Google meets with site ownersUndeterred, we then asked the only question that mattered: Why has Google shadowbanned our sites? Google’s Chief Search Scientist answered this question using a strategy based around gaslighting and said they hadn’t. Google doesn’t ever derank an entire site, only individual pages, he said. There is no site-wide classifier. He insisted it is only done at the page level.
Many of the shadowbanned site owners attempted to politely push back and point out that the reason all 20 of us were there was specifically because our entire site was deranked from Google in a single night.
He continued insisting this didn’t happen and then looked confused that anyone would disagree with him.
For more than a decade, I’ve been amazed that the internet ecosystem means thousands of companies live or die by whatever Google privately decides to do with search results.