Interesting Review Visit from the Googleplex

[bwnbwn]

Let me explain why I find this so intresting that a site we launched was Reviewed by Google.

We launched a site on June 11th, 2009 and I got it indexed in all the SE's in a day or so.
The domain name is really the name of a Federal Regulation that will take effect in about a year, Very nitch so there won't be but a handful of searches in this area say tops 1000 a day as the deadline draws closer.

Right now there may be 3 a day in search volume. There is no PPC ads that show up for the search and we don't have any adsense ads on the site.

Well the domain name being the name of the new regulation we took the #2 spot under the .gov site in all three SE's.

Google did a manual review of the site on the 14th 2 days after it was launched 2 days. How in the heck can they know a site was launched and do a manual review that fast.

Being in such an obscure nitch it certainly isn't a search one would do so there had to be some kind of trigger that pushed the site into a review folder.

I just find it intresting that Google has the ability review a site so quickly.

I feel I did a pretty good job on the information we added and site structure. What I mean is the site has some good information and is easy to navigate. I pulled some information from the Gov site and some we did so it isn't just a copycat site. We have remained at the #2 spot since the review so I assume we passed the sandbox.

2 days and a review man that suprised me.

[tedster]

It is intriguing that such a search term seems to have triggered a manual inspection - or maybe it is automated in some way, eh? We know that Google keeps records of impressions for the domain and not just clicks. I'm thinking that any domain that spikes in total SERP impressions might automatically trigger some kind of reconnaissance event.

[bwnbwn]

Tedester we talking maybe 10 hits/impressions before the review. I to find incredibale that it happened so fast. I wonder if because a newly launched site is so new the owner really doesn't pay attention to the beginning referrals and Google's manual review is missed.

I just happened to be using the referrals that come in using "visitor path" and send the ones I can determine as a possible lead to our sales department so they can call on the company that searched the term, and saw Google Plex come in not as a referral but a direct type in.

[bwnbwn]

I am a little concerned now as Google has reviewed the site now 3 times since the launch.
I am wondering why so many manual reviews for a very defined nitch.

Hey lets hope that the Plex finds our sites information useful as well>>>>>:)

[lethal0r]

maybe they just have people to spotcheck new domains at random?

or even more specifically - new domains that are on page 1.

[bwnbwn]

Good point lethal0r. I did change the front page to a more call to action type page since review #2. I know this as I monitor the cache of the page and now see the new one cached.

There must be some type on monitor on changes made from the bot to alert the Plex to review a site that is either new or on page 1 of the results based on the last cache of the site if the page changes to much.

[JoeSinkwitz]

The answer may lie with the WHOIS information; you might be flagged as someone's whose sites merit a closer look.

[bwnbwn]

The answer may lie with the WHOIS information; you might be flagged as someone's whose sites merit a closer look.

Na this isn't an issue I am worried over we have always kept our sites clean white hat. Our company hasn't had a site banned/penalized since formation in 1999.

[tedster]

I'm certain any domain that starts getting page #1 impressions for either a high-search frequency term or a bursty-fresh term gets a human look. Those are very important SERPs for Google.

[frup]

How do you tell you got a manual review?

[bwnbwn]

frup there are several ways to tell one your log files were you see the Google IP address or in my case I use statcounter and view visitor paths were I get the IP number, the ip city state, and company domain name when possible.

Tedster my thoughts as well but 3 times in a month is unreal considering the sheer number of sites that will need to be reviewed.

Looks like we passed the test as the site has remained in the position and now we have 2 links with the extra link "More results for mydomain" under the 2nd link.

I felt I built a good site with good content easy to navigate and fast to load makes me feel real good Google reviewers felt the same way.

[olly]

Wow this is fascinating I had no idea they were so proactive about reviewing new sites.

I would love to check for manual reviews on our network of sites but am using Analytics. Is there any way to do it using Analytics or perhaps just searching raw log files for a particular IP? What IP would I need to check for?

[bwnbwn]

olly I didn't either.
Another review by Google after I added a new page on the site on the 1st and had another manual review of the page I added on the 2nd. G came in on the new page so I know the site everytime there is an update gets some how kicked into a review folder or to an assigned employee with the URL of the added page.

[b2net]

It was an automated request, believe me. Look at the user agent, do you see an outdated Firefox version or IE 6? Did the IP start with 72.14.?

Manual checks come from 65.57.245.11, 216.239.33.25 and 213.155.151.233. Period. They come to my sites all the time and strangely positions drop 3 or 6 pages the next day. Thanks guys.

[bwnbwn]

Intresting b2net I will look into that but would a automated request be considered a referral and activate the js script as well?

[olly]

Would one be able to see a manual check in Analytics?

[aakk9999]

Olly, I think you cannot see it in Analytics as there is no that level of details. On statcounter you can though as statcounter reports each pageview, whereas on analytics pageviews are consolidated.

@bwnbwn - We also have something which I am not sure it is manual review or not - is this similar to yours? The IP that visited the site was 66.249.71.216 and the browser is reported to be "Google Webmaster Tools 0".

On each visit there is a request to between 1 and 10 pages and there is no referrer. In cases where more than one page is looked at, there could be anything between 2 seconds and 15 minutes between page views. The host name reported in the statcounter is crawl-66-249-71-216.googlebot.com

We had these visits since beginning of June, every few days, and sometimes few days in the row. I am still not sure what they are, manual review or something else. Our ranking did not change (so far).

[bwnbwn]

aakk9999 yes 66.249.71.216 is the ip address I see as well. From the post of b2net I did some research and it seems this is an automated bot request, but I had no idea that a bot activated the javascript code in the counter. I don't see this request on the other sites I work on so this is why I assumed it was a review.

Statcounter counts this request as a live visitor response so this is what threw me off.