Google Manual Penalty

[MegaFreeChips]

Hi There,
My site got a manual penalty 3 weeks ago, called:
'Thin content with little or no added value'
I took the next actions:
- Removed & de-indexed over 200+ pages that were actually thin (The single bonus pages).
- Added 40+ handwritten reviews of 500+ words each, with unique pictures ,summing up to more than 20K quality free text
(yeah that took plenty of hours...)

A week after requesting a review, I got rejected with no specific reason, just the same penalty.
What should I do next?
it doesn't make any sense - as dozens of competing sites have much less unique content and much more "cookie-cutter" pages.

Any help is kindly appreciated.
Thanks.

[JackTenSuited]

Do you have any dodgy backlinks? sometimes they use the thin content penalty reason instead....

[MegaFreeChips]

Well, nothing too spammy in my opinion, the DoFollow Links come from domains such as:
2 Paid Directories.
4 Testimonials from my partners (although some are site-wide links in the footer).
1 Design site that added tons of links for just uploading my site's design.
And a few more from all those indexing sites across the web.
but at first place are all the signature links from the GPWA - can it be the reason ???
as I became quite active all of the sudden,
so maybe that sudden boost of keyword optimised follow links looked shady to big G?

[MMM]

It's hard to know what exactly made them reject your request, but don't forget it's a person there. I would suggest:

1. There are pages on your site that might be considered thin in terms of unique content - some pages you have text on top and some just bonuses. I would make sure that you have at least 300 words on each page, besides the bonus posts. If you place it on top it would be better - google will see it and the actual person who will review your site will see it.

2. In your reconsideration request: give details. Explain that you give visitors exact data (listings) which is what they are looking for.

3. Also, it might be possible that you got penalized for overuse of specific words, such as the word bonus which naturally appears a lot. In your request explain this point as well - that's what your site is about and you have to use it. I think answering reviewer's questions before he asked them increases your odds.

[RacingJim]

What's the site address?

[MMM]

I think its megafreechips

[Progger]

your content is not the problem...your problem is your backlink build...
deckmedia...fasttrack...boomtown....the most backlinks are dofollow...

[MegaFreeChips]

your content is not the problem...your problem is your backlink build...
deckmedia...fasttrack...boomtown....the most backlinks are dofollow...

Interesting...
but those are testimonials from casino partners, isn't than considered completely natural?
I checked my competitors backlink profile and it is quite similar...

[Storebuilder]

If links were the problem you'd have an "unnatural links" penalty.

Use a tool like screaming frog spider to see exactly what pages are causing the thin content.

[baldidiot]

From a quick scan I think they have a problem with the bonus pages. There's a lot of pages without much content on them, but more important, where the exact same content appears on multiple pages.

For example:

http://www.megafreechips.com/bonus-s...-casino-bonus/
http://www.megafreechips.com/bst/nex...no-free-spins/

These two pages are near identical - the only thing that differs is the title. So from google's perspective it looks like you have a ton of doorway pages set up purely to target the relevant terms. There's no real value to the user having multiple pages for the same thing.

I haven't checked the whole site, but at a guess I'd also say that each casino entry appears on multiple pages, would that be a fair assessment?

Personally I would reduce the number of bonus code pages - have one for each software (rather than All, Welcome Bonus, Free Spins etc...) and add additional content to the page to help make it more unique.

Where you're repeating the content (the free spins page) you may want to change the way the data is presented to make it a bit more unique. So have the boxes on the software pages, and then maybe a comparison table on the free spins page.

And again, more content on the pages.

The key thing to take away is that you need to fix the thin pages rather than add new pages, because even if you add 100 pages of top quality content, google is still going to see the bonus code lists as doorway pages.

That's my gut instinct anyway.

[DanHorvat]

These two pages are near identical - the only thing that differs is the title. So from google's perspective it looks like you have a ton of doorway pages set up purely to target the relevant terms. There's no real value to the user having multiple pages for the same thing.

This.

[MegaFreeChips]

If I think only in a bot manner, well yeah, there are tons of pages with quite similar content that only differ in titles.
But in the user perspective, if my user is looking for "RTG Free Spins", rather than all "RTG Bonus Codes", I'l hurt the user's experience if he had to go through dozens of RTG codes to find only the free spins he actually is looking for...

I do want the user to arrive to the relevant category page... even if some of its items appear in other categories as well...
My reference for content structure was mainly G's 1st page rivals in my niche, and like 95% of them go with that kind of formula...
although it makes complete bot sense...

What your saying is that I should keep only main categories/archive pages that don't overlap content???

[Storebuilder]

In my painful experience it doesn't matter how YOU think you are presenting the information to Google it is how THEY want the information presented.

The more your page titles/content overlaps the higher chance you have of being punched hard in the solar plexus and told to wise up.

It's OK to have multiple items in multiple categories as long as the overall percentage of shallower pages is tiny as a ratio to great content pages.

You can't create a site with loads of shallow pages if you don't have fantastic content in other places to WARRANT IT.

Don't argue that other people get away with it because gradually they will be weeded out as well.

[Progger]

Google says...


Thin content with little or no added value

If you see this message on the Manual Actions page, it means that Google has detected low-quality pages or shallow pages on your site.
Here are a few common examples of pages that often have thin content with little or no added value:

• Automatically generated content
• Thin affiliate pages
• Content from other sources. For example: Scraped content or low-quality guest blog posts
• Doorway pages

These techniques don’t provide users with substantially unique or valuable content, and are in violation of our Webmaster Guidelines.
As a result, Google has applied a manual spam action to the affected portions of your site. Actions that affect your whole site are listed under Site-wide matches. Actions that affect only part of your site and/or some incoming links to your site are listed under Partial matches.
Recommended action

First, review the following sections of our Webmaster Guidelines:

• Automatically generated content
• Affiliate programs
• Scraped content
• Doorway pages

Next, follow the steps below to identify and correct the violation(s) on your site:

1. Check for content on your site that duplicates content found elsewhere.
2. Check for thin content pages with affiliate links on your site.
3. Check for doorway pages or auto-generated content on your site.
4. If your site contains any of these types of content, think about whether your site provides significant added value for your users. This article about building high-quality sites can offer you more guidance.
   Tip: Consider asking friends or family — real people not affiliated with your site — to use or critique your site to get ideas for improving it.
5. Improve your website so that it provides significant value for your users.

Once you’re sure your site is no longer in violation of our guidelines, request reconsideration of your site. After you’ve submitted a reconsideration request, be patient and watch for a message in your Search Console account — we’ll let you know when we’ve reviewed your site. If we determine your site is no longer in violation of our guidelines, we’ll revoke the manual action.

[Storebuilder]

AArghhh! Now I remember why I don't waste my time on here.

[baldidiot]

If I think only in a bot manner, well yeah, there are tons of pages with quite similar content that only differ in titles.
But in the user perspective, if my user is looking for "RTG Free Spins", rather than all "RTG Bonus Codes", I'l hurt the user's experience if he had to go through dozens of RTG codes to find only the free spins he actually is looking for...

I do want the user to arrive to the relevant category page... even if some of its items appear in other categories as well...
My reference for content structure was mainly G's 1st page rivals in my niche, and like 95% of them go with that kind of formula...
although it makes complete bot sense...

What your saying is that I should keep only main categories/archive pages that don't overlap content???

You'd be much better off with just one page for RTG with a filter (if you're able to do it) so they can narrow down the options. Or one master page which you show to google and then the sub pages which you block from google - which would mean they wouldn't be indexed.

From a search perspective there's no reason why you can't target both of those terms on the same page if that's your primary reason (ie: if you're thinking about highly specific search traffic over a user who is already on your site).

[Storebuilder]

Or one master page which you show to google and then the sub pages which you block from google - which would mean they wouldn't be indexed.

Exactly this.

I wish I'd thought of it before you just pointed it out! Instead I disabled all the search functionality which was the whole point of my site Doh!

[martinseomcgarry]

Don't block Google - thats not a great signal!

1. first problem, your text ratios on page are very low - very little text, lots of OTHER stuff
2. the amount of outbound links you have on some pages is a problem - Best practice is to send affiliate links on your site to 1 review page and then have an outbound link. You have lots of Play buttons dotted al over the site offering the user a link out, before they've even got to read content.
3. You have varient pages for each brand... No Deposit Page and Welcome bonus page for every brand. That doubles the size of your site already... you should really have 1 No Deposit Page - Multiple brands, One Welcome Offer Page Mutliple brands - It looks like your trying to trick the system to guarantee ranking for those 2 terms for every brand.
4. In a content audit your site records over 200 pages with duplicate content - which suggests your pages are all very similar.

SOME ADVICE - If you haven't done this already, join MOZ.com and use there 30 day free trial to have a go at auditing your site. You get full access for 30 days and can easily cancel without paying a penny from your control panel.

Hope this helps

[martinseomcgarry]

Are you passing these play links via a 301? visit/vegascasino-io-homepage i.e Are you cloaking your affiliate links to try and beat Google?

[trickyguy]

Disavow all the link in webmaster tool and reconsider again. If again they dont lift the penalty. Then remove your website from the domain and sen it for review( a blank domain). Add the website and content again in few weeks.
This works few month ago for me. I bought a penalized domain from ExpiredDomains and did the backlink part.