Rap Genius was outed<\/a>, and Google was forced into taking action.<\/p>\nHowever, even though the penalty was merited, this was bad for Google’s search results. Rap Genius is a very popular service. People who were looking for it were not able to find it, and that was a problem.<\/p>\n
While it makes people angry that Google fast tracked them through their penalty, the reality is that it had to be done. Searchers looking for the company were not finding what they were looking for.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the coin, when a small business or lesser known brand is hit by a penalty their road back is far more difficult<\/em>. Few people are missing them in the search results. It is a hard and bitter reality, but it all comes back to the same underlying facts:<\/p>\n\n- Search is massively complex<\/li>\n
- Search quality is king<\/li>\n
- It is why action is quite slow most of the time…<\/li>\n
- …except when the problem lessens their current search performance in a material way<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
How Does This Affect You?<\/h2>\n
As a publisher, it is important to understand the landscape around you. Google will always act to protect the quality of their search results. In some cases, this will cause them to move very slowly, and in other cases it will cause them to move quite quickly. Either way, the complexity of the task they face means it will always be possible to find crappy sites in various search results.<\/p>\n
In addition, Google will steadily work to make their results improve. This comes in the form of new algorithms that their testing shows makes the results better in aggregate<\/em>, provided that there are a minimum of specific unacceptable side effects. Whenever these new algorithms are implemented, there will always be some specific results that actually get worse. Search is far too complex to avoid that.<\/p>\nWhen you see quick individual actions, such as Rap Genius, that is because of a very specific set of circumstances. The site was penalized because they were outed and fast tracked back in due to the fact that its penalization caused a search quality problem.<\/p>\n
In short, whether the action is fast or slow all depends on the same core focus: what is good for search quality?<\/p>\n
From your perspective, as a publisher, you can’t take the risk of playing games to improve search rankings. If you are a known brand, you risk public outing, and if you are not a known brand and your rankings go away, the road back is likely to be very painful!<\/p>\n
\nContributing authors are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff<\/a> and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. The opinions they express are their own.<\/em><\/p>\n
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![\"comScore](\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2014\/01\/comscore-search-market-share.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Google's](\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2014\/01\/google-stock-price.jpg\")