Forum Moderators: open
Cloakers have known that for a long while now. ;)
I know which side I want to be on, and I know also that most webmasters will take the quick route every time.
Hell, it's not like it's that difficult to beat most spam sites without spamming anyway, unless you're in a highly competitive area. If you don't want to spam but still want good traffic, and your Google serps are full of spam, spend your time getting traffic from somewhere else.
[edited by: pixel_juice at 9:56 pm (utc) on April 11, 2003]
I have noticed in that the directory takes a bit longer to update. I would guess that googles directory doesn't reflect 'reality' yet.
SpamSpamSpamSpamSpam....
****IMPORTANT****
Can others check and see if the same is true for their sites. I just checked my 2 sites backlinks. Both are in dmoz.org, and also the Google directory. I just checked the backlinks, and the dmoz.org ones are not showing. The cats are PR5, so they should be showing. In fact, every site I checked in a certain ODP PR5 cat is not showing a dmoz.org backlink. Could the problems with the dmoz.org server have resulted in Google not being able to spider it properly?
Basically that's entirely up to you. Google has set out some basic rules, which are obviously pretty hard to enforce. Like any other engine they are in a constant battle against getting their algo exploited.
The main objective however for search engines is producing serps satisfying the user, not the webmaster.
Sure it's not in their interest to get spammed, but I think what they really hate is getting spammed to the point of reducing the search quality as seen by their users.
Equity and justice for webmasters however I would not expect to be a top priority for the search engines.
Okay, sorry for the offtopic rambling: this is an UPDATE thread :)
Hmm... oh well that's another competitor done well :¦ might have a look at what sort of strategy he is using :)
-gs
Think about this. There is no "right" or "wrong", only getting to the top while delivering a good clean, relevent search experience for the end user.
This is an epiphany of sorts. Heini's right, Google can't really enforce their basic rules. Google probably doesn't care. If a hand review shows that the search experience for the end user is in no way adversley affected, they most probably don't care.
It's just another level of SEO!
"I bow low as I exit"
Back to the update: I too see some strangeness with dmoz/g-directory listings. Basically I don't see dmoz listings anymore, while g-directory is still there... hmm, doing some more checking....
No massive algo change from what I see at the moment........
Good links and content still rule?
I'm in the "spammy competitors have been kicking my butt for months" portion of the dance.
I'll soon be moving to the "Oh well, I'm still in the game" portion of the dance.
It seems to me to depend on that cat, heini. I just checked backlinks of sites in a parent cat 2 levels up from the one where all backlinks are missing, and in that cat all the dmoz.org backlinks are showing. If you want to see something more bizarre:
Google Directory - Recreation > Drugs
Google, Directory Help Search only in Drugs Search the Web. Drugs, ...
directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Celebrities/ Q/Quinlan,_Kathleen/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages
That is an actual backlink showing for one site listed in the Recreation/Drugs ODP category. The site has nothing to do with Kathleen Quinlan. Somehow, Google is hosing this Google directory backlink. In fact, I'm seeing that Kathleen Quinlan anomaly on the backlinks of most sites in that cat. Is Google suggesting Kathleen has a serious drug problem? ;)
[edited by: rfgdxm1 at 10:39 pm (utc) on April 11, 2003]
c1bernaut, did you happen to see if your competitor sites diappeared from the SERPs after some time passes (ie hours or a day) and then are 'reinstated'?
Some of us, people actually other than me, noticed this happening with the freshies in the last while. Spam is removed from the SERPS after popping back with a freshtag -almost like someone forgot to tell freshie that it doesn't need to go to that site anymore, because it's a cheatin' lyin' sob!
How's this sound to you GG?
(enough of me beating this 'freshie-spam' horse)
That was quick...
My only real problems with this update as compared to others is:
1) This so called "all over" page rank decrease. Last update my index.html page was a PR6, and all first level pages were also PR6, which led me to think I was very close to PR7. So, I got a bunch of more links, good links too, some that won't count till next update, but still, I really expected PR7 this time. Instead, even with a backlink increase, index.html is still PR6, first level is now down to PR5.
2) In a lot of cases, pages that should be ranked at least 4 or 5 SERPs back are showing up in the top 10. They aren't spam, and they ARE relevant, just not so relevant that they should be in the top 10. I mean, I see a PR2 page that hardly uses the search term ranked higher than my PR6 page which is a detailed article specifically about the search term. It's like they just happen to MENTION it, while I wrote ABOUT it. Big difference if you ask me. Not to mention, it's a PR2 beating a PR6.
Am I the only one seeing anything like this? Googleguy, any comments about either? My version of the sky is falling. =]
No the site/s in question just stay where they're at. After, heini's thoughts and GG's utter dismissal I'm thinking that the site may not be considered spam at all. Maybe it's just that they are kicking my butt by using a tactic I only thought was spam.
I'm thinking that it may not be that Google is ignoring spam reports. Maybe they are seeing them but don't consider the tactics they are seeing as spam.
Just a thought.
if your're being serious, then maybe ;-).
I have submitted reports, and the sites in question have been bouncing in and out of the SERPs depending on the mood of Freshie. These sites were blatent hidden text and links, oodles of it (I believe that an oodle is actually more than a google).
The puzzling thing for me is that they still retain their PR on the bar. However, I have seen other sites that violate the Google TOS which don't seem to finish anywhere near where they should, WRT their content and PR, and so seem to have been penalized but still have a high pr..
I generally just play devils advocate here. However, I'm serious when I say that my view of what spam is and isn't just changed.
YOU may think that the tactics being used are spam. That doesn't matter. It only matters if Google considers it spam. So, you turn in a report thinking that your gonna blast a spammer and Google looks at it and says "looks cool to me". That's the end of it.
I'm simply saying that nobody really knows what spam is. Although you'll find out soon enough if Google thinks it's spam.
I believe this to be part of Google's algo protection scheme. It's a "keep 'em guessing" scheme.
Looks good though.
I totally agree with you. I mean really, how often are the Serps stable anyway? For lame never changing topics, they may stay stable, but it has been my (limited) experience that for most active areas the serps are shaken up quite often by everflux and the dance.
I mean, when is it ever stable? Really? Not very often, it keeps us guessing, and if we are lucky and work with consistentcy and good coding etc. I think that in the long run this stuff pays off.
/ooohh listen to me, a few weeks on WW and I have an opinion!
I have a porn site showing up in my backlinks, and I have notices a couple of other backlinks for other sites that do not actually have any links to those pages.
