Why Google Deindexed Your Site - Leaked Document

[guitarjosh]

Want to know how google decides to BAN your site?

Leaked internal google document
shows it here:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...3Y2Yz&hl=en_US

[xxxJamesxxx]

I got a email from a fellow marketer sending me the link to this. Very useful indeed.

James Scholes

[DNChamp]

Good stuff!

[outwest]

I have a feeling this will be deleted
either the mod will delete this post or google will delete the doc

how to save?

[Fernando Veloso]

This is the new version of an old document. In the end this has been discussed many times in here, privately and in many SEO forums/blogs , and it's 90% common sense But always cool to see how G employees "see" a site...

[theverysmartguy]

Originally Posted by outwest

I have a feeling this will be deleted
either the mod will delete this post or google will delete the doc

how to save?

There is a button that says "save original" in the upper right hand corner. You can save it to your computer that way. It saves it as a PDF.

-- Jeff

[Dolors Jou]

Hi... Just going through the Hidden Text section (page 98) and I am wondering if somebody could give me their advice.

My site got hit quite badly with the latest update on the 14th, and in particular, the most important page of my site, where I sell my ebook, got penalised in a way that it does not appear at all when you search for it. I mean, it's not that it is at position seven hundred and something, it simply does not appear on searches (even if you type a few sentences that appear on the page).

I am just desperate because I have put so much work into this. This is my first and only site right now and I just feel like giving up :-( I have been analysing the page for problems since then, and making sure keywords are not overused, adding a facebook like button at the bottom, and a couple of outbound links to authority sites.

Anyway, I am rambling... Reading the document in question related to this post, I thought to myself... hold on a second. Could it be that my page has been tagged as spam because the Title of the page is hidden? I did this because I wanted to make this page look nice and clean, without the standard page title that comes with the theme...

Do you think this could be considered spam then??? I honestly did not do this intentionally to trick the search engines, but for cosmetic reasons!! I will take a look and see if I can still keep the wp page without specifying a title...

If this is what made google ban my page, then thanks guitarjosh for posting the link to the doc, it is really enlightening!!

[MaverickUK]

Originally Posted by Dolors Jou

Hi... Just going through the Hidden Text section (page 98) and I am wondering if somebody could give me their advice.

My site got hit quite badly with the latest update on the 14th, and in particular, the most important page of my site, where I sell my ebook, got penalised in a way that it does not appear at all when you search for it. I mean, it's not that it is at position seven hundred and something, it simply does not appear on searches (even if you type a few sentences that appear on the page).

I am just desperate because I have put so much work into this. This is my first and only site right now and I just feel like giving up :-( I have been analysing the page for problems since then, and making sure keywords are not overused, adding a facebook like button at the bottom, and a couple of outbound links to authority sites.

Anyway, I am rambling... Reading the document in question related to this post, I thought to myself... hold on a second. Could it be that my page has been tagged as spam because the Title of the page is hidden? I did this because I wanted to make this page look nice and clean, without the standard page title that comes with the theme...

Do you think this could be considered spam then??? I honestly did not do this intentionally to trick the search engines, but for cosmetic reasons!! I will take a look and see if I can still keep the wp page without specifying a title...

If this is what made google ban my page, then thanks guitarjosh for posting the link to the doc, it is really enlightening!!

To be honest this question isn't really answerable. However to give you some insight i can tell you that one of my websites that uses the "text-indent: -99999" CSS (the command which makes a given piece of text dissapear off the page) has not been penalised.

I use this CSS on the H1 tag of the homepage but as i said my site hasn't been affected. Sadly, Google may have spotted it on your website and together with other variables decided your website was spam.

Don't worry though, i've got two websites at the moment that have been penalised and i wouldn't have a clue as to why, only Google really know. You can feel free to send me the URL to your website via PM and i can offer some advice if possible.

[Dolors Jou]

Thanks so much for your help. (Sorry, I am not allowed to PM you...)

Yes, I used something similar to hide the H1 title, can't remember if the same command... The page I am referring to is the one on my sig box below :-)

[paulgl]

Why do you people believe this is confidential or even
officially from google?

Clearly "leaked" by someone who has an SEO blog and service.

Funny how a "leaked" document from google is going to be uploaded
to google docs. That's funny in and of itself. Why not just put it
on your website? Oh wait! That way it looks like it is google's.
Even though Joe Blow can upload anything and actually edit that
document. Then upload that. Oh but wait! Then they can't be
accused of stealing a copyrighted document! Makes no sense.

If someone actually stole or leaked a google document, an
official secret document, I guarantee it would also be removed
from google docs. If google really gave a rat's hat, it would
be gone. But it's not. That alone has to make you wonder.

Dated March 2011, I guess everybody has forgotten how
they have just spammed...er....pumped up dozens of threads
on panda updates...Meaning, March is ancient history.

Searchengineland is very good at this stuff.

I for one don't put too much stock in anything fed to me by
people who have reasons to pump up their credibility.

If people don't believe what has always made a good website,
has always made a good website, you will always have people
shmoozing the system.

Paul

[guitarjosh]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Why do you people believe this is confidential or even
officially from google?

Clearly "leaked" by someone who has an SEO blog and service.

Funny how a "leaked" document from google is going to be uploaded
to google docs. That's funny in and of itself. Why not just put it
on your website? Oh wait! That way it looks like it is google's.
Even though Joe Blow can upload anything and actually edit that
document. Then upload that. Oh but wait! Then they can't be
accused of stealing a copyrighted document! Makes no sense.

If someone actually stole or leaked a google document, an
official secret document, I guarantee it would also be removed
from google docs. If google really gave a rat's hat, it would
be gone. But it's not. That alone has to make you wonder.

Dated March 2011, I guess everybody has forgotten how
they have just spammed...er....pumped up dozens of threads
on panda updates...Meaning, March is ancient history.

Searchengineland is very good at this stuff.

I for one don't put too much stock in anything fed to me by
people who have reasons to pump up their credibility.

If people don't believe what has always made a good website,
has always made a good website, you will always have people
shmoozing the system.

Paul

While I'll agree the document could have been faked (not likely), I'll disagree that it's fake just because it's found on Google Docs. It was just uploaded today and with a million + (just guessing) new docs going up on Google Docs everyday, it's pretty unlikely that Google would ever be aware of the vast majority of the docs uploaded to Google Docs... despite the fact that they own it. I'm quite sure I could upload a truly copyrighted document to my Google account right now and Google likely wouldn't find out about it until/unless someone actually reported it. Come on, Paul.. you of all people should know that Google Docs is just an automated service by Google. It's not likely manual reviewers are sitting there watching all those docs getting uploaded and verifying if they have a copyright! So no.. that aspect of your argument falls short and doesn't make me wonder at all.

[royljestr]

Yeah I read through it. Most of it is stuff that we already know, but it was a good reminder. I think that the moral of the story is to make sure that you have good keywords and relevant content...otherwise you can pretty much forget about getting good rankings!

[flyingphil]

well folks the document has now been deleted, so it makes me think that it isnt fake...

[simonbuzz]

nice share I will check it out

[JeanneLynn]

Yikes, the link is dead now! Did anyone save a copy? I'd love to know what it said.

[attorneydavid]

Thanks for the link. I'm 95% sure this is real. Specifying the reviewers use firefox is kinda weird. Lionsbridge is a real company. This is really useful.

[Derek S]

Could someone kindly send me this if they had it saved? probably stuff I know but will be a good read none the less! PM me if you happen to have saved it!

[mikal prokash]

i can't read this.There have any message "Sorry, we are unable to retrieve the document for viewing or you don't have permission to view the document."

Please help me.

[Dentist]

Doesn't give me the permission to view either.

[learnrope]

Referring to post 16 & 17, click top right, skip ad. Takes you to it.

[jefkas]

I've got a copy saved but I've tried to upload it to a couple of the larger upload sites and it gets flagged as having already been submitted and with copyright and gets instantly deleted, so... if you want a copy and can't find it, send me your email. I can't send links because I don't have enough posts.
Interesting document for sure. Most of it is common sense but there's some specifics that are pretty interesting as well.

[learnrope]

Apart form copy / paste, how do I save this online PDF?

[retsek]

this seems to be the original source.
Google Algo Changes and Google Manual Reviews - How It Works | PotPieGirl.com

the fact that Google contacted her to remove it, makes the document valid ..me thinks. PDF copies are available everywhere if you look hard enough.

[Targeted Traffic]

Honestly, at this point in the SEO game, it pays to be a great business strategist, a creative content developer and a phenomenal marketer far more than an analyzer of algorithms.

[dagaul101]

It's always nice to know, but if you follow the rules of great content and authority backlinks, then you have nothing to fear

[khtm]

So, can't someone post the doc that they saved? The original is no longer available.

[Traffic Master]

Ngaw.. I can't access it.

[yukon]

Leaked Google Manual Review Document

[timpears]

Originally Posted by khtm

So, can't someone post the doc that they saved? The original is no longer available.

Ditto!!!!!!!

[yukon]

I already posted a link to multiple copies.

Take your pick...

[hicksdelight]

I found this tidbit quite interesting with relation to micro niche IM

Note: URLs that contain informational terms like “pregnancy symptoms” should not be rated Vital, even when they match the query.

I know what I'll be taking from that.

Also hammers home to write about stuff you know and like and consider yourself well expertised in it otherwise you aren't going to get too far, and how you got to be different then other pages with similiar info on what you're writing.

Info I knew, but still hammers it home a bit.

And FWIW, it looked very official to me.

[Fallen_Angel]

Google deindexed one of my sites due to what a plugin was doing wp unique.
Apparently they do not like the output of this plugin.
Thank God the site in question has good social network following so who cares about google. Still appears in Bing and Yahoo and yandex.

[timpears]

Originally Posted by Fallen_Angel

Google deindexed one of my sites due to what a plugin was doing wp unique.
Apparently they do not like the output of this plugin.
Thank God the site in question has good social network following so who cares about google. Still appears in Bing and Yahoo and yandex.

I use that plugin too.

[ericbryant]

What does WP Unique do? What have you changed to?

[Fallen_Angel]

it changes the characters of content to different obscure codes so looks unique.
But google is searching this now and quality issue with this.
What am I doing to correct I appeal the deindexing on webmaster tools.
I added some new content. I am going to have to go and manually undo all the code created by the plugin. I also added some php code to my footer so every visitor to site pings the site from their ip, this works for sandbox so hopefully will work for helping get deindexed as well.
It opened my eyes to how google is changing and now I realize of my 40+ sites only about 10 are quality sites and rest are automated garbage. So I am going to focus on the good ones adding more unique content and wearing the visitor hat and use that perspective to make better user experience. That is what google looking for now. They have stated this many times and we ignore them and try and game them but they keep making small changes and each time more threads about being deindexed or losing ranking etc.
Lets face it, they path is going towards quality and user experience. Sometimes less is more.

[adriel97]

Thank you OP. Very useful information.

[satrap]

For anyone who doesn't have the time to go through the whole thing, here is a link to SEOMOZ's post that basically sums up the whole thing to 16 "insights": 16 Insights into Google's Rating Guidelines | SEOmoz

[JPRoss]

This doesn't really appear to effect us to me. This is just how they check algo changes according to MCutts.

[socialbookmark]

Originally Posted by satrap

For anyone who doesn't have the time to go through the whole thing, here is a link to SEOMOZ's post that basically sums up the whole thing to 16 "insights": 16 Insights into Google's Rating Guidelines | SEOmoz

Thanks for this link because the link provided in OP doesn't work for me. I don't know the reason

[retsek]

Originally Posted by JPRoss

This doesn't really appear to effect us to me. This is just how they check algo changes according to MCutts.

You really didn't read it or this thread ...did you.

[Staci Lynn]

Originally Posted by Fallen_Angel

Google deindexed one of my sites due to what a plugin was doing wp unique.
Apparently they do not like the output of this plugin.
Thank God the site in question has good social network following so who cares about google. Still appears in Bing and Yahoo and yandex.

I fear the same has happened to me...

Although I write my own original content, I use the plugin so that I might post my content on several of my sites and avoid "duplicate content".

But my sites using the plugin have disappeared from SERP's, and the only ones that still rank, are the ones without the plugin installed.