Every now and then I like to point to sad but yet education SEO threads of things you should never do in a Google forum.
The latest example was highlighted by several readers and emailed to me from a person complaining in the thread as well - which makes this even more fun. In fact, I was going to ignore the whole thread but when I got the email, I had to write about it for all to enjoy.
A Google Webmaster Help thread has the owner of bigmba.com complaining his reconsideration request is not getting him to rank well in Google.
So after some time, JohnMu from Google explains that his content was not original and mashed up from other places. John said:
One thing to keep in mind is that our algorithms prefer unique, compelling, and high-quality content. Content which is rewritten, respun, translated or otherwise automatically or manually generated on the basis of other existing content is generally not something that our users appreciate finding in search results.
The webmaster makes his first response by saying, well - other people do it and it works! He said:
But There are a lot of other websites that are mashups, news aggregators, other similar sites that are derivatives and rank well on your search engine. I am disheartened and totally demotivated to see all that rank well in your search engine and not BigMBA.com.
Of course, Google's JohnMu says he knows and if you spot sites doing this, report them to Google. But John adds that focusing on other sites won't help you. John said:
Ultimately however, focusing on other sites will not improve yours, so my recommendation would be to take the feedback you're collecting here and make a website that is not just "as bad as others" but instead make one that is outstanding.
Now for mistake number two, replying to Google saying "I hope there is some still honour left in google." Wow, did he just say that?
Immediately after that, the webmaster challenges Google to "point me out to some links which according to you are good content."
Advice if you have a site not ranking well in Google.
(1) Don't post in the Google forums if you are doing something wrong, like mashing up other's people content without adding much unique value around the content.
(2) Don't point fingers at competitors, it won't help you.
(3) Don't tell Google they don't have any honor.
(4) Don't challenge Google.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
