> You follow best practices. You get torched for it. You are deciding how many employees to fire & if you should simply file bankruptcy and be done with it.
Anytime I read any SEO complaints against Google, I notice this huge sense of entitlement that the authors and commenters have, as if Google owes them something with respect to search engine rankings just because they might be paying for AdWords or some other Google service. You have the full right to complain if your ad campaigns do not work as advertised. But it's your own fault if you have to fire employees because Google changed their primary search algorithm which tanked your traffic. Sorry. Google does not owe you anything even if their statements are contradictory.
> And the truth is, this sort of shift is common, because as soon as Google openly recommends something people take it to the Nth degree & find ways to exploit it, which forces Google to change.
The author hits the nail on the head right here and even suggests the proper method:
> The only ways to get clarity from Google on issues of importance are to: * ignore what Google suggests & test what actually works
Don't try to read too much into how Google works from a comment by an employee here or an official blog post there. Just do what your site needs to function properly and most importantly offer something that people want.