SPAM in google- quick question

[TrimarkProperties]

Has anyone ever turned in another site to Google as spam/blackhat? Does it work? What is the time frame for removal from Google?

Long story short: we are purchasing an apartment complex. The current owners have a site apartmentname.com. I've seen their stats reports; "apartment complex name city" (and variations thereof) is the highest volume search term going to their site.

Up until closing (today) they had agreed to include the website in the sale. Today they are saying no and are holding the site hostage for a X-HIGH price. Since we can build a better set of pages into our own site, we aren't willing to pay the price.

But we don't want to be competing with their old site (that will now surely be either pointing traffic elsewhere with a 301 and will have the incorrect phone number, email address, office info, etc) for search engine traffic. We now need to somehow get our page on our site for this complex to replace their site in the serps for the top keyword terms that are sending the original site traffic. We've added a page for the complex to our site and we are coming up 4 and 5 for competitive terms, but we do not expect to be able to out-compete them for the complex-name-based keyword terms, since they have the name in the domain and the site is 10 years old.

THEY ARE DOING MAJOR BLACK HAT on their site (hidden text for example). We are considering turning them in on the Google Spam report page, thinking that we could have them removed and that will allow us to replace them in the serps.

Has anyone ever turned in another site to Google as spam/blackhat? Does it work? What is the time frame for removal from Google?

[Ryan Ward]

Is the inclusion of their website in the deal in writing somewhere or was it a verbal "we'll throw in the website"?

[TrimarkProperties]

Verbal.

I wasn't the one that wrote the contract, and though I asked for it to be included in writing...

[Lydia]

A spam report will do you nothing, for as soon as they fix the spam issues, the site will be re-included in the Google index.

You could try to use the spammy nature of the site as a bargaining chip, and report the site to Google. Then point to lost rankings and tell the seller the site has no value. But that almost certainly will backfire on you. You would be relying on the ignorance of the seller to not know that those rankings could be recovered. If they are smart enough to successfully game Google, they might know about spam reports. And who knows who long G might take to evaluate the site for spam? Could be 6 months from now.

However, you could point out those issues to the seller and show them (in your mind) that the site is worthless as it is now. Perhaps suggest that if they throw in control of the website for free, you'll fix the site issues later at your own cost...

*Either way, knowing it's a spammy site has value to you as a buyer, but unless the seller knows that, and knows that you know, it doesn't help you any.*

Make up your own mind how to play it, but I wouldn't get Google involved unless I had to. You could end up torpedoing your own property.

[mpilatow]

Most spam report are used to tweak the algorithm so Google can automatically detect spam. In the majority of cases there is no manual hand job to remove the site unless it is ridiculously spammy or part of a huge network of spam sites that are doing the same things. Your best bet is to submit the spam report through webmaster tools because Google takes those reports more seriously. They will probably not do anything manually but the site could be whacked somewhere down the line with an algo update.

[Homesurfer]

Filing a spam report in this instance would just look like sour grapes. You guys screwed up by not putting the terms of sale for that particular domain in writing. The sellers took advantage of your tactical error.

That doesn't answer your question, of course.

[BuyHawkeye]

Also consider the old addage "Live by the sword, die by the sword." If they are a vengeful sort then you can stand by equal or worse harrassment of your website. Wouldn't be too hard for them to figure out who had the motive to devalue their website, now would it?

[Lydia]

Filing a spam report in this instance would just look like sour grapes. You guys screwed up by not putting the terms of sale for that particular domain in writing. The sellers took advantage of your tactical error.

That doesn't answer your question, of course.

I agree with that 100%. I initially thought about answering that way myself, but decided on a 'tactical' response and let the moral judgments fall where they may.