It is considered to one of the most dreaded penalties that can be levied by Google on a Webmaster for bad link practices. Known as -60 Penalty, it pushes the website of the penalized Webmaster 60 positions back in the search pages. This penalty is enforced mainly in the case of Paid Links, as they are considered to a be questionable tactic to gather links.
According to Search Engine Roundtable, it seems that Google is finally admitting to use of -60 penalty. There has been an ongoing thread in Google Groups regarding Google's use of -60 penalty, where Googler JohnMu has replied in a most nonchalant way, not addressing the -60 penalty issue directly but giving tips to cleaning up the site from a spam perspective.
In fact, after spending some time at the discussion, you get this feeling that Google is not trying to hide the -60 penalty anymore. Well, at least things are getting a little clearer, especially with all sorts of speculations flying everywhere.
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Navneet Kaushal, CEO PageTraffic is a trusted authority in the search engine marketing industry. He is a featured author at Web Pro News, Search Newz, Website Notes, DevWebPro, SEO Article and Web Help Now among many others.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have been hit by this infamous -60 penalty.
I was number one for a semi-competitive term that certainly brought in orders for onver 1 year. I then was given site links in early Feb. About two weeks ago, I dropped mysteriously to number 61, and my “site links” still showed up!
I found some dup content on my site due to “scrappers” I fixed that up and added some fresh new content as well.
I don;t have ANY PAID LINKS, now I may have some links from other domains I own, but it should be undetectable to Google (different Class C’s, registrar names, layout, content etc.) they are also related links that I feel should be linked to one other for my customers.
What are all of the factors you or others have concluded cause the -60 drop?
MadisonSEO
It’s my first time to hear this -60 penalty. i think those black hat seo should be penalize by this..