Google penalizing.. for what!!?

zanda · #1 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 07:50 AM

Hi there,

I do not understand... I have my website on the first page of may key words combinations (searching for spanish properties in costa dorada, tarragona..etc) for plenty of time now. It even ranked in first page from 4.000.000 websites. Now.. suddenly it doesn't appear anywhere!! Just comes up thanks to other sites links... but is insufficient! I see everything ok on my web.. and I don't think there's nothing to be penalized on my web by google.. if someone could give me advice on this issue. (The web is www.dvp.gb.com)

I've even though the possibility of someone trying to put my site in some website that could penalize me...

Any help would be highly appreciated.

**ctabuk** · #2 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 07:57 AM

Hi, and welcome, the site is 'off line' check with your server, ask if there have been server problems, ask for your stat report.

zanda · #3 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 09:32 AM

Hi there, thanks for your reply.

But if the site would be offline, it wouldn't appear in yahoo search engine. So which would be the problem with Google then?

The strange thing is that it comes up in yahoo okay, but in google it doesn't seem to appear anyhwere?!

Zanx

**ctabuk** · #4 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 09:43 AM

Hi,if a site is off line the spiders (googlebots)of which there are two would simply spot your site and if they cannot read anything your listing may dissappear. Yahoo, well - it's not quite as sophisticated as the big G - they tend to update sites as and when they want to. What you have to do is get your site back up and running.

zanda · #5 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 10:09 AM

Okay thanx.. so I will give a call to check about the server.. lets see what they tell me! I hope they can solve the problem.

Best wishes.

greeneagle · #6 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 01:51 PM

There are no penalties here! Google finds very few (8) IBLs. Yahoo only 28. You already have a PR3 in a highly competitive neighborhood!
"Spanish Properties" returns over 4 million, and "Spanish Properties for Sale" returns 1.35 million!
There are no penalties whatsoever, just competition.
Ken

zanda · #7 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 02:00 PM

Hi there. Please forgive my ignorance, but what are IBL's.

And another question: I have some links to other websites in my index.html page. Some of these websites have this 302 in their header, does that cause me to have bad results at the moment in google? My header is okay, but maybe these links I have to bimbay website may be negative to my site?

activeco · #8 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 04:17 PM

No, the site is not offline, you have just included an extra ")" into the url.

So, what's going on?
I would say that Google finally found the way to keep webmasters bussy with their sites and not with Google.

<added>
BTW, you should try removing link to www.gabrielvilla.com and keep us informed if it made any change.
Their IP (server) range 64.246.11/24 is blacklisted in several spam checking sites.

zanda · #9 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 05:08 PM

well then the major problem with my website would be the linking... if the websites I link to are banned or with 302 message.. I can be penalized?

Let's see how it goes.. now I'll have to wait until Google comes back to check my site..

Zanx for your help!

greeneagle · #10 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 05:36 PM

IBLs are inbound links from other Sites. The search engines uses the number, quality and relativity as measures to help determine the value of your Site to the Internet Community.
Ken

scallihan · #11 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctabuk

Hi, and welcome, the site is 'off line' check with your server, ask if there have been server problems, ask for your stat report.

He just has a bad URL in his message -- his site is up and running just fine (if you fix the URL).

All he can do, it seems to me, is to emulate similar sites that are ranking well for the search term he's focusing on. Dangerous, however, to just focus on getting a bunch of links all just containing the same keyphrase, even if that is something that might seem to be working for some -- too easy for Google to filter for that (count only so many identical links to a site, for instance). Natural links have variety, rather than all being the same, and are presented for the benefit of users, not just search engines.

tcampione · #12 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scallihan

Dangerous, however, to just focus on getting a bunch of links all just containing the same keyphrase, even if that is something that might seem to be working for some -- too easy for Google to filter for that (count only so many identical links to a site, for instance).

Are you saying that you think GG would penalize for too many links with identical anchor, or that some of those links simply would not be counted?

I'm very interested is knowing whether 'too many links' has been found to be spammy, and penalized.

scallihan · #13 (**permalink**) 01-17-2005, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcampione

Quote:

Originally Posted by scallihan

Dangerous, however, to just focus on getting a bunch of links all just containing the same keyphrase, even if that is something that might seem to be working for some -- too easy for Google to filter for that (count only so many identical links to a site, for instance).

Are you saying that you think GG would penalize for too many links with identical anchor, or that some of those links simply would not be counted?

I'm very interested is knowing whether 'too many links' has been found to be spammy, and penalized.

Well, that has been one of the rumors about the Dec. 17th reshuffle of results -- that sites with lots of identical links were the ones that were dropping. Dunno if that theory was right or wrong, but it is pretty evident that if Google accounts for keyphrase frequency and density within a page's content, for instance, there's no reason they can't check for the same in inbound links.

They could simply set a filter that only counts so many inbound links with identical content, as you mentioned. Or they could apply a penalty by setting their algorithm to look for and exclude pages with a high frequency and high density for a keyphrase both in onpage content and in inbound links. Not saying that Google is doing this or will do this, just that they could do it.

zanda · #14 (**permalink**) 01-18-2005, 06:15 AM

well.. I guess I must have done something really penalizing, as now I am in positions 130.. etc.. for many keyord search! I really had incredible ranking in first pages! An now it is a couple or more weeks that things have gone bad.

What do you suggest to do to try and get back to the top again? Do you know if it is difficoult or is just a matter of time?

scallihan · #15 (**permalink**) 01-18-2005, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zanda

well.. I guess I must have done something really penalizing, as now I am in positions 130.. etc.. for many keyord search! I really had incredible ranking in first pages! An now it is a couple or more weeks that things have gone bad.

What do you suggest to do to try and get back to the top again? Do you know if it is difficoult or is just a matter of time?

Doubt you're penalized, just ranking poorly. Why you were ranking well, but aren't now? -- there are too many variables to be able to draw any easy conclusions. We don't know what you did to get your rankings in the first place (paid an SEO firm?) and nobody really knows, outside of Google itself, what Google is counting, not counting, or discounting at the moment that might have caused Google's spotlight to move off of your site and onto others.

I think the suggestion that you work to build up relevant IBLs is the right one. You have to keep working on an ongoing basis adding IBLs -- if you just sit on the ones you have, they can wither away. Submit your site to as many freee directories as you can, and keep on submitting, submitting, submitting.

zanda · #16 (**permalink**) 01-18-2005, 04:30 PM

Hi, well I do it all myself - I didn't get some SEO to do some changes. What must have been the cause is the links to websites that are spam or webs that link to you that are spam. I have to be careful from now onwards with this!

I do not know myself really what has happenned. I had great ranking in google, in first pages for most of the keyword searching. I just hope now to bit by bit get back to my first positions.

A question here: does google penalize for having meta-tags in your pages? I've heard this somewhere, but I do not know if that is for sure.

scallihan · #17 (**permalink**) 01-18-2005, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zanda

A question here: does google penalize for having meta-tags in your pages? I've heard this somewhere, but I do not know if that is for sure.

Meta elements shouldn't be a problem, although you might check the spelling and grammar in your description.

You could also move the JavaScript script offpage into an external script file. The less code you have ahead of your content, the better.

For someone just looking at your page, it isn't real clear what keyphrase you're trying to rank well for. Your title doesn't include Costa Dorada, for instance, while your introductory paragraph has both "Spanish Properties" and "Costa Dorada," but not in close proximity to each other. You're also lacking an H1 element, which could contain another instance of your keyphrase. From your intro paragraph, it looks like the main topic of your page is "Spanish Properties in Catalonia," since those words are in close proximity to each other at the start of your page's textual content.

You might consider focusing your front page on "Spanish Properties in Catalonia," with subpages focused on keyphrases for subregions within Catalonia. Right now, it looks like you're shooting for half a dozen different keyphrases on your front page without any one of them being put up front and center.

zanda · #18 (**permalink**) 01-19-2005, 12:57 PM

zanx for your reply and for taking time to view my page. you are right! i should focus on one or two keywords by page.. then I would do better at the rankings.

scallihan · #19 (**permalink**) 01-19-2005, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zanda

zanx for your reply and for taking time to view my page. you are right! i should focus on one or two keywords by page.. then I would do better at the rankings.

And get inbound links to the pages that contain the keyphrases they're optimized for.

Realize for any new pages you add it will take a while before they get PR. Be patient.

modernsavage · #20 (**permalink**) 01-19-2005, 05:04 PM

Quote:

BTW, you should try removing link to www.gabrielvilla.com and keep us informed if it made any change.
Their IP (server) range 64.246.11/24 is blacklisted in several spam checking sites.

What's a good site for checking blacklisted IP addresses?

activeco · #21 (**permalink**) 01-19-2005, 06:54 PM

You can use this one: http://openrbl.org/
It covers several spam checking sites at once.

greeneagle · #22 (**permalink**) 01-20-2005, 02:09 AM

Let's refocus here! There are no "Penalties" - only competition! - Does anyone disagree?

Ken

activeco · #23 (**permalink**) 01-20-2005, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greeneagle

- Does anyone disagree?

Google does.

greeneagle · #24 (**permalink**) 01-20-2005, 01:34 PM

activeco,

Either you have lost me or your reply wasn't on topic. Don't know where you're coming from here. I hope you read the thread before replying...

Of course "Penalties" exist in all the SE's, but there is just no indication they apply here.

Do you disagree? If so why?

Ken