GoogleGuy recently broke his silence to confirm that Google has taken action against an SEO firm and it’s clients for spammy techniques. The SEO company convinced some its clients to use javascript redirects and place hidden links to doorway pages created by the firm. GoogleGuy explains:
“I believe that one SEO had convinced clients either to put spammy Javascript mouseover redirects, doorway pages that link to other sites, or both on their clients’ sites. That can lead to clients’ sites being flagged as spam in addition to the doorway domains that the SEO set up.”
GoogleGuy later reassured webmasters that those who use javascript mouseover to place text in the status bar do not need to worry about being banned.
While the SEO company was not named in the thread, discussions in other forums reveal that the company in question was Traffic Power. I think it is important to mention the company name, so that others can learn to stay away from them. There have been numerous reports of people losing their job for hiring this firm to do their SEO, and rumors are brewing about a lawsuit in the works.
This unfortunate event is unique in that many of the victims are innocent, the clients who paid money for help with the search engine optimization of their sites. Of course, for some of those clients, the argument that “they should have known better” is valid one. But there are certainly others that simply didn’t know better. There are many web business owners that simply don’t know much about SEO and search engine spammimg. That’s why they hired an expert for help. Hopefully the word will spread to those businesses and they become educated about the changes they they need to make to get their sites back into the Google index
GoogleGuy described the steps that need to be taken for sites to get back into the Google index:
“First, you need to make sure that you’ve removed any redirecting/spammy pages that were on your site. Make sure that every junky page like that is completely gone before you write, then you can send an email to webmaster [at] google.com with the subject line “reinclusion request” as give us as much detail as possible about the situation.”
This case highlights the importance of getting a second opinion when implementing changes to your web suite at the request of an SEO or other hired professional. Before making any such changes, it doesn’t hurt ask others about the techniques being proposed. Posting a message in an SEO forum can be a very effective of getting multiple opinions quickly. While not every experienced SEO professional will agree on the legitimacy of every technique, if a number of people believe that the technique is spammy, that may be a good indication of risk involved. After all, you are responsible for any content on your web site, so it is always a good idea to know what you are getting into.
Mark Carey is a blogger, web site developer, and search engine optimizer. Through his company, Mark Carey Consulting, Mark provides SEO, blog design, and other web presence management services. Mark’s GoogleGuy Says web site is a popular webmaster resource for Google information.
