I don't think so... And check your facts anthony. I was telling people that they shouldn't be surprised if they were booted out of AS if they did decide to try the service.
i agree with SE basic about reporting. I don't like doing it either which is why I was so reluctant to post the site's id. Do you guys think I should remove it? I think i would be more comfortable if I did. consensus please?
What are you really worried about man? It is too late, Shawn does not let members remove posts after so many hours anyway.
Report them if it's direct competition and they're beating you in the SERPs because of their cheat. Otherwise... You could have gotten 10 new backlinks in the time you worried about this... Get on with it.
I don't understand the reluctance. Isn't the whole point to help Google improve the algorithms and filters so that this sort of crap doesn't pollute the SERPs? How can reporting "black hat" SEO harm those of us who don't resort to such practices?
Minstrel, have you ever noticed that webmasters are some of the most paranoid eccentric individuals in the population and the first to believe far fetched ideas that have zero relevance to the business? Colin this is not a shot at you but at some in the community, in general webmasters believe a lot of false knowledge and very little fact.
You don't help Sainsbury's clean their supermarkets as well do you? Why should we help a plublic company doing their business? Yes, it might help ourrselves if we do clean the floor at Sainsbury's, or if we clean the index at Google's. But geez, they pay people good money (just count the millionairs at Mountain View) to do just that. If it was Open Source and I used it for free, I would feel obliged. We pay Google thousands of pounds every year, I'm not going to donate my time as well.
Because whatever helps search engines to stop rewarding spamming and tricks and to improve relevancy helps me. I don't use black hat or grey hat SEO and it annoys me when I see a site that does ranking well because of it.
Yes TOPS, but if a kid broke a jar of milk and glass was on the floor and your kids were going to cut their feet on the glass, would you then tell management that glass was on the floor and to clean it up lest folks get hurt
If it was my kid who did it, or my kid who's in danger then yes I would for sure. If it was someone else I probably still would but not feeling moraly obliged to do so.
They should be reported. It's just that simple. If you saw a theif take someones car and drive away, would you just go on your merry way? Or would you report the thief? It may not be the best anology, but you get my point. It may not directly affect you now, but when your car insurance goes up because of the likelyhood of theft, don't get your shorts in a bunch. Spam needs to be reported, plain and simple. This is not about Google. This is about stopping the serp theives that are stealing their rankings.
minstrel, maybe because a lot of members here use black, gray, green, blue, whatever bad techniques to improve position... anthonycea have a point here, a really good one... You don't have to do nothing to G, so G doesn't need to do anything to you right? If they stop giving your website you wouldn't be pissed off right?
That's nonsense mopacfan. You are comparing democratically agreed upon (pretty much) law with company policy of one certain entity. Just no way to compare it that way. Market forces will ensure that if Google get's done in by spam, someone will rise up and sort us out with decent search. If the police get walked over by criminals then something more serious is wrong. And no, AC and Eduardo, I don't rely on Google for food. Even if Google went down permanently, I'll be just fine. It would be downright stupid to rely on a commercial 3d party company's services to survive. There is no reason anyone should feel obliged to police a commercial company's policies and rules.
That's not the point anthony... Google doesn't feed me, but it might pay for a few snacks every now and then. As far as I am concerned, I would not report it. I am here to make as much cash off Google as I can, and by reporting a spammy site, I am shooting myself in the foot. If this were my site we were discussing, I would be REALLY Pissed off.
So what, you would be pissed off, the owners of Zeezo put their network of sites up for sale (they were real mad at me and sent me many emails claiming I cost them 30 grand a month in that scam) for nothing after I exposed their scam and it changed some things at a large company also. I really don't care much for spam whoever does it, if G, or Y or M has it in their f-ing index they will hear from me if I have to start WW3 over it.
Mostly, yes. And I do know there is spam. I don't use any grey or black techniques myself. I would report a direct competitor. I ahve reported spam before. I have helped Google when it came to testing new stuff and giving feedback. But don't tell me I should help them out.
well, I think that using SPAM in SEO is disgusting - especially in commercially competitive areas, eg Travel or real estate. Compare it to any business..... it is exactly the same as selling your products by some unethical means, making untrue claims about a product, using inferior quality materials etc etc etc. Would we report those things to the powers that be or expose them? I think that is the question.