Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam

[bill]

Google Destroys Rap Genius’ Search Rankings As Punishment For SEO Spam, But Resolution In Progress

"Google hit back hard today after it learned lyrics site Rap Genius had been using dubious SEO tricks to attain top spots in search results. Now RapGenius.com doesn’t appear on the first page of results for a search of “Rap Genius,” and popular queries like “Jay-Z Holy Grail Lyrics” don’t bring up the startup like they used to. [Update: But the two companies are working on a resolution.]"

[IrishWonder]

If this is what they call a startup these days...    We used to launch a dozen of such "startups" a day back in the day

[Gurtie]

$15 million investment??

I am so in the wrong business.

[Rupert]

Maybe in $15m is made up to get in the news? The only reason this is news is that they are ar**holes.

[Brad]

This has a graph showing Rap Genius taking an 80% hit in traffic as Google applies a penalty.

http://www.appy-geek.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=1&articleid=17240792

[Rupert]

Seems alot came back.  That was quick:

http://blog.searchmetrics.com/us/2013/12/28/the-not-so-ingenious-drop-in-seo-visibility-of-rapgenius-com/