro Dias must have been expecting a wave of curious enquiries regarding his post, which stated “Did you know that Google is less likely to trust a link once it has changed from the 1st time it was seen?”

Mr Dias was on the Google Search Quality and Webspam team for years before leaving the search engine for good.

Twitter user Barry Schwartz was one of many to question the origin of such information, though Mr Dias was quick to suggest he should probably keep that information classified so as to prevent being sued.

Nevertheless, could the information have stemmed from some of the findings made during his time as an employee or did he conduct his own private tests?

 

Another Twitter user, Dave Naylor, brought a question to Mr Dias regarding the significance of the trust lost in a link by Google after it had changed.

Mr Dias replied that the loss of trust was not as serious as people might have thought, adding that people “shouldn’t fret about it”.

Mr Dias went on to suggest that a sudden lack of trust in a link shouldn’t be branded as negative, especially if “it’s on a reputable site”.

There have been plenty of questions and disagreements aimed at Mr Dias’ claims regarding the effects of less trust and the SEO community has continued to debate the meaning behind the tweets posted by Mr Dias on July 1st.

The question we’re asking here is how rather than why. Mr Dias is now an SEO consultant, so could he be basing his claims on research or tests he has been running in his new position?

Alternatively, could he be using some of the information he gained during his time as a past employee along with his past work experience at Google?

We’ll have to wait and see if anything comes of these claims by Mr Dias, with a response yet to be heard from anyone at Google.