53 replies to this topic

[nethy]

Don't know about that, Randy. That was more of a joke. Like a 2 day penalty or something. Pretty useless, imo.

Useless? I completely disagree. Just like hitting the Toolbar PR was more effective the hitting actual PR.
Google was communicating: "This isn't allowed. Stop it." Loud & Clear. The BMW thing i've heard cited Xmany times & I am pretty sure its been put in front of hundreds or thousands of business owners & execs. People are afraid to spam Google. It worked

Hit em where they're looking if you want to have an impact. Its more likely to be toolbar PR then rankings or traffic. And more importanly, you can tell where it came from.

[projectphp]

People were scared of it before that. Just read the forum any random day, and see how many "is it OK to..." threads there are.

But then, people are stupid, so one wonders if stupidity doesn't rule in many cases.

[nethy]

But then, people are stupid, so one wonders if stupidity doesn't rule in many cases.

That's the point. It is a blunt message. No knowledge in the area required. No splitting hairs.
"Should I...?"
"No. That's spam."
"How about.."
"No."
"But how would they know?"
"Look. It took you 5 minutes from learning what the E in SEO stands for to come up with this plan. You're not the first. They're smart. They'll figure it out. It's what they do."
"What if.."
"What if...?"
"BMW got caught out. It was on BBC. A few months ago some sites, including SEO sites got their toolbar emptied. It was public. it was much discussed. The head of Google's anti spam team discussed it. This is not a good idea."
I'd also probably guess that they have internal issues about messing with actual pagerank & such. Like the pagerank team not wanting to give the spam team a way of messing with real pr (but not caring about the toolbar).

Edited by nethy, 02 June 2008 - 10:33 PM.

[projectphp]

So your argument is that BECAUSE OF BMW, thye feel this way? HAve to agree to disagree then!

[Jill]

To me, the BMW episode would only serve to cause people to keep on spamming until they get caught. Then once they get caught, simply fix things, say you're sorry, and you'll be good as new.

A more lasting punishment would have sent a stronger message if you ask me.

[nethy]

The point isn't the specifics of how they handled it. The point is that they did it publicly. Because of the BMW case getting sited all the time to business owners, a strong easy, public story can be constructed. You can get caught. BMW did. They know the character n the story. they're respectable.

It's a whole lot better then the story of the guy selling immortality crystals with "sex truck ignition" or whatever hidden all over the site. even if he never got back in the index.

[Jill]

On another note, I saw somewhere else that apparently money.co.uk's ranking for the word money in google.co.uk has slipped from first page to second. Could be just normal fluctations, of course.

And apparently the fake article isn't showing up for its own Title. (I haven't checked any of this out, just saw it on Twitter, actually!)

[projectphp]

Bah! I doubt it actually stops the people that would do it anyway, just like most punishments do not. It only makes the already paranoid more paranoid!

[1dmf]

Who said that