Google Page Hit from Mountain View

[traffik daddy]

If I got a hit from Mountain View for one of my main keywords for one of my websites, what would that mean?

Should I be worried? I have seen some wierd bouncing with this keyword for the last week of testing whereas other non-related keywords have been pretty stable. The only thing that worries me is the long tail keyphrases that surround it, there is such a variety that I cannot monitor them all and it is these long tail keyphrases that give my website such a high conversion rate.

Google IP address 74.125.74.129

[tedster]

There are so many reasons for a human being at Mountain View to look at a site that I wouldn't worry about it. It's possible that your "weird bouncing" got the url listed as a manual check, just to see what it is about the page that is being ranked so differently in different data sets. If your site is strong and clean, then the manual look may even be a help.

[dusky]

I second that, can be a manual human reviewer or someone checking as tedster said. I believe they also have certain keywords, I won't call them reserved keywords, but in a sense reserved by merit, if a site ranks high without the merit needed, that will trigger a flag. Examples can be copyright names, trademarks and also billion+ search results high importance keywords. I had that happen two years ago to one of the sites I manage, the site since then ranks 999 for that keyword, ranks high for other but less important keywords. That in many cases is not the webmaster's fault, it's theirs for causing the hiccup then have to put a handicap filter as a damper!

Most times they check to get the site out of a heavy penalty or just for curiosity, we can all get bored in front of screen and wonder about certain sites, we get to browse them, they get to spider them as well as eyeballing them for kicks, again as tedster pointed out, nothing to worry about!

[traffik daddy]

Sorry to bring this up again but I have been monitoring it. Thank you for the original replies.

This has happened quite a few times since over the last month or so, twice in only the last few days including today... within the last hour, it has occured maybe 5-6 times from Mountain View over the last month and a half. Obviously IP numbers are very similar, only the last numbers are different. All visits are coming from the 74.125 range that is Googles.

The search term is a trademark name, 90% of my traffic makes up trademark names + model number and is pretty much unavoidable. Is it possible that this company (or some other competitor) could be lodging a complaint to try to get my website flagged?

Despite your assurances, I just cannot help being worried, I get the feeling they are checking something out and some bad news is just around the corner :(

I did get a spike of traffic from Google UK yesterday though, not loads, but more than usual, with this trademark name in the searches.

Thanks
Terry

[tedster]

All kinds of things are possible- but you can't know. There are all kinds of reasons that a human look through any SERP might be performed. If it's been going on for a month and you don't see any problems with Google, I'd relax about it.

[TheMadScientist]

Yeah, you're about to banned...
In fact the entire IP block your site is on will probably be banned too just because of your site.
Feel Better Now? LOL.

Either that, or since Google's a search engine and you run a site that ranks for a trademark name they could be saying, 'Hmmmmm... How did we get this site here for what we expected, and not this other site over here for another trademark term... Hey, come look at this... What's the difference between these two sites? One ranks for one trademark, one doesn't rank for another and it should, what are the differences? Why one for one term, but not the other for another term?'

[traffik daddy]

Mad Scientist, do you know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit?

I dont think poking fun was the sensible and mature answer I was looking for. I've been dabbling in SEO for 7 years (simply for fun) and this is the first time I have seen stats like this for ANY websites I have created, or simply they have been there but I have missed them. I cant check stats 24/7. For Google to keep checking my website lately is bound to set the alarm bells ringing. I've spent time and money into developing my websites and so much time I cannot keep up to date with all of Googles latest developments.

I'm hoping the next time you answer you wont be so abusive in reply!

Regards
TD

[TheMadScientist]

I was just joking around and trying to make a bit of light of the situation to give you and others a chuckle, because it's so far out there it's not possible... There was no offense intended.

There's a number of good reasons (as stated by previous posters) someone at Google could be reviewing your site, and IMO if you don't have anything to worry about on your site, then don't worry. Personally, I like the idea of a hand review on my sites, because I think it's a benefit to me, so if you're really doing nothing to get banned for and have really spent all kinds of time developing a great website, then worry not... There are sites of mine I wish someone at Google would review... Just because someone at Google is reviewing for some reason doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Of course if it's a thin affiliate or spam or shouldn't be ranking where it is, then you might have some reason for concern. Otherwise, just don't worry about it.

There's times when I definitely have to laugh at myself and just say, 'Uh, duh...' personally to myself. It takes quite a bit of maturity to be able to laugh at yourself and point out when you're wrong yourself. I've done it more than once here in these forums.

What I cannot figure out is:
If you've really spent a great deal of time on the site and made it unique, useful, topical and visitor friendly, why would you not want someone from Google to review your work? I ask, because I have sites which are all the preceding, and I would welcome a hand review of the sites from the Plex, so what I cannot figure out is why if yours are the same you're concerned by one?

[traffik daddy]

Ok, point taken. I started in late 2002 when I worked with a colleague on a side project using his capital and my ideas. One website we had built seemed to be working, approx 500 unique UK visitors per day, averaging about 40 sales per day with average order about £20, not bad for a side project made from simply html and a bit of SEO and mail-order. We was earning more per week from our website project than we was in full time employment.

This was our first project and everything was going so well, then the florida update happened. I learned a lot that day to never to have all of your eggs in one basket.

Since then I haven't been following it as much, but up until 2 years ago I decided to start up the project again on a new domain using my own capital. I have quite a few websites on the go now, so if one fails then I can fall back upon another, I learned this the hard way. However, due to the high conversion rates and repeat custom in this specific industry then I dread history repeating itself one day.

Since I was burned by the Florida update I have always been sceptical when something new happens I havent seen before. So I kind of guess now you can understand this thread?

Anyway, I have not done anything remotely wrong for Google to penalise me but it still doesnt stop Google from killing a generally good website.

Thanks for the replys anyway, I'll wait it out for now.
TD

[TheMadScientist]

Thanks for explaining and giving the reason for your apprehension... I think Google has more of the baby-and-bath-water issue from algo changes (and possibly, likely some with infrastructure changes) than they do with hand reviews. I'm really glad you're not just spamming away and pretending to 'be the good guy' which I have seen happen here before and makes me apprehensive myself... I personally have been around going on 6 years now and did a free review of a site for someone who RANTED Google was wrong and wrongly penalized their site and cost them their business, but when I looked at their site and saw the 2px black-on-black, linked, H2 in the footer and the Viag / Adult links on the site's link page I thought G was doing a fairly good job, so I'm always a bit skeptical when people are afraid of someone looking at their site(s), because I keep thinking a hand review of mine would get them white-listed...

I understand your concerns a bit better now, and am glad you have worked on diversification. I actually have a site or two that are only word-of-mouth which keeps me from being SE dependent and presents a number of 'different' challenges, but they're fun at the same time.

I also think it's good for future readers to know the 'why' behind our positions, etc. because it might help them out in the same situation, so thanks for replying and explaining a bit... I'm glad to know your sites can stand a hand review and your bigger concern was for another reason.

Hopefully they're sitting there saying, 'Why isn't this one the first result?' rather than 'How do we get it out of the index?' (LOL) - Have a great day.

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 7:46 pm (utc) on Feb. 2, 2010]

[traffik daddy]

There is a lot that goes on in this industry, lots of legal issues, etc. We are not doing anything illegal ourselves mind you, everything is above board.

This trademark name are known to clamp down on major issues such as trademark domains, which is fully understandable, and not something that I practice, but they are pretty strict with trying to change the laws and their products, something I think they have been fighting with for 5+ years now and are no closer now than they were back then. It still shows willing to succeed and corner a little bit more of the market.

Initially my first thought would be as Dusky pointed out, that some trademark keywords are monitored. I'll just have to keep my eye on it, like you say, I could just be worrying about something that isnt going to happen, but as with my last post, anything is possible :)

TD

[TheMadScientist]

Personally, if it's a TM 'thing' I would let it ride itself out and try to have an 'it is what it is' attitude about it as much as possible. The reason being it's really out of your hands, and could even be out of the people at Google's hands.

IOW There could definitely be other influences at work which have nothing to do with your site ranking where it should or should not for terms generally, or even the uniqueness or usefulness of your site, but could rather have something to do with the terms it's specifically ranking for and there's really nothing you can do about it and there might not even be anything Google can do about it if there's some type of a legal issue.

I would definitely not stress too much about it, because it's a non-controllable situation, and it's definitely not a 'slam-dunk-ban' or anything (IMO), because (IMO) if it was they would already be done with it...

[wheel]

You've got multiple humans at Google looking at your site. You don't need us to tell you whether you should be nervous about that or not.

Google seems to let a whole lot of stuff slide these days so my best guess? Either you're just in the mill for nothing to be worried about (since they let most stuff slide) or you're in very very deep doo-doo but you'd already know you have it coming.

Personally I don't even watch this stuff. Google could be doing live demo's of my website every day at the plex and I'd never know.

[crobb305]

I have seen traffic for years coming from Google IP (not bots). I believe many of these are just normal visitors using Google Web Accelerator, mobile, or other Google proxy service.

[edited by: crobb305 at 8:33 pm (utc) on Feb. 2, 2010]

[wheel]

I know low humor's not appreciated in this thread, but my immediate reaction to the OP was that somewhere in the Googleplex is a meeting room with a powerpoint presentation, with someone using your site as an example of something, as part of their new training sessions.AAAAAH!

[dusky]

Relax man, G* has many departments, one of them deals with capital investment, mergers and acquisitions. They do two major things amongst others, one to check out the competition in any products / services they are offering or are secretly planning to offer, the second thing is scouting or looking for early adopters to buy out (shut them down, hence eliminating competition or re-brand under their own label). Most sites they bought which are now amongst the largest in the world started small but had fantastic visional ideas, so they bought them, but before it, and before any initial talks of buy-outs, those sites had hundreds of visits from the plex, reviews and assessments had to be made and of course those sites were being browsed, pinged and the lot. It's a common business strategy and practice whether you studied at Harvard or Hallam university business schools or you are just a plain common Alan Sugar / Richard Branson with a business success killer instinct.

OK, you may say, well, if the site is a threat, they can just demote it or penalize it, and I say that may be too late and people will notice, public opinion will backfire on them. Imagine if they penalized fa*ebook or tuitt*r, won't everyone be pointing the finger and sounding the foul play horn. Alright your site may not be as big, but the direction it's heading towards may be nearly so OR may have an established respected linkage from large authority sites and that could have serious repercussions algo wise and public opinion wise.

[dusky]

To sum the above, you may be being eyeballed for an offer :) if you have nothing to fear and are offering unique product / service or are doing it completely in a new innovative way!