I've reported non-relevant websites to Google - nothing's happened.

[bostonseo]

I've been reporting websites that are first page results with absolutely no relevancy to the search phrase, but Google hasn't taken any action. Has anyone had success with reporting sites and actually seen action taken? It's been about 3 months since I started reporting these sites.

Any tips on you've learned are greatly appreciated.

[bostonseo]

Has anyone seen proof that Google researches complaints about non-relevant websites with first page rankings?

[TypicalSurfer]

Reporting sites that you think are not relevant is probably not a good use of your time. Google has employees that do that sort of thing, maybe if they paid you they would pay attention but unsolicited QC probably hits the bin, why would you waste your time, to help google or move your site up?

[bostonseo]

Well the idea would be obviously help me, but it would also help Google's relevancy which they contend they place a high importance on. I am beginning to wonder if that really is the case, because again there are so many websites that are being displayed on the first page for highly searches phrases that are not relevant at all.

[G_Smitty]

could you imagine if everyone reported sites that they thought were less relevant than their own? How does one determine that their site is more relevant?

[willybfriendly]

Well, I don't usually bother, nor have I seen evidence that reporting spam helps.

That said...

There is one site I see come up fairly often in my niche. I was actually searching for info the other day, and there it was again, about #4.

I reported it this time.

The content is nonsensical phrases pieced together from other people's content, with the sole purpose of serving up some ads.

The content was something like, "Widget software produce elegant peasants found only in the Himilayas now raised in the US part of a vibrant industry of close knit community poised for significant growth."

The stolen text is so cut up that one would be hard pressed to file a DMCA complaint. It does make for some fun reading sometimes. (Kind of like the Friday word game.) It is aggravating though when I see some of my own words butchered into 3 or 4 word snippets and pasted back together as pur trash.

WBF

[jtara]

with the sole purpose of serving up some ads.

Adsense, no doubt.

Figure it out. Letsee, why would Google highly-rank a site serving-up Adsense.

Putting on thinking cap...

[JohnnieW]

The top three sites for my search phrase are all blatant keyword spammers - but none use Adsense. I've given up reporting them. I think the forms are there to divert our frustrations.

[b2net]

I only report something to Google only if it's really bad. Like a porn site that ranked high for travel related keywords. 3 weeks has passed and it's still there.

Google handles spam reports with a one week delay but it looks like their system is not organized at all. Is it worth it to use work hours on a doorway page that ranks #10 out of 100 results and gets 5 visitors per day when there's a spam page #1 out of 10 million and gets 2000 visitors per day?

Matt Cutts is only interested if some sites have two lines of hidden text without ever checking where that site ranks in Google or is the so-called spam having any effect or damage to search results.

[draxofavalon]

>>>> Matt Cutts is only interested if some sites have two lines of hidden text without ever checking where that site ranks in Google or is the so-called spam having any effect or damage to search results.

Not even that, I have reported some sites with LOTS of hidden text and reported them several times, to Google and to Adsense (cause the site haves adsense ads) and the sites are still indexed and with lovely adsense ads.

They say they care, but I think they dont.

[my3cents]

I've reported a site a few times over the past several months and it has moved up in the serps. The site has no content except for one line stating something to the effect of "Check back for our new site in 2006!"

This site was showing up at about 14-18 for a pretty good keyphrase back in 2004-2005 but then the entire site was taken down last fall and for the past 6-8 months, it's just been an under construction type of page.

The under construction page now ranks in the top 5!

Good job Google! Keep up the great work!

I'm sure your users love finding pages that have no content or have nothing to do with their search terms...

[Komodo_Tale]

I can only imagine how many spam reports that Google gets each day. I'm sure there are more than their staff can possibly handle through human editing.

I think that the better use of Spam reports by Google is to look for trends that they can address algorithimicly. Yes, the process takes longer and is imperfect, but the results are broader.

It is unfair to expect Google or any search engine to have perfect results. It's akin to trying to rack old pool balls on a battered bar table. You try to get the rack as perfect as possible but you know it ain't gonna happen. There will always be spaces between some of the balls and if you get one ball to sit right a different ball will pop out of position. In the end you have to settle for an acceptable rack of balls. I think Google has acceptable SERPS, more than acceptable, and they keep getting better.

[Asia_Expat]

I have a competitor that I reluctantly reported. I say reluctantly because I really don't make it my place to stopp to such things but the day I typed my target keywords and 8 out of the first 10 results were multiple URL's of my competitor, all pointing to the same content or doorway pages, I couldn't stand it any more.
So, I quite rightly reported this as spam... 80 percent of page one results all going to the same page?!

The weeks passed, I waited, nothing changed. I can only assume that Google either don't care or the website in question has a large adwords budget. If you think I'm cynical, maybe I am.