Just How Much More Worse Can Google Get?!!

12 years ago

Another example:

This site copies articles of mine (same as mentioned above) and ranks above mine for the targeted keywords:

My article example: List of Phones Getting Ice Cream Sandwich - Will your phone get it?

Plagiarizing site: mobphone4me.blogspot.in/2012/03/list-of-phones-getting-ice-cream.html

The a****** copies everything, right from the article, to titles and tags and gets ranked above me! wow.. just wow!!

And the blind idiots at Google say that content matters?????

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6269327].message }}

Joseph Robinson

Banned 12 years ago

Another example:

...of posting in the wrong subforum.

SEO discussion forum is here.

Oh, and just because Google is bad for you doesn't mean it is bad for the internet as a whole. Just means your site couldn't hold up to their guidelines.

[ 1 ] Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6269472].message }}

BulletheadX

12 years ago

What is "phone arena India" supposed to mean to a human? That makes me think of phones battling it out on a dirt floor.
It sounds like Google is trying to interpret what your site is really about from a human standpoint (which from their perspective would be your 'real' keyword(s) ), and those other sites are beating you based on that.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6269815].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Originally Posted by BulletheadX

What is "phone arena India" supposed to mean to a human? That makes me think of phones battling it out on a dirt floor.
It sounds like Google is trying to interpret what your site is really about from a human standpoint (which from their perspective would be your 'real' keyword(s) ), and those other sites are beating you based on that.

I wasn't talking about just that one KW in general... there are several, and this was just an example.. More importantly, how would google let a copied (nay, stolen) post rank up higher than the original.. The original even has hundreds of comments from visitors which means they definitely found something useful out there... whats the criteria here?

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6270905].message }}

JSProjects

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr

I wasn't talking about just that one KW in general... there are several, and this was just an example.. More importantly, how would google let a copied (nay, stolen) post rank up higher than the original.. The original even has hundreds of comments from visitors which means they definitely found something useful out there... whats the criteria here?

I'm with you here. Google is all over the place at the moment and there's PLENTY of others with issues. Ignore the people who say "it's just you. get over it. etc.."

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6270923].message }}

jwmann2 12 years ago

Just keep adding fresh content and generating backlinks. You should be able to eventually outrank the other websites.
- Thanks
Signature
MLB Ballparks|NHL Arenas|NBA Arenas|NFL Stadiums
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6272403].message }}

ok180 Banned 12 years ago

[DELETED]

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6273216].message }}
- Brrainstormerr 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by ok180
  
  LOLLL good one.
  
  If you find that funny, there are a ton of authority sites that are named similarly, phonearena, gsmarena, fonearena etc... check out their alexa rankings if u must... and yeah, its a battle of sorts out there, the fight to be the best phone, the cheapest phone, the most feature-packed phone, the biggest phone, the smallest phone, the most powerful phone... tons of models vying with each other for their respective spots... no i didnt find that funny.. it was in poor taste, as is your sense of humor....
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6276034].message }}
  
  Brrainstormerr 12 years ago
  
  It might be a little too early to report, but my sites seems to be coming just a wee bit back on track. My posts have started getting indexed again within a couple of minutes (without me having to do anything about it)... Some of the newer posts have begun to get ranked on the first page (although for long tail keywords mostly as of now). The traffic has risen to approximately a 1000 vistors a day (from close to 5000 earlier, and down to 100-200 after the penguin update)....
  
  So, well, keeping my fingers crossed. There have been a few teaks that I have made which I will post once I am convinced the improvement is for real!
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297017].message }}

FraserC

12 years ago

A copied post would move higher in the rankings if your article was actually being penalized. Think of a race. You come first, but you're wearing non-regulation shoes, so the the official penalizes you 5 seconds.

That other site didn't take the actions you did that earned you the penalty, so you're coming in second. Obviously, they're taking different actions that should theoretically earn them a different penalty too, but that's not what Google is focused on right now.

You have a really nice-looking site, though. Seriously, before anyone judges Brrainstormerr, check out the site. It's pretty great.

So, if you did a lot of backlinking, you'll probably want to come up with a new domain name, shift over your site to that new location, and abandon the old domain. Like someone said earlier, "phone arena india" isn't the most branded domain you could have.

Stop backlinking. You're making it worse. Your content is good enough to stand on its own.

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6270953].message }}

codecreative

12 years ago

Originally Posted by FraserC

A copied post would move higher in the rankings if your article was actually being penalized. Think of a race. You come first, but you're wearing non-regulation shoes, so the the official penalizes you 5 seconds.

That other site didn't take the actions you did that earned you the penalty, so you're coming in second. Obviously, they're taking different actions that should theoretically earn them a different penalty too, but that's not what Google is focused on right now.

You have a really nice-looking site, though. Seriously, before anyone judges Brrainstormerr, check out the site. It's pretty great.

So, if you did a lot of backlinking, you'll probably want to come up with a new domain name, shift over your site to that new location, and abandon the old domain. Like someone said earlier, "phone arena india" isn't the most branded domain you could have.

Stop backlinking. You're making it worse. Your content is good enough to stand on its own.

I think you have a nice looking site as well

Thanks

Signature

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271446].message }}

BulletheadX

12 years ago

Originally Posted by FraserC

So, if you did a lot of backlinking, you'll probably want to come up with a new domain name, shift over your site to that new location, and abandon the old domain. Like someone said earlier, "phone arena india" isn't the most branded domain you could have.

I was reading about something in a couple of other threads about recovering from penguin that may be applicable here; this isn't my bailiwick but perhaps someone else would know.

The idea was that if you wanted to retain your domain name/age, content, etc., you could rename your internal links and homepage and most of the extant links (and hopefully the 'bad' ones) would then be pointed at 'nothing', and no longer harm you.

Then you could start over with with more acceptable backlinking practices without losing the 'good' equity in the site- does that sound workable?

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271606].message }}

dmtaylor247

12 years ago

Originally Posted by BulletheadX

I was reading about something in a couple of other threads about recovering from penguin that may be applicable here; this isn't my bailiwick but perhaps someone else would know.

The idea was that if you wanted to retain your domain name/age, content, etc., you could rename your internal links and homepage and most of the extant links (and hopefully the 'bad' ones) would then be pointed at 'nothing', and no longer harm you.

Then you could start over with with more acceptable backlinking practices without losing the 'good' equity in the site- does that sound workable?

The problem is most people spam the hell out of their index page, there is nothing wrong with his internal pages, they are all ranking fine.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271628].message }}

BulletheadX 12 years ago

Originally Posted by dmtaylor247

The problem is most people spam the hell out of their index page, there is nothing wrong with his internal pages, they are all ranking fine.

They mentioned that... said to change 'index' to 'home' (or something). I'm not sure how that does or could work, as I said. I don't know that the person that floated that idea knew either but they were knocking the idea around.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271782].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Thanks JSP.. the surprising thing is that every single post on that other site i mentioned is a blatant copy of the articles from my site... After a complaint, and threatening legal action, the user has removed most of the posts, but the few that remain are also copies of my site articles, for example:

the article : mobphone4me.blogspot.in/2012/03/apple-ipad-3-vs-asus-transformer-prime.html

is an exact copy of: this article, right down to the images used!

And so are all other posts. Prior to penguin, all these posts ranked on page one for their respective keywords and suddenly after the update I lose all my rankings while the guy who steals my articles starts to rank!! Worse than losing rankings, i hate to see someone just steal my hard work (i wrote every single of those articles personally) and make money off of it!

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6270968].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

@FraserC: thanks for the words of support Fraser.. yeah I guess that would be something to consider now!

As for the backlinks, yeah, i did build a few... since it worked for before that, i did it too like many... probably should have had a bit more of a foresight then... I have completely stopped them now though...

PS- apologies for any errors in the replies, just back from downing a couple beers too many... :-)

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6270982].message }}

FraserC

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr

thanks for the words of support Fraser.. yeah I guess that would be something to consider now!

I just think you can kill two birds with one stone. Step away from your old link profile, and get a clean slate. Come up with a new brand profile that better matches your site.

I know it's hard to walk away from your existing site, but those bad links are holding you down like an anchor.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271266].message }}

Tantalizing Web

12 years ago

Originally Posted by FraserC

I just think you can kill two birds with one stone. Step away from your old link profile, and get a clean slate. Come up with a new brand profile that better matches your site.

I know it's hard to walk away from your existing site, but those bad links are holding you down like an anchor.

This is something I've been struggling with. i have a high quality site with over 600 articles that was bitten by the Penguin. The site is four years old. I am finding it very hard to just walk away from that.

But I agree our past transgressions are likely holding us back no matter what we do in the future. I do see people writing about how to recover a site. they tell us to build more links. LOL I don't know. I suspect G is on to us now.

Of course they do tell us to do it in another way. I find it hard to believe that one can recover these sites within a month of the Penguin assault myself.

I've got significant social traffic though and that's keeping it afloat. I may very well put up a new site though and start building on that one.

I have new IPs but I'm still using the same name servers and wonder if it will do any good.

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297438].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Tantalizing Web

This is something I've been struggling with. i have a high quality site with over 600 articles that was bitten by the Penguin. The site is four years old. I am finding it very hard to just walk away from that.

I have that exact same problem.. considered getting a new domain seriously, but there were a lot of things holding me back.. Brand name wise, I felt it was decent enough (if you look at some of the bigger names in the niche)... the main issues, however, presented themselves when I thought of transferring them over... more than 200 posts with mentions of the site name on them... posts with a network of interlinks (and I use full url's for linking as opposed to relative URLs and so on)... besides it meant starting almost from scratch which I sounded pretty scary... let's see if things improve on from here...

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297484].message }}

jimmyn 12 years ago

Originally Posted by Tantalizing Web

I do see people writing about how to recover a site. they tell us to build more links. LOL I don't know.

Do they have links to link building services in their signature by any chance?

Most of the services you come across are still the same as the old ones which may have got your sites in the **** in the first place. But they've renamed them now with attack Penguin or something similar.

Fix what you think might be wrong with your site's link profile, then see how it does at the next Penguin update.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297969].message }}
- Brrainstormerr 12 years ago
  
  Sigh!! I wish people just switched over to Bing :-) Most of my pages still rank in the top 5 for the relevant keywords... ::daydrems::
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6302315].message }}

dmtaylor247

12 years ago

You're linking to the FB and Twitter pages from your top navigation, they seem to weigh heavily towards domain authority and domain age now that's why they are ranking 1/2.. If you nofollow the links they may drop off slightly.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271049].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Originally Posted by dmtaylor247

You're linking to the FB and Twitter pages from your top navigation, they seem to weigh heavily towards domain authority and domain age now that's why they are ranking 1/2.. If you nofollow the links they may drop off slightly.

That sounds plausible.. Point noted, links removed!

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271074].message }}

dmtaylor247

12 years ago

Another thing is;

You have got a tag page ranking on the 1st page. Now don't take this as gospel, but noindexing the tags may reduce a bit of dupe content and help push the PR to your internals pages, but be very careful sometimes tags are an important part of a website and help to improve relevance,.

I would ask a few more opinions before going ahead and noindexing them, especially when it's ranking instead of your homepage..

You have other social links in the CSS, maybe a good idea to experiment nofollowing some of these links too so you can bring that Twitter page down abit.. it worked for me.

Anybody that scrapes your content why not just ask them for a link? Maybe a nice way to get some quality links, just say "hey! the content is GNU you can take it but at least credit me for it". Never know they may give you some decent links, put this in your TOS.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271150].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

@dmtaylor: once again, thanks for the useful suggestions... I would like to try and see if twesking some of that stuff gets the site at least somewhat back on the track, before taking a drastic measure like a domain change...

As for asking for the copioed articles, yeah I asked the guy to give due credits if he would still like to keep them articles, but so far as I can see, he's simple deleting those articles... fine with me... i did a phrase search from a few articles and noticed some more instances of plagiarism, have asked them for a link back, lets see if that helps...

Also, what beats me is why would a site like this rank for my domain name match "phone arena india" and above my own site... i would have to say that's something terribly wrong there...

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271187].message }}

dmtaylor247

12 years ago

Right.. on a UK IP your index page outranks this linux website but on a US IP I can't find your index page anywhere but your highest ranking page is this;

Phone Arena India - Phone Arena India

I have seen this alot - pages that link to you will outrank you after you get slapped with a penalty, like web 2.0 and articles etc but bearing in mind the keyword "Phone Arena India" is not to difficult to rank for with only 29,500 "in quotes" competing pages I guess Google has just weighed up penalties and relevance.

The linux site is nothing special, but is relevant somewhat, if you could delete your comment on that site maybe that would be a step in the right direction, it is nofollow so I doubt its hurting you but it's worth a try... in fact it's an anchor appearing in a comment section which, could be doing the damage, too many comments like this might be bad...

I checked your backlinks 50%+ of them are for the anchor "Phone Arena India" also it's in your url and title. Before dumping the domain there's no harm in trying to mix up your anchor text, you will need around 200 mixed anchor text links to test it and see some improvement.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271274].message }}

paulgl 12 years ago

How much worse can these searches get?

phone arena india?!?!?!?!?!?

Google changes the search to fone arena india
for me.

Hmmmmm. I wonder why
(You wouldn't be trying to shmooze traffic
from them, now could you?)

When you search for stuff like, oh, say
phone arena india
just what on earth is anyone going to think,
much less a computer algorithm?

Get a grip people. A serious BIG grip on reality.

India. One billion can't be wrong!

Paul
- [ 1 ] Thanks
- 2 replies
Signature

If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271353].message }}
- codecreative 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by paulgl
  
  How much worse can these searches get?
  
  phone arena india?!?!?!?!?!?
  
  Google changes the search to fone arena india
  for me.
  
  Paul this made me laugh out ha ha how much worse
  
  Hmmmmm. I wonder why
  (You wouldn't be trying to shmooze traffic
  from them, now could you?)
  
  Then the this bit you partially have lost me :confused:
  
  When you search for stuff like, oh, say
  phone arena india
  just what on earth is anyone going to think,
  much less a computer algorithm?
  
  I get your point here lol
  
  Get a grip people. A serious BIG grip on reality.
  
  Get your point here again
  
  India. One billion can't be wrong!
  
  Paul
  
  Nah lost me again :confused:
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271444].message }}
- dmtaylor247 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by paulgl
  
  Hmmmmm. I wonder why
  (You wouldn't be trying to shmooze traffic
  from them, now could you?)
  Paul
  
  I did quite well going after mispellings at one time
  
  Oh well enjoy your new 10k backlinks, your site can't crash and burn, it already has.. if this won't undo the dirty links I don't know what will...
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271554].message }}

dmtaylor247

12 years ago

Hey Brrainstormerr

How about this, I have a phone site autoblog, over 4 years old EMD, over 95% exact anchor text and over 10,000 duplicate content pages.. It survived, but it's got some really good links, WSJ, New York Times and a bunch of other top phone sites link to it.. maybe this is what you need.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6271423].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Wow.. some really useful comments/suggestions there... thanks for taking the time out to do so guys... i guess i will give the site some more time before going in for a domain change (a month or so), keep adding fresh new content (used to add about 4-5 a day, now its down to 1-2 per day since penguin, disappointment being a factor

), and see where it goes from there....

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6273164].message }}

jimmyn

12 years ago

Where did it used to rank?

This example shows the importance of branding rather than money making keywords in this latest update.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297070].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Originally Posted by jimmyn

Where did it used to rank?

This example shows the importance of branding rather than money making keywords in this latest update.

Lol I am not sure why everyone is so hung up on the phrase I mentioned above... That was just an example, not even a keyword... My site suffered overall including for the k/ws i was ranking for...

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297139].message }}

jimmyn

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Brrainstormerr

Lol I am not sure why everyone is so hung up on the phrase I mentioned above... That was just an example, not even a keyword... My site suffered overall including for the k/ws i was ranking for...

You're really surprised people are only commenting on the only phrase you mentioned?

You'd do well to establish that brand in it's own right to start off with, whichever other keywords have dropped. Phone Arena India. If people are getting suggestions for other searches, and "did you mean...." type responses from Google, then it suggests your brand isn't strong enough in their eyes. Sort that out and everything else will come with it. Whether you're getting traffic from the reputation of the other (fone) brand or not!

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297180].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Originally Posted by jimmyn

You're really surprised people are only commenting on the only phrase you mentioned?

You'd do well to establish that brand in it's own right to start off with, whichever other keywords have dropped. Phone Arena India. If people are getting suggestions for other searches, and "did you mean...." type responses from Google, then it suggests your brand isn't strong enough in their eyes. Sort that out and everything else will come with it. Whether you're getting traffic from the reputation of the other (fone) brand or not!

Hmm yeah, I used to get the "did you mean.." thing before, but not any more... In fact, early on, Google would go ahead and change my search to "fone" automatically with a "showing searches for..." thankfully, that has changed now, and Google doesn't offer these suggestions anymore, so I hope it has started to recognize the brand name... Its still too for down for my own comfort though and, hopefully, with some careful and intelligent link-building I might get it up again... (used to rank on positions 1-2 right before the Penguin beaked in)...

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297382].message }}

SarahMcCrary

12 years ago

Google isn't getting worse. It's only getting worse for websites that were using spammy techniques to get the ranking. Penguin has affected only 3% of search results which is quite alot. Google search results are getting better after every update they release.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297090].message }}

Brrainstormerr

12 years ago

Originally Posted by SarahMcCrary

Google isn't getting worse. It's only getting worse for websites that were using spammy techniques to get the ranking. Penguin has affected only 3% of search results which is quite alot. Google search results are getting better after every update they release.

Yeah i know that number (3 percent) well by now... the thing is, if Google thinks spammy links outweigh the overall quality of the page and hence should be penalized, I would say Google IS getting worse... It simply means you can nuke a competition out of the way via negative SEO... That sounds like a wonderful update, doesn't it?

Instead of penalizing sites for over optimizing via manufactured backlinks, how bout just ignoring them, and still giving content the priority? Ever though of that?

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6297166].message }}

uoftenwinny

12 years ago

Google surely will ruin down some duplicate websites.
As our website shows.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6302747].message }}

Brrainstormerr 12 years ago

Originally Posted by uoftenwinny

Google surely will ruin down some duplicate websites.
As our website shows.

And how does that fit in the context of this discussion?
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6336042].message }}

Just How Much More Worse Can Google Get?!!

Trending Topics

Newbie

How did you turn it all around?

Any thoughts on golf's latest phenom...Scottie Scheffler??

A healthy fascination for Hollywood...

What's the Best IM-Related Skill to Learn Today That Can Help in the Future?