Fionn Downhill – Digital Shenanigans

I am starting to see some sites hit by Penguin gain rankings again.  I held firmly that one of these sites did not deserve a penalty as many others out there also claim.  One site which has recovered had a  site wide which was removed on the 26th of April.  It also had some links removed two weeks before penguin hit. The site did receive an unnatural links message in WMT. The other site which I said had been hit unfairly has not had any changes made at all. There was nothing to change. Here is what I am seeing using the SyCara ranking tool.  The last pull of rankings was on the 30th of April 6 days after Penguin so gains have happened between the 30th of April and the 15th of May.  Hang in there people there is hope!!

We also had the traffic to one of our blogs return after we filed a DMCA complaint and removed the scrapers which were ranking instead. We also removed the RSS feed from the blog to prevent it happening in the future.

I have removed the keywords to protect the identity of the sites.  But you will see the main issue which is increases in rankings from Lah Lah Land.  (Or is that the penguin enclosure at the ZOO)

Site 1:

Site 2:

Site 3:

I am running some tests on a site which is not back yet which quite frankly deserved it. I will publish everything we did when I see some results. I would rather publish what works than speculate.

Finally, Finally, Finally that is all I can say. As the victim of a false, malicious online defamation attack on me personally and my business this is good news indeed. When people post lies and defamation about you online until this case the odds have been stacked against the victim. The courts seem to have been confused by online defamation and the laws for online defamation have been too difficult to navigate.  This deterred people from  from pursuing an expensive legal option, whihc usually ended up in a black hole. I wrote a case study on the malicious attack on us and covered my take on the legal issues at the time here.

People cry “freedom of speech on the Internet could be affected by this”.  Good, because there is a huge difference between freedom of speech and defamation and slander and hopefully the courts are finally getting the hang of that.

You can read a full report here in the daily mail.

For all you webmasters reeling from the shock of the Google update they have been very even handed and no longer rank www.google.com for the ‘search engine’. So what do you think they penalized themselves for, bad links, no canonical, duplicate content, doorway pages, the plot thickens!!

Yesterday Google started rolling out its WebSpam update originally called the over optimization update.  So far its not good and the easiest way to show just how bad it is for some keywords is to give an example.  Over at Searchengineland on a thread created by Danny Sullivan one of the contributors pointed our this example.  Search for “make money online”  Note almost 2 billion pages competing.

And the site which is the #1 result!!

Seriously Google this is getting rid of WebSpam. How could your spiders have even found this and considered it a result for search with almost 2 billion pages competing.

Make Money Online how?

This is not an isolated incident either it is just an example.  There are several examples on this thread of ridiculous results http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-update-targeting-webspam-in-search-results-119295.  Searches for “viagra’ show hijacked sites and its just as bad for ‘paypal france”.

For everybody who remembers the infamous Florida update this all feels very familar and its clear Google may have to backtrack this update because the quality of some of its results will almost certainly send searchers away in confusion.

Rank Fiskin has produced an great list of OOP tips to avoid getting penalized in the Google OOP update (whenever that is). Of couse as Rand knows it may be none of these or all of these or something completely new. We will have to wait and see.

Is is me or is Rand Fiskin getting younger looking. Baby Face Fiskin, has been in SEO a long time he should be old and grey now not getting younger looking. I think he should give up SEO and focus on selling his secrets of eternal youth.

I now find the Google travel results simply annoying.  I am sure Google thinks they are useful.  Look at the result below for Seattle Hotels.  This result is now clutter and not what Google became known for.  I could live with the paid, maps, and organic but the local results in the middle are of no use to me.  If I am going to Seattle or any other city I want to see a site with a list of hotels, not individual properties.  They mean nothing to me if I  do not know those properties.  If I was familiar with the property I would have typed that into my browser or search box.

(Click on the image to see detail)

I want to see a site with several hotels like www.seattlehotels.com or www.hotels.com
I rarely go to Google now for hotel information choosing to either go to niche site, hotels.com or Expedia.  I cannot stand the mess.  Its not that the results are not good they are just too cluttered to be useful.

Since I put up the post I have discovered the search engine www.duckduckgo.com.  Now look at their results for Seattle Hotels.  Remind you anything? Yes the days when Google was clean, simple to use and very relevant.

Am I the only person who finds this result annoying let me know in the comments.

SyCara SEO Tool has been named a semi-finalist in the Arizona Innovation Challenge. SyCara is one of 25 finalists chosen from 300 applicants. The contest in two rounds is awarding $3million from the authority to startups in renewable energy, sustainability, biosciences, electronics, information technology, aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing. SyCara is an SEO tool which was originally founded by Elixir Interactive and is now a major force in the SEO tool Space.  This is a great achievement for SyCara against stiff competition.   Congratulations to our colleagues over at SyCara and good luck in the finals.

You can read the complete story Here.

I love the SyCara SEO Tool share of voice feature.  It allows me to clearly demonstrate to clients where they really are in the SERPS.  I have found it very valuable for Reputation Management clients as the coverage grows using multiple strategies the share of voice does too.  This video clearly demonstrates the features of Share of Voice.

This recipe is one I have been using ever since my sister shared it with me years ago.  I had made a few loafs of soda bread which would have killed you outright if they were used as a weapon.  My bread always turned out hard and dense.  Every time I make this bread for friends or entertaining I am asked for the recipe so here it is just in time to practice for St. Patrick’s Day.  This bread is made from fresh ingredients with no preservatives therefore it needs  to be  eaten within two days to fully appreciate it. (Usually not a problem).  It also lasts longer stored in an airtight container.   It is delicious eaten with Irish Kerrygold butter available in Trader Joe’s (the cheapest $2.95), Fry’s, Whole Foods or Fresh and Easy.

Recipe:

2 cups of self raising flour (Cheating a little but that is why its called easy)

2 cups of good quality whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur 100% Whole Wheat, Do not use old flour it will impair the taste)

pinch of salt

1/2 oz sugar

1 heaped teaspoon of baking soda

Buttermilk (you can use fat free organic butter milk for a healthier bread. I get at Whole Foods)

Preheat oven to 415 degrees. You need a hot oven to help the bread rise right away.

Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly.  Add the butter milk and mix to a loose soft dough.  You will need to use your hands for the final stage or it may get too wet. If your dough does get too wet just add some more wholewheat flour.   Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead into a round loaf.  Score the top in a cross.  Place in the oven and bake for 50 mins or so.  To check if the bread is cooked pierce with a sharp skewer and if its dry the bread is cooked but my favorite way is to turn the bread over and tap the bottom if it has a hollow sound its cooked.  The loaf should be golden brown.

To ensure you bread is crusty but not too hard immediately on removing from the oven wrap in a clean tea cloth which has been soaked in water with the excess water wrung out.  The bread will steam.  Leave for about 10 minutes and unwrap.  Your bread will be crusty on the outside but not hard and moist and soft on the inside.

Another great way to eat this bread is to top it with mature Irish Cheddar available from Fry’s or Costo.  Needless to say Costco is the cheapest.  It is also great sliced and topped with thinly shaved smoked salmon sprinkled with lemon juice.  The imported scotch salmon from Trader Joe’s is the best.

Enjoy:

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About the Author

Arnie Kuenn is the founder and president of Vertical Measures, a search, social and content marketing company based in Phoenix, Ariz. He has held executive positions in the world of new technologies and marketing for more than 20 years. Kuenn is also the author of Accelerate! Move Your Business Forward through the Convergence of Search, Social and Content Marketing.