Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
In the past month, I've noticed links from foreign languages pointing to my site. I didn't ask for them, the sites are unrelated to my content and as my site is in english I don't see how it can be a resource to their users. That was suspicious enough, but when I tried to find contact details to ask them there were none. In fact, their whois uses a privacy system with their hosting company.
Could this be the new wave of attacks? Create non-english sites, host them in a different country and link them to your competitors? If just 10 french sites started linking to my site I'll bet Google's over-zealous geo-filters would drop me harshly in the Google.co.uk searches ...
Thoughts?
This is impossible!
I have been seeing the same thing with IBLs for one of my sites. A lot of these seem to be coming form Russia or Asia somewhere. I can't even read the pages the links are coming from, but a view source shows the links to my site.
The problem has gone on for so long that there is a chance some people are experimenting with exploits. However, John did say he was sending the report to the search team, so we can hope that both the SERPs problem and any attempts to exploit it will soon go away.
Create non-english sites, host them in a different country and link them to your competitors? If just 10 french sites started linking to my site I'll bet Google's over-zealous geo-filters would drop me harshly in the Google.co.uk searches. Thoughts?
I'm on board. Let me put on me Tin Hat and let's discuss this a little bit.
Cause and Effect
I am not an analyst in this area. I do know that after watching search engines for quite some time and how they act and react, I would tend believe that what you've described "could" create indexing problems for the targeted domain.
I'll bet Google's over-zealous geo-filters would drop me harshly in the Google.co.uk searches.
I'd be interested to know how they would filter for this type of attack. If its natural in occurrence, the algo won't know the damn difference. And if it is not natural, the algo still needs to detect and determine what to do. What happens during the time period that the data is being crunched and calculated based on those new inbound links? Does the site go AWOL from its regional position? Does it upset the "flow" that the targeted site had going? To me, there is "always a Cause and Effect.
And yes, I know the routine...
What can I do if I'm afraid my competitor is harming my ranking in Google?
[google.com...]
There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. If you're concerned about another site linking to yours, we suggest contacting the webmaster of the site in question. Google aggregates and organizes information published on the web; we don't control the content of these pages.
There it is in a nutshell, emphasis mine. That is all Google will tell you in this case as I believe they realize there are challenges in this area and major ones at that. Google Bombing was/is/will be a prime example. Google's algo relies heavily on links. I just find it hard to believe that it would ignore something of this nature and be able to determine that it was a false-positive or whatever they call it. ;)
I'm with ya 100% on this, really I am. I firmly believe that certain offsite strategical attacks occur and do so on a regular basis. You just happened to backtrack and discover a potential instance. Now, if you have the tools and resources to microtrack this, it would be interesting to really see if the Tin Hat theory is on target. ;)
Anyone brave enough to let me point my stuff at them?
Hmmm, that is a tempting offer. Instead of using this from a negative perspective, maybe we could help power a Polish non-profit website? Use it positively. ;)
i have a net of polish sites. some 800 sites with 10 million pages in polish.
Man, that has to be the bulk of the websites in the country of Poland, yes?
testing on wikipedia does not work. they are untouchable. that's why I'd say you cannot filter a competitor out.
In one of our local forums guys where making tests by pointing all crap they had at one page new domain for a competitive keyword the other day. A few million backlinks within hours were pointed. The test was more than 4 weeks long and the target domain was no filtered out by the algo.
Testing on wikipedia does not work. they are untouchable.
Hehehe, we don't even talk about the Wiki anymore. It has become "a part of" Google Search for many. It has replaced Encyclopedia Britannica (the hard cover editions) as the default resource for all things.
That's why I'd say you cannot filter a competitor out.
I would tend to agree with the literal meaning of that statement. You cannot filter them out. But, you may be able to cause a ripple in their indexing routines which in turn is going to cause something else to happen.
In one of our local forums guys where making tests by pointing all crap they had at one page new domain for a competitive keyword the other day. A few million backlinks within hours were pointed. The test was more than 4 weeks long and the target domain was no filtered out by the algo.
That would be too obvious of a test and most likely not produce the desired results. Try a new test and perform a "slow methodical" approach over a period of time and see what happens. You need some history. Four weeks is not enough elapsed time. Give it more like 90-120 days. ;)
Also, you won't be able to use your existing test domain. You'll need to start fresh. The one you used already has a target painted on it.
That would be too obvious of a test and most likely not produce the desired results. Try a new test and perform a "slow methodical" approach over a period of time and see what happens. You need some history. Four weeks is not enough elapsed time. Give it more like 90-120 days. ;)
90-120 days you say? I see backlinks make positive difference within 7-10 days even these days.
So 4 weeks should be more than enough to kill a new domain in a way the OP indicated.
Try geolocation with Webmaster Tools
Makes no difference. People are reporting in other threads that adjusting geo-preferences seems to have no effect on rankings. Some even quote drops a few weeks after making the change. In my case, the geo-preference was set middle of last year anyway.
Would it be fair to propose that those who lost their UK centric ranking had mainly established links from other countries? This bears out my own experience.
