Learning From The Manual Action Penalty Placed On Thumbtack

[Dustybones]

No one is immune! Even Google backed companies. Its interesting to learn why these companies get hit. We can all learn from it. Thanks for sharing Barry!

Confirmed: Google Capital-Backed Thumbtack Hit With Manual Action For Unnatural Links

Thumbtack's co-founder confirms the company received a Google manual action for links, vows to take the necessary steps to reverse it.
Thumbtack, a service professionals hiring web site, which was backed by Google Capital in August 2014, has received a manual action from the Google search quality team for ?unnatural links to your site?.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Glad you shared Justin. I saw that yesterday too and thought it was interesting considering the connection with Google.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

That explains why they're no longer showing for queries. I hadn't even noticed they weren't there anymore.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

As a followup on this thread:

Thumbtack Apologizes After Google Penalty; Asking For Link Removals From Businesses

 

[travelincat]

We received one of those too. I particularly liked this part:

"We are making this update because this practice is against Google's policies. We messed up. We shouldn't have given incentives (points or the website verification icon) for linking. "

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Scott, I was just coming to share that so glad you already did.

I had not read the whole thing before to see WHY they got the penalty but then saw the letter just now at Barry's.

Cat: Ya that part is good. If that's the reason they were slapped, yes should have known better.

This from Jen is an interesting tidbit too. Even tho Thumb does not show in SERPs they still get a Knowledge Graph so it appears it's separate.

<a href="http://www.thesempost.com/sites-penalized-by-google-can-still-show-knowledge-panel/">Sites Penalized by Google Can Still Show Knowledge Panel - The SEM Post</a>