Customers of Prioritet removed from the Google index

Following the removal of norwegian SEO company Prioritet from the Google index (going on four months), their customers are now experiencing exclusion from the Google index.

Prioritet has a lot to explain to their customers. Three of their customers – Citymaid.no, Ferner.no and Direktmedia.no has been removed from the Google index. So far they have been gone for 5 days.

Citymaid.no is one of the web sites that removed the “Prioritet-menu”, but kept the doorway pages. The doorway pages can be found in the /info/ folder – for example http://www.citymaid.no/info/flytterengjoering.aspx

The doorway pages from Prioritet at Fernerjacobsen.no and Ferner.no has not been removed. Its reasonable to assume that the reason Ferner.no has been expelled from the index is the doorway pages located in the folder /ps/
http://www.ferner.no/ps/moerk_dress.html

Direktmedia.no first tried to hide the menu by making it invisible with CSS. Prioritet’s doorway pages is still found on Direktmedias homepage.
http://www.direktmedia.no/info/direkte_markedsfoering.html

Its reasonable to asume that the combination of doorway pages and hiding the menu is the reason for the removal from the index.

Is it hard for Prioritet to find the doorway pages? No! We have documented near as all of the URLs in our reports about their methods. If Prioritet really wanted, they could have cleaned up their customers sites months ago.

How long will it take for Prioritets customers to be re-included in the index? That depends on whether Google has put in place a specific time constrained penalty (30 days, 90 days etc), or if they will only allow the customers of Prioritet back in the index after they have cleaned up and requested a re-inclusion in the index.

Prioritet out for ages

It’s Wednesday night, and as promised SEO Spam Cops will give a short update on the Norwegian SEO company Prioritet in Googles index.

As we all know, Prioritet got thrown out of Google’s index three months ago. Three months and one week, to be exact. Last week, Prioritet was visible in the index for a few days. By obvious reasons, I believe that Prioritet was included in the index by a mistake, not by any filter as first mentioned.

My wild guess is that Prioritet will face another period of 3, 6 or even 9 months at worst. Any earlier inclusion would only happen if Prioritet clean up their work and fill out a re-inclusion request.

Prioritet still out

This week, rumors went on Prioritet being back in the Google index. Anonymous commenters where running around in Norwegian weblogs spreadding the word.

Google has been experimenting with a new filter, resulting in displaying Prioritet in some search results, but that does not mean that Prioritet has been re-included in the index. The index will not be stable until Tuesday 16th, but after that I believe that we will not find Prioritet in the index.

The following screenshot shows how Prioritet is not listed in the Google index:

Until Tuesday, stay tuned!

Hidden links to SEO Prioritet

Here are some examples of links that the banned SEO company Prioritet had hidden on their customer’s web sites.

The reports that caused Google penalty for prioritet.no is released

July 10th Prioritet.no was excluded from Google Serps. The reason was not, as many believed, the SEO technique Prioritet.no used on their own homepage, but the massive implementation of “hidden” menus and Doorway pages on most of their customers homepages. The reports are now available.

Prioritet’s own menu

It is interesting that Prioritet (the SEO company that recently was banned by Google) don’t use their home-made method on their own site. But they have hidden a menu behind the logo (shows only on mouseover).

Do you think this is made for the users or the search engines? What kind of usability is it to hide a menu if it is made for the users and contains important navigational elements?

The Norwegian SEO firm Prioritet.no is BANNED by Google

SEO Spam Cops started analysing the Norwegian SEO firm Prioritet.no in April 2007 and found out that they used Doorway pages and “Hidden” Menus to boost ranking for their SEO Customers. Prioritet.no used the same techniques for their SEO customers that resulted in a heavy penalty for Bolia.com. After analysing and documenting the implementation of the techniques for all their clients websites we ran position analysis for all doorway pages and keywords. The report was submitted to our friends in Google June 6.th 2007.

Now, from July 10.th, the first reaction is visible. Prioritet.no is banned from Google and it’s no longer visible in Google Serps. They still have Page Rank but this has to do with the fact that Google Page Rank is only updated 5-6 times per year.

We are monitoring all Prioritet.no clients and we will publish the report we submitted to Google when the effect of Googles penalty is visible and stable.

regards
SEO Spam Cops
Gunnar Bråthen, Roar Eriksen and Per-Erik Skramstad

Mercedes-Benz.automobile.de is still out of Google’s index

In January 2006 Google removed http://mercedes-benz.automobile.de from the index. And it’s still gone.

Searches for “mercedes-benz + automobile” or “mercedes-benz + gebrauchtwagen” does show “www.automobile.de” in the SERP. Neither does a search for “mercedes-benz” limited to the .de domain. But a search for “automobile site:.de” gives www.automobile.de a #1 ranking.

Matt Cutts has a post on this on his blog

AC Hotels has been banned from Google!

The official websites of the Spanish hotel chain AC Hotels was banned from Google in March 2007. “Blog on Travel: Decrypting the online Travel Industry” posted a good analysis of the case. Keep up the good work folks!

Bolia.com got serious Penalty

April 22. 2006 – SEO forum published a detailed analysis on how Bolia.com used “hidden” links and optimised Doorway pages to boost rankings for their furniture design products. Read the pdf that was used as background material in the Norwegian television show FBI in april this year.

April 2007 – One year later. Roar Eriksen and Sverre Sjøthun was interviewed in the television show that focused on SEO spam. The show resulted in Google giving Bolia.co a serious penalty.

Read comments on Roar’s blog:
Søkemotoroptimalisering og juks

Read comments on Sverre’s blog:
SEO BlackHat

You can follow the visibility of Bolia.com here (works only in Microsoft Explorer