Pleasing the Google Gods & Not DeIndexing my site.
-
Hey Mozzers,
So plenty of you who follow these threads have come across my posts and have read bits and pieces of the strange dark dark gray hat webspace that I have found myself in. So I'm currently doing some research and I wanted all of your opinion too.
- Will Google always notify you before they stop indexing your website?
- Will Google always allow you back if you do get pulled?
- Does Google give a grace period where they say "fix in 30 days?"?
What is every bodies experience with all of this?
-
No worries. I haven't labeled you as a blackhat. In fact, my apologies, but I didn't remember that I had answered a question for you previously.
So, your questions are mostly ones that can't be answered in a general sense. They'd require someone to know the intimate details of your penalty/algorithm demotion/technical on site issues/etc etc etc. There's no black and white answer to any of these questions.
Google doesn't often just completely deindex a site. Most penalties cause ranking demotions. If you get affected by an algorithm (ie Penguin for unnatural links) then your site won't rank well until the links are cleaned up AND Penguin refreshes again. But for algorithms your site won't get deindexed.
Google does not give warnings to say that you are going to be hit soon.
Google says that any site can recover from a penalty or algorithm change provided you fix the issues. But you've got to have good stuff there in order to recover. In other words, if you got a penalty or an algorithmic demotion because of unnatural links and once you've removed those links there are no natural ones there then don't expect recovery.
I've written some articles on Moz that probably answer your questions:
http://moz.com/blog/google-algorithm-cheat-sheet-panda-penguin-hummingbird
http://moz.com/blog/after-penalty-removed-will-traffic-increase
-
Thank you! I do value the criticism, that's how we learn!
I want to make it clear as possible that I am not engaging in anything Blackhat in anyway shape or form. If you look back at some of my older posts, for example the one that you and EGOL commented on, it begins to paint the picture that I am working with.
I am trying to remain vague to protect the company that I am working for, although realistically I'm not sure how much that matters.
So, as I have stated before, I am pretty new to SEO in the scheme of things (seriously for about 1 year). And I am new to this company (about a month). As you pointed out in the last paragraph I have no idea what I'm doing in this realm. I understand SEO theory, but the problem that I am running into, and probably part of that makes my questions appear blackhat, is that I am not even sure how to identify exactly what has been done with this website.
In the last post of mine that you commented on we discussed the various updates and how the may or may not have effected the website that I am working on. Now this post was aimed at trying to add to that data.
I told my boss that I thought we needed to pull the links and restructure the website architecture immediately because I did not want google to remove us from their Index on my shift. His response was:
What was put in place is working. We want to do a rebuild and redesign. All of that will happen, what I want to know is:
- When will google pull us from the index?
- Have we already been hit?
- Do they warn people if their website is going to be pulled.
- Can we come back from a hit?
- If we are pulled how quickly can we get back on google?
I will be following up shortly.
-
I can't tell from your posts whether you are just trying to remove black hat work from a site or whether you're actually engaging in black hat methods. I'm going to say some harsh stuff. I would say that if you have to ask these questions then you really should not be going down either road unless you are working on sites that you can afford to lose permanently. Also, in some cases if you get caught doing black hat stuff Google can take action on ALL of your sites.
I know a number of people who are really good at black hat methods. And a good number of these guys who have been gaming Google for years can either no longer do it or are finding that it is getting harder and harder.
I work with a lot of penalized sites and there are many different kinds of penalties. For some you get manual notification of the penalty in WMT (not a warning...just a notice that it's been penalized). For others there is no notification at all but the algorithms just stop trusting your site. While recovery can be possible, a good number of the sites that I consult over are completely toast because of past SEO efforts.
If you are trying to clean up a site that has been damaged by former SEO work and you are asking the questions that you have asked above, then you probably need a lot of help. I'd make it really clear to your boss that you are not experienced in penalty cleanup but that you're doing your best and to set expectations low.
You probably already know this, but still, I felt I should comment.
-
Thank you both.
I have inherited a website that is entangled in a very devious web of darkness. And the process of trying to expediently prune the links, dismantle the foundation, and eradicate the poor content while not drastically hurting us more is very difficult to put into words to my boss.
At the end of the day I just want to make it as clear as possible that if we get taken off Google on my watch, that I have given him all the information necessary to make an educated decision.
-TronQ
-
-
Consider a warning a pleasant courtesy from Google. They by no means do this on a consistent basis.
-
You can usually get back in, but the effort it takes to recover from being deindexed is demanding and probably not worth it for you naughty "dark dark grey" hat folk.
-
I agree with Irving: I've never encountered a friendly warning from Google before they destroyed all the things.
-
-
-
Google says they MAY send you a message in WMT
-
You need to make a reconsideration request, and if the site is found to be no longer in violation, they will allow your site to get indexed again
-
No, if you get banned it's usually because of something they feel is very serious like a site that is infected with a virus, of it violating some copyright laws. Banning is the worst thing that they can impose and when it happens it will just happen out of the blue because they don't want it in their index, so you'll get no grace period.
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Leveraging A Second Site
Hi, A client of mine has an opportunity to buy/control another site in the same niche. The client's site is the top-ranked site for the niche. The second site is also often top half of page one. The second site has a 15 year old design that is a really bad, almost non-functional, user experience and thin content. The client's site (site 1) has the best link profile and dominates organic search, but the second site's link profile is as good as our nearest competitor's link profile. Both sites have been around forever. Both sites operate in the affiliate marketing space. The client's site is a multi million dollar enterprise. If the object were to wring the most ROI out of the second site, would you: A) Make the second site not much more than a link slave to the first, going through the trouble to keep everything separate, including owner, hosting, G/A, log-on IPs, so as not to devalue the links to 1st site, etc? Or... B) Develop the second site and not worry about hiding that both are the same owner. Or... C) Develop the second site and still worry about it keeping it all hidden from Google. Or... D) Buy the second site and forward the whole thing to site 1. I know the white hat answer is "B," but would like to hear considerations for these options and any others. Thanks! P.S., My pet peeve is folks who slam a fast/insufficient answer into an unanswered question, just to be the first. So, please don't.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | 945010 -
Hacked site vs No site
So I have this website that got hacked with cloaking and Google has labeled it as such in the SERPs. With due reason of coarse. My question is I am going to relaunch an entirely new redesigned website in less than 30 days, do I pull the hacked site down until then or leave it up? Which option is better?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Rich_Coffman0 -
Unnatural inbound links message from Google Webmaster Tools!
Hi Everyone, I just got this message from GWT(image below) This is probably a penguin Penalty. What is clear is I have to find the best and most efficient way to tackle this issue. We will probably lose tons of traffic in the next couple of weeks so I would like to get the best suggestions and maybe a guideline on how to do this in the most effective way! Thank you! 1a0X2M2a1h0A
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Traffic Generation Visitor Exchange Systems & Google Algo / Punihsments
So, in recent years some services have been developed such as Engageya I want to ask the experts to weigh in on these types of services that generate traffic. I know of sites that have achieved higher ranking via these NON-bot, user browser visitors. Here's their own explanation. Any thoughts will be appreciated. I could not find what Google's Matt Cutts has to say about these affairs, I suspect not very good things. However, I KNOW of sites that have achieved higher ranking, with about 30-40% of traffic coming from similar systems to this. Join our exclusive readers exchange ecosystem Engageya offers an exclusive readers exchange ecosystem - either within the network only, or cross-networks as well - enabling participating publishers to exchange engaged readers between them in a 1:1 exchange ratio. No commissions involved! Why networks work with Engageya? Create traffic circulation within your network - increase your inventory and impressions within your existing properties.Engage readers within your network and experience an immediate increase in network's page views. Enjoy readers'- exchange from other networksOur engine intelligently links matching content articles together, from within your network, as well as from other networks. Get new audiences to your network for non-converting users clicking out. New revenue channel - monetize pages with reader-friendly content ad units, while making your readers happy!This is the time to move from aggressive and underperforming monetization methods - to effective and reader-friendly content advertising.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Ripe
Let our state-of-the-art semantic & behavioral algorithms place quality targeted content ads on your publisher's content pages. Enjoy highest CTRs in the industryContent ads are proven to yield the highest CTRs in the industry, starting at 2% and up to 12% click-through rates! This is simple. Readers click on an article they are interested-in, whether it's sponsored or not. Enhance your brand - Offer your publishers private-label content recommendations today, before someone else does.Content advertising is becoming more and more common. New content advertising networks and suppliers are being introduced into the online advertising market, and, sooner or later, they are going to approach your publishers. Engageya offers you a private-label platform to offer your publishers the new & engaging content ad unit - today! Comprehensive reports and traffic control dashboardTrace the effectiveness of the content recommendations ad units, as well as control the traffic within your network.0 -
Content box (on page content) and titles Google over-optimization penalty?
We have a content box at the bottom of our website with a scroll bar and have posted a fair bit of content into this area (too much for on page) granted it is a combination of SEO content (with links to our pages) and informative but with the over optimization penalty coming around I am a little scared if this will result in a problem for us. I am thinking of adopting the process of this website HERE with the content behind a more information button that drops down, would this be better as it could be much more organised and we will be swopping out to more helpful information than the current 50/50 (SEO – helpful content) or will it be viewed the same and we might as well leave it as is and lower the amount of repetition and links in the content. Also we sell printed goods so our titles may be a bit over the top but they are bring us a lot of converting traffic but again I am worried about the new Google release this is an example of a typical title (only an example not our product page) Banner Printing | PVC Banners | Outdoor Banners | Backdrops | Vinyl Banners | Banner Signs Thank you for any help with these matters.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
Local Listing Spam - Why is Google Missing this?
I have a competitor that ranks in Google Search for a Top Dollar Keyword in the organic rankings with the normal result, however just below that it shows another result that contains the Local City Name followed by their business name. In the URL they have domain.com > Local and below the description data it shows a map for a totally different location as this competitor only has one location... Once clicking on the link I found that it has everything in the title, description and h1 and body content in footer that talks about the local area but not their product. and when you click the breadcrumbs you can go back to a directory of all the other cities and states they are targeting with doorway pages with the same layout however the anchor text is cityname+keyword How are they getting away with this?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Ben-HPB0 -
Does your website get downgraded if you link to a lower quality site?
My site has a pr of 4. My friends site has a pr of 2 but I think that he is doing some black hat seo techniques. I wanted to know whether the search engines would ding me for linking to (i.e., validating) a lower quality site.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | jamesjd70