Google’s Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For "Browser" After Sponsored Post Penalty. Searches for “browser” no longer bring up the Google Chrome home page after Google applied a penalty against the page because of Google’s own sponsored post campaign. Google said even though it felt there were no “remaining violations” of its guidelines, the search engine’s spam fighting team was going to reduce the Page. Rank value of the Google Chrome home page, which in turn lead to today’s ranking decrease. From the statement Google sent us: We’ve investigated and are taking manual action to demote www.

Page. Rank for a period of at least 6. We strive to enforce Google’s webmaster guidelines consistently in order to provide better search results for users. While Google did not authorize this campaign, and we can find no remaining violations of our webmaster guidelines, we believe Google should be held to a higher standard, so we have taken stricter action than we would against a typical site. Lower Page. Rank Value Doesn’t Equal Banning.

At the time the statement was originally sent, around 1: 3. PT today, the page had a publicly- reported Page. Rank value of 9. The highest you can have is 1.

One tool I used reported the non- https version of the page as having a Page. Rank of zero. Another check with the Google Toolbar shows it still at 9. However, it’s common that Page. Rank values shown to the public may be behind, sometimes months behind, the scores that Google is actually using. Lowering the Page.

Rank value is not the same as removing or banning the page from Google. Potentially, however, a lower Page. Rank value will reduce its ability to rank well for certain terms. That’s what’s happened as a result of this. Will It Still Rank? When the statement was initially received, the Chrome home page still ranked for searches on chrome, google chrome and the generic term of browser, as you can see below: I wrote in the earlier version of this story: Chances are, even with the Page. Rank reduction, the page will continue to rank for these terms.

However, if it were to fall out of the first page of results for “browser,” or to something lower than its current number two position that I see, then the penalty will have had some real teeth…. If that penalty doesn’t cause some type of ranking reduction, then it’s not really much of a penalty at all. The separate issue of Google’s campaign creating garbage posts remains, but that’s a penalty that’s typically applied to the garbage post themselves. No, It Will Not. Now that has happened for a search on “browser,” as you can see below: That’s the first page of results for “browser” on Google now. Previously, Chrome has been ranked number two. Now you have to go to the fifth page of results to find it, ranked in position 5.

NOTE: Only about a half- hour after writing this, we’ve also seen the page sink to as low at 7. In fact, the page no longer ranks for “chrome” or for “chrome browser,” either. Instead, of the Chrome home page that looked like this showing up first: It’s the Chrome installation help page that gets top billing: The main download page does still make it in the top results, but it has been demoted in both cases to “sitelink” status as you can see here: John Doherty emailed me that he’d run some ranking checks on other terms before the change happened. Here’s the shift from what he recorded to what I see now: internet browser, dropped from 5th to 5. A Solid Slap. Overall, only one page in the sponsored post campaign was ever spotted with a “straight” link that passed credit to the Chrome page.

It also didn’t seem as if the campaign overall was designed to help Chrome rank for any particular terms. It was doing fine on its own before this happened.

But technically, even that single link was enough to make Google guilty of buying paid links, even if it happened because of two different agencies being involved. Minor technical violation or not, I’d say Google applied a solid penalty against itself, one that should last for at least 6. But If Google Can’t Figure Things Out…To me, the bigger issue in this has always been the garbage content that was produced by the campaign, “thin” material that Google has fought to keep out of its own search results. I’m still trying to understand how Google failed to understand that the marketing companies it engaged with would produce this.

BrightLocal's Annual Local Consumer Review Survey 2016. This research shows how consumers read and use online reviews when searching for local businesses. SEO Advantage is a leading search engine optimisation company providing SEO services to businesses in Australia. Call 1300 707 660.

Given how much detail Google professes to put into its marketing, as I covered yesterday, it still remains amazing that the company found itself involved with this type of campaign. It also raises the serious question that if Google can’t keep track of its own rules, what hope is there that third parties are supposed to figure it all out? I hate to write that, because the last thing I want is for a Google screw- up to be an excuse for anyone to do the type of “marketing” that Google did. But it’s also true. Postscript: The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, has shared some comments on Google+ though he’s on vacation.

He confirms that the video player links didn’t pass any link credit, but because they found at least one non- video player link that did, that was deemed sufficient to take action against Google. From his post: If you investigated the two dozen or so sponsored posts (as the webspam team immediately did), the posts typically showed a Google Chrome video but didn’t actually link to Google Chrome. We double- checked, and the video players weren’t flowing Page. Rank to Google either. However, we did find one sponsored post that linked to www. Page. Rank. Even though the intent of the campaign was to get people to watch videos–not link to Google–and even though we only found a single sponsored post that actually linked to Google’s Chrome page and passed Page. Rank, that’s still a violation of our quality guidelines, which you can find at http: //support.

In response, the webspam team has taken manual action to demote www. After that, someone on the Chrome side can submit a reconsideration request documenting their clean- up just like any other company would. During the 6. 0 days, the Page. Rank of www. google. Stock image via Shutterstock. Used under license.)Related Articles.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

Searches for “browser” no longer bring up the Google Chrome home page after Google applied a penalty against the page because of Google’s own sponsored post. Pippa Scott, Actress: The Searchers. Pippa Scott, a smart-looking, reddish-haired actress with an unusual first name, seemed bound for a career in the arts from the. What’s most interesting is that Bing claims to reach 56 million searchers who are not reached on Google. There’s also a claim made that Bing captures 31% of the. Watch Ben-Hur Online Freeform.

Poptart – S.A.'s biggest art print and poster shop.