BMW Germany, back in the index

[Cristian Mezei]

As Matt sais, BMW is back

[Crazy_Rob]

Originally Posted by expertu

As Matt sais, BMW is back

Oh boy!

[Cristian Mezei]

Didn't stayed so long banned

[Crazy_Rob]

Where's Minstrel?

[Cristian Mezei]

No ideea, why ?

[lorien1973]

Like any "normal" website who did such things would be reincluded so quickly.

[Smyrl]

Smacks of favoritism. They were even told what caused the ban. The rest of sit around trying to figure out what we did to draw the Googlebot's ire.

Shannon

[Cristian Mezei]

I appreciate BMW’s quick response on removing JavaScript-redirecting pages from BMW properties. The webspam team at Google has been in contact with BMW, and Google has reincluded bmw.de in our index. Likewise, ricoh.de has also removed similar doorway pages and has been reincluded in Google’s index.

It's normal to have such an approach with big players. Don't feel frustrated. The trend is everywhere.

[Brad Callen]

Well, good to see that BMW has removed the pages so quickly. But even Google banned themselves longer then that.

It seems that even some of the big sites get no chance unless your a major corporation.

Brad

[Crazy_Rob]

To be honest, it's kind of crappy for him to disclose that info in the first place.

[ahkip]

Did BMW use adword? If i am google and BMW using adword...i would't ban such a big customer for long..

[flOid]

These whole banning was a marketing gimick anyway to stength their image as the "good company", but maybe also to make an example out of it. Fact is that the doorway pages have been removed by BMW again even before Google banned the site, according to BMW because there have been so many compaints in blogs about it.

[spring]

hahah now after all the buzz they will have +929343 more backlinks and their rankings will be even better

[ly2]

thats bullshit.
They should have been out till next update atleast, just like anyone else.

[Canadianbacon]

Google's image in my eyes has quickly been changing the last while.

tisk tisk...shame on them

[tom_ryeback]

Originally Posted by expertu

It's normal to have such an approach with big players. Don't feel frustrated. The trend is everywhere.

definitely right!!!

[alinush]

Originally Posted by Canadianbacon

Google's image in my eyes has quickly been changing the last while.

tisk tisk...shame on them

Shame on them because they applied the rules ? They should remove all the big sites that do this, this way other sites will think twice before cloaking.

[mcfox]

I think Ian McAnerin sums up the whole situation in the replies section:

Just reading these comments, I find it interesting that many people focus on the fact that BMW got “special” treatment.

Well, they did. Google publicly identified them, called them spammers and banned the site. This made headlines worldwide.

That is WAY more harsh than what happens to “the little guy”, who just quietly gets removed and deals with the mess without being the focus of an international media frenzy.

It seems only right that by treating BMW and Ricoh more harshly due to their prominence, that the reinclusion issue is dealt with equally quickly and, lets face it, publicly as well.

Carrot and Stick.

This wasn’t so much about spam fighting on a site by site basis (which goes on quietly all the time) but about a very effective, public demonstration of the boundries to the corporate world.

Frankly, I don’t even think it’s a message to SEO’s and webmasters (they usually already know) - it’s a message to the management and executives. Those guys usually don’t respond to emails or guidelines, they only respond to something that makes them look bad to the shareholders, customers or directors.

[sunchy]

Originally Posted by expertu

As Matt sais, BMW is back

How Fast

[SportsOutlaw]

Just goes to show that google is no different than any other big corporation. They are not going to bite the hands that feed them.