Help! What would you do?

[Storebuilder]

Egregious LOL. Well I guess it's easy to fix because the old site is gone.

[thebookiesoffers]

got a manual action removed sometime during the night but it takes time to take effect. How long did google take you to get the site indexed and ranking again after mate? if indeed it has yet?

[Storebuilder]

I'm not holding my breath. This is going to be a long road back.

[thebookiesoffers]

I'm not holding my breath. This is going to be a long road back.

you still not indexed then?

[Storebuilder]

A page a day is coming back.

[thebookiesoffers]

A page a day is coming back.

just a thought mate, have you crawled and submitted the site and all links in GWT?

[Storebuilder]

just a thought mate, have you crawled and submitted the site and all links in GWT?

Good thinking I've made a new sitemap and submitted it.

[Ares]

I would quit the fight.
Move whatever original content you have to another site/domain.
Even if the penalty is lifted (quite hard after 5 failed attempts) don't expect to rank too high.
Put your energy where it will be more productive

[Storebuilder]

I would quit the fight.
Move whatever original content you have to another site/domain.
Even if the penalty is lifted (quite hard after 5 failed attempts) don't expect to rank too high.
Put your energy where it will be more productive

Why not expect to rank too high?

If the site is ten times better than it was before through adding loads of content then it should rank higher than before it received the penalty. No penalty means no manual actions.

Show me the evidence that backs up your claim.

[Ares]

Why not expect to rank too high?

If the site is ten times better than it was before through adding loads of content then it should rank higher than before it received the penalty. No penalty means no manual actions.

Show me the evidence that backs up your claim.

Obviously there is no way to find out where one would rank after having a manual action lifted vs never having a manual action.
The "evidence" is your 5 failed attempts and my personal experience. You are free to believe whatever you like thought if you have "evidence" to the contrary. After all this is my opinion.

The real question is why give a fight for a penalized domain and not put that amazing content into a fresh (or old) non penalized site/domain?
I guess the answer has to do with your existing backlinks and your domain name. For the back links I would do a (or many) 301 after removing the penalty. For the domain name, I'd try to find another great name - not so hard for co.uk tlds.

[thebookiesoffers]

Good thinking I've made a new sitemap and submitted it.

go to 'crawl as google' then fetch the main pages then submit with all linked pages. got most of my site indexed now

trouble I now have is not knowing if it was originally caught by panda or penguin. time will tell, and also I think the poster above has posted very bad advice

[Storebuilder]

go to 'crawl as google' then fetch the main pages then submit with all linked pages. got most of my site indexed now

trouble I now have is not knowing if it was originally caught by panda or penguin. time will tell, and also I think the poster above has posted very bad advice

It can't be either? A manual spam action is imposed because of the "Egregious" techniques used to try and rank. You'll just be starting over again with a new domain now the penalty is lifted.

Huh! Didn't know you could do that. Thanks.

The sitemap says 133 pages submitted 84 indexed but SEOchat's tool says only 16 indexed which is more accurate.

If the whole site isn't indexed then it's not going to get the power of all the pages and all the internal links so I'm guessing that's why it isn't ranking again so far.

I've waited long enough for the penalty to be lifted so a few more weeks is not going to hurt....

Now the ban is over I should start adding content again. I stopped because I couldn't see a way back for this site and didn't know if I was going to be wasting my time.

For the record some of the advice I got from the Google Webmaster forum was:

1. Your business model means that it will never work because Google hates affiliate sites.
2. Reviews are not content.
3. Endlessly being pointed to the webmaster guidelines.
4. Really, really bad advice. Like your reconsideration requests are not grovelling enough.

The last one was why I came here and posted before I gave up entirely. I'm pretty experienced so it just shows that you can't know it all and the help from you guys has been amazing.

The solution has been to make the content visible. That may seem like a strange statement but to a Google employee who has two weeks worth of reconsideration requests to wade through if they can't SEE the content then they just press the "denied" button.

I could see the content was there but not in the way a Google employee would see it. Text text text.

To me the thousand hours that went into creating the database and all the pretty images were content, but that's not what Google wants to see. They want text.

I thought it looked fantastic on an Ipad (which was my target market like Jim said) but no text= no listing. Until I guess you get big enough that if it is what the user wants then its OK. I see plenty of sites with front pages that are full of bonus tables and "click here".

I used to get really pissed off with people that chimed into threads with their "don't expect to rank too high" statements as if they have a hotline to the Google CEO but now its best to just let it pass you by. Must be my age!

[thebookiesoffers]

btw you 211 pages in the google index https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=si...ie7&gws_rd=ssl

[Storebuilder]

It says 211 results but when you click on page 2 or 3 there are only 14?

[thebookiesoffers]

It says 211 results but when you click on page 2 or 3 there are only 14?

good spot, if you've crawled it they should be showing soon

[dfiocch]

@storebuilder

Forget about G webmaster forum: full of clowns and G ass lickers (losers trying to work for G at any costs acting like monkeys).

G hates affiliate sites? Really?

Mmmm... affiliate = someone promoting/selling third party products.

Amazon = sells third party products
Ebay = sells third party products
G? Same. Sells third party products (through AdWords)

So, G hates Amazon, Ebay and... itself?

Clowns!

[dfiocch]

@Storebuilder

Oh, sorry. Just forgot it...

If you ever come again in that zoo (GWF), tell them: "If people are searching for - exclusive casino bonuses, 1.3K search volume p/m - they land on our sites where they can find a real exclusive promo different from the general one on a specific casino, LOSERS! Go to work and stop licking the big G ass. They need geniuses not monkeys".

Feel to copy and paste.

[Zara Brown]

As it was said in previous comments, large number of flags, images etc as well as duplicate content are the main reasons.. In addition can recommend to keep your content fresh and updated and ideally to create community on your website - forums, blogs, users reviews.. that will help to generate more useful and relevant content interesting for site visitors..