I got penalized by Google (I think). My website (language translation) has
been in existence for over 10 years, and all those years it has been (mainly
the home page) in the top 3-7 positions for almost all relevant search terms
one could imagine. A couple of weeks ago "that happened!". While my
website is still found in SERPs on the first page for some (less
significant) search terms, the site has evaporated from SERPs or is found on
the 7-8th page of the search results for my major, most important search
terms. The indexing or PR of my pages do not seem to be affected. (I am
still fine with Yahoo! and MSN.)



I can only suspect one reason for the penalty, and that possible reason is
totally unintentional. In the middle of January I exchanged home page links
with a major European seller of home appliances present in 26 countries.
They placed my link in their footer, and the link got duplicated in their
hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) pages. I did not ask for that. I just
got it. Five+ months later I am getting this penalty. I assume this is for
an "unnatural" jump in the number of incoming links. Plus my link to them
is not really relevant to the content of the page it's sitting on. It has
taken that long to have happened (unless the reason is something else I am
not really aware of).



I have discontinued the link on my home page and advised them appropriately.
They are still keeping my link(s), though.



Now is the question: What shall I do?



Shall I sit and wait for months until Google reverts the situation, if they
indeed do that? What can I do to make them like my site again? Should I
apply for re-inclusion, and if yes, when is the time to do that (I have
never been out of their index, though)?



Please advise and please suggest any logical steps that I can take to remedy
this situation. I will be deeply thankful.

On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:09:01 GMT, "John Cluster"
<John_Cluster@noaddress.noway> wrote:

>I got penalized by Google (I think). My website (language translation) has
>been in existence for over 10 years, and all those years it has been (mainly
>the home page) in the top 3-7 positions for almost all relevant search terms
>one could imagine. A couple of weeks ago "that happened!". While my
>website is still found in SERPs on the first page for some (less
>significant) search terms, the site has evaporated from SERPs or is found on
>the 7-8th page of the search results for my major, most important search
>terms. The indexing or PR of my pages do not seem to be affected. (I am
>still fine with Yahoo! and MSN.)
>
>
>
>I can only suspect one reason for the penalty, and that possible reason is
>totally unintentional. In the middle of January I exchanged home page links
>with a major European seller of home appliances present in 26 countries.
>They placed my link in their footer, and the link got duplicated in their
>hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) pages. I did not ask for that. I just
>got it. Five+ months later I am getting this penalty. I assume this is for
>an "unnatural" jump in the number of incoming links. Plus my link to them
>is not really relevant to the content of the page it's sitting on. It has
>taken that long to have happened (unless the reason is something else I am
>not really aware of).
>
>
>
>I have discontinued the link on my home page and advised them appropriately.
>They are still keeping my link(s), though.
>
>
>
>Now is the question: What shall I do?
>
>
>
>Shall I sit and wait for months until Google reverts the situation, if they
>indeed do that? What can I do to make them like my site again? Should I
>apply for re-inclusion, and if yes, when is the time to do that (I have
>never been out of their index, though)?
>
>
>
>Please advise and please suggest any logical steps that I can take to remedy
>this situation. I will be deeply thankful.

Use reinclusion to explain the situation. See what comes from that.
There may be other factors, of course, and you may be wrong about the
problem you've named, but without analysing your site it's difficult
to tell.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/internet-mark...l-business.htm
http://www.kruse.co.uk/close-ended-questions.htm
http://www.crystal-liaison.com/giving/

On Jun 25, 2:09 pm, "John Cluster" <John_Clus...@noaddress.noway>
wrote:
> I got penalized by Google (I think). My website (language translation) has
> been in existence for over 10 years, and all those years it has been (mainly
> the home page) in the top 3-7 positions for almost all relevant search terms
> one could imagine. A couple of weeks ago "that happened!". While my
> website is still found in SERPs on the first page for some (less
> significant) search terms, the site has evaporated from SERPs or is found on
> the 7-8th page of the search results for my major, most important search
> terms. The indexing or PR of my pages do not seem to be affected. (I am
> still fine with Yahoo! and MSN.)
>
> I can only suspect one reason for the penalty, and that possible reason is
> totally unintentional. In the middle of January I exchanged home page links
> with a major European seller of home appliances present in 26 countries.
> They placed my link in their footer, and the link got duplicated in their
> hundreds and hundreds (thousands?) pages. I did not ask for that. I just
> got it. Five+ months later I am getting this penalty. I assume this is for
> an "unnatural" jump in the number of incoming links. Plus my link to them
> is not really relevant to the content of the page it's sitting on. It has
> taken that long to have happened (unless the reason is something else I am
> not really aware of).
>
> I have discontinued the link on my home page and advised them appropriately.
> They are still keeping my link(s), though.
>
> Now is the question: What shall I do?
>
> Shall I sit and wait for months until Google reverts the situation, if they
> indeed do that? What can I do to make them like my site again? Should I
> apply for re-inclusion, and if yes, when is the time to do that (I have
> never been out of their index, though)?
>
> Please advise and please suggest any logical steps that I can take to remedy
> this situation. I will be deeply thankful.

I think you probably have correctly assumed your main issue, unnatural
boost in incoming links and linking to an irrelevant source. Try to
dismember your web site from this link machine that was created.

Fred
http://www.rezultz-web-site-promotion.com/

> I think you probably have correctly assumed your main issue, unnatural
> boost in incoming links and linking to an irrelevant source. Try to
> dismember your web site from this link machine that was created.

I'm really not that sure. A couple of years ago someone put up a
Wikipedia article and included a link to my site. OK, fine.

Then someone scraped the Wiki entry and put it on 2,000+ spam
domains. I went from 1,500 IBLs to 3,500 overnight. Somehow, Google
handled it and I saw no deltas in the site's performance.

However - I didn't link out to these creeps. If there's a cause here,
that's it. It seems perverse for Google to penalize a site for
something another site does.

On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:27:00 -0700, Phil Payne
<phil@isham-research.co.uk> wrote:

>> I think you probably have correctly assumed your main issue, unnatural
>> boost in incoming links and linking to an irrelevant source. Try to
>> dismember your web site from this link machine that was created.
>
>I'm really not that sure. A couple of years ago someone put up a
>Wikipedia article and included a link to my site. OK, fine.
>
>Then someone scraped the Wiki entry and put it on 2,000+ spam
>domains. I went from 1,500 IBLs to 3,500 overnight. Somehow, Google
>handled it and I saw no deltas in the site's performance.

>However - I didn't link out to these creeps.

There's the crucial distinction.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/internet-mark...l-business.htm
http://www.kruse.co.uk/close-ended-questions.htm
http://www.crystal-liaison.com/giving/

"Phil Payne" <phil@isham-research.co.uk> wrote ...
> However - I didn't link out to these creeps. If there's a cause here,
> that's it. It seems perverse for Google to penalize a site for
> something another site does.

It's something else; Google does NOT penalize you for incoming links, unless
it's some exchange scheme that you are part of.

Else spammers would have a field day linking to their rivals!
--

Andrew
http://www.seo2seo.com/
http://www.sick-site-syndrome.com/
First things first - but not necessarily in that order.

On Jun 26, 4:47 am, "Andrew Heenan" <andr...@heenan.net> wrote:
> "Phil Payne" <p...@isham-research.co.uk> wrote ...
>
> > However - I didn't link out to these creeps. If there's a cause here,
> > that's it. It seems perverse for Google to penalize a site for
> > something another site does.
>
> It's something else; Google does NOT penalize you for incoming links, unless
> it's some exchange scheme that you are part of.
>
> Else spammers would have a field day linking to their rivals!
> --
>
> Andrew http://www.seo2seo.com/http://www.si...-syndrome.com/
> First things first - but not necessarily in that order.

I am not so sure Andrew. I seem to be inclined to think that in fact
penalties can occur from others pointing to your content. I do have a
real example but cannot show you at this time. I did however, show the
example in a very heated debate at Daniweb here http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread78073.html
which was closed by the moderator ( who incidentally is the one who
contested me in this thread ).


--

Fred
http://www.rezultz-web-site-promotion.com/

So, you are saying that you are penalized because a website placed
thousands of links to you in their computer generated pages?

Somehow, I think that it is worthwhile to dig deeper and seek other
reasons, you may not have found the right one. Google says that you
would be unlikely to be penalized because of what other sites
do. (setting aside the doorway and similar issues).

See if perhaps there is a penalty against you in google webmaster
console, that would explain what is going on.

i