Google’s penalties are in place to combat unnatural strategies

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Josh Levenson: Do you have any proof of "gaming their system effectively?"
  
  
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  Kevin Schlosser: I guess what your trying to say is "Is it unnatural" or that their system of penalties will never impact unnatural Backlink tactics?
  
  
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  Josh Levenson: How do you know paying for backlinks or guest posts actually has a positive effect on rankings and aren`t complete snake oil?
  
  
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  Josh Levenson: How do you know there is a negative effect?
  
  
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  Kevin Schlosser: Josh Levenson I don’t know there is a negative effect. That’s my point. They don’t want unnatural purchased content to rank. So I’m sure one day they will make an update to snipe that too.
  
  
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  Wayne Cadman:
  
  
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  Richard Hearne: >> are they just trying to catch on to such things?
  
  I`ll hazard a guess that you`re pretty new to SEO/Google etc.? They`ve been working on this for as long as SEOs have been trying to find ways to game the system.
  
  
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  Kevin Schlosser: I think the answers clearly offer you insight on to who is good vs who is not, and looking for any short cut.
  
  
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  Chris Boggs: I would love to tell you if I ever get hit in GSC by one! (these days) Please give me an example.
  
  
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  Kevin Schlosser: Chris Boggs ya me either, as far as penalties but I feel more lucky that I wasn’t penguinized as I’ve been learning. So natural better/harder vs. Buying is how risky???
  
  I guess that’s why I ask. Only doing natural these days.