http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/21/expedia-google-search-traffic/4719917/ Summary: Google slapped Expedia off the first page for various terms. Busted for using spamming and paid link techniques Loss of 4% share price Just goes to show and this is what I've been preaching for years. Protect your site by never linking to it from spammy sources AND sources that you cannot control. Built your own strong layer (or two or 3) of protective sites that link to your money site and send your spam and paid links to them.
Ahhhhh I heard about this. I heard they lost about 30% of their traffic. And for a multi million dollar company, 30% is a HUGE deal. Well I guess 30% of anyones traffic is still a big deal. Just read the article. Looks like it was 25% not 30%. But that's still a lot.
Yes, i've been hearing about the drop in rankings of expedia in search engine land article. Google has showed that no matter how big you are they are going to slap you down to the bottom if you are not moving in the way they want !!
Yep, no longer can you spam and use paid links without the risk of something like this happening. The real issue with paid links isn't Google catching you, it's your competition being rats and telling Google what you've been up to. If you are a big enough target that they can make an example of they'll then take action.