jwc2349 - 5:27 pm on Jan 9, 2007 (gmt 0)

Ok guys, you are reading more into the unique content portion of my post than you should be. The other details are much more important so please reread.

FYI, the 78,000 pages of new content was achieved via using the same URLs as before. Instead of dumping the content into new webpages with new URLs, we dumped the old content, all of which was duplicate content due to the stupid programming firm I hired in the fall of 2005, and replaced it with content fed via the XML.

So I don't think Google will see this as more than they can or want to chew. We haven't done anything except what they tell us to do--make content-rich sites with compelling content.

And since Google has aggressively crawled since we uploaded the sitemaps--sometimes they download all the sitemaps at least a couple times a day--and cleaned out the old crap, then I think what we did was positive.

What bothers me is that we have done all they said to do and Googlebot crawls very aggressively which is a very positive sign. But the -30 penalty is still assessed. I honestly think that my site has dropped into some black hole at Google and won't get out until someone finally wakes up and realizes that "...this site shouldn't be penalized..." That is what happened at MSN.

That is why Google's communication, while a lot better than 12 months ago, is still poor. Any site penalized for a year needs a second chance.

Lastly, pia's like Sussie get attention from both Adam and Matt while honest, hard-working webmasters get ignored.