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Our SERPs spammed out from Live/MSN? Mod, can you take a look please? RRS feed

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    Our  website http://www.doomedsoldiers.com, which is a not-for-profit, volunteer maintained website has been (we believe) spammed out of MSN/Live index.

    The search for "doomed soldiers" returns bunch of links originating from Australia serving exactly the same content in each link that appears in Live search results. Here is a search results page for "doomed soldiers":

    http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=doomed+soldiers&go=&form=QBLH

    Please note what appears in 1, 3, 5, 6 places ...

    The keyword tab in the Webmaster Center lists various pages served by our website which are rated with 5 bars. Specific search queries performed within the Webmaster Center console show #1 position for various pages on our website while searched under: "anticommunist underground", "doomed soldiers", and other terms.  

    At this point our SERPs are basically spammed out of Live.  It is pretty sickening, but I guess some people have no scruples, and certainly have no morals ... Would anyone care to chime in to let us know who the "genius" behind this campaign is?  

    And most importantly, how and whom at Live search team should we ask for help with this issue? Mod, could you please take a look at this and advise?

    Big thanks for any suggestions.

    Best, Robert
    Wednesday, October 15, 2008 2:56 PM

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    Hi Robert,

     

    I have not heard back from you regarding this issue. Were you able to access the blog post? Let me know.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Brett

    Thursday, December 11, 2008 10:07 PM

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    Mod ... can you please advise?  Even our domain name search "www.doomedsoldiers.com" returns bunch of spammed SERPs: 

    http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=www.doomedsoldiers.com&go=&form=QBLH&qs=n

    Thanks, Robert
    Friday, October 17, 2008 2:32 PM
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    Can Mod acknowledge this please?  Bump ...
    Tuesday, October 21, 2008 4:50 PM
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    It looks like your site got scraped by news sites and other scraper sites. it seems like live search doesnt see your site as the authrority for that content and these other sites are listed instead of yours.

     

    Your content is no longer unique i suggest you either contact these offending sites or rewrite your content so it is unique again.

     

    Gluck!

    Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:55 PM
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    Thanks for bouncing back Capone303.  We appreciate it. One would think that MSN/Live would at least elect to take a look at this particular incident!  Sad 

    As to re-writing our content, it would mean that we would have to re-write the history ... and since our website deals with history, it would no longer be history if it was rewritten Wink

    As far as contacting the offending sites is concerned, I am afraid, that without cooperation from MSN, it will not do much good. We have a pretty good idea where this scam originated.

    May I humbly suggest that what happened to our site is certainly not unique! Well, we'll patiently wait ... At this point, the number of our indexed pages trickled down to 3, but even that doesn't make much difference since we are thoroughly spammed out ... While doing keyword/phrase search we can see that the site was last crawled few days ago, but the remaining 3 pages that are showing as indexed do not reflect this new date. Time to start looking at the tea-leafs.

    Mod, may we contact you privately, and if so, how?

    Best, Robert
    Thursday, October 23, 2008 3:18 PM
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    Bump.  

    Does Microsoft care when morally decrepit thieves (from Australia) undermine integrity and credibility of their search engine? Oh, and that marvel of technology, "the webmaster central", shows only 2 pages indexed now ...
    Tuesday, October 28, 2008 12:14 AM
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    Hi Robert,

     

    My apologies. I was unavailable for a few days.  You are still in our index, but ranking fairly low.To help you better, please, could you tell me what keywords are you targeting? Are you using any redirects and if so what?  

     

    Thanks,

     

    Brett

    Tuesday, October 28, 2008 2:41 PM
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    Hi Brett,
     
    Thank you for taking the time to respond.  
     
    There seem to be a fundamental flaw in the way MSN/Live validates content.  Case-in-point is the situation with our website where our content was clearly scraped and then re-populated throughout MSN/Live. I genuinely hope that I don't have to convince you of that? 

    My post didn’t mean to imply that we seek your assistance in elevating our ranking for certain keywords, but rather to alert you that some underhanded, unethical, manipulation of SERPs took place? I sincerely believe that our website (which basically disappeared from your index) should be able to be ranked high (as it had been until recently) based on its merits and hi-quality content. If our website, which ranked very well is not even showing up while looking for the domain name, but rather a bunch of spammed / scrapped links are served instead of legitimate content, may I humbly suggest, that it  "ain't" about keywords? It makes me wonder why in a heavens' name do we even bother with validating our websites, when at the end of the day, it means absolutely zilch. 
     
    May we please start here:
     
    http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=www.doomedsoldiers.com&go=&form=QBLH
     
    here:
     
    http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=doomed+soldiers&go=&form=QBRE
     
    and here:
     
    http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doomedsoldiers.com&go=&form=QBRE
     
     
    Thanks for your time, and I am looking forward to your response.  If you wish to contact me privately (I sent you an e-mail few days ago), please do so. 
     
    Respectfully Yours,
     
    Robert
    Tuesday, October 28, 2008 7:50 PM
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     Brett Yount wrote:

    Hi Robert,

     

    You are still in our index, but ranking fairly low.

     


    Our domain score in the Webmaster Central dropped to 4 bars.  We are down to 2 pages in the index.


     Brett Yount wrote:
     To help you better, please, could you tell me what keywords are you targeting?
     


    Can we start with our domain name to begin with?  Why is our domain name query replaced with some other content?


     Brett Yount wrote:
     Are you using any redirects and if so what? 
     


    We have not used any redirects.  But some "re-directing" apparently took place, and thus the reason for this post.

     

    Well... All quiet on the Western Front ... Another bump ... 

    There is another "ingenious" scam in place that we have detected as a result of this incident, but it is probably not the right place for me to discuss ...

    Best, Robert
    Thursday, October 30, 2008 3:03 PM
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    Hi Brett,

    Any findings on your end?  Another bump ...

    Robert
    Tuesday, November 4, 2008 2:07 PM
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     Robert Warren wrote:
    Bump ...

    Sunday, November 9, 2008 3:11 PM
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    Another bump ... Earth to Microsoft ...

    Robert 

    Monday, November 17, 2008 2:15 PM
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     Robert Warren wrote:
    Another bump ... Earth to Microsoft ...

    Robert 

    This issue remains unresolved ... Bumpity Bump Bump Bump ...

    Robert

    Sunday, November 23, 2008 5:43 PM
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    Bumpity Bump Bump Bump ...677 views on this board ... whmmmm  Where do I send my 2 cents?  Is the "Live" alive?

    Robert
    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 2:50 PM
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    Robert,

     

    I received a permission error when I tried accessing doomedsoldiers.com  

     

    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 7:27 PM
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    Robert,

     

    out of curiosity, are you blocking MSNbot or our IP range?

     

     

    Brett

    Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:52 PM
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    Brett,

    Nothing that identifies itself properly as your bot and/or originates from your IP range is blocked. Provided you are not trying to access this site from Zimbabwe, People's Democratic Republic of Congo, or some other distant,  and surely very cool, exotic place, neither you, nor msnbot should have any problems with accessing our site.  Our site gets spidered daily by Google, Yahoo, and a slew of other search engines with absolutely no problems ... I don't see any 403s or 500s within your IP range anywhere in our logs. Please see below for your recent spider activity: 

    65.55.211.85 - - [01/Dec/2008:09:17:27 -0700] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 484 "-" "msnbot/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"


    65.55.217.53 - - [04/Dec/2008:01:44:18 -0700] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 486 "-" "msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"

    65.55.217.53 - - [04/Dec/2008:01:44:19 -0700] "GET /xyz/xyz/xyz/xyzi.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 15331 "-" "msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"


    65.55.217.66 - - [04/Dec/2008:06:33:37 -0700] "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" 200 486 "-" "msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"

    65.55.217.66 - - [04/Dec/2008:06:33:37 -0700] "GET /xyz/xyz/xyz/xyz/xyz.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 25014 "-" "msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"


    65.55.217.66 - - [04/Dec/2008:08:08:16 -0700] "GET /xyz/xyz/xyz/xyz.jpg HTTP/1.1" 200 10500 "-" "msnbot-media/1.1 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)"


    If you wish, please e-mail and we will continue this conversation privately.


    Robert

    Thursday, December 4, 2008 4:13 PM
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     Brett Yount wrote:

     

    Robert,

     

    out of curiosity, are you blocking MSNbot or our IP range?

     

     

    Brett


    Hi Brett,

    FYI:  While trying to research and verify your official IP range I am receiving "The page cannot be found"  (please see below).  I am tying to access it from Microsoft's official (I believe) blog entitled appropriately:  Search robots in disguise   

    The URL to the disguised robots page that returns 404 is here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ControlPanel/Blogs/www.live.com

    The page cannot be found

    The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

    Please try the following:

    • Make sure that the Web site address displayed in the address bar of your browser is spelled and formatted correctly.
    • If you reached this page by clicking a link, contact the Web site administrator to alert them that the link is incorrectly formatted.
    • Click the Back button to try another link.

    HTTP Error 404 - File or directory not found.
    Internet Information Services (IIS)

    Technical Information (for support personnel)

    • Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 404.
    • Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Web Site Setup, Common Administrative Tasks, andAbout Custom Error Messages.

    Best Robert
    Thursday, December 4, 2008 4:48 PM
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    Hi Robert,

     

    The reason why I asked the earlier question is because I got the permission error at work, so I tried again from my home. I was able to access your site from home, so I tried modifying my user-agent string to MSNbot and received the permission error again. From reading your other posts, I wasn't sure if you had blocked us or not.

     

    Try this link for the blog post you were trying to access:

     

    http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2006/11/29/search-robots-in-disguise.aspx

     

     

     

    Friday, December 5, 2008 12:12 AM
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    Hi Robert,

     

    I have not heard back from you regarding this issue. Were you able to access the blog post? Let me know.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Brett

    Thursday, December 11, 2008 10:07 PM