Inktomi Penalty

Can an Inktomi penalty be removed

[doc_z]

We have a penalty from Inktomi since many years. Although the site is clean for at least 3 years, the penalty is still there.

Has anyone successfully removed a penalty from Inktomi?

[makemetop]

Yes - but it is pretty tough!

You have to contact them directly pointing out the fact that you believe you had a penalty, what you think caused it, what you have done to rectify it, that you will never do it again and can they review your site - pretty please!

I used [e-mail] as the contact email.

[doc_z]

Thanks makemetop, I'll try it.

[doc_z]

makemetop,

do you got an answer from Inktomi? And how long does is took until the site was reincluded in the index?

[makemetop]

It can take some time to get a reply - but they will.

As for re-indexing, if the penalty is lifted, that will depend on spidering cycles.

[glengara]

Any particular areas to be wary of with the new Y!/Ink?
If memory serves, Ink once took a pretty dim view of SEOs....

[makemetop]

>Ink once took a pretty dim view of SEOs..

Until we started paying them! Now we are a primary source of income!

The only really new thing to come out is the dislike of affiliate links and a stronger hunt for artificial crosslinking along with duplicate content sites.

[glengara]

Thanks, MMT.
*Now we are a primary source of income!*

Telling point ;-)

So, expecting Y! scarves, towels, mugs, caps in the post now?

[panic]

We have a penalty from Inktomi since many years. Although the site is clean for at least 3 years, the penalty is still there.

Depends what kind of penalty you've got. If you've got a link farm penalty, your chances of getting that lifted are slim to none.

[doc_z]

The only reason for a penalty which I can think of is hidden text.

[MikeNoLastName]

Well, I wouldn't hold your breath either. As detailed in another post in this forum, I contacted Inktomi a couple weeks ago, via three different support addresses, about the same time I contacted FAST for the same thing. FAST responded and "unblocked" our domain within 24 hours, after realizing there was never any reason to be penalized. All I got back from Inktomi so far, was a form letter saying they won't provide (even paid) consulting on website submission.
Might as well scrap the domain and start over in my opinion. It'll probably be a lot quicker. The only thing I'm concerned about is 301 redirecting the old one to the new one to get the 1000's of valid backlink credit. Will this cause them to associate the old with the new and carry over the penalty anyway?

[walkman]

Hi Mike,
what e-mail you used to unblock from FAST?

[outland88]

Mike,

Why would you have suspected you were blocked from Fast. I had a site dropped by them which had been their 3 years. Regular submission still hasn't picked it up again.

[walkman]

"Why would you have suspected you were blocked from Fast"
If all your other sites are in, and you have links coming on all I'd suspect something is fishy. In my case the most pop site with the most of legit backlinks was out.

e-mail them. They actually have an e-mail just for that. I assume that they shared the banned /penalized list with Ink so I e-mailed them. No idea if they answer back though.

from [alltheweb.com...]
"Dispute a spam judgment
If you think your site has been blacklisted in error or you have cleaned up your act, please email [e-mail] and have us review your site."

[MikeNoLastName]

Wow Walkman, I totally missed that link. I wonder if that is new since so many people were having problems? Do you happen to have one which works as well for INK?!
I wrote to my submission service, Lycos, via their Insite contact e-mail and after about the 3rd e-mail THEY wrote me back and referred it to FAST. The e-mail I got back from FAST the same day was from a support technician's personal mailbox who said he was working on integrating overture/FAST/Yahoo and sincerely had no idea how it got blocked other than that it had something to do with the merging of the databases.
Outland88, In our case we were free indexed in alltheweb, quite nicely, in fact the ranking in our keywords was very nearly that in Google where we were in the top 10-20. But we were NOT on Lycos at all. I didn't realize at the time that alltheweb was using FAST exclusively. So I submitted to FAST THROUGH Lycos, figuring if they STILL did not index us, like Inktomi, I could at least complain direct to the source as a paying customer. (Unlike Intomi where you can only talk to their Lordships directly if you're spending more than $10K/ month - it says so right on their support page) Well when we DID get "indexed" according to the submission status page, we did not come up AT ALL, under any URL on Lycos. Lycos has a short page that describes how to confirm that your web page is included by typing: "url.all:http://www.yourdomain.com". When we did that a couple weeks after being submitted nothing still came up. Furthermore, three days after submitting, ALL our previous free listings disappeared from alltheweb, never returning. That's when I wrote to Lycos, sent them a copy of the confirming search I had done, and asking for a refund, and things started getting done.
We however still appear to be banned on Ink, but their strategy is much more underhanded and sneakier making it near impossible to complain. Instead of just blocking you altogether, they still include you but make it so that you can't be found by any feasible means. That way they can, like in our case, just send you a dismissing form letter that says "ha! we never said WHERE you would be indexed!" "You're an idiot novice and must be mistaken. Read our entire help section again about improving your rank." "SEE there you are, what do you mean penalty? There's no such thing." I still have the e-mails.
To determine if this is the case, first try searching for your exact page URL to see if you're in the database. Then if so, see if there are any other pages from your site. In our case there are NONE! Then, search for a long unique sentence (with lots of uncommon words) from near the top of your page in quotes. If you happen to come up alone (unlikely if you've been blocked), try something shorter until at least a dozen other results appear. Then if you are at the VERY bottom of the list below others missing half the words or obviously far from that exact sentence, it's very likely you've received some penalty. Try it again with a different sentence. Try to find yourself under your top keywords where you appear near the top on ALL the other search engines. You'll frequently see ALL the other sites which normally come up around you on the other search engines like alltheweb and google, in about the same order, but YOU'LL be the only one missing from anywhere within a few thousand positions of that rank. That's when you're pretty sure your blocked.
Does anybody know the history and relationship between FAST/Inktomi as companies? It seems they have very similar indexes, but with slightly different algo. Did they start together and then diverge, or use the same spiders or draw from the same common index? Are they really just the same company trying to double-dip PFI?

[outland88]

Mike we've been down the same road on a lot of things. Lycos paid inclusion will normally list you in 3/6 weeks. Lycos was actually one of the more reliable I dealt with but you can throw that being listed in 72 hours out the window. I wouldn't touch them now because they've announced a change in directions with their search engine.

Paid inclusion used to be a good thing. Inktomi is so screwed up now though I won't touch it until Yahoo makes its intentions clearer.

[outland88]

>Does anybody know the history and relationship between FAST/Inktomi as companies? It seems they have very similar indexes, but with slightly different algo. Did they start together and then diverge, or use the same spiders or draw from the same common index? Are they really just the same company trying to double-dip PFI?

Fast powered Lycos and a few others for years. Fast mainly sold the technology that powered search engines and probably still does. Then All the Web surfaced about 4 years ago as powered by Fast. The Lycos reps at that time would deny they were the same but both had the Fast Logo and similar results. They both were using DMOZ for their directory results, at one time. All the Web still seems to give some priority to DMOZ listings.

I thought All the Web had been bought by AV within the last 6 months but some forum post stated Yahoo purchased them. AV and All the Web both use a similar type submission.

I used to keep track of quite a few. Now if I see a new paid inclusion program I know somebody has bought somebody else. Which in layman’s terms means somebody’s going to be coming around with their hands out.

[outland88]

>I used [e-mail] as the contact email.

MakeMeTop,
When I checked with Inktomi phone numbers a week ago I got Yahoo customer service. It's possible some Inktomi e-mail no longer functions.