[WhoisGalt]

It looks like Google recently rolled back their latest update. There were several SEO companies where it looks like they had major penalities; if you searched for their company name their website wouldn't even show up.

That was a week ago. Now their websites are back and in the SERP's again. Some like QualifiedImpressions.com which was ranked #1 for "SEO Company" (looks like they have their clients place a link in the footer of their website, against google's webmaster guidelines) before aren't ranked back as high as they were though. (I think this could be because the different data centers are still doing the google dance and getting back in sync.)

Anyway, I'd assume the did put into place some type of penalty based on OFF-PAGE factors, realized their mistake with the potential of negative SEO, and rolled it back.

I can't imagine the people at Google are so stupid they would ever penalize a site based on off-page factors. The only option that makes sense is to decide whether to place any, and how much, value on a given link.

However, they supposedly have the best results of any Search Engine; what would their results look like if they stopped giving weight to certain types of links? I'd imagine the SERP's would undergo a major change.

[HeavyD]

What a broad statement about Google rolling back a whole update based one one sites movement in search results. Do you have anything more concrete?

[colourofspring]

Nothing's rolled back on the various searches I've just tried.

[miked]

Don't hold your breath the SERPS are doing the mambo at the moment.

[Linda]

I haven't noticed any kind of rollback either. One site really isn't going to tell you anything. There are all kinds of factors that could have been in play for any one site that would have nothing to do with the recent algorithm change.

[yougotmymoney]

I don't know about a rollback, but one of the keywords I went from #1 to #10 overnight 4, is back at #1.
That could be due to the 10 LinkAuthority posts or 50 high pr manual blog comments I recently built for this kw. Who knows.
But am running RankTracker right now to see how the rest of the keywords look-



- --------most of my keywords that went to past pos 500 are now back.

Edited by yougotmymoney, 23 April 2012 - 14:19.

[TerryKyle]

It looks like Google recently rolled back their latest update. There were several SEO companies where it looks like they had major penalities; if you searched for their company name their website wouldn't even show up.

That was a week ago. Now their websites are back and in the SERP's again. Some like QualifiedImpressions.com which was ranked #1 for "SEO Company" (looks like they have their clients place a link in the footer of their website, against google's webmaster guidelines) before aren't ranked back as high as they were though. (I think this could be because the different data centers are still doing the google dance and getting back in sync.)

Anyway, I'd assume the did put into place some type of penalty based on OFF-PAGE factors, realized their mistake with the potential of negative SEO, and rolled it back.

I can't imagine the people at Google are so stupid they would ever penalize a site based on off-page factors. The only option that makes sense is to decide whether to place any, and how much, value on a given link.

However, they supposedly have the best results of any Search Engine; what would their results look like if they stopped giving weight to certain types of links? I'd imagine the SERP's would undergo a major change.

Google manually observes SEO-related terms very closely and slaps sites ranking highly there with predictable frequency.

[brandonbaker]

Google manually observes SEO-related terms very closely and slaps sites ranking highly there with predictable frequency.

Exactly right. You won't be able to deduce anything from SEO keywords because there is a lot of manual action going on there. Google used to be in love with QI, then one day decided they were no good.

There's no rhyme or reason...

[JSP]

What a broad statement about Google rolling back a whole update based one one sites movement in search results. Do you have anything more concrete?

I was going to say the same thing.

Pretty broad assumption based on one site.

[WhoisGalt]

Several of you replied saying one website, so what may be obvious to me, may not be obvious to others.

I watch the ranking for keywords like SEO company, SEO companies, etc, EVERY DAY.

This recently happen to SEVERAL MAJOR SEO COMPANIES. I only mentioned one example. I didn't want to "out" others. Two more obvious SEO companies that this happen to were National Positions and Rank Pay. They were penalized for any keyword they were ranked for, INCLUDING a search of their company name. If you searched for their domainname.com they would show up, so they weren't de-indexed.

I believe Rand Fishkin made a subtle comment about this also.

Anyway, it does appear to be like a major rollback. Google watches this forum and I'm sure they saw all the negative SEO posts and realized their mistake.

[Mark20]

Something has definitely changed in some way as one of my sites has been penalised for a VERY long time. It sank to the bottom of the SERPS almost 6 months ago from what I can see as being either a unnatural link pattern or just bad links. I tried everything to rescue it high PR links, Web 2.0 etc to no avail. Last night I was running rank tracker and I could hardly believe my eyes the site had gone from page #66 to position #3 on the first page.

Whatever has happened not to sound selfish but I hope it stays!!

[trakker]

I could hardly believe my eyes the site had gone from page #66 to position #3 on the first page.

Congrats!

Nothing really to add, just wanted to cheer someone with good news for a change

Edited by trakker, 23 April 2012 - 22:26.

[FatSteve]

Could be they just fixed "the negative" SEO factor, but I guess we will never know for sure. Encouraging stuff tho, would be good to get rid of a though that someone could just nuke the ***** outta someone else's site and blow it off the Google.

[RealEcon]

The only way their going to get rid of negative seo is if they dont deindex blogs that are in networks. And I doubt they are going to roll back the on going deindexation of HPBL nets and blog networks.

Again I point out, all anyone has to do is create 10-30 blogs put a few links on the homepages to their competitors, let google crawl each blog, wait a day or two, then delete half the competitors links at the same time from those blogs and just wait 3-6 weeks for the blogs to be deindexed.

Once the blogs are deindexed your competitors sites will tank.

This really isnt that much work, and for the amount of competitors you can take out with this method it is still a huge hole for google to fix.

Which they cant, unless they stop their deindexing rampage.

[WhoisGalt]

Your statement is false. It's very simple. They join the blog network, and simply don't place any VALUE or WEIGHT to the links from such networks. That is the solution.

Negative SEO would be possible if they penalized such sites based on links they found in a network. It seems like they did in fact do this but my hunch is they rolled back the update. The fact is several sites I monitor were penalized, less than a week later they are back.

Anyone can join any network and submit links for any sites. A site can't control what sites link back to it. I would find it hard to believe Google would ever penalize a site based on links. If they do, Google is no longer in control of their results.

The only way their going to get rid of negative seo is if they dont deindex blogs that are in networks. And I doubt they are going to roll back the on going deindexation of HPBL nets and blog networks.

Again I point out, all anyone has to do is create 10-30 blogs put a few links on the homepages to their competitors, let google crawl each blog, wait a day or two, then delete half the competitors links at the same time from those blogs and just wait 3-6 weeks for the blogs to be deindexed.

Once the blogs are deindexed your competitors sites will tank.

This really isnt that much work, and for the amount of competitors you can take out with this method it is still a huge hole for google to fix.

Which they cant, unless they stop their deindexing rampage.

[smith2002]

I cant reallly belive it....

[brandonbaker]

Anyone can join any network and submit links for any sites. A site can't control what sites link back to it. I would find it hard to believe Google would ever penalize a site based on links. If they do, Google is no longer in control of their results.

This is what always gets me. It's clear that negative SEO exists at the current moment but I cannot fathom the idea that it'll last for much longer if it continues to get the publicity it's getting. In this sense, I appreciate the negative SEO experiments going on in this forum even though I'm kind of disgusted at how jovial these negative SEOers seem to be when they see the sites tank...

I'll bet Google gets their act together regarding negative SEO. Linkbuilding software is just too powerful and would cause too much damage.

[RealEcon]

Your statement is false. It's very simple. They join the blog network, and simply don't place any VALUE or WEIGHT to the links from such networks. That is the solution.

So the solution is to manually infiltrate blog networks?

Not going to happen. Much easier to send out scary automated messages to 700,000 webmasters and get them to delete links enmass than deindex the related blogs that have the most people deleting in content links.

They have been deindexing blogs since last summer through automation(remember HPBL networks?)and there is no reason to believe they will change their stance on this and start to do it manually.

[alexeip]

I find it very difficult to believe Google would ever roll back anything. Not in their nature or Psyche. They might however make a minor "tweek" later on to correct certain issues but never a major roll back.

[juggalo]

I find it very difficult to believe Google would ever roll back anything. Not in their nature or Psyche. They might however make a minor "tweek" later on to correct certain issues but never a major roll back.

With you on this one, I could never see Google even remotely opening themselves up to the possibility of being seen to publicly admit they screwed up. Could potentially open up a veritable Pandora's Box for them.