I recently published why my blog is better than Facebook. Yesterday, I got this email:
I work for the company: LOV*****.CO.UK
Our site has been penalized by Google because of duplicated content and
specifically from domains within your control, as result of this we have
lost 80% of our traffic. I have opened a line of communication with
Google's WebSpam team and am working to clear the penalty, but we need to
get this content taken down ASAP!HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU?
We have isolated the pages causing our penalty which we need to have
removed and there are some from sites within your control.Where Exactly Are These Links And Content Which Need Removing?
Specifically the following pages which are most likely operated by the same
person and located here:http://www.marcgunn.com/articles/2006_11_01_archive.shtml
On the following IPs:
216.97.******
216.97.******Kindest Regards
John
Scroll down the page to Celtic Wedding Rings and Tying the Knot. I picked that article up from EzineArticles.com. It's a website that offers free content to other websites. Basically, these lame-os created content that they wanted to share with the world to promote their website. Then Google changed it's algorithms and they lost all their traffic.
It's a typical story. I ran into that a few times myself with search engine optimization. It's one of the reasons I've given up on most SEO work. I just want to write and not think about stupid stuff like that.
Course this would also explain why my website sucks on the search engines. But since I'm no longer trying to get fresh traffic, I don't care! Woohoo!!!
That's liberation. It means my website is just about creating art and sharing stuff I love.
Speaking of which… and this has nothing to do with this post, the Celtic Music Fan started a podcast. His second show is now online–Celtic Music Fan Podcast #2.
I LOVE what this guy from the Philippines is doing. He loves Celtic music and he's promoting the hell out of it on a regular basis, writing articles, talking up every new artist out there, and now a podcast! That's just awesome.
IMHO Celtic Music Fan is the #1 person to go to find out what's new in the Celtic music world. Yes, even above me. He's at the core of it. No one is sharing Celtic music better than he is!
PS. Full disclosure. I should point out that while I say I'm not playing the game, I have a learned a lot of SEO tactics over the years. And so I still end up linking to my websites in a lovely SEO manner…
