How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contractors for search results

Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract... by WalterGR on Friday November 15, 2019 @03:39PM (#21548533)

It's important to differentiate between "link juice" and overall ranking power which I think you mean by "Google juice" (as links are not all there is to ranking well).

True. I wanted the text to be immediately understandable by non-technical people. I'm on like revision 3,194 of the text. :) Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.

Also, there is a way to submit a reinclusion request. Have you tried that?

Yes, several times.

However, penalties should not last 13 years if the causes have been fixed.

They shouldn't. But in this case, it has lasted that long. It's a manual penalty turned on by a Google employee. The only way to get rid of the penalty is for them to (manually) turn it off.

What did said Google employee tell you about your case?

That there's nothing I can do.

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Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract... by google_webspam on Saturday November 16, 2019 @12:06AM (#21551119)

Manual penalties can be appealed via the reconsiderations process. If a webmaster is unable to file a reconsideration request, this usually means that there is no manual penalty on the site.

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Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract... by WalterGR on Saturday November 16, 2019 @12:21AM (#21551164)

As I mentioned above, manual penalties can be hidden. I know this because there was no indication from any tool that there was a penalty against my site, and because Matt Cutts claimed that there was no manual penalty against my site, and yet a Google employee verified the penalty internally.

If you're a Google employee, I'd love to discuss this with you! My email address is [email protected] .

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Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract... by google_webspam on Saturday November 16, 2019 @01:31AM (#21551334)

Matt's feedback was correct. There's nothing you need to do for your site.

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Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract... by WalterGR on Saturday November 16, 2019 @03:14AM (#21551598)

There's nothing you need to do for your site.

I'm a little unclear on that. Matt specifically mentioned two active penalties.

Matt said that there was an automated penalty due to advertising on my site. Following this, I removed all advertising from the site. My site's ranking did not change, nor did traffic referred by Google searches. Why is that? If there's nothing I need to do for the site, why have those metrics not changed?

Matt also said that there was an automated Panda penalty against my site. Following this, I removed all citations from the site. My site's ranking did not change, nor did traffic referred by Google searches. Same questions as above: Why is that? If there's nothing I need to do for the site, why have those metrics not changed?

What did the prior manual penalty against my site that Matt mentioned have to do with Web Build Pages / Jim Boykin? I had never even heard of them. What specifically was that manual penalty? I have seen no evidence in ranking and in traffic referred by Google searches to ever indicate that this penalty existed. Furthermore, I was never informed by Google via any mechanism that there was a manual penalty against my site. Why is that?

Have Google employees ever been able to apply demotions, penalties, or any mechanism whatsoever to drop a website's positions in Google SERPs, in a way that the website owner is never made aware of it?

Has that ever been done to my site, The Online Slang Dictionary?

Thanks very much for your input.

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Re:How Google uses blacklists, algorithm tweaks and contract... by WalterGR on Monday November 18, 2019 @08:59PM (#21570121)

Clarification:

> Have Google employees ever been able to apply demotions, penalties, or any mechanism whatsoever to drop a website's positions in Google SERPs, in a way that the website owner is never made aware of it?

should have read, in part,

> Have Google employees ever been able to manually apply...

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