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Early this morning, after 3am EST, Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, seems to have confirmed that Google took action on spam in Greece recently.
Matt responded on Twitter to someone noticing penalties to Greek web sites. Matt responded saying, "ah, you noticed the action in Greece?"
Here is Matt's response:
@realpoisom ah, you noticed the action in Greece?
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) March 24, 2014Normally, Matt comes right out and says that they've taken action on a link network of some sorts in a specific country. Matt has not done that this time, likely because he has been busy at TED in Vancouver fort he past few days.
We did have someone post a comment on our site four days ago about noticing a "serious serps updates in Greece search results."
So it does seem something happened in Greece. Matt did basically confirm it but the big question is, what link network did Google target in Greece?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Comments:
Spam Cutts
03/24/2014 01:36 pm
The penalties they are dishing out in these countries are tiny, once in a blue moon compared to English speaking countries where its almost daily, I feel Google are just trying to make some noise in these countries to scare some people off but they are 99% focused on English serps only. Shame really
Jonny
03/24/2014 01:59 pm
ah, matt cutts. do you have noticed what google search quality is doing down every day? Right way, continue to kill the best search engine in the past.
mamouhalos
03/24/2014 02:25 pm
4 days ago i noticed a 80% increase in organic traffic for one day, after that same as always. I can't see any significal change in serps on my niche.
Durant Imboden
03/24/2014 02:52 pm
Quibble: Matt Cutts didn't "admit" to taking action against spam in Greece, he "confirmed" it. ("Admit" would imply that he had something to hide, and Matt Cutts isn't in the habit of concealing Google's actions against spam networks. Why would he? The whole point of such actions is to set an example and create a deterrent.)
Barry Schwartz
03/24/2014 02:53 pm
:) jeez
Mike Weaver
03/24/2014 03:17 pm
Oh, Lord. Here comes Google's biggest daily apologist, Durant. "Wah, someone incorrectly criticized my hero. I'll defend them!"
Durant Imboden
03/24/2014 03:23 pm
I'm not defending Google or Matt Cutts, I'm defending the need for copy editors. :-)
F1 Steve
03/24/2014 03:50 pm
Copy editors? I Googled "Durant Imboden" and looked your website, forget the need for copy editors, you need to hire a web designer because......DAMMMN!!!
jimster
03/24/2014 03:53 pm
Well, don't cheat. Obviously you stay informed by coming here, so take what you've learned and use it...
Guest
03/24/2014 04:22 pm
I think its really getting old Google posting they took this network down ..etc. You think you would expect more from the biggest search engine, or alt east I would. It pretty much just tells everyone they have to hand go after them and there algo aint smart enough yet to do it for them... My two cents for Matt
Durant Imboden
03/24/2014 04:56 pm
The Internet population in some of those countries is tiny, too. (Greece's is around 5 million, compared to 245 million for the U.S.) Add in the fact that English is an international language spoken by an estimated 1.8 billion people, and it's easy to see why Google gives a lot of attention to English-language search spam.
Jim Hanson
03/24/2014 05:18 pm
Google has more power than the federal goverment. You get a trial at least before being found guilty. I bet a major update is looming, usually happens about now.
Morgan Akchehirlian
03/24/2014 06:44 pm
Matt just loves to indicate things rather than openly speaking what happened. Even the impact update he tweet I can bet is different from real. No way near to what percent he says.
James
03/24/2014 07:37 pm
Well, er, "F1 Steve" at least Durant is brave enough to use his real name so guys like you can Google him.
PM Fiorini
03/24/2014 07:42 pm
The safest things these days is NoSEO. That's where the trend seems to be heading...
The walls have ears...
03/24/2014 10:00 pm
Brave or stupid? You decide!!!
Christine
03/25/2014 12:00 am
No SEO, No Content, No links ...The only acceptable way of online marketing to Google is "Adwords" ... "Bing it ".. we need to get out of this Google dominance... the sooner the better...
PM Fiorini
03/25/2014 12:30 am
I agree. That's what Google wants. Any "link building" *can and will* be construed by Google as "web spam" - no matter how good and relevant the links are. This is a sad state of affairs. But, it is what it is.
PM Fiorini
03/25/2014 12:31 am
It's called "random variation". Does that make sense?
Aman Sareen
03/25/2014 11:07 am
You are absolutely right they are now on digital marketing
Peter Watson
03/25/2014 11:19 am
I want to hear from someone who has had massive rankings boost for doing the right thing. All I seem to read is about sites being smashed.
AntennaGR
03/26/2014 11:24 am
Regarding the "Greece Action"... It is widely reported that they used a SEO Forum(the only large available in Greece actually) that did case studies etc to leak the websites to ban! It's also reported that they were in majority manual penalties.. A large website building agency was penalised from results and it is said(from WHOIS) that it belonged to one of the administrators there. It is so lame, due to competition, to use so unethical methods.. but that's humanity i guess. We don't care to make ourselves better, we only want to harm others so that we inevitably look better to ourselves only..