Forum Moderators: mack
I like many others contacted MSN but got no reasons as to why this has happened initially.
I looked back at the changes to my site to see what had prompted the removal and the only thing I could see was 301 and rewrite work. So I posted the question here on WebmasterWorld and sure enough many others stated that after some 301 work, they too had been de-listed.
Then MSNDude made a brief appearance and I was one of the few that got a reply (Thanks again MSNDude). He told me in a direct way that my issue was not of 301’s but my site was seen as spam.
So I worked on my site, making it more visitor friendly.
I still had affiliate links on the front page, but I also had many links to useful information.
I contacted MSNDude, who again replied (Thanks again) saying that the site was much improved, although he still saw it as “Borderline”, because of the affiliate links. But it would find its way back into the index, although it may take weeks, to be re-listed. Unfortunatlty 1 month later I am still waiting.
Here are my observations.
The decision to allow my site to be re-listed was a human one. I doubt he would have overruled any automated Algo. (So was the original decision human?)
I hardly added any content; the content was already there from links off my home page, the only difference was “how it looked”. My new site has the links to information at the top, rather than at the bottom of the page and in a menu form, rather than links within text. I can’t see how a spyder would distinguish the two.
But I can see how a human could look at my first site and see it of less value than the updated site. Especially if it was a quick glance with my affiliate links, looking like they dominated my homepage.
My affiliate liks are still there, just do not dominate as much.
My final observation is that many sites that have much less content than I do (I have 1000 pages now), and are considerably more spammy and add nothing in customer interaction, are still in the index and have never budged.
My conclusions (These are my own opinions, not proven)
Live now have a different inclusion process that all URLS go through either as a new URL or when changes are made to existing URLs, such as 301s or rewrites.
First the automatic Algo. If it passes fine, you are listed.
If it is pure spam, you are rejected.
But if this Algo highlights borderline issues (an example could be affiliate links), I believe a human then makes the decision to whether it is with their guidelines or not. Otherwise how can MSNDude or MSN Spam make a human decision to reinclude my site, or any others, if the algo will reject it anyway?
I believe this is why it is taking some sites so long to be listed (borderline issues that need human approval or rejection), and other sites very quick (algo only). I also believe this is why we get no reply from webspam, because of the amount of human work.
Otherwise, why don’t they include automated replies asking us to resubmit any site or pages for the algo to make the decision?
Sites that have not added any new URL’s or done any 301 work are probably still where they have always been.
Just my opinion of my own experience.
...although he still saw it as "Borderline", because of the affiliate links.
Say it ain't so dude...
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It was that to the "human eye" it looked like they dominated my site as these were on my homepage with all my content on subpages.
If it had been the other way round, I think everything would have been ok in my case.
The MSN spyder knew about all the content as it was all listed.(1000 pages).
My point was that if you do have them there is a chance that it will be reviewed by a human to decide if the site is dominted by affiliate links or are additions to an information site.
I have to agree with MSNDude that to the human eye my homepage did look spammy. My point was though, that the content was always there and known by the automated process.
It was the cosmetics I have changed not the content. A menu at top rather than text links at bottom, I believe only a human could decide what looks spammy and what looks ok. Of course this is in addition to the normal automated algo, keyword density, meta tags etc of which I knew I was always well within.
If you have been banned and you belive it is because of affiliate links, I believe you need to be more discrete about where they are placed, how do they look to the human eye, rather than to a spyder, because I think it will be a human decision only that will get you relisted, not an automated one.
Of course there may be other "borderline" issues that have not been included in my post, that may create the same issues, I only reported my experiences.
Mark
hopefully it wont be long before, everything is back to normal.
Mark
