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A site of mine has just disappeared off the scope (from page 2 to page 102). It has been there for some time with no major changes (just info, pricing updates, etc.).
The other week I was surfing around and found a complimentary site I thought would make a good linking partner (really, for users benefit first). So I sent the guy an e-mail and was amazed when I got a warning from SpamCop and another!
I replied and explained in the area you can, and that I was amazed anyone would have reported a single, focussed e-mail as Spam. Anyway, this is the only significant thing that has happened regarding this site of late, and then Voila!
Anyone else experienced this? If Google do this, I'm reporting their next Adwords e-mail as Spam and see what happens?!
I know that. That is why I am concerned.
I know I am being penalized for something, because other pages come before my site when I do a simple search on Google (yet my PR is the same as before).
I have heard Google often no longer penalize by reduced PR, as this flags what they have done and invites challenged from webmasters. I am talking about where a site gets pegged (artificially under or over ranked).
I know Google peg sites to favor some webmasters / web sites, I have seen this quite a lot (wish my brother worked for Google and not for Sun).
not that I really know too much on this issue, so I stand ready for my thoughts to be corrected.
Yes, I know about crossing lines with Spam (I sometimes get flack from general link exchange requests where I am doing more of a bulk thing for a sales site), but this particular site was never guilty of anything close to it. And yes, I know he was way over-reacting. I am amazed - where does it end? Do we stop smiling at people we have never met before. The Internet can be a very cold place these days. I get tons of Spam mail of course, but only personally react when it gets out of hand.
My IP, etc. are 100% safe, as I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and am still shaking my head in disbelief over what they did. But that is my fear, as I can think of nothing else to explain what has happened. That maybe Google crawl sites like SpamCop for obvious (penalty) reasons. And then anyone who e-mails anyone else, for whatever reason, can be so targetted unfairly. I was even thinking of inventing a Spam e-mail from this guy, posting it, and seeing if he liked it (I wont, of course).
your first step should be to take a look at the cached version of your site (see the cached version right next to your listing on Google)Check the cached page- Is it old? How old? Is the title tag right? Next check your page rank- has it changed?
Google is known to fluctuate. If your listing is less than 45 days old I would not be concerned at all. If it has been number 2 for a while now (months), review the tactics that you are taking and make sure that you are not doing something against the rules.
Done all of that. The index page has some dynamic content, but never changes in essence. The second page for the all important keywords is tuned as ever. None of my other 60+ sites, which are all based on my same basic ranking rules / methods are not affetced. Just this one, and I can only point to this Spam report as being the factor.
Maybe it marks me out as an old geezer, but to my view yes, the world is going this way, real-life or on the net. It's a real shame.
I think people get so fed up with the genuine spam that they receive, that when they discover something like spamcop, there is a temptation to go trigger-happy for a while. Even though spamcop display a huge black text exhorting the user to 'check this message really is spam' or somesuch, I think some might ignore this, dumping in any mail that they were not explicitly expecting to receive as a result of a recent off-net conversation.
All the same, I might be wrong, but I don't think Google would crawl or link up with such services as spamcop etc and apply that information directly to the SERPs or adjust PR on the basis of it - they don't view themselves as a moral guardian or 'net police service, also the information that might be gatherable, by it's dynamic nature would contain a large proportion of false accusations engaged in various stages of appeal.. so it couldn't be 'relied on' without a great deal of filtering of some sort
rely on my ramblings not one jot, all pure hypothesis on my part...
We can't begin to even imagine that Google rankings have anything to do with email spam, else people would report their competitors for sending them spam mail just to take them out.
I am very careful with exact text and my PR has not changed.
Yes, I agree ga_ga, I feel like an alien sometimes. Can't help but smile, and can't help but be amazed how so many people with so much reason to do the same are just so plain, well....
Marcia. That is always a fear. Sear engines have allowed aggressive manipulation to happen in the past. Am sincerely concerned this may be another example where good intent goes wrong.
