I target highly competetive keywords and phrases. There are a lot of slimballs also targeting the market using black SEO. Doorway pages with redirects is what thay are doing much to my amazment I believe with throwaway domains.
Do many of you experince this in your keywords? Is it worthwhile to start going through results and reporting these violations to the major SE's? Have any of you campaigned with reporting violaters and has it been worth it? I suspect that there are dozens of violaters, maybe as many as 50% of the top 30 results on most of the major SE's.

For my keywords, this used to be the case for about 40% of the first two pages (on Google). I found that the spammy ones had an "instable" position, they would be number 2 for a few weeks, then drop to about 50 and be back 10 days later at 2. Lately however, the top results have been all legitimate so either people are not spamming as much using these techniques or the search engines are getting better at picking it up, my guess is the latter. :)

Personally, I think it is not very productive to report spammers / blackhats. They will get caught soon enough on their own. In the meantime, you can use your time to build up your legitimate position that much further.

btw, I use the word legitimate, in the way that the SE would use it. I am not implying however that blackhat tactics are not legitimate. Just so long as you can stomach the risks.

Why not? Why wait for them to wreck your chances of a better position in case they are your competitor? It does not take a lot of your time to report a violation.

While they can be reinstated once they are banned, at least you did your part, not just took care of your own business, but you made SERPs provide quality content.

Why not? Why wait for them to wreck your chances of a better position in case they are your competitor? It does not take a lot of your time to report a violation.

While they can be reinstated once they are banned, at least you did your part, not just took care of your own business, but you made SERPs provide quality content.
Actually your talking about a lot of time, Perhaps fifty or more phrases and keywords, google, Yahoo, MSN, it would require more then just an occasional email.

If you are too lazy to report then that's up to you.

I did it myself a month ago and it took me five minutes to fill up the form. In a week Google banned the site.

Sure, it takes five minutes to report one site. But reporting one site does not make a whole lot o difference. As pointed out by pokersearch, there are literally thousands of keywords any one site is focusing on, and tens of thousands or more potential spammers under each of those keywords. okay, so you take five minutes to report a blackhat. You feel good, and so does Google, because they got you to do their work for free, ie, they did not have to pay you.

If you are lucky, they get banned, more likely scenario, they get a penalty which they quickly overcome after making minor corrections to their site.

One site down, 10,000 more to go.

Not to mention the fact that in that same five minutes you could have found a new IBL partner, which would probably have put you further ahead in the end anyway.

Sure, it takes five minutes to report one site. But reporting one site does not make a whole lot o difference.
You’re right!
I’ve been following some spammers since 2 years now and they disappear just for a few months to come back again with more grubby tricks. :mad:
That’s the reason I really don’t understand why SE do not implement better techniques to stop spammers. :confused:

report in google spam report soon...

Matt Cutts has said that they don't individually remove spammers. They look at patterns and try to find a way to program their algorithm to filter the sites out automatically. So while it make seem to make no real difference now, eventually your report will help.

No question about that. You are helping Google, and the great thing is, they don't even have to pay you for it. If your intention is to help Google (which I am not implying is a bad thing) and not get paid for it, than it is certainly worth your time.

If your intention is to use your time as productively as possible to move your OWN site forward, than it is not such a worthwhile pursuit.

btw, they do both. That is, they look for trends that will allow them to improve their algos, as well as put penalties on individual sites.

Just report to google spam, they may consider if it a very worst spam site, which can't be set for there algorithms

btw, they do both. That is, they look for trends that will allow them to improve their algos, as well as put penalties on individual sites.
any evidence of this? i've reported many with no such effect.

Even if I don't see any evidence on this, I'd like to believe that penalizing and looking at patterns are an ideal case to tackle the problem of spam.

any evidence of this? i've reported many with no such effect.

Sure the most recent update - Big Daddy.

If you are watching specific websites and they never seem to disappear they could be 'just below a theshold' or possibility a lower priority spam trend that needs to be address.

It isn't practical to hand remove mosts sites nor is it practice to reengineer an algorithm on a pattern of 1 or a minimum few.

I target highly competetive keywords and phrases. There are a lot of slimballs also targeting the market using black SEO. Doorway pages with redirects is what thay are doing much to my amazment I believe with throwaway domains...
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I suspect that there are dozens of violaters, maybe as many as 50% of the top 30 results on most of the major SE's.That's the nature of some markets, always has been and always will be. If someone decides to get into that market, they need to be aware of that and decide whether they can compete and cope.

Do many of you experince this in your keywords?Sure I experience hard competition, but no, not the kind you're referring to. I know what that game is and what the odds are, and it's far more productive to spend the available time on more realistic pursuits.

Is it worthwhile to start going through results and reporting these violations to the major SE's? 50% of the top 30? And if a site gets banned they'll just pump out 10 more to replace it?

It's very worthwhile to diligently police and report on the SERPs if that's what you choose to do as a career or devote your spare time to as a hobby. Most folks would rather do what earns them a living and spend their spare time with their family or down at the pub.

Have any of you campaigned with reporting violaters and has it been worth it? 50% of the top 30? Even if those get booted out, they'll just be replaced by other sites just like them. What's worth it is to diversify and market in keyword areas you're capable of competing in, or at least stand half a chance over time. That's if you're interested in making a living.

Reporting may have it's place at times, but to singlehandedly try to clean up the SERPs and use reporting "spam" as a marketing method to get the competition out of the way and therefore move up in rankings for your site is an exercise in futility and the least effective marketing strategy possible.

Thanks for everyones replies. I have pretty much concluded that it is not worth the time.

Thanks for everyones replies. I have pretty much concluded that it is not worth the time.And I'm sure we all wish you the best of success in whatever ventures you'll be undertaking.