Are newsletters hurting your page rank in Google?

May 31, 2011

UPDATE! 06/01/11
It looks like Jake’s article (referenced below) is making some waves. Google’s Matt Cutts is now disputing the claim that email plays any role in Google’s ranking algorithm. You can check out the comment section of the original article to see what Matt has to say (and the skepticism that followed his comments). He’s also posted recently on Hacker News, where he flatly states: “Google doesn’t use email as an indicator in search rankings.”

So there ya go. I see no reason not to take Matt for his word, though it doesn’t change the fact that purging your newsletter lists of inactive subscribers from time to time is still a good idea.

ORIGINAL POST 05/31/11
While newsletters are a great means of boosting traffic for content marketing, it looks like they can also hinder your SEO efforts if you’re not careful.

I read a great post the other day by Jake Ludington over at Lockergnome on the effect email reputation has on search engine optimization. It sounds like some recent changes to Google’s Panda algorithm have started to penalize sites that send too many newsletters to inactive subscribers.

Email providers like Gmail or Hotmail use a bunch of different metrics (emails marked as spam, open and click-thru rates, etc.) to measure what’s known as email reputation. But according to Ludington’s post, it seems Google is now factoring that reputation more heavily into its page rankings. In other words, the more inactive subscribers that ignore your newsletters, the worse your email reputation will be, and Google could potentially use that information to penalize your site domain in search.

This obviously adds a new wrinkle to SEO, especially when you consider how messy most newsletter circulation lists are these days. (Which side of 50% is your average newsletter open rate? Yep, that’s what I thought.) As Hal Licino wrote last month on Search Engine Journal, “the caveats to keep your subscription list ultra-clean and meticulously up to date” seem more important than ever.

We don’t really know exactly how much email reputation factors into overall page rank (Google keeps that info pretty close to the vest, as usual). But the purpose is clear: it’s all about weeding out spam and highlighting quality content from trusted sites.

Aside from the SEO ramifications, however, the other takeaway here for online marketers is that content marketing is more than just a numbers game. Sure, theoretically more newsletter subscribers should translate to more page views. But if your circulation lists are bloated with the email addresses of unengaged members, that high total number could actually be hurting your more than you think.

When Ludington saw his rankings plummet in April, his solution was to clean house and purge his email list of all those who were no longer active. The result was a note from Google saying that his site’s penalization had been lifted.

While I agree with others that email activity is a strange thing to factor into SEO, I’m glad Google is continuing to work toward higher quality search results. And as Ludington writes, we are all “stuck playing by Google’s rules.”

You can find more information on content marketing and editorial practices at the OpenView Labs website. You can also follow Brendan on Twitter @BrenCournoyer and find more from the OpenView team @OpenViewVenture.

Content Strategist

Brendan worked at OpenView from 2011 until 2012, where he was an editor, content manager and marketer. Currently Brendan is the Vice President of Corporate Marketing at <a href="https://www.brainshark.com/">Brainshark</a> where he leads all corporate marketing initiatives related to content, creative, branding, events, press and analyst relations, and customer marketing.