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For all who don't speak french: Netbooster is a rather well known european seo agency who also offer keyword advertising and paid inclusion. Now they have been sanctioned by Google, accused to have been using spamming techniques to improve their position on the serps. Without a warning all pages of Netbooster and the pages they put online for their clients have been removed from Google.
Of course Netbooster says they haven't done anything wrong and Google wouldn't even explain to them what kind of spamming technique they base the exclusion on.
I think more important than the question if was spamming or not, is the question if Google now has changed the policy in their fight against spamming. As far as I know the policy has been not to manually exclude specific websites from the index. All exclusions due to spamming were based on the Google algorithm. So this isn't the case anymore? What also makes me wonder is the fact that the established SEOs have been using the same techniques for a long time, without being sanctioned. Why the sudden change of mood? What is the motivation behind it? If Google now starts to manually remove specific pages / companies from their index.... what's next? Cleaning result pages for competitive keywords, so you have no choice but to book Google adwords?
IMHO, Google could save their reputation by having MORE spam police remove websites. Humans, not an automated method.
I once suggested to GG that Google could also issue warnings to webmasters by email. If I got a warning, you better believe that I would fix whatever they thought was spam. GoogleGuy liked the idea and offered me a G coffee cup, but I had to go to Mountain View to get it.
Needless to say, the idea apparently didn't get very far in the Googleplex as they are not issuing warnings.
But as people have said already, this happens a lot with the algo picking up sites that play against the rules and are then removed.
I basically dont trust a human to be totally unbiased.
You can't fight an entire country's perception of "self"..
as regards the decision by google ....good ..shame they can't do it more often and cast the net wider ...( just as long as I can still slip though the holes ;)
Of course Netbooster says they haven't done anything wrong and Google wouldn't even explain to them what kind of spamming technique they base the exclusion on.
I am afraid this was an accident waiting to happen. I still see them in the SERPS so it looks like they are not totally banned. Not good news for an International Hotel Chain.
I basically dont trust a human to be totally unbiased.
That may be true for a bunch of loosely organized volunteers, who (at least for some of them anyways) have other motives for volunteering their time. Increasing the number of hand edits from the Google is different because they would be Google employees and a good system of auditing would be in place. Look, even some accountants and bank managers embezzle from time to time (and on occasion get away with it). But we still trust them to handle our financial dealings. The important thing is too set up some checks and balances to diminish this kind of abuse.
Guess you weren't around for SearchKing [google.com]
They were bad, they were spanked, they sued, they lost.
>>Google would have saved themselves a lot of trouble with a simple phone call.
Now that would probably be a first.
Playing the "big, bad American" card is as low as using the race card in any discussion which does not involve race nor nationality. This is strictly business!
I couldn't agree more. I've been waiting a long time for a european-based engine to give any of the US engines some serious competition.
How would all the whiners feel if google started only showing US-based businesses to Us-based searchers?
We ship all over the world, and derive a goodly portion of our international busines from search engines, but losing access to our international searchers would hardly be a blip on our radar. I highly doubt most (non-US) webmasters using google as a marketing channel could afford to lose access to the US market.
Perhaos instead they should count their blessings, and pay closer attnetion to the guidelines?
That's strange isn't it? Maybe the "Big, wealthy american companies" are too intimidating :)
They are, as us Brits would say "tossers."
That's about it really.
Google have sold out.
So I guess all your site have a "googlebot/noindex" tag, right ;-)
Originally I wanted to raise the question, if manual editing of the search results is a good idea, because I see a lot of problems going along with it:
- need to justify
- conflicts of interest (does it help to spend lager amounts of money on Google adwords?)
- lack of transparency
- maybe even bribary (?)
- negative effects on Google's image
...
There are just so many differences in our laws that it would be extremely difficult to be able to follow the laws of both countries at the same time.
As far the reference to the bad feelings between the countries, you were the one bringing up how it is the french that are playing that card in this case. So what if we americans feel no more pity for a spamming french company than for a spammer from nebraska. Are we supposed to give you more pity than we would our own spammers?
I suspect that there might be some cultural differences where certain types of behavior might be considered "fair" in france, but not necessarily in the US. But the Google rules were made up by people using the US version of fair, so if you want to play with that US search engine, you need to play by their rules.
As for your list of possible problems with manual removals, do you really think any of those might lead to more problems than the current spam issues? I don't.
Anyway, it is their index, and they can do with it whatever they want.
Actually, I don't understand why any american internet company would open an office in france
Are we supposed to give you more pity than we would our own spammers?
So actualy I have been looking at this more from a shareholder point of view. If you want to make money in another country (and this applies to every country), you will have to adapt to the local perception of "fair" to some extend. Google doesn't distribute its search all over the world because they are selfless samaritans. They have an economical interest. And for this economical interest's sake, they shouldn't have a "take it or leave it" mentality and I don't believe they do.
By the way... I'm not french :-)
Seems like there are still some hurt feelings and prejudices?
Not sure to what you are referring ... but not from this corner! I am a Canadian of Parisienne (yes French) decent living in the British Virgin Islands.
I just happen to feel that your concerns in regards to Google's image are completely and utterly unfounded. Once again, there are guidelines. If an SEO company chooses not to follow the guidelines they run the risk of getting booted.
If they weren't aware of or didn't understand the guidelines fully, then they have no business calling themselves an SEO company. Full stop!
