How Do You Know a Site Has a Google Penalty?

Comment on Google Penalty Recovery by Glenn Shimabukuro.

Hi David:

What are the “signs” to look for when Google downgrades a website, for example, an auto-blogged site?

Less traffic, lower pagerank, etc?

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Additional info regarding the “Why this ad” issue w/ Ads by Google. In the Google Adsense forum, a Google employee chimed in and clarified it. According to her, the “Why this ad?” text was actually just part of a small experiment Google was running, and it wasn’t connected to any malicious activity. She later mentioned that “Rest assured, your earnings should be unaffected and your account is secure.”

I wonder if running SpyBot S&D, removing the malicious code and finally seeing the “Ads by Google” text was just a coincidence? Hmmmm …

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Thanks,

Glenn