How My Silly Mistake Reveals Part Of Google's Spam Filter For Auto-Generated Sites - And How You Can

How My Silly Mistake Reveals Part Of Google's Spam Filter For Auto-Generated Sites - And How You Can
Copyright © 2005 Richard Adams

If you use content generation software like Traffic Equalizer, Traffic Ranking or Traffic Hurricane I've got some essential and urgent news for you.

You see, with the latest Google shake-up it highly likely that either many of your auto-generated pages "vanished" from Google's index, or else you haven't been able to get your new sites listed at all (except perhaps for your homepage).

My silly mistake will show you exactly *why* this seems to be, and what you can do to get all your pages listed successfully.

-------- The Site --------

In January 2005 I launched a brand new site based on the winning formula of plenty of original content plus a solid linking structure - a formula I've been tweaking for years that has got some excellent results - and exactly the sort of site that Google loves.

I built numerous incoming links from quality sites and waited for the spiders - with both MSN and Google showing up within 48 hours of launch and Yahoo arriving a few days later.

----------- The Problem -----------

Whilst Yahoo and MSN soon started sending my site solid traffic, Google simply didn't want to know. Ah, "the sandbox" I thought and simply continued to build quality incoming links.

All this time Google had been spidering regularly, when finally in August they clocked up an impressive 199,026 hits to my site.

Finally I'm going in!

Or so I thought.

When it got to October and there was still no sign of my new site in the listings I set out on a detective hunt to try and figure out why...

------------ The Solution ------------

With a 10 month-old site that was being regularly spidered and possessed a Page Rank of 5 it was suggested to me by a professional search engine optimization expert that it looked like I was tripping a "spam filter" that was preventing my pages getting listed but he couldn't figure out why.

So if it *was* a spam filter, what was triggering it?

An exhaustive search of both the visible pages plus the HTML code itself revealed one major error - which may or may not be the cause of the problem...

Whilst each of my META descriptions was different, there were similarities between them.

They were all based on a standard sentence with the keywords inserted.

As an example a similar sentence could read "Contains free articles and resources on the topic of [keyword] together with a free newsletter".

Then I would just modify it slightly for each page, but using this general format.

Could this be triggering the filter?

Only one way to find out.

So I sat down and rewrote every META description on my site making them as variable - in both content and length - as possible whilst still ensuring my keywords were present in each.

Then I sat back and waited...

---------- The Result ----------

Google visited again within a few days a within a week of the changes being made - my site started to show up all over Google with them sending 91 visitors in the first few days of diplaying my results.

Please be aware that this was the *only* change I made to the site - and it resulted in rapid inclusion in the index.

--------- The Moral ---------

No matter how good your site is, and no matter how much original content your site contains, use the same - even moderately similar - META descriptions and whilst MSN and Yahoo won't complain (yet) Google will refuse to play with you.

This would make sense as content generation software typically use these "template" descriptions to create the pages and so this is an easy thing for Google to catch, even if it excludes a few original, content-rich sites in the process.

The solution therefore to getting your pages listed is to rewrite your descriptions as I did to create as much variety in their content as possible.

-------------- Final Thoughts --------------

Lastly it's worth noting that Neil Shearing's Auto Income Secrets (http://www.scamfreezone.com/autoincomesecrets/) suggests a way to use content generation sites with varied META descriptions; information that should become even more valuable now that Google is actively avoiding sites that break this golden rule.

--[[[Note to editors - you are welcome to either omit this last "Final Thoughts" section or modify it to include your own affiliate link to the book in question if you desire]]]--

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Richard Adams is the founder of Merchant Account Forum, one of the net's most popular merchant account advice sites. Click Here Now => http://www.merchantaccountforum.com

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Ronald
http://www.affiliateutopia.com/

10 Key Strategies for Success in a Home Based Business

Copyright © 2005 Geoffrey Young

When you finally decide to work from home in an internet based business, you will need to follow certain steps to be successful.

Following are the basic steps in setting up for home business success.

1. Attitude

This is the key to your business.

Treat your business like a business.

This is critical no matter if you work part or full-time. One of my friends is a work at home mom. She has always put her family first whilst at the same time developing her business. She says, "I work part-time, but I have a full-time attitude."

Put another way, "If you have a hobby attitude you will have a hobby income, if you have a business attitude you will have a business income."

You can be successful working part-time and you can be successful working full-time but it is highly unlikely that you will be successful working in your "spare time".

2. Working Environment

A space that you can call your own, free from distractions for your scheduled time.

A comfortable chair and organized desk. Stationery supplies as required. For example:

- pens

- highlighters

- stapler

- hole punch

- sticky tape

- note book(s)

- a simple filing system

- ring binders

- manilla folders

Consider the value of a broadband connection. Your time is valuable and a broadband connection can allow you to get more done in a given time frame.


3. Schedule

Develop a schedule that works for you, your family (or "significant others") and your business. When you allot a block of time for work then use that time for work. Equally important is to schedule time for your other commitments - family time, self education ( reading, listening and viewing), "health time" (exercise, cooking and eating), and leisure time. During these other times don't work. After all if one of the reasons to work from home is to spend more time with your family then you don't want your working at home time to consume your family time.

You are working for yourself and your schedule (by your choice) is your "boss". When you have people calling you or dropping around unexpectedly or maybe out-of-town visitors may want to catch up with you then you need to make a choice. Are you committed to your own business success? What will be your choice in these situations? Only you can decide what is important to you.


In a family environment you may need to negotiate with your partner and children to have your business time agreed upon, during which you will not be interrupted. Put this schedule prominently somewhere so all family members are aware of your work schedule.


4. Describe Your Business

Be able to describe your business concisely; a powerful one or two sentence description that someone can repeat in describing your business to others. A unique and memorable tag line can also be invaluable for promoting your business.

5. Know Your Product or Service

Once you have selected your product or service to sell, it may or may not be something that you use yourself but you need to know your product intimately. If you are selling ebooks then know the content and its value. If you are selling software then use it know it "inside out". You will develop a reputation of providing quality information and because of your product knowledge you can become the preferred supplier.

It is not practical to use certain products (for example a woman may choose to sell man's shoes or vice versa) in which case the seller won't be a product user, however the seller can still know the benefits and features of the product intimately.

6. Administration

Use good record keeping practices.

This may involve a consultation with a tax advisor who can let you know about the optimal way to set up your financial records and what records need to be kept. Your advisor will also recommend record keeping systems and you can find out what software may simplify this aspect of your business. Additionally your obtain advice on the best arrangement for your bank accounts. You will most likely be advised to have a separate bank account.

You will also need to keep track of your various logins, usernames and passwords. A very handy little software tool for this is Treepad available as either the free Lite version (without password protection) or the commercial Plus or Biz versions. http://www.treepad.com

There are other useful tools for this also from a simple paper notebook to free and commercial password keepers. One popular solution is Roboform that will remember your login details and can automatically fill out your login and other registration forms. http://www.roboform.com

7. Computer Protection

Your computer is the lifeline to your business dealings and must be protected including the data that is stored.

You need a virus scanner, personal firewall, anti-spyware and anti-adware and preferably an email scanner with the ability to delete suspect of spam email from the server before it is downloaded to your computer.

Some suggestions are:

AVG Anti-Virus: http://www.grisoft.com

Spybot S&D: http://www.safer-networking.org

Microsoft Anti-Spyware: www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx Adaware: http://www.lavasoft.com/ Mailwasher Email Scanner: http://www.mailwasher.net

8. A Domain Name

You will most likely need a domain name for your business and one cost effective registrar is GoDaddy, http://www.godaddy.com.

9. Payment Processing

You will need a way to process credit cards; that may be using services such as: - PayPal https://www.paypal.com - Storm Pay http://www.stormpay.com - 2 Checkout http://www.2checkout.com - Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com or others.

This is the most economical way to get started. Once your business picks up you may need to look into your own merchant account for credit card transactions.

Consideration may also be given to other forms of online currency such as eGold http://www.egold.com

10. Email accounts

Once you have your own domain you can use an associated email account. This can further assist in the promotion of your business and promotes a more professional business image.

As a final comment on continuing in your internet business, conduct your business ethically, provide extraordinary service and be proud to put your name to the products or services that you are selling and you will be on track to developing a sustainable long term internet business.

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Geoffrey Young develops e-marketing solutions for people looking to start a home based business.

http://www.CoolJobAtHome.com

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Ronald
http://www.affiliateutopia.com/