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Search Engines: Tell Me I Spammed
By Mike Murray | June 6, 2007
A healthy discussion came out of “Penalty Box Summit” session at Danny Sullivan’s new Search Marking Expo known as SMX Advanced in Seattle.
But I don’t look for any dramtic changes in the way the major search engines communicate with webmasters and marketers.
Some search engines do initiate communications with website managers, but they may only make that effort if they feel sorry for small Mom and Pop places that could have made a mistake (small or large) without really knowing it (or that it would be spam).
As much as audience members seemed to push for a support ticket system, I’m not sure that the search engines will go that far. Personally, I think they have the cash to stay in touch with websites, but it’s not likely to get to the top of a priority list.
Apart from a sophisticated support system, I could see the day when website marketers can at least check some search engine location that says the site is being penalized or is banned (so webmasters don’t have to guess based on a drop in rankings or an absence from an index).
Participants tossed out a lot of ideas, including a a webmaster “trust system.” I guess that could be people known not to spam or an alliance of people who like to tattle on others.
Search engine representatives didn’t seem to jump at the chance to provide more vivid examples of spam techniques that they’ve found. In other words, they’re not going to name names.
Tim Mayer of Yahoo! suggested that Yahoo! is hardly going to provide details on spam that gets caught because the info could give marketers a sense of what blackhat techniques still slip by the filters.
Matt Cutts (who seems to have mercy on small websites) said Google has been working to soften its penalty language. After all, a re-inclusion request isn’t exactly accurate. Some websites have simply been penalized, not banned. You may see “re-consideration” request down the road.
Regardless of what they call it, I’d like to see the search engines do a better job of communicating with people who file a request. Cough up an email so the website marketer can request updates. If the webmaster writes too often (set some rules), ignore them or at least give an update every couple of weeks.
The bad news is that the search engines aren’t thrilled with spam and don’t seem inclined to buddy up with people who went to the Dark Side. The good news is that they do want to provide relevant information. As a result, many websites have been restored after cleaning up their act.
During the conference, Google announced that the webmaster guidelines have been expanded. More on that later…
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