Adrac search penalty specialist briefs City fund managers
Last week, one of Adrac Ltd’s search engine specialists took part in a City business event to help raise awareness about the potentially crippling effects of search engine penalties.
Natural search expert Tariq Ahmed was among other professionals speaking to an audience of fund managers, analysts and representatives of the financial media at the seminar.
The idea behind the event was to offer insight into search penalty consequences and explain how they can affect investments in smaller quoted companies.
Tariq – who sometimes contributes to this blog – detailed how search engine bans had impacted upon businesses, using real examples of accidental and intentional penalties levied on companies.
“It’s concerning that some penalties seem to be accidental but there is no process to have them removed. Also, if a company website has done something wrong unintentionally, there’s no advice on how to put it right,” he said.
“Frustration at bureaucracy is just the tip of the iceberg: search engines have immense power and influence, and a penalty can seriously impact on a business on many levels.”
The event was organised by One News Page, which is behind the Have I Been Penalized campaign for search engine transparency, which in turn is supported by Icomp (Initiative for a Competitive Online Market Place).
Event host Ray Snoddy, former Financial Times and Times journalist and BBC NewsWatch presenter, wrote on www.mediatel.co.uk after the seminar:
“The campaigners concede that many of the Google criteria are fair and necessary to provide an even playing field for the ever-increasing number of companies doing business online.
“In particular it is entirely reasonable to prevent anyone obtaining unfair advantage online through unacceptable search optimisation techniques.”
Other speakers included: Timothy R.W. Cowen, an expert on EU and UK competition law from Sidley Austin LLP; Bob Sakayama, an expert on search penalties and penalty handling from TNG/Earthling Inc (New York); and Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer, founder of One News Page.
Recent research by One News Page found that 90% of the 40 analysts it polled want more transparency over search penalties; some 60% said they were not aware that search engines could impose them without having to inform the affected websites and only 25% knew penalties could remain in place for up to three years.
Businesses who think they have been hit by a search engine ban should enlist the help of optimisation experts. In some cases, righting wrongs – like getting rid of black hat SEO on a website or ceasing a rule infraction – can lead to a penalty being lifted sooner rather than later.
However, Adrac suggests having a website health check before a ban occurs.
