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Why Does Google Hate Widgetbucks?

ByJeremy Schoemaker

Oct 24, 2007

I got a email today from someone saying they thought widgetbucks was responsible for their site dropping in Google for PageRank. I dont want to disclose who this is but lets just say its a pretty well known blogger. When I asked them why they thought it was widgetbucks that caused the drop in pagerank they said that widgetbucks was banned in Google for there own term.

I looked up widgetbucks and it does not look that they have been banned but they definitely are being penalized. Not even on the first page for their own name.

To SEO people out their do you think its just bad SEO or could there link policy be playing a part in the penalty?

Here is a word for word copy from there terms and conditions:

Back-links placed by Mpire in the HTML code must not be removed.

Now from what I have seen there widget is flash but I guess if they were using your site to embed html links (as they asy in their policy…. that would piss Google off eh?

By Jeremy Schoemaker

Jeremy "ShoeMoney" Schoemaker is the founder & CEO of ShoeMoney Media Group, and to date has sold 6 companies and done over 10 million in affiliate revenue. In 2013 Jeremy released his #1 International Best selling Autobiography titled "Nothing's Changed But My Change" - The ShoeMoney Story. You can read more about Jeremy on his wikipedia page here.

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85 thoughts on “Why Does Google Hate Widgetbucks?”

  1. knowing all the google engineers that read your blog I knew last week when you showed that it was just a matter of time until they got nuked.

    mpire needs to watch your “dont make google look stupid” video!

  3. widgetbucks could be banned due to they forcing people to backlink them. but i dont think by putting widgetbucks in our site will affect or pagerank. recently google have been adjusting their algo, many sites pr is dropping. it could just a coincidence.

  4. I think that Google is penalizing them, and if you do a search you will notice a whole lot of blogs that had widgetbucks have removed it.

  5. I suspect there has been a pretty significant algo change devaluing certain types of links dramatically. I dont know that this is about paid links per se, but might be something like blogs and directory outgoing links have been devalued in general, causing many other sites to be lowered in PR. Whenever you play with PR on a segment, the PR effect snowballs and affects many other sites.

  6. I can’t fathom Google dropping PR or SERP ranking for sites utilizing an advertising widget. Penalizing the widget maker for employing a shady backlink building strategy? Sure, but not whacking the sites utilizing the widget.

  7. If they are participating in the shady back link scheme then they for sure would be penalized.

    Who ever advised that company to force html backlinks should be fired immediately

  8. Definitely a hand edit by google. Their publicity along with the terms of use you outlined is like sending Matt Cutts a paid link offer.

  9. I was thinking the same thing about the video. It would be nice to have a link on your site that would improve your page rank, not lower it.

  10. That’s just ridiculous that they would penalize a site for placing the widget bucks code on your site. There is no logic behind it.

    On the other hand, whoever advised widget bucks to place that link there should be whacked, TWICE!

  13. You all have it wrong. They kicked them in the nuts for ‘causing browsers to hang 10+ seconds. So friggen annoying.

  14. “do no evil” is definitely no longer the Google mantra, is it?

    If I had the resources to do it, I would definitely create an Open Source Pagerank. The rank would be guaranteed to be updated once a month and the weight of factors that went into the calculation (domain age, backlinks, traffic, etc) would be voted on by all members and would adapt as decided by the collective group. Being held hostage by Google over PR and their own vested interests is ridiculous.

  17. Google was always evil man. They just hid it very well. Now google is trying to play games with everyone. But yeah, I highly doubt its the SEO. My guess is that its to do with perhaps just their link policy.

  19. We’ll probably see a lot of speculation about various things that could be “the cause” for various sites losing page rank, but I think it will ultimately come down to a number of factors that Google has integrated into the new page rank algorithm. I don’t think there will be one thing to blame.

  20. I don think its really a big deal cause if someone wants to get to widgetbucks all the sites in the ranking lead to widgetbucks.

  21. Widgetbucks is so worthless it deserves to be buried. I gave it a prominent position on one of my sites for a full week: over 150,000 impressions, and it only made 40 cents!

  22. No penalty – PR drop might be from selling text links. There is a internet-wide drop of PR due to recent google changes

  23. Wow. That’s an intriguing thought. I doubt using an ad system would drop your PR, but then again, you never know.

    Google’s vengeance is quite swift.

  24. Gee why would Google penalize a company offering a somewhat competing product in the online advertising game?

  25. I was under the impression that it’s entirely flash based as well! It doesn’t really make sense that a remote widget could modify the HTML of your site.

  26. If anyone knows a good SEO who can help me with my site and setting up a few things please have them get a holg of me. I really need a good list of keywords or how to write them better. My search engine traffic really blows!

  27. I think that would be bang on – the only possible reason Darren would have been penalized – he would have been seen as promoting the service and linking to “bad neighbourhood”.

  29. I haven’t had time to have a propper look but a friend pointed out that they are “hiding” links via a noscript tag which Google doesn’t like. Combine that with every widget linking back to them in what appears to be a hidden div and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. For the low value they bring I’m removing them.

  30. I just don’t see the logic in this.. it does point out how bad paid links and backlinking is when all of these sites have reasons to be penalized.

  31. my website used to not display in a SERP of my own name once too.. but that because I blocked google bot. LOL

  32. Sounds like FUD you are spreading. You really have it bad for WidgetBucks, don’t you?

    That guy that had 150,000 impressions and made only 40 cents, LMAO! I ran it for a while on one of my pathetic little sites, got 900 impressions and $11. I thought, wow, that’s pretty rich for something that has nothing to do with my niche. But had to take it off, too much of a distraction. Too bad they don’t have more categories.

  34. The quality of the site and slow load may have something to do with it. Google only wants to provide quality content to searchers and this isn’t it.

  35. […] i read at Shoemoney’s blog that WidgetBucks have been penalized by Google. I tried it out myself and found it to be true. And […]

  38. […] Shoemoney has a post about this. It started when a high profile blogger told him that one of the causes of PR drop on some blogs was the widget bucks. Due to the fact that you are not allowed to remove the Widget Bucks’s link on the widget, you’re considered linking to them – and they’re currently penalized (give their name a search and they’re nowhere to be seen in the SERP) […]

  39. […] 1. Does Google hate Widget bucks […]

  41. […] was the first to report that WidgetBucks was slapped with a Google penalty and speculated that it happened because of the WidgetBuck TOS requiring users to link to them. The […]

  42. […] Este tipo de penalización no se debe a la compra o venta de enlaces, y a pesar de que Shoemoney dice que es debido al enlace obligatorio que tienes que tener en su Widget, no concuerdo con él y si […]

  43. […] was the first to report that WidgetBucks was slapped with a Google penalty and speculated that it happened because of the WidgetBuck TOS requiring users to link to them. The […]

  46. […] was the first to report that WidgetBucks was slapped with a Google penalty and speculated that it happened because of the WidgetBuck TOS requiring users to link to them. The […]

  47. WidgetBucks can’t make it. Because the earnings are poor and there ist still a risk with the backlink stuff. So they need the 25$ offer to bring some new customers in. In a few years nobody will know them…

  48. […] Google slapping in the past couple days and weeks, I found a very interesting article that I saw on Shoemoney a couple days ago. Then today I saw JohnChow writing a post on it as well with more in depth […]

  49. when you control the game you control the power and thats exactly what google is doing lately but i think they are on the verge of driving people away…. we shall see… the hardest part is no one seems to really try to compete with them which keeps them at the top.

  50. I received an email from WidgetBucks today announcing that they have rolled out new code. The purpose of introducing the new code is to facilitate faster ad load times; you can be sure, though, that they will have removed the stealth backlinks.

  51. […] don’t have to be an expert to notice that they reacted to what Shoemoney and John Chow reported earlier: A Google ban due to invisible links. Instead of the earlier link […]

  52. […] ‘A’ listers like John Chow and Shoemoney crap on you, not only do you smell forever but you die a horrible shameful death. A perfect example […]

  53. […] de o Google ter penalizado vários milhares de sites devido aos links, o Widgetbucks foi um dos que foi afectado. O problema, é que por detrás do widget, aparecia um link escondido para o site. Não era dificil […]

  54. WdigetBucks 等网站被 Google 惩罚 - 总而言之,统而言之 says:

    […] 但是，对于 WidgetBucks 的处罚似乎比较严重。通过 Google 搜索 WidgetBucks 的名字，已经找不到任何搜索结果。对于一家新兴的广告商而言，这种打击可以说是毁灭性的。根据目前网友的猜测，WidgetBucks 之所以受到打击，是因为在其 TOS(用户协议) 里有这样一句话： […]

  55. I noticed that too the other day…I could only find them through their Adwords ad.

  57. Как да Изкараме Пари Онлайн » WidgetBucks падна под ударите на Google says:

    […] са поставяли линк към своя сайт в рекламите си.Според Shoemoney това е причината за последните PR наказания А Ето и […]

  58. If you are looking for an amazing ad program go to “widgetbucks.modulehoster.com”.

    If you use this link you can get pay per click ads and you start with a balance of $25!

  59. […] i read at Digtial Point Forum that WidgetBucks have been banned by Google. I checked this myself searcing at Google with the […]

  60. widget bucks on your site will not reduce your PR.Pr is all about incomming links to your site.

  62. […] you do a quick read on popular sites, you’d notice a lot of posts about WidgetBucks.com not coming up on Google SERP. Curious, I […]

  64. […] they email publishers about how their system has been improved (see here. here and here) and then ShoeMoney explained why they were being penalized by Google. Andy Beard had actually mentioned the reason a […]

  65. This was a really interesting issue to look into, and I think the comment link provided by sylv3rblade really helps clarify things.

  67. […] the hell did WidgetBucks do to piss off Google. First Shoemoney brought up the question that “Why does Google hate WidgetBucks?” Then the great John Chow also discussed “Why WidgetBucks got banned from […]

  68. After widget bucks’ clearification about it in their blog, I think this thing will settle down.

  69. […] was the first to report that WidgetBucks was slapped with a Google penalty and speculated that it happened because of the WidgetBuck TOS requiring users to link to them. The […]

  70. […] i read at Digtial Point Forum that WidgetBucks have been banned by Google. I checked this myself searcing at Google with the […]

  74. […] text links, being part of an interlinking blog network like b5media, having widgetbucks widget (ShoeMoney’s article), and having too many links in one page. No one really knows exactly why. Here’s to […]

  75. WidgetBucks was not banned by Google SERPs. It was on over site on their part pertained to page redirects Nothing to do with Google being at fault.

  76. […] their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. (See this case : Why Does Google Hate Widgetbucks? – ShoeMoney® ) Will be continued in the next of the series of articles… When the rich wage war its the […]

  78. […] Shoemoney and his readers are speculating about why Widget Bucks got banned from Google so lets take a look at what went wrong. […]

  80. My Experience with WIDGETBUCKS
    I WILL TRY TO POST THIS ON THEIR BLOG- I AM SURE THEY WILL NEVER APPROVE AND POST IT.
    ADS SUCKS but Widget bucks Not —— This is there slogan…….. But to the contrary, Not only there ads but THEY SUCK……………
    Now my experience…..
    1. I joined there publisher network in the beginning of Dec 2007. During the month of Dec 2007, I managed to get 1 referral and earned around $200 by running their ads on my websites.
    2. As they say……that actual bucks (AFTER CHECK FOR CLICK FRAUD ETC) will be posted under MY BUCKS within first 10 day of next month (e.g. FINAL Dec earnings will be posted by 10th of Jan) they posted my earnings as $200.00 + earning from referral (They didn’t deduct a cent from the listed earning i had in MY WIDGET page of the statistics)
    3. I earned around $ 150 + earning from referral during the month of Jan 2008.
    4. On Jan 30th I received a message from WIDGETBUCKS TEAM stating that I should respond to the message in 48 hours else- My account will be suspended.
    REASON GIVEN – MY WEBSITES CONTAIN AN ADULT CONTENT.
    Please feel free to checkout my sites and see for yourself if there is any ADULT CONTENT. My Websites where widget bucks code is placed: –
    LenovoRu
    WebHv
    DebugRu
    HowItWorkz
    5. I responded to there message via email as well as there support site http://support.mpire.com stating that this is untrue and they should recheck the website and there records.
    6. Now I got a response back stating MY WEBSITES ARE NON-ENGLISH websites and they mistakenly said it contains an ADULT CONTENT.
    Again I replied telling them all my websites are in English, they are free to checkout by themselves if they are NON-ENGLISH or ENGLISH
    7. I responded to the message stating my websites are in ENGLISH and I SIGNED up as publisher only in DEC 2007, IF MY websites are NON-ENGLISH I would have not been approved as a PUBLISHER as per WIDGETBUCKS site requirement.
    8. Got reply this time – that MY account has been suspended because of CLICK FRAUD (see this is 3rd statement for one issue).
    This time the Widget bucks team member re-activated my account and I was back up on Feb 4, 2008.
    9. I read on there blog that all of the publisher are paid for the month of Dec 2007 by Feb 5th 2008, whereas I was not paid.
    10. I opened a ticket regarding the payment for the month of Dec 2007, and guess what…………
    11. The response I got — “Your account was suspended again for click-fraud. We aim to build a healthy network and seek publishers who generate natural traffic and clicks.”
    AND HE SUSPENDED MY ACCOUNT AGAIN.

    POINT TO NOTE HERE IS – ONE OF THEIR TEAM MEMBER HAD ACTIVATED MY ACCOUNT 2 DAYS AGO BECAUSE THEY KNEW THEY WERE AT FAULT. NOW WHEN I ASKED FOR PAYMENT THEY DEACTIVATED MY ACCOUNT AGAIN.
    12. WHEN I responded back ….I get this message —
    ”This suspension was for the previous clicks, December – January. You are welcome to apply again for the program but this account will remain suspended.”
    Point to note here is – As I mention above they NOTICE the CLICK FRAUD when I ASKED for the PAYMENT and not the TIME when they POSTED MY ACTUAL EARNINGS.
    My Dear PUBLISHERS please let me know what does this entire STORY MEANS to YOU.
    I am posting this on all the blogs so that my publisher friends gets a heads up that what all WIDGET BUCKS CAN do with anyone. THEY CAN SUSPEND YOUR ACCOUNT EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE NO REASON AND EAT YOUR ENTIRE EARNINGS.
    At the END I would just wish you all LUCK and Widget bucks also ALL THE BEST as they enjoy my EARNINGS.
    Thanks for your patience to read this on blog.
    -Publisher-

  85. Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?

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