I always have a good laugh at the “whitehat” SEO’s making headlines on Sphinn about best practices in Google to do X. Most are Matt Cutts kiss asses that have never built a successful website let alone business. They talk about patents and theories but very few have any real world experience.
Here is a real life example of how stuff really works in Google and you wont read about it from any “SEO” expert.
Many years ago John Chow started getting steam as a blogger and told Google to goto hell. John sold paid links, paid reviews, and did massive amounts of reciprocal link exchanges to gain tons of backlinks. All of which fall under the penalty of death under Magistrate Matt Cutts.
John was given the death penalty and completely removed from the Google Index. Many people wrote about this and how Google was owning John and he was done for.
See Jim Kukrals writeup about how John Chow’s free fall begins
Or Neil Patel – John Chow vs. Google – Guess Who’s Winning
Some places like this blogstorm blog even tried to gain trust with users placing Adwords Ads like this:
Mean while I was making videos about how not to make Google Look stupid (which was mocked at the time but has recently been cited as a great resource on how Google works). In the video I talked about how its not really about what you do but rather if it makes Google look stupid or not in regards to them taking action against you.
If you appear to be able to control the rankings in Google through whatever method and can rank any site then Google has lost its luster and that would be the start of the end for them.
So when public pressure mounts, Google takes action…. stay off their radar and your fine (in most cases).
But when John Chow got nuked a strange phenomenon happened. His popularity and brand grew. Now it was the success story of how you really don’t really need Google to succeed on the internet. RU-ROH!!! Can you imagine if people started adapting this model =P
Now Google was in a dilemma. Search traffic for john chow was growing but nobody could find him on Google. What people were finding was infringing sites like johncow or notjohnchow who were only getting traffic because they were ranking for John’s name.
This obviously made Google Search look very incompetent. While there was a significant amount of search volume for John Chow it wasn’t anything like when BMW or other big brands were de-listed from the Google Search engine when Google actively sought them out to help them get back in. Searching Google for BMW and not finding BMW is not a user experience Google wanted. Google worked hard with BMW to get them compliant and back in the search index.
WordPress.org creators also experienced a similar thing when they embedded links to their websites in everyone’s blogs by default. After much scrutiny Google delisted them and dropped page rank for these developers websites. To which they stopped doing that and then all of their page rank and rankings came back. This is a huge example of how the ends justify the means.
But lets get back to Mr. Chow-
Always being creative and realizing that Google penalizes the domain, but not the link, John registered Johnchow.ca and redirected GoogleBot to that domain. Within days Johnchow.ca started ranking for all the phrases that johnchow.com used to. But as we talked about before…. when people publicly point out that you can beat Google they don’t like it and within a couple days Johnchow.ca was penalized as bad as JohnChow.com.
Today I noticed that Johnchow.com is not only back in the Google Search index:
Also seems to be ranking very well for his old reciprocal link exchanges where people linked to him with the target anchor text of make money online :
I talked with John today and asked him what happened and how he got back into Google. He said he worked with Matt Cutts, was told he had to be in full compliance with the webmaster guidelines and then submitted the site back to him and it was all fixed in a couple of days.
Now not many people are going to write about this and how its a great success story (especially in the SEO world).
I want to be clear on the lesson learned though. Its not about being a black hat and going against Google but building a good brand with a great site should be your number 1 priority. If that means you part ways with Google a long the way then so be it. If your site is good then it will continue to grow.
Besides its always easier to beg for forgiveness then ask for permission 
Just ask Mr Chow!
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2473 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 132 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent story, so far I’ve yet to defy The Google. I didn’t realize John Chow had some much controversy surrounding him
Jeremy did a great job re-caping the history here.
It’s about fuckin time!
This is awesome. Nice to see Google reverse their course on this one. It was becoming totally ridiculous. And a great moral: build good stuff and stay on course.
Shoe, great recap, thanks for posting, I didn’t understand the whole situation initially.
…. and who cares?
Also, your != you’re.
Obviously you care… jealous much?
This just brings up the question of how much power is too much?
I’m wondering what impact google bringing out their own ‘FREE’ operating system will have on their power in the marketplace, not only having power to see our search habits, but also direct access to our desktop habits and data.
Its a bit like I remember university, just play by the rules, do as you’re told and you’ll end up getting the pass.
Great info here as always shoe!
Let’s make money!
Nathan Hulls
I sense a Shoestradamus post coming soon! Nice recap of the whole story.
If Google is going to have a double standard for small vs. large sites, they should just stop denying it exists.
Good on John. He didn’t give in.
so your title is the opposite of what happened. google didn’t give in, john talked to matt cutts and obeyed his every command to make his site compliant. that’s not google giving in to john, that’s john giving in to google.
Have to agree with Salzano here, Jeremy. It’s great that John’s back in the SERPs, but saying “Google Gives in to John Chow” is pretty misleading… Google didn’t exactly “give in”, did they?
Instead, John complied with their webmaster guidelines… which is pretty much what they’ve always said: “Clean up your site, then submit a reinclusion request and we’ll see”.
So, no… Google didn’t “give in” to John Chow. John Chow just complied with Google.
Your paragraph:
“He said he worked with Matt Cutts, was told he had to be in full compliance with the webmaster guidelines and then submitted the site back to him and it was all fixed in a couple of days.”
… explains all that.
I feel it is the other way round.
Why on earth should Google even be bothered if JohnChow is featuring in their search results or, not? It is because he has a brand name of his own and he is important for the customer experience at Google. So what they did is, instead of sending a generic email about the compliance, they went into specifics for John and helped him get his site ranked in Google.
But my question is, will John Chow just fore-go all his income making opportunities? Worth seeing!
it is foolish to think google reached out to john because they wanted him back in the index. the only difference between john’s situation and one you could have with google is that he might have had to wait less time to get a response and perhaps matt cutts was more accessibly for advice because john has a high profile. he changed his site to comply with the guidelines, and now he’s back in. period. why do you think this comes just after he tried cloaking googlebot to johnchow.ca? i wonder why that strategy didn’t work out and all of sudden he’s in compliance now?
accessible*
I never said google reached out to john. I said john said he was working with Matt and followed instructions to get back in.
yeah. r kumar implied that google reached out, and i think maybe he just isn’t familiar with the process.
thanks for the update on this saga, but i just can’t wrap my head around this post’s title. are you taking your own advice when you say, “don’t make google look stupid?”
I agree, and it’s not like John didn’t know what he did “wrong” and why he was banned. He knew it all the time.
Here’s how I I imagine the dialog between Matt Cutts and John Chow:
John: Hey Matt can I get back in SRPS?
Matt: sure, just nofollow those paid links and reviews
John: ok, done
Matt: thanks, you’re back now
And that’s “Google giving in to John Chow”
(as i said above) – I disagree and think shoe was right in the name.
The only thing john removed was the text link ads paid links.
The paid reviews are still there with followed links (you think he is going to no follow and refund them??)
The black hat reciprical make money online anchor text links still exist (you should actually do some research on this one shoe was being nice).
jamie, the reviews do not have followed links.
the category pages (johnchow.com/category/something) have a meta robots noindex tag.
when you go to any post in the reviews category (like johnchow.com/designing-my-own-t-shirts-with-bluecotton/) all the links in the post bodies are now nofollowed.
the google cache on that post in particular has followed links, so this was clearly among the changes he made to comply with google’s webmaster guidelines.
i’m not sure what you mean by the rest of your comment.
what’s funny is shoemoney mentions some of his best advice in this post, “don’t make google look stupid,” but the very title of the post does exactly that.
Reciprocal links are not black hat and never have been, but it doesn’t matter as the links John has pointing at him aren’t reciprocal.
A reciprocal links connects pages, John’s links simply connect sites – ie . someone sends a link to his home page and he returns the favour from a deeper page.
I just think, like any other company out there, it all reverts back to dollars & revenue. I’m not familiar with John’s business model but I’m sure he’s monetizing through Adsense, GAN and other Google
So, Jogn gave into google in the end, is that the story here?
I just think, like any other company out there, it all reverts back to dollars & revenue. I’m not familiar with John’s business model but I’m sure he’s monetizing through Adsense, GAN and other Google properties. Based on that and his notoriety in the space, I think he was able to leverage that to get himself back in, whereas if the same situation took place with a small time publisher, Google wouldn’t have batted an eye in terms of permanently banning them, with no hope of re-inclusion.
Since I am sure Sheriff Cutts will eventually visit and comment on this post
, I thought I might as well ask what the rest of the free world is supposed to do when it finds one of its sites has received a penalty.
The obvious answer = bring your site into Google compliance, submit reinclusion request… I know.
BUT – Im sure there were several additional explanations given to John about his site, AND (from experience) that other webmasters will NEVER get the same kind of attention John got, and we will only hear the cut/paste flavor of “review the guidelines and make sure your site is in compliance”
When will mono-eh-mono access and specific correction reasons be given to the rest of the free world?
Heck – it would be nice if they even got you pointed in the right direction!
Congrats… (Not sure whether to congrat John for getting in, or Google for forcing him into compliance)
The best thing you can do is try to make it to an event where Matt will be at and bring it to his attention in person.
He is a very fair person and he wont just blow you off. If he says he will look into it you can count on it.
So now that John’s notoriety with Google has come full circle and he is back in the usual Google SERPs – does this signal the end of his dominance as a MMO blogger?
Or wait, did that happen when 40% of his content were tax-deduction grabs by blogging about his dining experiences?
I personally check SM about 3-5 times per week, and John Chow only when I’m interested in nice restaurant opportunities in the GVR.
/cynicism /sarcasm /fedupism
Rob
I think he built up so much momentum before he was banned that it didn’t really matter what happened with google.
I’m still trying to figure out the final word on selling text link ads and how it affects page rank.
You are right. He had grown like a colossus before the ban came, and Google could not hide him in a piece of cloth for his legs and hands grew outside of it. So Google had no choice but to uncover the cloth.
Hard work pays off.
Great post Shoe!
It is funny to see the war between two symbiotic brands – one enforcing certain things that it says are principles and the other defying them and yet deriving the benefit from the former.
Google has always been biased and their responses to issues at times are so generic that you get frustrated.
Whatever said, I am of the opinion that Google lost the battle.
Congrats JohnChow.
They have lost battle three years ago but this time John gone to their door step … so this is also win for Google.
To be honest I think the title should have been “John Chow Gives in to Google”. He was the one that complied.
By the by – have you actually tried reading John’s stuff lately? There is so much spam and paid content it far from being useful anymore. Sad. He used to be cool.
I disagree and think shoe was right in the name.
The only thing john removed was the text link ads paid links.
The paid reviews are still there with followed links (you think he is going to no follow and refund them??)
The black hat reciprical make money online anchor text links still exist (you should actually do some research on this one shoe was being nice).
I didn’t see this one coming, but good to John..
So…. you can basically do link exchanges and incentivize linking for a period of time and get banned but then later on play by the rules and still benefit from the previous link building? Seems that if he’s still ranking for the term he got into trouble with that Google is counting those old links? Way to go John – in the long term the benefits of doing what he did will pay off with more traffic than he lost by being banned for a year or so.
yes thats what is meant by the ends justifys the means
Just noticed when I searched for “John Chow” on G that the 1st two results are for johnchow.com and the next 2 point to shoemoney.com posts. Nice work Jeremy!
So, he met the guidelines, and they let him back in? Is that a good summary?
Is there going to be a John Chow Adwords suit following on the heels of getting back into the index for DLI with Adwords?
Good job John Chow !
John Chow is a good guy. Glad to see he’s back in the index.
Shoe, let me say first off that I am a JC fan and I’ve followed this controversy for some time now. Let me also say that I am not that big of a Google fan because they are like the dictators of the WWW but…. from your explanation of how he got relisted..he caved.
If JC worked with Matt Cutts then got compliant the bottom line is that he’s caved into Googles demands so at the end of the day who won this David v Goliath battle? Goliath did.
I had a lot of respect for JC for standing up to ‘the man’ and while I’ll still remain a JC fan, I’ve lost a little bit of that respect now.
In Australia, giving in like that is what we call ‘Piss Weak’.
Interesting to see this story progress. I think I am not the only one of your long time readers who has been following this incident since it began.
My round of applause for JC! This story will be semented in SEO and Blogging history!
Yeah I saw in John Chow video that John chow back in google. That put a broad smile to John chow face and very soon you will be able to see traffic ups for John chow as well.
That mean now John Chow is 1 + 1 = 11 not 2.
John certainly knows at what time he should show his cards.
Excellent!
Hmm, Chow says he gave in and you say Google gave in! Color me confused but good for him!
Interesting information. It gives us a small piece of how important Google really is.
Great post… I knew John would eventually give up and work something out with google. No matter how you look at it – google did bring a lot of traffic to him.
Wow, I really didn’t see that coming. Always thought once you’re blacklisted from Google that’s the end.
People forget to build a brand / business and that is where the major problem is. For webmaster, Google in nothing more than a good traffic channel among others.
So what’s the conclusion now. Don’t care about Google or give Google what Google wants?
I think most guys don’t even know the difference between white and black hat stuff anyway and just do what they have heard that is good to do.
The more you know about SEO I think the more scray the whole stuff becomes. Basically Google doesn’t want anybody do to any SEO at all, right. It should all be natural. So even so called white hat stuff isn’t very welcome by Google. If you “manipulate” rankings white hat or black hat, does it make a difference at all at the end of the day?
Gunter
Internet drama. A guy I know, Don Vito, actually made a song about stuff like this. Nice summary of the incident.
When it all shakes out, John and Shoe are the ultimate whitehats. They really didn’t give a $%#@ if they got links or not, they told the story.
In the end, a good story gets the links and gets the rankings. That is whitehat SEO.
Congrats whitehat seo’s shoe and john! LOL
Bow down to the man. That man is Google. I hate it but that’s the way it is today. I think John wanting back in Google is all about the adwords game and that is about it. Adwords is the only leverage Google holds. And a very good leverage that is.
Damn the torpedoes Full speed ahead!!
Finally!!
http://www.tips-tricks-tweaks-tech.blogspot.com
i read all sorts of good stories around the internet, but the fact is that the big guys will always make it. do you expect a normal everyday blogger getting an opportunity to discuss it with matt cutts?
Hint: if you are a small blogger, just move on….
Bow down to the man. That man is Google. I hate it but that’s the way it is today. I think John wanting back in Google is all about the adwords game and that is about it. Adwords is the only leverage Google holds. And a very good leverage that is.
Damn the torpedoes Full speed ahead!!
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
I always knew John will be back to google
I found it very interesting. I would like to dig more about this guy john.
nice to see you chow again. Good luck!
Did it effect his Bing/Yahoo listings too?
The ends only justify the means if you are a big enough blunder on Google’s part. I mean if you are me who has a site that gets 5,000 hits a month then Google doesn’t care at all and will never bring you back. I don’t think if I got banned Matt would be knocking at my door saying if you do this the right way now we will let you back in. It only happens when your site missing from the index makes Google look bad.
hi adam,
exactly my thought, and its not just google, even digg, stumbleupon, anything that bans you won’t give you a second life…
John chow got to talk with matt cutts, and the small guys only gets template replies…
Hey Uttoransen,
I missed your response down below where you said basically the same thing before I posted m