When you're an SEO there aren't too many accomplishments that feel better than a #1 ranking that brings in boatloads of clicks and conversions. Today I came across one surefire way to guarantee that such a #1 ranking does you and your web site little good. Check out this screenshot of search results from Google and you'll see what I mean.
Holy cow, Max! What are you doing over on your site!? And since you're not going to need that #1 ranking, do you mind giving it to me?
Truth be told, I didn't even see Google's warning and happily clicked on the result since the title matched so closely to what I searched for. Luckily for me, the clever folks at Google knew I wouldn't be paying attention so they gave me one more chance to reconsider my click.
Big red lettering and an exclamation too. There's no way anyone is going to miss this second warning. I was curious to know how Google decided this site was harmful, but they don't seem to provide any specifics. Instead Google opts for a fairly generic explanation: "This warning message appears with search results we've identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer."
Can you think of a better way to waste a #1 ranking?
Related SEO/SEM Articles:- Google Maps Ooops
- Google is Counting My Clicks
- Tracking Universal Results and Rankings Revisted
- Does PageRank Matter?
- Bundling Content to Target Keywords
Entries (RSS)
Ouch, I've never seen this before!
So nice of Google to be our big daddy and protect us from all these bad things. And they are never wrong, right?
I wonder why they didn't just delist the site from the search results.
Delisting the site does seem reasonable, doesn't it? However, there was a lawsuit a while back from a company that had their listings dropped so maybe Google thinks this is a way to keep the lawyers at bay.