Google's John Mueller posted a cryptic tweets this morning with a dark photo with the date, October 6, 2021 imprinted on an object. John's tweet says "A system of sites interlinked." To me, this says Google has claimed interlinked sites as a link strategy as dead as of October 6th - but John did not say much more.
Here is the post on Twitter:
A system of sites interlinked. pic.twitter.com/WgCf8diAL3
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
He did add after a reply that asked "Wow. Backlinks are losing worth?" John responded "Things were simpler then."
Things were simpler then.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
I asked John for more details but I am still waiting to hear:
would you like to add any additional details before I take this out of context?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) October 6, 2021
I mean, he did go even more cryptic:
Many is the night I dream of cheese.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
Heh.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
Anything real should be a mess.
What do you think this tweet means?
I think it is about Google figuring out a way to target link schemes that involve a lot of interlinked types of sites. Although, I would have thought that would have been solved in 2012, not 2021.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Update: So John liked the tweet, can that be a hint that this hint is true? :P
Update 2: Edu Pereda from Google also dropped some cryptic messages:
Sometimes to love someone, you got to be a stranger.
— Edu Pereda (@epere4) October 6, 2021
Update 3: More from John on this:
We're all just looking out for something real.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
Not even close to baseline, sorry.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
Update 4: This image is from BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017):
Update 5: Just a movie?
It's from a movie.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 6, 2021
The reactions do make me curious if we need to do anything more though.
Update 6: Just a movie...
Love your username :) - there must be a story behind that.
— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) October 7, 2021
My tweet was purely a play on a set of lines from the movie where the image is from, a movie where that date plays a role. Not everything's always about SEO :-)
