Destroyed by Google, need help!

by 24 replies
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Well I guess the time has come, I need some help in figuring out what happened and how to fix it.

Long story short... I contracted someone to extract data from every local, state, and federal jurisdiction to build a database of people's arrest records. The data in these records includes names, date of arrest, jurisdiction, and the mugshot from the arrest.

It was growing from 20% - 100% in traffic day after day. Once it hit about 3,200 unique views a day, it leveled off. After 3 days at 3,000 unique visitors, it tanked completely. It is now down to under 100 a day.

I have concluded that the site and all indexed pages were added into the "Omitted search results". My question is... How the heck do I get it out of that section so it can get traffic back?!

This site peaked at $200/day, and is now down to under $1. Help!!
#search engine optimization #destroyed #google
  • So you built a site and lots of people just appeared out of nowhere, and then disappeared again without a trace?
    It could be the case that you where publishing mugshots of kidnappers and they abducted your audience. Some of the bank robbers maybe are holding them up somewhere for ransom, so maybe charge your cell phone and wait for the call.
    Or give us more detail as to what you did to get those visitors in the first place.
    Or just call the Milk carton company and tell them you have a mass missing persons request.
  • Duplicate content, isn't that obvious? There are tons of sites with this data already so you need to add other value to those pages. Mashing in related social media and getting users to interact with the pages will also help a bit.

    IF you have a lousy link profile with no authority you don't stand much of a chance either.
  • Would displaying related articles on the pages and have active social widgets allow for a change in status? Or is that not enough?
  • You're bound to get a lot of hate doing that. A friend of mines had a dui case dismissed but the site refused to remove his info. Ranked #1 for his name too. Nothing a bit of reputation management and negative SEO couldn't solve though. I feel like a god sometimes. Good luck profiting on other people's misfortunes.
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    • Wow, at least a unique and interesting topic for a change.

      If you know, have you looked to find them?

      If you find them, look close at what appears in google.
      Is the title, description, etc. the same, and basically the
      same as other similar sites, and across the board on
      your site?

      You might need to change the site up a bit, make sure each
      page generated gets somewhat of a unique title, if possible.

      Certainly you might have to hire a programmer to present the
      results in a truly unique way, that actually serves a purpose.

      If not, you may be stuck. Google does not want to show 100
      sites that offer the same exact thing, or at least look to
      them like they do.

      Paul
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
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  • I have a feature set up for removal requests with a $9.99 admin fee. We won't remove sex offenders or violent criminals unless we are provided proof of exoneration. That's not the purpose of the site though, it's strictly to bring in Adsense revenue - which it was, in a huge way.

    I have worked out a solution though! Simply put, we are going to pull feed data from news sources in the local jurisdictions for the arrests (all arrests are public in the paper), so that should added enough content (related content) to keep off that omitted results filter.
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    • [3] replies
    • I knew that too! Dang it, slipped my mind.

      Paul
    • Extortion lol. Never thought about it that way but thats pretty much what it is. Sites ranking horrible sh*t for people's names and then charging $$$ for removal. Not to mention you get the adsense revenue. I understand it's already public information but that doesn't give someone the right to mass ruin peoples reputation for a quick buck. Not to mention you now have to give up your private info (court docs) to hundreds of noname and untrustworthy webmasters.
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    • Banned
      If this part (below) is true I don't want anything to do with this thread.

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  • Banned
    It's the same content found on hundreds of other sites/pages that you don't own. Your buried in Supplemental SERPs (duplicate content).

    Google tries to filter out duplicate pages, it doesn't always work but as you can see it works for the most part.

    I imagine you scraped page titles from another site, If so, that's the first thing I would change. Next, you need better SEO than the other hundred sites (or however many) that have the same content.

    You could also add additional content to each page that the other public data sites don't have to help differentiate your pages from the rest of the pack (competition), that's up to you to figure out what that extra content would be.
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  • Glad people like you had their websites crushed by GOogle.

    Making money off of other people's criminal record is asking for it, just be thankful that Google shut you down before someone else did.

    Instead of benefiting off of others misfortune or bad decision making why dont you go produce something of value. If you even can, lol.
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  • We are all here because we are internet marketers. Honestly, this one site (out of the 1,100 that I own) is the only one that has experienced a growth rate like this. It went from $0/day to $200/day in a matter of 13 days. The traffic is coming back now, after making some minor tweaks and inserting some extras into the pages.

    The point is... This isn't capitalizing on misfortune and bad luck. If someone got arrested, they weren't unlucky - this did something illegal. Whether or not they were proven guilty, incarcerated, etc - that's up to the courts. I simply take the person's name and picture, and put it on a website. My employee who runs the site is only paid when removals are paid for, hence the admin fee. Otherwise, that employee won't make money.

    So, if you want to call it extortion, fine - call it that. But that couldn't be further from what it is. It just so happens that my employee is someone who needed a 2nd chance. Hopefully she isn't the only one I will be able to hire to work on this project.
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    • I actually cringe when I hear that term. Internet marketers have a bad reputation largely because of schemes like this one. Doesn't matter who you screw over or step on as long as you make a quick buck right? The people I network with would be embarrassed to call themselves Internet Marketers in public.

      Did you know that in some states it's illegal to collect rainwater?
      Or that growing a garden on your property is considered illegal?
      And that some people are accused/arrested of things but then proven innocent???

      God forbid you ever end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

      Oh how nice of you :rolleyes:
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    • Oh, since we're internet marketers, well then, anything goes. Think about that when one of the "featured" people on your site decide you need a personal visit.
  • You own 1k other sites, you seriously don't need this form of money making
  • Yes thanks for an interesting topic (about the first here all week).

    And yes the site sounds pretty nasty.

    Reputation means a lot to people. Here in Thailand if you go in a police station your mugshot appears all over the web even if you're a victim of a crime (e.g. ladyboys steal all your possessions).

    I don't know how anyone who runs this kind of site can sleep at night...
  • Haha, accurate and to the point!
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    • For once, I'm actually happy about those Google's new algorithm animals

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    Well I guess the time has come, I need some help in figuring out what happened and how to fix it. Long story short... I contracted someone to extract data from every local, state, and federal jurisdiction to build a database of people's arrest records. The data in these records includes names, date of arrest, jurisdiction, and the mugshot from the arrest.