It started with an article on Forbes called “Condemned to Google Hell”, an article that goes through cautionary tale after cautionary tale of what happens when you inadvertently incur the wrath of the Google Gods and get sorted into Google’s supplemental index.
According to the article, the supplemental index is “designed to lighten the workload of Google's 'spider,' the algorithm that constantly combs and categorizes Web pages. Google uses the index as a holding pen for pages it deems to be of low quality or designed to appear artificially high in search results.”
So -- is Google’s supplemental index fair or foul?
According to Matt Cutts (Head of Google’s WebSpam department), being in the supplemental index is not a death sentence for a Web site and there are ways to lessen the chances of ending up there. However, being relegated to Google Hell can have disastrous effects, as it did for www.mysolitaire.com.
As Cutts describes what mysolitarie did wrong, we can learn what to do right. First, steer clear of nefarious (black hat) SEO tactics as part of your strategy. Second, if you hire an SEO outsource, be careful who you pick and monitor what they do after you hire them.
More blog reactions to the article –
Cautionary Advice from The Marketing Pilgrim
Commentary from Jason Lee Miller at WebPro News.
