Google Says Blocking Countries Outside of the US Violates it's Policies

This is totally ridiculous....

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/017584.html

If you read my post Solution to Block Hackers and Spammers by Country IP, it's painfully clear that most webmasters with dynamic content have no choice but to limit access from certain users based on geo-location.

Looks like it's time for webmasters to wave bye-bye to Google for once and for all.

 

yes that's not good in different countries environment.

 

Um, did you see the update to that post? Google retracted that statement.

 

It looks like link baiting at it's finest from the OP.

@OP, before posting things like this, it is best to read everything written.

 

@allout - hmmm, link baiting.. yeah, right, whatever. I guess responding to a thread with nothing useful to say, like you did, might be considered post-building. Keep it up, you'll be at 5000 posts before the summer's over ;-)

@rustybrick - yes, I saw the retraction, however the reason I posted this topic was because there is merit in this discussion that wouldn't get much light of day at the source site which has it's nose so far up Google's butt that you will never get a non-partisan discussion over there, especially with Matt Cutts poking his nose in there. At least here at DP, there are contrasting opinions on most discussions and this forum isn't flooded with the "self appointed" SEO/SEM experts pimping their services while exalting Google as the alpha and the omega of internet marketing.

FYI, I was actually trying to find out if there are any other people blocking entire countries using some form of access lists whether it be .htaccess, iptables, CIDR or even using "route" to reject based on IP. AND, if there really are any negative repercussions that might arise from doing this.

The other point is that for those of us blocking specific countries, there needs to be a way to keep fresh lists of IP's for ranges known for spamming. Although I license IP2Location database, I've found a small percentage of discrepancies which would mean accidently blocking friendly IP's and it seems that just like RBL's there should be some sort of mechanism to handle access control.

My company operates numerous websites where the content is user generated such as forums, social networking sites and user generated content. If you're using Google Adsense to monetize those type of sites, you are susceptible to potential violations of Adsense TOS if spammers hit your site with porn or other crap.

I know because we recently received a warning from Adsense for content on a forum we operate that was posted by a Russian spammer who was hitting our forums on a daily basis from different IP's. Although the content was removed by a moderator within hours and days before Google sent the warning, it is still a liability, especially when you have Adsense earnings into four figures.

Also, if you are operating a US based site, Adsense can also cite you for "invalid impressions" if you have a lot of traffic from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Pakistan, India, Russia, Korea, etc..

 

interesting....

 

Well said there, champ, the sycophants in the SEO / SEM "official' industry , well you hit it on the head.

Many web servers block South Korea which was an eye opener for me , knew nothing about it until a friend from there mentioned he could not see my domain, I had to ask my host ( in US ) to white list his Ip , interestingly he could not get a domain from Enom either because of his place of residence

 

Does that refer to me? I don't even sell SEO services.

 

Strange since they allow you to geo-target in webmaster tools?