Sphinn - What to do When Google Kicks You in the Goolies.

56
Sphinn It!

What to do When Google Kicks You in the Goolies.

Went Hot: February 25, 2008 - 5:42 pm
Posted By: Lyndon 496 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.avivadirectory.com)
Category: Google SEO

"On the evening of September 2, 2007 my wife Aviva ran to my office in a panic. She exclaimed that Aviva Directory no longer seemed to be ranking for its own name in Google. I tried searching this, and sure enough, she was right. Even searching for “Aviva Directory” with quotes did not bring up this website. She then said, try Alive Directory - and we found the same result. We then tried Directory Dump and eWebPages and found the same thing."

5 Comments

Who Desphunn This (0)

Comments

from JohnScott 496 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

+ -

Good info there. Especially in regards to one site being penalized for the sins of another site that has the same owner.

from mvandemar 495 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

+ -

Jeff - kickass bro. :D

from sza 495 days ago #

Votes: 1 | Vote:

+ -

It's amazing how people are beaten into submission by Google and in the end they get brainwashed enough to believe that it was actually their fault when they receive a mind-blowingly inane and vicious penalty like not ranking for their own name.

No Sponsoring Templates

There is absolutely nothing wrong with providing something of value and having a link back for it.

No Cross Linking

There is absolutely nothing wrong with cross-promoting your sites. Only in Google's distorted world view.

Too Many Directories

Also, nothing wrong with it, and none of Google's or anyone's business.

No Linking To Bad Neighborhoods

Probably about 99.99% of sites don't regularly check the content of pages they linked to in the past. Why should directories be taken to task for the same in such a strong-handed way?

No Redirection of Expired Domains

The basic principles in Google's own Webmaster Guidelines puts this as a useful test: "Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

Redirecting old domains in a relevant manner is one of the things many people would definitely do if search engines didn't exist. Here Google's at its most hypocritical.

Reciprocal Linking

"Matt Cutts pointed out that from Google's point of view, Aviva Directory required a reciprocal link with submissions. This most definitely was not the case."

So here Google's opinion was clearly mistaken. But as their stance is "guilty until proven innocent", they don't really mind, anyway.

from DigTheDupe 494 days ago #

Votes: 0 | Vote:

+ -

Brainwashing is what I see all the time Matt is about. It's nice to know nobody in California from Mountain View does not reads spinn.
Because it is so naive to write things like http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/by-the-way-2/ and never to comment on it on the official google guidelines issue.
Google has gone too far. Can we ever stop it?