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Articles, Tutorials on Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Page 4
Potential Penalties or Banning by Search Engines and Directories
Within the Potential Penalties or Banning by Search Engines and Directories section below, you'll find articles and tutorials on the latest with potential bans and penalties by search engines and directories, what to avoid, how to file reinclusion requests, paid links issues, and more.
On this page:
- Search Engine Penalties, Banning in General
- Google Penalties, Banning from SERPs
- Google's “-30” Penalties
- Google's “-950” Penalties
- Google's Paid Links Penalties
- Yahoo! Penalties, Quality Guidelines
Also within Articles and Tutorials on SEO, SEM, Conversions and ROI, and Search Engines:
- Content, Keyword, Keyphrase Optimization, Writing for Search Engines, and Optimizing Content for SEM, ROI
- Design and Development Optimization for Search Engines
- Link Building Strategies, Popularity, Optimizing Internal Links
- Getting Web Sites Indexed - Submitting to Search Engines, Search Directories, and Pay Per Click Search Engines (CPC/PPC)
- How Search Engines and Search Directories Index, Rank Sites
Also within Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing:
Search Engine Penalties, Banning in General
- Anatomy of a Successful Reinclusion Request
Great forum thread on how to handle reinclusion requests, what the search engines want to know, and many helpful tips. [Forum thread beginning 08/04/2005, Search Engine Watch.] - Best Practices for Cross-linking
Helpful tips and information on appropriate cross-linking, and how to avoid potential penalties by cross-linking properly. For example, websites with the same IP address, “excessive” linking, and more. [Article/tutorial dated 06/21/2007, by Eric, for Links Back SEO.] - The Classification of Search Engine Spam
Incredibly insightful article on what could be viewed as spam by search engines, intentional or not. From the article's conclusion: “This document has attempted to set out guidelines and principles for classifying search engine spam. It has been written to allow search engine marketers and other industry professionals to objectively evaluate actions to see whether those actions equate to spamming a search engine. It is hoped that quality search engines, ethical marketers and search industry professionals will agree that this document lays out standards which the industry should strive for. Within this document, we identified two types of search engine spam (content spam and meta spam) and discussed several examples of those types of spam.” [Article/tutorial dated 09/30/2001, by Alan Perkins, SilverDisc.] - Coping with Search Engine Penalties
Search engines can and will penalize Web sites for a variety of reasons. It's critically important to know these in advance so you can avoid them! Some examples: hidden text, cloaking, doorway pages, automated queries to a search engine, pages with irrelevant words, purchasing site-wide links to your Web site, anchor text density, shared IP addresses, over-optimization, links from bad neighborhoods, multiple redirects, gibberish content, blog and guestbook spam, “renting space” on other Web sites, buying high profile links, duplicate content, running a spam site, and more. This article/tutorial explains all these, provides examples, and more helpful information.
Editor note: This one especially is definitely a must-read article. [Article/tutorial dated 08/03/2005, by Marcela De Vivo for Search Engine Watch.] - Meta Refresh vs 301 Redirects
Explains why you should avoid using theMeta Refreshtag. The article also shows how to properly redirect old pages at your site to their new pages using a 301 redirect rule within your server's .htaccess file. [Article/tutorial dated 04/21/2004, by Aaron Wall, Aaron Wall's SEO Book[*note].] - Page Hijack: The 302 Exploit, Redirects and Google
302 Exploit: How somebody else's page can appear instead of your page in the search engines. This article explains an exploit of the 302 server redirect and what you can do combat it, in addition to reporting sites that use this exploit to try to steal page rankings, etc. “An explanation of the page hijack exploit using 302 server redirects. This exploit allows any webmaster to have his own 'virtual pages' rank for terms that pages belonging to another webmaster used to rank for. Successfully employed, this technique will allow the offending webmaster ('the hijacker') to displace the pages of the 'target' in the Search Engine Results Pages ('SERPS'), and hence (a) cause search engine traffic to the target website to vanish, and/or (b) further redirect traffic to any other page of choice.” Editor note 08/16/2006: it appears that Google is getting this exploit under control (although there are definitely exceptions), although I'm still finding excessive 302 exploits still appearing at Yahoo!, including several of the sites I maintain as of August 2006. [Article/tutorial dated 03/15/2005 and continually updated, by Claus Schmidt, for clsc.net research.] - Paid Links - Can't Be a White Hat With 'em, Can't Rank Without 'em
Natural links, paid links, pros and cons. Good insight here. [Article/tutorial dated 07/10/2007, by randfish, for SEOmoz.] - SEO: Redirection
An entire category of articles and weblog posts devoted to redirecting pages and SEO, including hijacking exploits, how to create SEO-friendly redirects for redirecting old pages and sites to new ones, how to avoid being penalized or banned by using SEO-friendly redirects, and much more. [Articles/tutorials via Search Engine Watch.] - The Ultimate SEO Checklist, Page 2: Avoiding Being Banned by Search Engines
The section of this SEO checklist that covers how to prevent your site from being penalized or banned by mistake. This checklist is available as an article online, downloadable in PDF format, and is a chapter excerpt from the new book packed with helpful checklists, Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists, by Shirley Kaiser. [Article/tutorial dated 07/26/2006, by Shirley Kaiser, SKDesigns, for SitePoint.] - What Are Poison Words? Do They Matter?
Poison words are a way to deweight low quality content pages, decrease your rankings, including blog comment spam and other spammers' tactics. You can learn more about this in this article. [Article/tutorial dated 02/19/2006, by Aaron Wall, Aaron Wall's SEO Book[*note].]
Google Penalties, Banning from SERPs
There are many types of Google penalties. This section is for Google penalties in general, so see also sections below for specific penalties: Google's “-30” Penalties, Google's “-950” Penalties, and Google's Paid Links Penalties.
- Check for a Google Penalty
Packed with helpful insight, tips and a great checklist to help you determine if you've been penalized by Google, along with what you can do to address any problems. Main topic areas: Initial Tests for a Penalty; Google Penalty Checklist; Check for a Google Website Ban; Google Penalty Recovery Strategy; Google Re-inclusion Request. [Article/tutorial by KSL Consulting Ltd.] - The Duplicate Content Penalty Myth
Excellent points made here, along with clarification about duplicate content penalties. [Article/tutorial dated 03/15/2007, by Jill Whalen, for Search Engine Land.] - Filing a reinclusion request
Updated 04 November 2007, Matt Cutts, who heads Google's Webspam team, updated this September 2005 post with Google's latest URL and the name change to “Reconsideration Request.” Lots of helpful tips here on how to file a reinclusion/reconsideration request at Google. [Article/tutorial dated 09/18/2005, updated 11/04/2007 by Matt Cutts, for Matt Cutts.] - Google Defuses Link Bomb Schemes
Great rundown of Google's crackdown on linkbomb schemes, aka “Google bombs”. Includes links to discussions and articles by Matt Cutts, Danny Sullivan, and more. [Article/tutorial dated 01/30/2007, by Jim Hedger, for ISEdb.com.] - Google Penalization: Dropping Out Of Google Search Results And Trying To Understand Its Causes
After the sudden loss of all search engine traffic coming from Google that had a devastating impact on his business revenue, Robin Good tells the story about how he tried to uncover the cause and what he did about it all. Excellent story and plenty of tips and insight. See also earlier posts on this, Sudden Traffic Loss? Google Doesn't Send You Anymore Visitors? Here Is What To Check, The Google Nightmare Is Over: Robin Good Is Back Inside Google SERPs - A Call To Action To Stop This. Another recommended must read article. Be sure to also check out the links in the articles, along with the comments from readers. Lots of great insight, tips here. [Article/tutorial dated 09/03/2007, by Robin Good, Robin Good's Latest News.] - Google Rankings Influenced By Hosting, Domain Registrar and Geographic Location
Article that explains how Google might penalize you for hosting too many related sites, sites on the same server that link to each other, blocked domain registration information, and more. “One major fear around the web publisher community is that if you host too many sites on the same shared hosting account or server, Google may penalize you for hosting too many related sites; whether or not you share links back and forth with them. Hosting is not the only variable Google may look at when determining search relevance for a site, here is a look at hosting, domain registrar information and geographic location.” [Article/tutorial dated 11/08/2007, by Loren Baker, for Search Engine Journal.] - Google's Webmaster Guidelines
See especially the section on this page, Quality Guidelines, for information about how to meet the quality guidelines required by Google and how to avoid being penalized or banned by mistake. [Article/tutorial dated 2006, by Google Webmaster Help Center.] - How do I request reconsideration of my site?
Google's official help document on how to request reconsideration, reinclusion for your site. Instructions on how to file, what you should check at your site PRIOR to filing your request, and more information. [Article/tutorial by Google Webmaster Help Center.] - How to Handle a Google Penalty - And, an Example from the Field of Real Estate
Discusses an interview the author had with Google's Matt Cutts, especially the video where they discuss “the 'shot across the bow' that Matt's team fired in mid-May” toward the real estate industry “where thousands of websites have recently lost rankings due to participation in egregious manipulation through reciprocal link campaigns.” Discusses the issue of knowing between reciprocal links campaigns like this vs. natural networking links, such as “In the SEO world, this happens naturally all the time - I might meet an SEO from Delaware and link to them because of their great services and they, in kind, might link to SEOmoz, recommending our work in Seattle. That's pretty kosher, and Matt & Co. probably do want to respect those links. The problem is - how do they tell the two apart?” The author created a helpful flowchart to use as a starting point - answer the flowchart questions to help determine whether or not your site has been penalized [Article/tutorial dated 6/11/2007, by randfish, for SEOmoz.] - How to Report a 302 Redirect, Web Page Hijackings and Scraper Directories
How to contact Google, how to contact the hijacker, scraper, how to find out the hosting company of the hijacker, scraper and report the abuse, links to more information and details. Very helpful article. [Article/tutorial dated 11/17/2004, updated 08/01/2006, by Lori Eldridge, Lori's Web Design.] - Understanding Search Engines Duplicate Content Issues
Duplicate content on your site, multiple filters, Google's Supplementary Index, 301 redirects vs. robots exclusion, more covered here. [Article/tutorial dated 07/09/2007, by Shari Thurow, for Search Engine Land.] - Update On One Of Google's Paid Links Info Pages?
Found long overdue update 22 November, 2007 to Google Webmaster Help regarding paid links that added paid links as being against Google's Webmaster guidelines. As of this post's date, it remained the old text for the UK version (and possibly other countries), and shows the revision in the U.S. version. Old: “Buying links in order to improve a site's ranking is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.” New (change is in bold text): “Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.” See also Google Adds “Selling Links” For PageRank To Link Schemes Page by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land, and Google Says Selling Links Can Harm Site Ranking in Search Results, by Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal. [Article/tutorial dated 11/22/2007, by Philipp Lenssen, Google Blogoscoped.] - Using CSS To Hide Text: Search Engine Responses
Insightful information and discussion about how Google, Yahoo! and other crawlers use CSS to potentially ban sites for illegally hiding text using CSS. Be sure to follow the links mentioned, too. [Article/tutorial dated 12/18/2006, by rustybrick, for Search Engine Roundtable.] - What it Looks Like to Be Hit By Google's Real Estate Reciprocal Link Penalty
Terrific insight here on what a reciprocal link penalty looks like with Google's search results. Explanations, screenshots, good info here. [Article/tutorial dated 6/26/2007, by randfish, for SEOmoz.]
Google's “-30” Penalties
- The “Minus Thirty” Penalty - part 2
Possible causes and fixes for Google's -30 penalty (penalty in which your rankings decrease by 30 - if your site was #1, it's decreased to #31, for example). Great tips, insight throughout this lengthy thread. [Forum thread beginning 11/06/2006, via WebmasterWorld.] - The “Minus Thirty” Penalty - part 3
Continued from part 2, includes more possible causes and fixes for Google's -30 penalty. Great tips, insight throughout this lengthy thread. [Forum thread beginning 11/18/2006, via WebmasterWorld.] - The “Minus Thirty” Penalty - part 4
Continued from part 3, includes more possible causes and fixes for Google's -30 penalty. Great tips, insight continue throughout this lengthy thread. [Forum thread beginning 11/29/2006, via WebmasterWorld.]
Google's “-950” Penalties
- Google's 950 Penalty - Part 12
WebmasterWorld thread on possible reasons a site gets devalued to the end of the SERPs (search engine results) or way down, such as #680 or more. Also ideas on what to do to reverse the problems. Continued from Google's 950 Penalty - Part 11. The first thread that began this long series, Google's 950 Penalty: What do we know about it, and how do we get out of it?. [Forum thread beginning 10/31/2007, via WebmasterWorld.]
Google's Paid Links Penalties
This section includes Google and paid links issues and penalties, especially Google's October 2007 paid link penalties to PageRank and to SERPs but also earlier paid links penalties. For Google's official FAQ about buying and selling links, see the entry below, Why should I report paid links..., finally updated around 22 November, 2007, months after Google actually started penalizing sites - see the entry about this below, Update on one of Google's paid links....
- Aggregate Detail on the Numbers from Google's October 2007 Toolbar PageRank Updates
Survey results for 32,856 domains regarding the October 2007 Google Toolbar PageRank Updates. Fascinating information here and helps show statistical data on Google's penalty slaps. [Article/tutorial dated 11/05/2007, by Mel Gray, for SEOmoz.] - Composing the Perfect Letter of Surrender
Fascinating IM conversation about the decision-making process of writing a letter to site advertisers about changing text ad locations (for paid links), and more. Includes letter sent to publishers, too. Great insight about how they handled Google's paid links penalty. [Article/tutorial dated 11/01/2007, by Robert Clough, for Search Engine Guide.] - The Dreaded Google Page Rank Saga Continues - Now With Updated Goodness
Well-researched blog post about the October 2007 paid links penalties reflected via the browser's Google Toolbar PageRank. [Article/tutorial dated 10/30/2007, by Dan Richard, Blog of Dan Richard.] - Google Updates PageRank Again? Adjusts Paid Link Penalty?
[Article/tutorial dated 10/29/2007, by Barry Schwartz, for Search Engine Land.] - The Future of Paid Linking
Opinion piece on where paid linking and Google PageRank are headed. Great read. [Article/tutorial dated 10/30/2007, by Daily Blog Tips.] - How to Report Paid Links
While this post by Matt Cutts does tell how to report paid links, the insight here is especially helpful in regard to what Google deems as problematic links, links that try to manipulate search engine rankings in some way, whether “paid links” or not. He also provides several examples and explains the problems. He also discusses quality directories that provide helpful resources vs. directories that are suspicious and that might be or are clearly using manipulative tactics. [Article/tutorial dated 04/14/2007, by Matt Cutts, Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO.] - Matt Cutts Confirms Paid Links & Google PageRank Update
[Article/tutorial dated 10/29/2007, by Loren Baker, for Search Engine Journal.] - Matt Cutts on Nofollow, Links-Per-Page and the Value of Directories
Interview by randfish with Matt Matts. Topics covered: the use of the “nofollow” attribute for internal links, the 100 maximum links per page recommendation, “Google's position on the value of generic web directories that market to webmasters as a way to boost link strength, PageRank and relevance,” [Article/tutorial dated 8/29/2007, by randfish, for SEOmoz.] - Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google
Lots of helpful information here, including “Google stressed, by the way, that the current set of PageRank decreases is not assigned completely automatically; the majority of these decreases happened after a human review. That should help prevent false matches from happening so easily... Overall, the move takes Google into a new era of attacking paid links” [Article/tutorial dated 10/07/2007, by Danny Sullivan, for Search Engine Land.] - Taken Down a Peg (or 2) as Google Page Rank Drops for Many
Discusses PageRank drop for her site and many others and probable causes (written PRIOR to Matt Cutts' penalty confirmation). Also discusses problems with interlinking, especially the network blogs that have extensive interlinking, sometimes only linking within their network blogs and no other outbound links. Much more. Interesting commentary, helpful links here. [Article/tutorial dated 10/24/2007, by Tish Grier, the Constant Observer.] - Update On One Of Google's Paid Links Info Pages?
Found long overdue update 22 November, 2007 to Google Webmaster Help regarding paid links that added paid links as being against Google's Webmaster guidelines. As of this post's date, it remained the old text for the UK version (and possibly other countries), and shows the revision in the U.S. version. Old: “Buying links in order to improve a site's ranking is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.” New (change is in bold text): “Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.” See also Google Adds “Selling Links” For PageRank To Link Schemes Page by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land, and Google Says Selling Links Can Harm Site Ranking in Search Results, by Loren Baker, Search Engine Journal. [Article/tutorial dated 11/22/2007, by Philipp Lenssen, Google Blogoscoped.] - Why should I report paid links to Google?
Note that this FAQ also gives Google's official word that buying and selling links that pass PageRank is against Google Webmaster Guidelines and doing so can penalize your website. Although a FAQ answering the question about why you should report paid links, this is also Google's official word about penalizing paid links. (Note that this paid links update was first found 22 November 2007, many months after Google actually started penalizing sites for this. See the entry above Update on one of Google's paid links....) [Article/tutorial part of Google Webmaster Help Center.]
Yahoo! Penalties, Quality Guidelines
- Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines
Yahoo! provides a helpful guideline with information about the types of Web sites and pages they will list and those that they won't. If Yahoo! feels you have pages that fall under the guidelines of pages that they don't want, they could (and often do!) delist your pages or possibly your entire site. [Article part of Yahoo! Help - Search Basics.] - Search Spam and Deletions
Index page for Yahoo! FAQs on how they handle search engine spam. See especially their FAQ, What is search engine spam? for more on what Yahoo! considers search engine spam. [Article part of Yahoo! Search Help.]
See also SEO, SEM Tools
Helpful Charts About Search Engines and Search Directories and Free Page Rank, Search Engine Rankings Analysis Tools and more tools to analyze and help show potential penalties and more.
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