Dump my Google penalized site and start over or.. ?

[claybutler]

Clay, please update us with any response you get from G on this, if any. I know many here, including myself, are interested to see if they will follow through.

You bet. I think I'm a good candidate as I'm clearly within their guidelines, only one keyword and one page was affected, I have a long successful run with the page and the keyword, and I'm an expert in my field. So I fit the profile of the type of person they claim they don't want to hurt.

So we'll see. I hope they notify me one way or another so I'll know if the re-inclusion was successful or I just come back on my own.

[edhan]

I think it will be wise to figure out what is the source of the problem(s) that Google had penalized your site instead of start over. Sometimes, it is just temporarily effect and soon you will be ranked again.

Wait and see while you try to find out the cause of this issue so you may make the appropriate changes.

[Buxykay]

Hi everybody. This Penguin thing is driving me crazy. My sites vanished from Google pages. I went to my Google webmaster tools account, no notification. After checking my link profile, I discovered some links which I didn't build.

Another issue which I will like to ask experienced webmasters is this.

I have a number of blogs and article directories hosted on different IP hostings. I use them mostly to do linking to my major sites. An issue with my bank and credit card delayed payment for about a month and these sites were down for that month. It coincided with the Penguin. Is is possible that this is the cause of the fall? I am off again to check my webmaster tool account. Please I need advice.

[deepsand]

Google seems to be experiencing increasingly violent convulsions, the duration and outcome of which remain to be seen. Its body of code has become so gargantuan and convoluted, with patch piled on countless patches, that each seemingly simple change brings countless unforeseen and undesirable consequences. It's a teetering tower of junk, held together by chewing gum and string, ready to collapse of its own weight, badly in need of a complete rewrite.

IMO, unless and until that happens, attempting to recover from each and every change is akin to trying to control the flight of a ping-pong ball in a room full of oscillating fans running at randomly variable speeds.

[SENtelligence]

Hmm, looks like instead of SEO black hats we are soon going to have SEO pirates who will be attacking competitors' sites.

[Buxykay]

Hmm, looks like instead of SEO black hats we are soon going to have SEO pirates who will be attacking competitors' sites.

Yes I agree with SENtelligence. I had the same issue. One page of one of my sites has over 1500 links pointing to it from spamming sites which I didn't do. Meaning if your competitor links to your sites and spams it then you lose your rankings.

This theory has been going on for a long time. I remember when Matt Cutts mentioned it at a news conference a few years ago when a journalist asked him about such practices. His answer was that they are aware of such practices and will not take it into account.

What exactly do they now mean by over optimizing and link profile? Google is playing God and history has taught us that no empire lasts forever.

By the way, after being hit by Penguin, I noticed an increase of traffic from Yahoo and Bing. I have never had such increase of traffic from the two before even when combined. Does this mean that these two are trying to take this advantage and finally take over from Google again because as I can notice around the net, millions of webmasters are not happy with Google.

[deepsand]

By the way, after being hit by Penguin, I noticed an increase of traffic from Yahoo and Bing. I have never had such increase of traffic from the two before even when combined. Does this mean that these two are trying to take this advantage and finally take over from Google again because as I can notice around the net, millions of webmasters are not happy with Google.

How is it possible that any SE could intercede in the actions of users of another?

[watto]

I got obliterated as well on one very important keyword that I've been on page one for about 6 years or so (now completely gone from the SERPs). But I didn't do anything wrong and my site and links are clean. Everything else is fine. Just this one page and its main keyword. So I filled out their Penguin re-inclusion request as the drop is unwarranted. Guess we'll see if they agree. The fact that Google (for the very first time as far as I know) has provided a special page for people who feel they have been unjustly hit indicates they they know that Penguin wasn't as successful as they hoped.

I am in the exact same boat. My main keyword which I ranked #1 for years has totally disappeared from the serps after Penguin. I also completed the Penguin re-inclusion form, so I'll update here if too I get a response.

[claybutler]

IMO, unless and until that happens, attempting to recover from each and every change is akin to trying to control the flight of a ping-pong ball in a room full of oscillating fans running at randomly variable speeds.

Certainly feels that way. I think Google's close to a federal lawsuit about monopoly and unfair business practices and they know it. I think that's some of the reason for their penguin reinclusion form. Even if your monopoly came about through a fair fight in the marketplace, the government does reserve the right to control a business monopoly from using that advantage unfairly.

For ten years Google has been training every webmaster and business owner to focus on links, links, links and anchor test, anchor text, anchor text. If you did, they rewarded you.

Now that they've created a monster, the come out and say "Hey what's with all this excessive linking? Who told you to do that? We can't just reward that type of behavior! How dare you!"

Now when you control then entire search and therefore the online advertising market, businesses live and die on their algorythmic changes. At this point, the power they have to pick winners and loser is no different than a Railroad monopoly using their control to refuse to transport a company's product.

Just as we (our society and our government) are struggling to define what privacy means in a connected world, we are also struggling to define what fair business practices mean when you're talking about virtual companies that only exist on thousands of hard drives and wield such massive power, even though theoretically, people could just abandon them at any moment because the users cost of switching is zero. But hat's not true in practice because there is a great social investment cost.

It's a new type of monopoly that is not based on physical control but on psychological control, ingrained user habits and social investment. Google, Facebook, Twitter and all other online social medium only work with a robust user base and it's this user base that is actually the true value and intellectual capital of their company. Without a critical mass of users, they are nothing but rooms of cheap servers.

So on paper, these companies just say "hey, no one is forced to use Google, or Facebook so therefore we can do whatever we want, whenever we want". But everyone knows that not how it works. That's why Facebook paid a billion dollars for Instagram. Instagram will never be profitable, it will probably run it's course in under five years and be worthless, but for the moment there is a huge user base to leverage and exploit - and that's worth billions.

So the business actions of the social giants betrays their official line of reasoning that they claim exonerates them from any responsibility.

[chrisJumbo]

I don't want to stray from the OPs question so, first let me answer that. I wouldn't start fresh. First, if you feel you were unjustly penalized, file the re-inclusion form. Second, give it some time. Third, continue to write content and seek quality links. Fourth, create other traffic sources so that Google doesn't own you.

Now for my rant. I'm not a Google fan. I have enjoyed some success with them, but blaming them for SERP losses and revenue losses doesn't seem right. I didn't pay them anything for the revenue they brought me how can I turn around and blame them for the loss. We the people turned it into the "monster" that it is.

Yes, their attempts to bring better SERPs are not going well. This opens it up for someone else to come in and show that they are better. Bing, Blekko, DuckDuckgo, etc. would be smart to get some marketing dollars and pump the airwaves and prove themselves. But you know what? As soon as people figure a way to make $ of off them and they start making $ off of the people, they will be in the fight of their lives.