I don´t think they deserve it. It´s a good site and if it is deindexed, some searchers could suffer from that, being unable to find the relevant info. Who are we to judge? It´s just the rule set up by SEs that there should not be any hidden words on the page. It doesn´t hurt me neither any of the happy searchers that land on their website.
Just because it's a good site doesn't mean they don't have to play by the rules. Google kicked out bmw.com a few months ago (though they've fixed the problems and they're back now)
Matt are you sure you play 100% by the rules? Or better, are you sure you´re playing 100% by all future rules of Google? I am sure that successful webmaster like you regularly gets to the edge
No, I never claimed that. On clients sites I'm whiter than white, my own sites (the ones that don't mean as much) I have used grey-hat tactics, though I've never fully explored IP targeted page delivery and other forms of cloaking as much as I'd like to. Though when experimenting with things like that I'm fully expecting to get banned at some point. It's a short term trade-off between making money and the time you have to do it in before you get discovered. Admittedly there is a grey area in terms of things like buying links and link networks, though I think this is reflected in Googles treatment of sites that are discovered using tactic like these. Grey hat = penalty black hat (such as cloaking and hidden text) = ban
Well, another Google PageRank is underway as we speak so things will be changing up my friend. http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/006294.html
Yes, clients are intouchable as they do not deserve to be banned because of your wrong work. Now - what if this is just the wrong SEO work of another best-in-th-world optimizer? Is the company criminal or victim? Sorry for attacking, I still think that breaking one rule shouldn´t kill your business, let´s let google decide. I will not report them neither call them to stop what they´re doing. Time prooves the tactics.
Judging by Googles past behaviour their course of action is to ban the client site and then wait for the company to fix whatever the SEO did wrong. Once this has been fixed and a reinclusion request placed they will reindex the site. This is based on what I saw during the Trafficpower episodes.
YES!!! Of course they do. Sometimes it can take time after a site is reported before it is banned. The other thing to consider is that just because a site isn't banned now, doesn't mean that it won't be in the future.
Matt, I completely aggree with you as for what Google is doing, anyway, I am not asking you what Google says or does, but what is acceptable for you as an user and what´s not. Would you, as an user looking for related information, rather loose that information as the site has been banned because of some hidden keywords that the user doesn´t care as he absolutely doesn´t know where to look for them and why they are so bad for him? Or would you rather find the information you are looking for no matter what hidden content the page has? In this specific case, I wold not call Google to ban this site just because they have one silly rule that says lets ban anyone using some words of the same color the page uses for its background. Without checking the real value of the visible content the page offers.
Your point is valid Kaudo, but I think it is important that there are rules that are applied to SEO, just as there are laws of the land. In some cases these sites do have valid information, but in many they don't - and you can't have one rule for some and not for others. The other important thing to consider is that if their content is so valid and relevant, why are they resorting to such childish and dodgy tactics in order to rank? Doesn't good content speak for itself???
But what rules, hawk. This is like in army. You get rules and obey. Next month it might be changed, still obey, don´t ask. I am not advocating that site as for the (these days SEO-irrelevant) methods they use. I just do not understand why you accpet Google being informed about that site uses the hidden text (even though it doesn´t help it´s rankings at all). Sorry, but you maybe do not see the potential 4th dimension of this thread being read by couple of hundreds of people. There is always at least one junior (sorry, this is not the matter of age or time spent here, I am still junior here and i feel no difference comparing myself now and from the time before joining the DP, it´s matter of the general maturity) DP member waiting for THE IMPULSES in the crowd very quickly comming from words to deeds. He will be the killing hand, Google´s the axe, but you might be the brain behind even though without any remorse. IMHO, another best-in-the-world SEO company from 5 years ago and webmaster knowing nothing on Google apart from couple of thousands clicks from thir users
It will always be 'against the rules' to use hidden text. Whether or not it is assisted is not the point. I think that in order to weed out cheats it is important to report them when discovered. And this is EXACTLY why I am posting as I am. I think it is crucial to get the point across to anyone that reads this, that no matter what your moral standpoint on this subject is, the fact is that if you use black-hat methods (like hidden text), there is a good chance that you will be reported, and therefore, conceivably banned...
The url is thefilipino [dot] com check the hidden text in footer The site is still #1 in google and no effect at all after the spam report
Using the site: tool in Google, the site is nowhere to be found. Can someone confirm if the site is banned in Google search results?
I see that the hidden text is still there thefilipino[dot]com/filipinosintexas.html I was really searching on how to optimize my clients site but came to this, somehow they have 'linked' my client site without really linking it. Is that legal ?