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Online Store to Sue Blogger Over Google Ranking?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-this-effort-could-have-gone-to-fixing-his-site dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An online business owner is threatening to sue blog owner Dean Hunt (DeanHunt.com) because he is upset that the blog owner is doing better than his business in the Google search rankings. After an initial threat, Dean received a follow-up threatening to take legal action against him. So far Dean has elected not to name and shame this business owner."

11 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Ranking.... by BWJones · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, well there are lots of blogs that do better than a number of businesses and organizations for whatever reasons Google assigns ranking. I get a number of amused emails from people that find Google ranks my blog higher than their dedicated sites for a shocking number of items. They want to know how I've engineered it, and I have to say I honestly don't know. But if they want to pay Google to increase their ranking above mine, go for it.

    I suspect part of the reason is my selective use of links in articles I post to supplement the content I post with targeted information, as well as my hosting it from my office in an educational institution. Occasionally getting linked from places like Slashdot, BoingBoing and Digg can't hurt either....

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    1. Re:Ranking.... by garcia · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They want to know how I've engineered it, and I have to say I honestly don't know. But if they want to pay Google to increase their ranking above mine, go for it.

      I routinely outrank local businesses that I write about on my site. Generally these businesses are unknown to Google and if I don't link to their actual site (it may not exist prior to me posting about them and them subsequently finding out that I gave them an unfavorable review).

      I have watched local businesses like Divinci's Pizza go in and out of business while trying to gain top Google ranking. I have also had pissed off business owners post to my site trying to prove that they aren't as bad as I said they were.

      Why am I ranked higher? Probably because of Slashdot and the various other blogs that link back to me (I'm somewhere around 270 links). Other than that, who the fuck knows.

    2. Re:Ranking.... by Christopher_Edwardz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I would imagine that the business owners are attempting to "fool" google's ranking system. They just assume that Dean Hunt is trying and beating them and they're crying foul.

      Perhaps they paid someone like a search engine placement company and feel a little angry at being cheated?

  2. Simple by torstenvl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    FRCP 12(b)(6) the thing. Plaintiff has not stated a claim upon which relief can be granted. Then you're done.

  3. MY BLOG WAS SUED BY MICROSOFT by Shihar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am totally serious. My blog was SUED BY MICRO$OFT because I made some software that was so much more awesome then theirs. I even have the letters they sent me to prove it!!11!!! Now, if the Slashdot editors will kindly accept my claim without any sort of validation and post me on a Slashdot front page...

    Seriously. Show an ounce of journalistic integrity and don't give a podium to utterly baseless claims. He doesn't even say what company is suing him so we can't even bother to ask that company if this is real. Any idiot could have made this up for the singular purpose of driving up hits. I am not saying that the guy is liar (he very well could be telling the truth), just he shouldn't get a free stage to advertise until there is at least the semblance of a claim that can be fact checked.

  4. 30 Comments and nobody asking about Mike? by Overzeetop · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wouldn't every body here want to see a blog by Mike Hunt?

    Laugh. It's funny.

    Okay, it isn't. It's tired and overused. And oddly enough, MikeHunt.com is safe for work. Whoddathunkit?

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  5. Never underestimate the subtle stuff. by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On a site I run, I've got articles I've written about other businesses (typically complimentary) that invariably rank higher than the businesses' own web sites, especially on slightly odd-ball searches, but often on something as simple as the business's name. And the only thing I'm doing is using better grammar, and generally carrying on in a more conservative way. Google seems to reward restraint. Breathless promotional material always seems to take a back seat to lucid, well-constructed information.

    Sure, Google ranks plenty of blatant trash higher than it sometimes should, but it's not always that way. My own experience is that actual, real content remains king. Small businesses frequently don't take the time to actually write any real meat for their own web sites. Hell, a lot my older stuff still isn't even all that standards-compliant (I swear I'll get around that CSS stuff one of these days), but it usually exceeds the sites about which I'm writing. And, of course, it's a feedback loop. The more credible some of my pages appear, the higher the new ones rank, too. No witchcraft, no magic sauce: just careful writing and resisting the urge to run content from the slimier ad engines.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  6. Not convinced this guy is truthful by Sir+Homer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I saw a link to this on his website: http://www.deanhunt.com/services/index.html

    It raises some suspicion as this guy's business seems to be googlebombing. Perhaps he fabricated this story in order to get his website up in PageRank by people linking to him.

    1. Re:Not convinced this guy is truthful by Sir+Homer · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Not true. From his his website he seems to really want people to blog about it. He thanks people for blogging about it and puts "easy to blog" links. He says on website before this "event" occurs that he will attempt a "viral campaign".
      Over the coming weeks I am going to be attempting my very first viral campaign. A viral campaign is something that has interested me for a long time, and if done properly it can be one of the most powerful tools any webmaster has.
  7. THIS IS FAKE, HE MADE THIS UP! PLEASE READ. by Sir+Homer · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This man owns a search optimization business, with its only purpose to increase the PageRank of other sites. There is no threatening letters. Mr. Dean Hunt fabricated them himself. He even writes in his website:
    Over the coming weeks I am going to be attempting my very first viral campaign. A viral campaign is something that has interested me for a long time, and if done properly it can be one of the most powerful tools any webmaster has.
    There is NO evidence this guy is telling the truth, but there is ALOT of evidence this guy is lying his ass off. Don't believe this Slashdot readers!
  8. Here's my secret by shaneh0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And I'll share it for free:

    A rich internal link structure.

    Blog software creates this by default, but you can do it manually. A recent website I was hired to optimize will illustrate this. The site is customSiliconeBracelets.com. When I was hired they were on the 30th page for their two desired phrases: Silicone Bracelets & Custom Silicone Bracelets. Now, they're number 1 in both of those.

    To accomplish this, I did two main things:

    1. Add a bunch of text. It's mostly nonsensical. It's not meant for human consumption. It's there for keyword density.

    2. Add a shitload of intra-site links. Every keyword in that nonsensical text is linked to other pages in the site. If you tried to navigate the site by following such links (instead of using the sites navigation) you'd go in circles for hours. Which, when you look at the logs, is essentially what Googlebot does.

    Of course, there was all the "standard" stuff like page titles, H tags, links with titles, alt text on images, etc. But those only get you so far. The real beef is in the link structures, friends.