Google's Double Standard

[enlytend]

Anyone who still naively thinks that Google treats small businesses / sites and big brands alike should read this.

http://www.seobook.com/spam-big-or-die

Short version: Rap Genius blatantly built links so spammy any blackhat with half a clue wouldn't even go there. Google gave them a slap on the wrist and restored their rankings 10 days later. (There's much more, but that's the gist.)

It's really outrageous that they had their rankings restored so quickly, when small businesses, who played by link building "rules" which were perfectly allowable a few years ago, see their traffic cut down to NOTHING, blindly try to fix it and wait months for an algorithm update (which may or may not bring it back).

Or, they have a manual action - try to remove links, submit a disavow file. Wait weeks before reconsideration requests even get a reply ... only to have them come back denied with no real information on how to "fix" the issue (see example in the post).

:td:

 

[danieljohns]

I do not think that its double standard. Its more than that because millions of sites are struggling and pulling each others legs to get on the top fell down and start from the first step but some are above all they can do any thing what they want and be given priority to stand up so quickly. Corporate sector is just like that they do all stuff with cooperating each other. Give and Take.....

 

[iowadawg]

Some one did not read the article.
Or did not comprehend what was in the article.
Or does not understand what double standard means.

Yes, google does have such a double standard.
It boils down to money in their pockets!

 

[DnEbook]

I am still amazed that when i type in a complete url is does not appear first

 

[enlytend]

I am still amazed that when i type in a complete url is does not appear first

One of yours? It may be a penalty - that's almost always the reason when that happens. If it's reg'd in Webmaster Tools check your messages - they will tell you if it's a manual action.

 

[Domainace]

I am still amazed that when i type in a complete url is does not appear first

Yes, there is no excuse at all for that, unless your site is hosting malware. They do it routinely to any site they've de-indexed for whatever the violation-of-the-day is, just to screw with the site owner for some perceived SEO infraction.
If a user is typing in a site name, the obvious "good user experience" that Google claims to be seeking would be to go to that site.

Even as a user, Google is becoming less effective. The top of search is filled with sites that I already know about. If I search for "goldfish feeding" for example, they will send me to a Huffington Post story about some girl who feeds her goldfish Girl Scout cookies. Meanwhile, the website by the goldfish nerd who put together a detailed feeding guide is somewhere around page 10,000.

They are just cashing in on search while they have the lead. I suspect they know their days as the big search engine are numbered, and are using the time left to amass funds for investment elsewhere. They just stick Matt Cutts out there to put a cuddly face on their money grab.

 

[enlytend]

They'll take you out of 1st spot for your domain for a manual link penalty. (You may not be completely deindexed, but you may as well be ...) They did that to rapgenius ... very briefly...

They just stick Matt Cutts out there to put a cuddly face on their money grab.

Yep. And always run what comes out of his mouth through a filter of common sense and with an eye to how the statement benefits Goog.

Besides pushing their own bottom line, there has been a huge swing,in the last few months, to putting only "authority sites" on P1 - especially in what they call "your money or your life" verticals - medical, finance, major purchases...Keywords that once had dozens of affiliate sites now has them on page 2, 3 or beyond.

This wouldn't be a bad thing if they didn't keep featuring the SAME "authority sites" ad nauseum. Wikipedia?

The affiliate sites that best survived the purge (page 2)? Two for a "money" keyword I was looking at yesterday. One looks like a lot of guest posts with embedded keyword anchor text (hmmm, doesn't MC say you're gonna burn in Google Hell for that?), possibly a PBN. Very well done, looks almost natural until you look at the actual links.

The other - definitely a blog network - lots of blogspot blogs, irrellevant sites (probably expired PR domains) ... lots of them from template footer links (which MC also proclaimed to be a no-no)

And "quality content?" Same combination of fluff and promotional crap as any of the others. No real "added value." One has about 5000 backlinks, the other 1500. Probably a couple tiers behind them - I didn't look.

Yet sites with a couple of lame directory links get slapped -50+. And people who unknowingly built a couple dozen spammy links for a business back in 2001 have to crawl, beg and wait weeks for their recon request to be rejected with some vague note that they have to delete more links ...

:td:

 

[Keral_Patel]

And once again I vote for DuckDuckGo.com