Busted by google - Link buying

M

mickn888

New member
May 6, 2009
15
0
0
London,UK
Guys,

Just had my network of of 70 minisites busted by google. Stupidly I used the same template, so it was very easy for google to ban me. I presume somebody reported me for link buying, and they did a search for the template and boom, game over. Luckily I was only making $800 a month from them, so small time really and not overly disappointed by it. The interesting thing is that they did not bust any of my sites with a different template, even though they had the same IP. Why did they not bust all my sites? Should they not have wiped out all the sites on my server? Would I have been busted if I had used a different template on each one? I am inclined to think not.

So I have picked myself up off the ground and am ready to start again. I think I am done with small, niche, keyword domain sites. I think I will focus on 5-10 authoiry sites in decent size sectors (not ultra competitive niches). What happens if I buy links for these sites? What are the chances of getting busted? They will be reasonably high quality sites with solid content. Is there a particular point where google will give you a manual review, ie once you hit 5k visitors a day. Does anybody out there have grey hat sites, that have been getting a lot of traffic for a long time, and still remain unpenalised?

Any tips and advice?

Thanks

Mike
 


I learned about template based bans the hard way 3 or 4 years ago.

Randomize your templates, and that doesn't mean just change the color scheme in CSS.

Also, busted in Google means what? Fix those templates and ask for reinclusion.

You're just guessing you were banned for link buying.
 
Randomized templates sounds like a fun project :-D I should add psd2randomtemplate to my skills list I guess. Isn't there some free tool to do this? Should be relatively easy to code given enough time. But I guess people who have such code wouldn't want to share it.
 
nkuttler said:
Randomized templates sounds like a fun project :-D I should add psd2randomtemplate to my skills list I guess. Isn't there some free tool to do this? Should be relatively easy to code given enough time. But I guess people who have such code wouldn't want to share it.
Click to expand...

YACG has one built in, but no one has ever heard of that since the 2007s.

Also, does that mean free templates, in Google's eyes, looked down upon?
 
shadowpwner said:
YACG has one built in, but no one has ever heard of that since the 2007s.

Also, does that mean free templates, in Google's eyes, looked down upon?
Click to expand...

I doubt it. Sounds like they hit all the sites on that ip with the same template. They most likely didn't hit his other sites because it could have been a shared hosting account. I would assume the only way a free template could hurt you is if you're on shared hosting with someone who is using the same template and gets banned for doing something wrong. What are the odds of that though?
 
guerilla said:
I learned about template based bans the hard way 3 or 4 years ago.

Randomize your templates, and that doesn't mean just change the color scheme in CSS.

Also, busted in Google means what? Fix those templates and ask for reinclusion.

You're just guessing you were banned for link buying.
Click to expand...

Does that mean if you are running 2-3 sites that are niche based, but meant to be similar, you shouldn't use the same theme?

What about a paid theme (Thesis)?
 
i've been hearing this for so long but still don't understand the logic. i have friends that are using the same fugly template for 100s of their adsense sites and they've been operating for years. how would using the same template get you banned if you have good quality content on the sites?
 
profitaddiction said:
Does that mean if you are running 2-3 sites that are niche based, but meant to be similar, you shouldn't use the same theme?
Click to expand...
Would you call 2-3 sites a network?

profitaddiction said:
What about a paid theme (Thesis)?
Click to expand...
Do you really think Google will ban everyone running the Thesis theme? Now do you think that Google has the capacity to ban everyone running Thesis with the same WHOIS, on the same IP, with the same nameservers, with the same analytics/adsense code?

A lot of people ask questions. Not too many people invest 5 minutes into reasoning out their own answers.
 
guerilla said:
Would you call 2-3 sites a network?


Do you really think Google will ban everyone running the Thesis theme? Now do you think that Google has the capacity to ban everyone running Thesis with the same WHOIS, on the same IP, with the same nameservers, with the same analytics/adsense code?

A lot of people ask questions. Not too many people invest 5 minutes into reasoning out their own answers.
Click to expand...

I would call 2-3 related sites a small network, actually.

On the other hand, it makes sense (to me) to run these sites using the same theme, as I plan to funnel visitors between the sites as they are probably interested in information among all 3. Therefore, keeping the feel of the sites similar would be logical.

As far as reasoning out the answers - It's easier to ask a question than spend months building something that is bound to fail.

Google banned me on AdWords awhile ago for no reason, so I'm trying to make sure I'm running clean on any other venture.

Your help is appreciated, your jackassery isn't.
 
Yikes this thread scares me. I have two sites on the same IP, same theme, and same niche (competing products), so content is pretty similar. I just launched the second site.

I'm using different linkbuilding tactics and no interlinking although they both link to the same 'master' site.

I don't feel like changing these two, but it looks like I'll stop using the same theme more than a couple of times.
 
profitaddiction said:
Google banned me on AdWords awhile ago for no reason, so I'm trying to make sure I'm running clean on any other venture.
Click to expand...
Everyone is trying to get somewhere. What makes you so special?

profitaddiction said:
As far as reasoning out the answers - It's easier to ask a question than spend months building something that is bound to fail.
Click to expand...

This is something from Ruck that I got via Lord Brar,

The lesson here is this. Nobody is going to give you shit. Nobody owes you shit. If you think anyone in this industry owes you anything, you need a serious wake up call. Unfortunately for you, that wake come call will probably come later than sooner.
Click to expand...
profitaddiction said:
Your help is appreciated, your jackassery isn't.
Click to expand...

Jackassery? You just lost my interest. Was it worth it?
 
guerilla said:
Everyone is trying to get somewhere. What makes you so special?



This is something from Ruck that I got via Lord Brar,



Jackassery? You just lost my interest. Was it worth it?
Click to expand...

I don't think I act like anybody owes me shit.

I guess smartass =/ jackass then?

Was it worth it? The only 'interest' you showed in the first response was giving me a bunch of reasons to feel like a moron for not 'thinking through my issue in more depth'

Nothin but love, baby
 
Jondoe0069 said:
I doubt it. Sounds like they hit all the sites on that ip with the same template. They most likely didn't hit his other sites because it could have been a shared hosting account. I would assume the only way a free template could hurt you is if you're on shared hosting with someone who is using the same template and gets banned for doing something wrong. What are the odds of that though?
Click to expand...


I had other sites on the same ip with a different template. And they didnt hit them.
 
guerilla said:
I learned about template based bans the hard way 3 or 4 years ago.

Randomize your templates, and that doesn't mean just change the color scheme in CSS.

Also, busted in Google means what? Fix those templates and ask for reinclusion.

You're just guessing you were banned for link buying.
Click to expand...

Yep.. I might have a go a that, can't see it working..but worth a shot.
 
Berto said:
Yikes this thread scares me. I have two sites on the same IP, same theme, and same niche (competing products), so content is pretty similar. I just launched the second site.

I'm using different linkbuilding tactics and no interlinking although they both link to the same 'master' site.

I don't feel like changing these two, but it looks like I'll stop using the same theme more than a couple of times.
Click to expand...


I think if you have only a few sites, you should chill out. But if you are depending on 10 sites for ur income, and they are all the same theme/template (that you have custom built) and one site goes grey hat, and you get caught, don't be too surprised if all ten get bombed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom