Google Freshbot

How to invite Freshbot

[Alliee]

Hi, does anyone know what factors determine if you are visited by Google Freshbot or not, and if not, how to "invite" Freshbot?

[troels nybo nielsen]

It would be good for you to have an incoming link from someone who is often visited by freshbot. And then start putting new content on visited pages very often.

[edited by: troels_nybo_nielsen at 10:44 pm (utc) on Dec. 2, 2002]

[Quinn]

I'm reluctant to point out the obvious, but you will need to routinely update your content.

[Alliee]

Could you define "routinely"? I update the site several times each month. I've noticed a few visits from google outside the regular crawl, but not on a regular basis. I'm unsure if this is Freshbot or not. Is there a way to know for sure?

[Quinn]

I think it depends on the number of times Google is crawling your site. If you notice that the fresh bot is coming once every week, then I would update the site once a week. If it's coming every other day, I would modify the site every day. You probably don't have to change much on the site.

[Alliee]

Thanks, Quinn, I appreciate the help.

[troels nybo nielsen]

You might want to read these threads. They contain quite a bit of experiences with freshbot:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[webmasterworld.com...]

Troels

[nancyb]

NOTE: This isn't a whine about being penalized, it is an effort to share information about the visiting habits and basis for being visited by the fresh bot.

Of course, we really don't know the criteria Google uses for the freshing process, but having frequently updated pages is not necessarily one of them, nor is a high page rank - based on my experience.

I have had a google penalty for almost 1 1/2 years now. When the penalty was first applied I was in the middle of moving cross country. Due to the move I didn't even know my site was penalized for several months. The site was not updated during this time, at all, and had a PR0.

Although I didn't work on the site, I did watch the SERPs and a "fresh" tag was added to my listing every few days or so - even if that listing was at the bottom of page 30+. Later, when I was settled in my new studio, I studied my old logs and found that the fresh bot had visited frequently during this time.

Now it is possible that I am linked to from a site that updates frequently, but I have not been able to find such a site that updates on a continually frequent basis.

I am again penalized with a PR2 this month after it appeared last update that the penalty was being lifted (I had a PR5 and some internals last month). The fresh bot just finished another pass through my site yesterday and today.

A few other differences that appear to be abnormal for a PR2 are:

1.) I randomly rank, on any given hour, between #1-#3 on a keyword phrase with 2,130,000 results - even with a PR2. When this happens there are two PR5's above me, 3 PR6's below then more PR5's.

2.) I have no internal pages show in the SERPs, only my home page - unless the result is on the last few pages. In that case, the home page and an indented internal may show, or vice versa.

3.) Sometimes the category I'm listed in DMOZ shows in the SERPs and sometimes not. I cannot determine why this is as there seem no other relationship with the other results.

[edited by: nancyb at 11:47 pm (utc) on Dec. 2, 2002]

[troels nybo nielsen]

Interesting story. Strange story. Could your penalty actually be the very reason for freshbot visiting your site so often?

[Quinn]

You didn't lose a signigant amount of incoming links during this time?

[nancyb]

Well possibly, but what could be a reason for visiting all month, every month for this long?

No, I have over 900 links showing at ATW. Some of course are very old link farms from two years or more ago, but there are at least 300 good links.

[Quinn]

Some of course are very old link farms from two years or more ago, but there are at least 300 good links

I suspect that this is your problem.

[Slade]

I suspect that this is your problem.

I hope you no longer reciprocate these links. If you don't, I think some people have had luck with emailing google requesting a penalty review. You may never here back from them, but if they do look at your site make sure it's impeccuously spiffy clean.

[troels nybo nielsen]

Agree. And a number of 900 incoming links would in it self be a good explanation for freshbot's many visits.

[nancyb]

thanks Quinn and Slade but, no, I haven't been in link farms for over two years! Long before most small and less informed webmasters got out of them. And yes I have been successfull at getting some people to remove me or their whole page if they didn't know it was a bad idea.

Don't think this is the problem because GoogleGuy told me way back in Feb 02 (in a thread here on WebmasterWorld) that my site wasn't penalized (personally, I think he made a mistake or looked at the wrong site then). If he did look at the right site he would have seen there were no link farms present for a long time.

FYI, I committed two other, evidently mortal, sins, WPG and a similar site - again corrected many months ago. But, the topic here is about the fresh bot and the criteria used for visiting. I appreciate you help and thoughts about my penalty, but I've been batteling this penalty for a long time and this thread isn't the place for my whimpers ;)

[nancyb]

Perhaps the 900+ links is the reason. I would think though that googlebot would know the difference between the good guys and the bad and wouldn't continue to crawl those old pages from mid 2000 that are clearly marked as link farms. BTW, many of my links are from PR4-5+ .com and .edu sites and the majority of those 900 links are NOT link farms.

You may be right though. It would be interesting to know if any other penalized sites which have so many links are getting visited regularly by ms. freshbot