Bing penalty (the reason is their error), Google is fine

[BingIssue]

Mid July Bing penalized the affiliate website (reviews), I waited 2 months to see if the other search engines would follow suit, but Google traffic started to slooowly grow.

So 2mo later I contacted them again, they told me I was under "spam list" which sounded ridiculous as I don't do artificial link building and any sort of shady SEO techniques. They said they would investigate again. A week later they confirmed the penalty is still in place and that I should review the guidelines.

WTF.

Moz shows 130 linking domains with 3% spam score, Ahrefs is roughly the same, even Bing webmaster tools show a few dozen links. Sure, the website has no authority precisely because I don't do link building. But how on earth is it still under a spam penalty after their engineering team, supposedly, manually reviewed the issue?

Anyone knows how to deal with this nonsense or, maybe, a better place to ask?

 

[Steiper]

Your competior must have given you such spammy links, use google disavow tool and remove every link. Thats the solution only!

 

[praetserge]

Your competior must have given you such spammy links, use google disavow tool and remove every link. Thats the solution only!

How would google disavow tool help here? The problem is with Bing and google has nothing to do with Bing.

I've seen a few similar threads here on bhw but sorry, haven't seen a solution.

Did they at least say the website was 'pure spam' because of the links or content?

 

[BingIssue]

No, they just said "your site is under spam list which can be a reason why we are not indexing it. I am checking with my engineering team if the block is valid."

That's the thing, I see only a few spammy sites, but I don't think such a low number would put me under the penalty. I mean even Bing Webmaster Backlinks tool lists only 7 referring domains. Google lists more, but again, I don't see a billion spammy sites.

About 2 months before this happened I did notice an increase in direct traffic that seemed like bot traffic to the same page. But there is no way I'd use those stupid captchas on my website so I decided to ignore it.

 

[sashilover]

My website get deindexed too lately.. and I received the exact same message after I contact the bing support team.
I don't know what to do next, is there anyone who can share some experience about how to deal with this sisuation

 

[chipsie1102]

You've looked at your links but what about the content? Is your content actually high-quality and readable, does it serve a purpose, is it spammed with keywords? Perhaps this is why your website is considered spammy - SEO isn't just about off-page.

 

[Mr Dingle]

I tried to index a static website with them. Not a chance. Even the sitemap cog has been stuck on pending for a month. No problem with Google

 

[Comrade Luigi]

Bing over time has been cracking down on low quality sites more and more. It's getting tougher to rank and keep rankings.

 

[Cynthia Stevens]

Bing is heading up with the competition. Happens when someone tries to create spammy backlinks. Write to them that whatever has happened without your awareness and you are working on fixing the problem. And elaborate your side of innocence. That's what comes to my mind atm

 

[BingIssue]

Lower quality content should be losing ranking in SERP, not penalized for "spam" or "breaking guidelines".

Since this spring, I've been rewriting articles to make them very lengthy and informative. I also include a high authority source for every little fact that I say. So per 5000 word article I have at least 30 links as references (WSJ, Wired, Reuters, research, books, high quality publications). The content used to be more like a blog with nothing to substantiate it, now it's more like a research with a lot of high quality links.

My CTR for affiliate links used to be at 15-20%, now it's closer to 40%. I know Bing doesn't care, but if the users are clicking where I need them to click, the site is not a f***ing spam.

Again, Google traffic is growing, my impressions have doubled since June (clicks not so much due to position). Why the hell would Bing think that it's a spam is perplexing. Actually, in winter, right before COVID happened, the site was getting growth in Bing impressions and now it's spam? Really?

My point is, losing page rank is one thing. But de-indexing is a damn de-indexing. It needs to be substantiated, for a serious offense, not some random nonsense.

 

[Panther28]

Sir I commend you for even naming yourself after the rival. You have balls.

 

[BingIssue]

You've looked at your links but what about the content? Is your content actually high-quality and readable, does it serve a purpose, is it spammed with keywords? Perhaps this is why your website is considered spammy - SEO isn't just about off-page.

Google would have penalized this as well. I've waited 2 months to make sure I'm not crazy and simply not seeing something. No penalty from Google. Hell, even Baidu and Yandex didn't remove it. So why Bing and Bing only?

 

[chipsie1102]

Google would have penalized this as well. I've waited 2 months to make sure I'm not crazy and simply not seeing something. No penalty from Google. Hell, even Baidu and Yandex didn't remove it. So why Bing and Bing only?

Just because one search engine has taken a certain action on your website doesn't mean other search engines have to do the same, but I understand your point. After reading through the Bing webmaster guidelines, and without actually looking at your website, the only thing I can come up with is this

Affiliate programs without adding sufficient value: Websites that link products from other websites (such as Amazon, eBay, etc.) but pretend that they are an official retailer or in affiliation with those sites are called Thin Affiliation sites, and they add little to no incremental value (like extra reviews, search functionality, Editor’s Choice, etc.). and are only intended to take credit for other content. It can lead to demotion or even the delisting of your website from our search results.

The only other thing I can say is try get in touch with Bing again and try to get a specific answer on exactly why your website is penalised and what you can do to resolve it.

 

[BingIssue]

Just because one search engine has taken a certain action on your website doesn't mean other search engines have to do the same, but I understand your point. After reading through the Bing webmaster guidelines, and without actually looking at your website, the only thing I can come up with is this

https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a#affiliate_programs_without_adding_sufficient_value:~:text=Affiliate%20programs%20without%20adding%20sufficient%20value%3A,your%20website%20from%20our%20search%20results.Websites that link products from other websites (such as Amazon, eBay, etc.) but pretend that they are an official retailer or in affiliation with those sites are called Thin Affiliation sites, and they add little to no incremental value (like extra reviews, search functionality, Editor’s Choice, etc.). and are only intended to take credit for other content. It can lead to demotion or even the delisting of your website from our search results.

The only other thing I can say is try get in touch with Bing again and try to get a specific answer on exactly why your website is penalised and what you can do to resolve it.

I don't pretend I'm an official retailer. It's a review website (reviews and guides) with links to affiliate sites.

After I sent them a message about backlinks, Bing responded with yet another automated message that I need to follow guidelines to get indexed. Go figure.

I really need this fixed.

 

[Wemnael]

Me too have the same problem with 2 of my websites being removed this month. Really shocking since almost all of my traffic came from Bing/ Yahoo. I just contacted them, waiting for reply. Please keep us in touch with your results.

 

[sashilover]

I have disavow ALL of my backlinks in Bing webmaster tool, if the deindex issue was caused by "bad" backlinks, then my website should be removed from the block list in the next review which will happen in 2-3 months.
Let's see if that's the case.

 

[ankit99]

same here their support team don't give a shit

 

[Wemnael]

same here their support team don't give a shit

So you tried to contact them . what they answered?

I have disavow ALL of my backlinks in Bing webmaster tool, if the deindex issue was caused by "bad" backlinks, then my website should be removed from the block list in the next review which will happen in 2-3 months.
Let's see if that's the case.

I doubt this is the problem