Google Penalizes Overstock

[Carl Brown]

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but it seems Google really hates any sort of manipulation. I like what they (overstock) did, you just don't want to get caught.

Google Inc. is penalizing Overstock.com Inc. in its search results after the retailer ran afoul of Google policies that prohibit companies from artificially boosting their ranking in the Internet giant's search engine.
Overstock's pages had recently ranked near the top of results for dozens of common searches, including "vacuum cleaners" and "laptop computers." But links to Overstock on Tuesday dropped to the fifth or sixth pages of Google results for many of those categories, greatly reducing the chances that a user would click on its links.
The incident, according to Overstock, stemmed in part from its practice of encouraging websites of colleges and universities to post links to Overstock pages so that students and faculty could receive discounts on the shopping site.


Read the Rest Here

Now I have to figure out a way to get these sites to link to me

[EliteIM]

Google has never looked so vulnerable, everyday we are seeing websites both large and small manipulating the SERP by using blackhat techniques. Google indeed penalized 3 of them - but there are literally millions of other sites using similar strategies.

Now is the right time for Bing/Yahoo Alliance to fire-up their PR strategies- people won't really mind switching over to another search provider. Google is failing - spammers are getting smarter than their Search engineer or spam control team.

[JoMo]

Yeah but B!ng just got busted for stealing guugle search results, so they aren't doing much better either.



-joel

[dburk]

Hi Carl,

This article seems to mis-characterize things just a bit. The fact is that neither Overstock nor JC Penny had their websites penalized. This is just Google devaluing web spam, just as they have done for many years.

The only thing new here is that two major newspapers are writing stories about it as if it's something new. As usual, the media gets pertinent facts wrong and you got to love the use of unnamed nebulous sources such as "Internet search experts say". I'm sure no real expert wanted their name associated with that particular assertion since it is common mis-perception among web spammers and well known among "search experts" to be false.

[rcritchett]

Great replies.

I'll just jump in and say, yes, they do hate manipulation.

While it isn't possible at this stage to nab everyone using "grey-black H A T" techniques, they're certainly doing the best they can.

What's scary, particularly for people who haven't learned how to do smart SEO is that it's only going to get worse for people who try to game Google.

[paulgl]

Yeah it's not a penalty. It's called devaluing links. Something google
does all the time. Devaluing links puts you where you belong,
link juice wise. That's not a penalty.

There's nothing to read between the lines about either. Gets blown out
of proportion because media gets a burr up their butts. Then it sends
people scurrying out of the woodwork, like some street corner prophet
claiming the world is ending.

Paul

[dburk]

You have to wonder, why are these media folks are reporting on this non-news. Are they trying to distract us while the other hand is up to no good? It seems there are much bigger fish to fry when it comes to news about Google. Why aren't they reporting on the real news events? Why are they getting folks to focus on these stories that aren't even news?

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, then we'll see what they are really up to. (sneaky bastards)

[JaySchmidt]

Originally Posted by JoMo

Yeah but B!ng just got busted for stealing guugle search results, so they aren't doing much better either.

You sound like one of those folks who never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.

In any event, I'm glad Overstock is being penalized; they've been a thorn in my side for ages.