The world’s most popular search engine Google, has blacklisted the SAS Group’s Nordic hotels and conference centers, since they used hidden doorway pages to achieve a good ranking in search results. The method developed by Danish Netpointers at risk of a bomb under its business.
This is a translation of a Computerworld article from 2004, the original article can be found at
http://www.computerworld.dk/art/25932?cid=4&q=netpointers&sm=search&a=cid&i=4&o=9&pos=10
People looking for a hotel or conference center in Scandinavia is going to look far for Radisson SAS if they use Google as a search tool.
The search engine has chosen to remove virtually all references to the website.
This happens after the Radisson SAS on the Web has made use of hidden doorway pages to achieve a good ranking in Google search results.
Significant input
The many hundreds of doorway pages – which has been responsible for blacklisting – is provided by the Danish company Netpointers which focus on the growing market for search engine optimization.
- We purchased the service from Netpointers, and one of our criteria was of course that we should have an ethical and sustainable solution. So it comes as a surprise to us, says Peter Enevoldsen, who is responsible for e-commerce at Radisson SAS.
He explains that SEO is an essential part of Radisson’s strategy for e-marketing.
- We are a well-known brand, so we have many searches in Google. We fight on equal footing with our competitors, who all want to be a high ranking at Google. If they see their competitors first so they probably click on them first, he says.
Peter Enevoldsen is now in dialogue with Google to find out what the exact cause is that the world’s most popular search engine has blacklisted Radisson SAS hotels’ websites.
He therefore hopes that the hotels as soon as possible is back at Google.
Trust Netpointers
- Netpointers has an entire article in which it has specified its ethical guidelines, and it becomes one is forced to rely on the company. So we obviously hope that it is a mistake by Google, says Peter Enevoldsen.
Technically Netpointers’ business concept is to create web pages that get as good a position as possible with Google from special keywords.
These web pages are never displayed to the user, but instead uses scripting language Javascript in unnoticed to send the user to the right side which has not obtained such a good ranking with Google. The secret pages are also called doorway pages.
Google’s official guidelines say very clearly that doorway pages are not acceptable and can lead to exclusion from the search engine.
At Netpointers believe CEO Christian Andersen not to blame yet can be placed on doorway pages.
According to him, the site of the Radisson SAS received a so-called PageRank by Google on zero. Pagerank is an important indicator of Google, and it has a major indirect impact on a sites ranking in search results.
- We have 1,000 customers all over the world, and we have no incidents had in the past, so Google’s motivation is entirely unknown. Google has not sent anything to us or Radisson SAS, he says.
Europe’s largest
It was the Norwegian website E-wizard who first described the Radisson SAS’s use of doorway pages.
After the story told Google about an English translation, and Google according to the website replied back that doorway pages would lead to an exclusion from Google.
Approximately half of Netpointers about 1,000 customers are Danish, and Netpointers calls itself Europe’s leader in search engine optimization.
It may therefore be a bomb under the entire company’s business base, if it proves to be doorway pages, which is causing the blacklisting.
- We have tried to engage with Google and cannot get any response. We would like to know the cause, for it is equally interesting for us as it is for Radisson SAS and the rest of the industry, says Christian Andersen.
Radisson SAS hotels are owned by the Scandinavian airline group SAS.
