A Google Webmaster Help thread starts off with a webmaster who is asking why his web site is not ranking well. The thing is, it isn't his web site, it is probably a competitor's web site.
He is just trying to get attention to a competitor who looks to be doing shady stuff so Google will take notice and manually take action on the site.
He wrote:
I have read the FAQ etc.I worried. And, I am just wondering about why my site is not ranking
Can anyone help please?
[URL REMOVED}
We are targeting the online casino niche.
Please help with some advice I can use.
Then after a few posts and him being frustrated, he goes on about how this site ranks for all types of keywords and it is not fair.
John Mueller of Google responded basically telling him to worry about his own site. Deceiving users to thinking it is his site just to play a game won't help him rank his own web site. John explains that you can report the site as spam via the normal spam report tools but outside of that, this won't do any good. John wrote:
It seems that this thread got started in a misleading way, which isn't likely to give you much useful help. It sounds like this isn't really your site, perhaps it's even a competitor's site, so it seems a bit odd to solicit for help in improving that site. If instead you'd like to report it as spam, I'd recommend using the normal spam report form. If on the other hand, you'd like help to improve your own site (which is generally the better path), I'd recommend starting a thread specifically for your website, detailing the issues you're seeing and the changes that you've made.
We covered similar topics in the past:
- Blaming Others As A Ranking Factor In Google? No!
- Competitors Spamming? Google Says Report Them
- SEOs Are No Longer United & I Blame The NoFollow
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Image credit to BigStockPhoto