paladin

msg:3657518 | 4:19 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Could it be a partial penalty?
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bushib

msg:3657540 | 4:39 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Hi there, I don't know whether it is a penalty or what. But I am suffering and will suffer a big lose due to it. Can any Expert tell me that what is the real cause of this problem and how to fix it? Best Regards bushib
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SEOExperiment

msg:3657588 | 5:09 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Well, if its any consolation, my .info domains have stopped getting all Google traffic since last night. They are still in the index though. Not sure what's up. Could be that my backlinks have been de-valued. I think I'm showing lower in the SERPS now but haven't spent much time yet to try to figure it out. [edited by: SEOExperiment at 5:10 pm (utc) on May 23, 2008]
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bushib

msg:3657596 | 5:18 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Hi there, If the .info domains are so bad then Google should mention in it's Webmaster Guidelines so that webmasters should take great care about this domain before purchasing it. But banning all .info domains without any apparent reason is greatly surprising. Though I am not sure that whether it is the effect of Google dance or a penalty but I hope that my domain will come back in it's actual position in Google because I did a lot of hard work on my domain for one and half years. Regards bushib
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errorsamac

msg:3657607 | 5:24 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I am also seeing this on a .info website. Any other .info people out there who retained ranking since last night?
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FromBelgium

msg:3657622 | 5:39 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I am also seeing this! Traffic drops by 50%!
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Chris_1

msg:3657624 | 5:43 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
>> I do Free directory submissions and very seldom links exchanges. << Try to avoid the Free Directory submissions and be careful about link exchanges. The value of those types of incoming links is minimal and from my little understanding of Google have a slight negative impact. Although, if other .INFO's are seeing the same thing it is probably more of a system-wide problem. Sincerely, Chris
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paladin

msg:3657630 | 5:51 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Looks like a "small" update to the algo. I saw a significant difference for one of the phrases I monitor. bushib, Do you have a blog on your site by any chance? If you PM me the URL I can take a quick look.
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errorsamac

msg:3657632 | 5:54 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I did a yahoo search for ".info" and came up with a few .info domains. One domain I came across was an official website of a popular actor. If you search for his name on yahoo or msn, you get his official website (example.info) as the first result. However, if you search for his name on google, his official website is not found in results 1-1000 (including omitted results). So either Google won't rank .info domains anymore, or they made a mistake with the latest algo push.
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SEOExperiment

msg:3657639 | 6:08 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
It could be that a mild penalty is being applied to .info domains, or it could be that it is backlink related. My .info sites were extreme long tail and didn't have a lot of backlinks. Losing 1 or 2 backlinks would send them out of the serps.
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SEOExperiment

msg:3657640 | 6:12 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I just did an interesting experiment... I know of a website that uses the exact same seo "strategy" as mine. The only difference is that he used .com AND .info domains. His .com domains are still going strong, but his .info domains are missing from the SERPS.
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thaidomain

msg:3657641 | 6:23 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Interesting discovery. I noticed some of my domains had a drastic drop in Google traffic (between 80 and 90%). And indeed, it all are domains from the .info family. I was wondering, but actually it would be hard to believe that all info domains would suddenly be disregarded as valuable. So hopefully, this is a temporary glitch.
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errorsamac

msg:3657642 | 6:24 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
On another forum, people are reporting that .info and blogspot domain names were hit. IMO it's just a google error that will be correctly shortly.
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astrobiologist

msg:3657644 | 6:25 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I have a .info domain that is basically an encyclopedia of science and technology -- 15,000 pages of high-quality content much used by colleges, schools, etc. Since mid-yesterday traffic has halved and virtually the only google searches I'm getting are image searches. All non-google traffic is normal. If google has downgraded .info sites carte blanche on the basis that they're all spammy that's a kick in the teeth for guys like me. Fingers crossed that it's a glitch and things return to normal over the next few days.
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santapaws

msg:3657646 | 6:30 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
checked a 3 word phrase for a .info i monitor and it was number one for a 500,000 result search for 3 years...and still is....
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SEOExperiment

msg:3657648 | 6:33 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
yes, I agree, it is not across the board. I have seen one .info authority site that is still #1 for its primary keyword.
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FromBelgium

msg:3657653 | 6:35 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Another observation: all my number one keywords of my .info domains are still on number one, but those which held positions 2, 3 etc are all gone. [edited by: FromBelgium at 6:37 pm (utc) on May 23, 2008]
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astrobiologist

msg:3657667 | 6:51 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I concur with FromBelgium -- a few of my top keywords are still showing but the majority of my pages have simply fallen off the face of the (google) Earth.
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tedster

msg:3657672 | 6:53 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Google has never penalized just because of a TLD - not for .info, not for .biz- not for any extension whatsoever. For Google to start doing that now would be a major shocker - and much too arbitrary. They don't need to do things this way, because they actually can assess and rank any site and its pages rather well on its individual merits. Whatever is going on right now for the .info sites that are seeing ranking drops, it's 99.44% certain that Google is doing something other than penalizing for the TLD. We already have one .info site owner here reporting that top rankings for that site have been maintained - and I'm sure that's what most .info domains are seeing.
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SEOExperiment

msg:3657674 | 7:00 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Ok, more details. I'm certain that, at this point in time, .info's are getting different treatment. This could be just an update in progress or algorithm glitch, but... 1) Website that links to a .com and .info 2) Yesterday morning, .com and .info ranked #1 for their domain name minus extension 3) Today, .com is #1 for its domain name, minus extension, but .info is gone. So, could be just an algorithm quirk, but, I'm comparing apples to apples here.
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FromBelgium

msg:3657711 | 7:49 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Back to normal, at least for me! Correction: only for 2 of my 3 sites, so things are moving. [edited by: FromBelgium at 7:56 pm (utc) on May 23, 2008]
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randle

msg:3657717 | 7:53 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Well what do you know, same thing here. Made a .info site for a non profit as a favor a year or so ago and it always ranked first page for its abbreviated name, which is the domain name. After reading this thread I checked and poof, gone. Site command looks fine and if you search domain.info comes up # 1.
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astrobiologist

msg:3657725 | 7:58 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
I'm seeing a return to normal on my one .info site, too. If this was a glitch it lasted a little over a day.
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lfgoal

msg:3657727 | 8:01 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Bushib, The same thing happened to me last night. The site is still appearing with site:www.redwidgetblog.com and is showing the normal amount of indexed pages and the normal amount of backlinks that google cares to show. It also appears at the top of the serps if I type www.redwidgetblog.com or the phrase red widget blog. However, it has completely disappeared for the phrase red widget. If I add blog, its at the top. Take out the word blog and its nowhere. Also, a lot of the internal pages are no longer showing for the key phrases they are aimed at. errorsamac, The site I just mentioned is on blogspot. Could you message me and tell me which forum it is that they are talking about blogspot sites getting hit?
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SEOExperiment

msg:3657755 | 8:34 pm on May 23, 2008 (gmt 0) |
My Google traffic for .info domains is trickling back in too. Still not back to normal, but no longer zero. Must have been a : ResetRank(); foreach(TLD in {".edu", ".org", ".com", ".net", ".info") { CalculateRank(); } What a relief...
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tigertom

msg:3657987 | 6:04 am on May 24, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Could it be this: If the site is a .info and has lightweight backlinks and/or grey hat SEO and/or is in a highly competitive field etc. then smack it. How many quality sites with this extension do you know of? Likewise .biz.
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vivalasvegas

msg:3657990 | 6:24 am on May 24, 2008 (gmt 0) |
Well this happened to me too but the .info domain is now back in the serps after less than 24 hrs so I guess it was just a glitch in G's algo. I agree with Tedster that Google can not penalize only certain extensions - I didn't even think of it until I saw this thread.
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extremegolfer

msg:3658023 | 8:04 am on May 24, 2008 (gmt 0) |
They are experimenting like crazy.
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randle

msg:3658101 | 12:47 pm on May 24, 2008 (gmt 0) |
It's back for me to, but you have to admit a rather interesting occurrence.
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