Last Friday, Google posted a warning to repeated violators of the Google Webmaster Guidelines that Google may take "further action" and/or it may be "more difficult" to be successful in reversing the penalty. Again, this was aimed at manual actions only. If you missed that news, go read it over here.
As you can see from my coverage of that news on Friday, I seemed confused by the post. I said then that I thought Google always had this stance but maybe Google is posting this to go on record about it. Which I felt was un-Google like.
Historically, Google doesn't spend time communicating with serious spammers, spammers that violate Google's guidelines over and over again. But this post was a message directly to them, which again, is not the Google way.
Pedro Dias, former Google spam fighter, said on Google+ that he has "mixed feelings" about that post. He wrote:
I have mixed feelings about this "repeated violations" post. I feel it was unnecessary; it doesn't really benefit anyone. People who engage in that kind of behaviour don't really care about this info; plus it puts Google under a "punisher" light instead of a "guide"
I am glad he said it, because I agree on both points.
(1) Google has said time and time again, they don't spend time communicating with spammers.
(2) Google obviously doesn't want to look like a referee but rather a best practices presenter.
To me, this means that the news from Friday really isn't a new action but rather a possible shift in a new approach to how Google communicates - unless it was just a misstep?
Forum discussion at Google+.
