Forum Moderators: open
Initially, they were repeatedly spamming forums like the ones I run, and others, even after warnings (to stop), for link relevancy and PR. Then I forwarded one of their link request e-mails to Google that I received (was sent to completely unassociated topic sites). It was clear they were trying to set up a link farm.
In the end, they successfully set up their link farm and then hid the links page URL (from their main page) right at the bottom using a double ## as the link text. Clearly, if they have to hide their links page so, they are admitting it has no quality content right? I also reported this to Google.
Now they have their 3 interconnected sites ranked 1, 2 and 3 for a popular keyword.
Should I;
1) Give up all hope of Google ever doing squat about this and do the same Hormel myself?
2) Send some coffee to Stanford and then ask them again?
Having key / relevant word combinations is not the problem. I have those too. But they have now zillions of inbound links from this link farming, that gives them such high PR and link relevancy.
Perhaps I am too old school. I think link farms suck and the old motto "Live by Spam, die by Spam" does not show it's face enough now.
Yes. I did what GoogleGuy said, and a specific site disappeared from the rankings.
Two considerations:
1) The spam was blatantly obvious
2) The specific site is part of a group of about 50 similar sites. I am guessing that reporting the specific search that showed the specific site made it a lot easier to deal with than the list of two dozen sites, with numerous different violations (covering themselves I guess, the family of sites sspams in different ways) I sent previously. Most of the family of sites are being penalized now, though occasionally I run across one that isn't.
Again, in the case I reported, the abuse was blatantly obvious (hidden text, hidden links, even hidden links to hidden pages), so I can't speak to reporting anything "questionable". When it was blatantly obvious rather than questionable, following Googleguy's advice, action was taken quickly.
Maybe you got it done through this forum with GG directly?
Because I do not know what is more obvious or blatent then a link hidden by a a href=links ## /a, plus an e-mail sent by a widget sales company asking for links from a destination advice center.
I am amazed Google's algo did not pick up the hidden link. And amazed they have not acted. As I said, maybe I need to do the same thing myself. But I think that is a shame. Oh well.
I emailed directly, used the spam form, commented about webmasterworld (just as steve b did and was suggested by Googleguy himself). I reported a company who has 3 or 4 domains with the same content, which I don't have any major problem with in theory BUT they are interlinked, al contain hidden text 1x1 pixel images (which have an href attribute).
These sites don't just have a little of each, but there is hidden text on almost every page...
I said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not so sure they actually get read, or at least not by anyone who has any control to actually ban / penilize sites.
Perhaps I'll use Matt_James's method, get a pile of webmasters to complain about it. Problem is, I'm kinda a "lone webmaster" and don't know scores of webmasters like all you might. I just design my own company pages in an attempt to stay on top, which is why I hate spammers who get betters results than I do by cheating.
[edited by: NFFC at 12:07 pm (utc) on Nov. 2, 2002]
Wait.
Rinse.
Repeat if necessary.
If somebody is cheating the ranking they aren't just stealing from you, so I'd also suggest contacting other webmasters (with clean sites) and suggest they complain too because they are being stolen from also.
Now, I got a bead on a guy that has 920 cloaked redirects on my theme, and 3400 total pages targeting several different themes. His pages redirect through several urls and end up on an affiliate page for whatever company he is associated with on that theme. ie - weightloss, gambling, credit cards, etc. - the usual biggies.
I will keep reporting him until he is gone. The spam office is going to get tired of me! Haha
In my report, I write down everything I did to find him - to make it easier on them. I even cut and paste all the search urls.
Like someone above said, just be consistent in your reporting. Don't let up.
In this update i see that for this specific keyword the website is no more in the result BUT for anothers kw is still present and well ranked :(
must i report all keyword? (crazy)
PS : sorry for my poor english :)
