Undeserved No. 1 Spot?

What to do if something's "not right"

[mikeempuria]

I noticed a drop in hits yesterday and when I looked at the Google UK SERP for <an important keyword> I saw that a new site was at number 1. This site is a redirection to another site that has no information especially to an English speaking searcher. This site was at number 1 before the last update but went away. Now it's back (perhaps Google have done a little update).

Is there anyway to "complain" about a result that I don't think is of benefit to searchers or is it a case of tough luck?

<Sorry, no specific search terms.
See Forum Charter [webmasterworld.com]>

[edited by: tedster at 1:00 am (utc) on Oct. 20, 2006]

[tedster]

Hello Mike, and welcome to the forums.

One thing you can always do on any Google Search Results page is scroll down to the footer, and use the link they have there labeled: Dissatisfied? Help us improve.

[mikeempuria]

Thanks tedster. I never scroll that far down the page so I hadn't seen the link :)

[Wlauzon]

I often see results that make no sense at all for a few of the really hot (ie, spam mail topic) items, like the "male enhancement" drugs. For one search on the V one, 2 sites came up that were totally not related, one did not even have the word anyplace on their site page.

Maybe Google goes berserk when it has more than 63 million hits...

[Adam_Lasnik]

Tedster's absolutely right.

Also, if the top spots (or any results you see) are spam, please do let us know via the spam report option in your Webmaster Tools. This information significantly helps us to:
- figure out what went wrong
- fine tune our algorithms to improve things

Thanks!

[MrStitch]

Here's a twist for ya...

In my sector, the top result for the money term is an article page, for a product that they sell, that is applied to the product that people are searching for.

In this case, the page babbles on aimlessly forever about nothing, and they are there soley because of the BL's and anchor text.

Granted, it is a legit product... However, if someone were doing a search on this term, they are clearly not interested in that guys product.

It's one of those things where, "You can use it on this, and this, and this...." of which, they have a separate page for each of these 'things'.

Is that really fair? I would consider this a bad search result because the people looking for my search term, are in no way interested in this product. These guys simply spammed the engine or something.

[econman]

Obviously, you could complain, but offhand it doesn't sound like something that would trouble Google very much. No system is perfect. For now, they're focusing on stamping out the more extreme cases of spam.

[tedster]

Spam filtering is one sector of the search team -- but as I understand it, there has long been a major segment of the search team working on relevance from the positive, and not the preventative, point of view.

I know if I ran Google Search, that's where I'd always focus a lot of resources. The public will forgive the occasional spammy page a lot quicker than they will forgive not finding ANY good result.

[Adam_Lasnik]

Yep. We have LOTS of people working on ways to (again, in the aggregate) both prevent folks from manipulating the index nefariously and also accentuate sites that are demonstrably useful/desireable for users.

[pele]

Good to know they value the spam reports. I always send in feedback when I find those purely spammy sites.

[photopassjapan]

...

Meaning spam reports are only for reference?

Or are they for reference... and are dealt with on a case by case basis in the meantime?

[Tastatura]

One thing you can always do on any Google Search Results page is scroll down to the footer, and use the link they have there labeled: Dissatisfied? Help us improve.

If you have a complaint it might be better to file it once you are logged into your G account vs. using general form accessible from the bottom of the SERP, as G will place more weight to it (i.e will look harder at the problem) – at least that is what I remember hearing Matt C. say in a recent interview.

[decaff]

Also, if the top spots (or any results you see) are spam, please do let us know via the spam report option in your Webmaster Tools. This information significantly helps us to:
- figure out what went wrong
- fine tune our algorithms to improve things

Thanks!

Yep! ... and I have used this once or twice...and believe me...because of the grievous nature of the pure spam that found its way into what has been - "historically - 5+ years running" - an extremely stable and absolutely spot on set of SERPs for very popular and competitive niche term(s) I work with...I am not very polite when I set a spam report..I basically say..

"you have got to be kidding Google (<= that's mild)...if you can't get this sector right (and I know that your ALGO is extremely complex and all... ;-) then "houston, you have a big problem"...