Last night at around 3am EST (this morning), Google’s Matt Cutts Tweeted, “Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).”
Buzzea has already posted a message on their site acknowledging the Google penalty and telling everyone they are closing up. The translated version reads:
Buzzea took offense to being called a “link network” saying, they “oppose this assertion since we never stopped wanting to keep the ethical side of sponsored articles focusing on quality and natural links created.”
That being said, the French tool that was being used by SEOs to build unnatural links is now being uncovered by Google and rankings for those who participated may drop, with subsequent link notifications.
Matt Cutts said the next country on their list is Germany.
Here is Matt’s tweet on Buzzea:
I find it interesting that Buzzea was quick to give up. Other networks, such as Anglo Rank promised to rebuild after their call out.
Here are some recent link networks taken down by Google:
Google’s Matt Cutts Calls Out Nailing Another Link Network
Google Penalizes Another Link Network: SAPE Links
Google Crushes Ghost Rank 2.0, A Russian Link Network
Backlinks.com: The Next Link Network Penalized By Google
Google’s Matt Cutts: Text Link Ads Link Sellers Targeted
Google Penalizes Blog Networks, Did SEOs Use It To Hurt Competitors?
Beware: Google To Squash Another Link Network Very Soon
