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Google giveth, and Google taketh away. This looks like a -50 penalty. This is both good and bad for Rap Genius. Good in that it will be temporary: specificall

Google giveth, and Google taketh away. This looks like a -50 penalty. This is both good and bad for Rap Genius. Good in that it will be temporary: specifically 30 days. This is better than a fundamental algorithm change like Panda or Penguin because there's no coming back from those. The bad is that -50 penalties effectively destroy 90+ percent of your traffic. It's a very harsh lesson to be taught. You also don't want to have it happen again because the 2nd time is 60 days, and the 3rd time is permanent. I don't think RapGenius will be doing something like this again. From RG's perspective it's also frustrating because they'll see competitors do scammy things and get away with it. But that's the dual edged sword of such public personas. With RG getting called out so publicly Google had to do something about it. It's also good for Google that this penalty is getting a lot of publicity since it's proving an example to everyone else.

dpatrick86 13y ago
Where are you getting this number system from? I've never heard of it until now.
- OmarIsmail 13y ago
  Personal experience. This was many years ago though (> 5) so likely the numbers have changed since then.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- nathancahill 13y ago
  -50 is the number of results they were bumped down. If you search "rap genius" you'll find it on the 5th page.
  - dpatrick86 13y ago
    Ahh... Thank you for the clarification. :)
chaz 13y ago
Do you know if applied penalties are listed in "Manual Actions" under Google's Webmaster Tools? Is a 60-day penalty exactly 60 days? I ask because I have a site that had its Google traffic cut suddenly by over 75% in October. This lasted 64 days, until it increased just as suddenly last week, though not to the same traffic volume as before. I'm trying to figure out if it came back because an unseen penalty expired, or if there was something I did to trigger more conventional SEO rules.
- seoSabbir 13y ago
  You actually need to submit a reconsideration request, and if Google is happy with your efforts (i.e. removed or attempted to remove the bad links with supporting evidence) it will lift your manual penalty. Sometimes you have to do it few times.
itsprofitbaron 13y ago
Good in that it will be temporary: specifically 30 days. Please don't preach about SEO if you know nothing about it or aren't up-to-date with how SEO works because, this is completely wrong. The penalty that Rap Genius have will be applied until their site fall backs into the Google Guidelines[1] and they help webmasters to get their site back in line with those guidelines through informing them what type of penalty[2] their site has. This may take 90 days as it took JC Penney[3], 11 days as it took Interflora[4] or even 30 days. However, it should be relatively quick and straightforward for Rap Genius to recover from this penalty because, the penalty is based on links they've built themselves through their "tweet-for-links" system meaning that identification and removal of links should be relatively quick and straightforward. This is better than a fundamental algorithm change like Panda or Penguin because there's no coming back from those. Again this is wrong. Essentially Panda looks at content and Penguin looks at links - both of which are within Google's Manual Action penalties[2] - and both of which you can recover a site from. In order to fix a Google Panda penalty you need to completely overhaul your site to remove any rubbish content as well as, to improve the content. In cases where you cannot improve the content to add unique user value, you should completely remove it from the site. In order to fix a Penguin issue, you should see my overview here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6963785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6963785 although essentially, you just need to identify the links which need cleaning up, try and get those links "cleaned up" yourself, submit a disavow file (if necessary) and then get Google to reconsider the site. [1] https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en [2] https://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/2604771?hl=en&ref_topic=2371401 https://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/2604771?hl=en&re... [3] http://searchengineland.com/90-days-later-google-lets-j-c-penney-out-of-timeout-78223 http://searchengineland.com/90-days-later-google-lets-j-c-pe... [4] http://searchengineland.com/interflora-gets-google-rankings-back-150366 http://searchengineland.com/interflora-gets-google-rankings-...
- OmarIsmail 13y ago
  I haven't been into the SEO stuff since Panda, so it looks like quite a lot has changed. If Google is giving more information about what you're actually doing wrong, then that's great. Previously (like 5 years ago) you'd just see a massive hit to your rankings and would be scrambling to try and fix anything and everything you could think of that may cause it.

dpatrick86 13y ago

Where are you getting this number system from? I've never heard of it until now.

OmarIsmail 13y ago
Personal experience. This was many years ago though (> 5) so likely the numbers have changed since then.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
nathancahill 13y ago
-50 is the number of results they were bumped down. If you search "rap genius" you'll find it on the 5th page.
- dpatrick86 13y ago
  Ahh... Thank you for the clarification. :)

chaz 13y ago

Do you know if applied penalties are listed in "Manual Actions" under Google's Webmaster Tools? Is a 60-day penalty exactly 60 days? I ask because I have a site that had its Google traffic cut suddenly by over 75% in October. This lasted 64 days, until it increased just as suddenly last week, though not to the same traffic volume as before. I'm trying to figure out if it came back because an unseen penalty expired, or if there was something I did to trigger more conventional SEO rules.

seoSabbir 13y ago
You actually need to submit a reconsideration request, and if Google is happy with your efforts (i.e. removed or attempted to remove the bad links with supporting evidence) it will lift your manual penalty. Sometimes you have to do it few times.

itsprofitbaron 13y ago

Good in that it will be temporary: specifically 30 days. Please don't preach about SEO if you know nothing about it or aren't up-to-date with how SEO works because, this is completely wrong. The penalty that Rap Genius have will be applied until their site fall backs into the Google Guidelines[1] and they help webmasters to get their site back in line with those guidelines through informing them what type of penalty[2] their site has. This may take 90 days as it took JC Penney[3], 11 days as it took Interflora[4] or even 30 days. However, it should be relatively quick and straightforward for Rap Genius to recover from this penalty because, the penalty is based on links they've built themselves through their "tweet-for-links" system meaning that identification and removal of links should be relatively quick and straightforward. This is better than a fundamental algorithm change like Panda or Penguin because there's no coming back from those. Again this is wrong. Essentially Panda looks at content and Penguin looks at links - both of which are within Google's Manual Action penalties[2] - and both of which you can recover a site from. In order to fix a Google Panda penalty you need to completely overhaul your site to remove any rubbish content as well as, to improve the content. In cases where you cannot improve the content to add unique user value, you should completely remove it from the site. In order to fix a Penguin issue, you should see my overview here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6963785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6963785 although essentially, you just need to identify the links which need cleaning up, try and get those links "cleaned up" yourself, submit a disavow file (if necessary) and then get Google to reconsider the site. [1] https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en [2] https://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/2604771?hl=en&ref_topic=2371401 https://support.google.com/webmasters/topic/2604771?hl=en&re... [3] http://searchengineland.com/90-days-later-google-lets-j-c-penney-out-of-timeout-78223 http://searchengineland.com/90-days-later-google-lets-j-c-pe... [4] http://searchengineland.com/interflora-gets-google-rankings-back-150366 http://searchengineland.com/interflora-gets-google-rankings-...

OmarIsmail 13y ago
I haven't been into the SEO stuff since Panda, so it looks like quite a lot has changed. If Google is giving more information about what you're actually doing wrong, then that's great. Previously (like 5 years ago) you'd just see a massive hit to your rankings and would be scrambling to try and fix anything and everything you could think of that may cause it.