Google has responded with a harsh punishment to a website called RapGenius that had been using dubious search engine optimization (SEO) tactics in order to attain the top site position when people search Google for items related to RapGenius.
Google has now taken all traces of RapGenius.com off of its front page and has buried it five pages deep in all search results. According to TechCrunch, RapGenius' website offers a database of song lyrics, which is a viable website idea as long as people searching for lyrics will find your website easily. The site also lets its users provide their own explanations for song lyrics, religious texts, legal documents, images and much more.
Google reportedly punished the site as a result of some tactics it was using to try and trick the Google search mechanic into putting its site above all other searches. To do this, the company invited bloggers to join its "Rap Genius Blog Affiliate" program. In an e-mail written by John Marbach, the founder of e-mail filtering startup Glider, he asked the Rap Genius how this program worked. They responded by saying they would offer to tweet links to his blog in exchange for him placing a series of links to Rap Genius' Justin Bieber lyrics page on his blog. The links were designed to trick Google into giving Rap Genius better result rankings on searches for lyrics to songs form Bieber's new album, something that is sure to have many people searching for this season. This violates Google's rules by offering a form of payment by generating traffic to these blogs by tweeting their content.
Rather than participate in this program, Marbach revealed Rap Genius' tactics by publishing the e-mail exchange on his blog instead. According to TechCrunch, this prompted Google's webspam czar Matt Cutts to investigate Rap Genius.
The site received a death sentence from Google by putting the site's content at least five pages deep in any Google search. Rap Genius apologized in an open letter to Google asking for the entire lyrics site category to be examined, saying that some of its competitors were responsible for worse SEO tactics.
This apology doesn't seem to have done the site much good as it is still stranded several pages deep in Google's search results. Previously it was found close to the top of the search results page for people searching for rap lyrics and translations of those lyrics.
This will likely cause Rap Genius to take a big hit on business as it relies heavily on being the top result when people make these kinds of searches.
The site has issued a statement saying it is working with Google to try and fix the issue.
"We are working with Google right now to resolve this. They've been really great, helping us identify changes we need to make, even on Christmas. We're working on it as fast as we can, and expect to be back on Google very soon.
It sucks to be off Google for us and for the thousands of our community members who have worked so hard to create what's often the best search result.
We hope everyone who reads this will take a little time out from their Christmas and head to Rap Genius and sign up so you can contribute your knowledge on your favorite subjects - becoming a member of our community makes the site way more fun. Merry Christmas"
