GOOGLE "Answers" - Is this new?

[greeneagle]

Google has a section on their Site called GOOGLE "Answers". I have never run across it before.

Here is how it works:
1) Ask a question
2) Set your Price
3) Get Your Answer

They advertise that your questions will be answered by GOOGLE experts usually within 24hrs.

It seems that anyone can find out why they were banned, why the don't have better listings, why a Ranking Dropped and even why SERPS went South!

They also have a good database of questions answered for reference.

http://answers.google.com/answers/main?sourceid=tipq

See for example: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=365893

Hope this helps the "lost",

Regards,
Ken

[anablake]

Thanks Ken.

I had seen this on their site previously, but not too sure of asking. With our www.leatherlust.net site completely gone off Google after being a PR5 for so long and all we did was optimize honestly and "legally" it almost feels like we're being penalized for following the rules.

I'm going to inquire and will let you know what transpires... (starting the stopwatch...)

Guess we have nowhere to go now but up :)

Kind Regards,

Ana

[greeneagle]

anablake,

Before you waste your money, you might want to make a few changes on your Site:

1) The links at the bottom of the left hand navigation frame are too close to the same color of the background. When they are unreadable as they are, GOOGLE may very well be hitting you for "Hidden Text".

2) It appears you have a very serious internal duplicate content problem:

<h3>Index</h3>

<h3>German</h3>

<h3>Spanish</h3>

<h3>French</h3>

<h3>Italian</h3>

<h3>Portuguese</h3>


Although different URLs they do not go to different language sites. They are all the exact same english language home page.

3) For the life of me I can't find the links in #2 above on the Home Page. Are they "Hidden Text"?

You may want to make a few changes on your Site. I don't know if there is a way to tell if you have been permanently banned or not, but these kinds of issues can and have lead to permanent bannings. If permanently banned you may need to start over with a new Site and URL. You may want to seek other professional advice concerning the damage depth incurred.

I didn't delve too deep, but these popped right up!, I hope you don't mind some real help here!

Hope this helps,
Ken

[tacimala]

I saw that Google Answers page a few months back, so it's not new within the last few days. They sure don't seem to advertise it much though, do they?

[Like2Golf]

2) It appears you have a very serious internal duplicate content problem:

Is having multiple links from 'Page A' pointing to 'Page B' an unacceptable practice?

[achronister]

Google Answers service has been around a long time, more than a year. Never personally used it though. Anyone have any experience with it?

[greeneagle]

achronister,

I guess you noticed they haven't answered the all important "Traffic-Power" issue linked in original post!, BUT they sure seem to have answered it in dropping a bunch of Sites in this latest update!

If anyone understands the difference between temporary and permanent GOOGLE Site bans, this may be the place to play with it!

Ken

[greeneagle]

achronister,
GOOGLE just answered,

I hate to crosslink threads but sometimes topics cross!:

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=22908
Ken

[greeneagle]

Like2Golf:

"Is having multiple links from 'Page A' pointing to 'Page B' an unacceptable practice?"

You did not ask the correct question! Let me rephrase it for you: Is having links to multiple pages with exact duplicate content and different URLs a problem?

THE ANSWER IS UNOQUIVACABLY YES! (internal or external)

When they are all different URLs in the same Site with exact duplicate content? - Surely I don't really need to answer that!

Ken

[anablake]

anablake,
1) The links at the bottom of the left hand navigation frame are too close to the same color of the background. When they are unreadable as they are, GOOGLE may very well be hitting you for "Hidden Text".

2) It appears you have a very serious internal duplicate content problem:

<h3>Index</h3>

<h3>German</h3>

<h3>Spanish</h3>

<h3>French</h3>

<h3>Italian</h3>

<h3>Portuguese</h3>


Although different URLs they do not go to different language sites. They are all the exact same home page.

3) For the life of me I can't find the links in #2 above on the Home Page. Are they "Hidden Text"?

Thanks Ken! and I sure do appreciate the help!
Those language links got put on the index page prematurely (the directories for those are in the works.)
I've removed them and changed the text color on the other item.

Found a couple other dead links as well... shame on me for not following up on our editor ;)