Declining Traffic to RipoffReport.com, Scam.com, and Other Scam Reporting Sites - SERPWoo Reviews

*** Update 11-17-2014 ***

The following websites have seen a drastic drop in traffic from search engines starting in mid September, but escalating on October 11, 2014:

1. Ripoffreport.com
2. Scam.com
3. Scambook.com
4. ScamAdviser.com
5. Mugshots.com (Some slight drop)
6. Complaints.com (But has gained back some slight traffic)

*** End Update ***

While talking to a SERPWoo customer and going back and forth on the ORM modules we are beta testing, I noticed something odd for some of our default 'negative' tags in their alexa traffic.

First off, you have to admit the ORM Donut looks pretty radiant:

ORM Donut

(We're working on implementing the ability so users can tag URLs/Domains themselves for their own reporting).

Anyways, Looks like the scam reporting site ripoffreport.com, aka ROR in SEO circles, has seen a drastic reduction in traffic overall to it's website:

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Being powered by mostly Google and search traffic, ORMs must be having a field day reporting to their clients of the great news. Anyone with a brand, product, or services that gets inquiries for "reviews", "review", "scam", and related terms is going to be loving it.

What's interesting to note is this isn't Penguin 3.0 related, (Penguin 3.0 started on October 18, 2014, and continues to roll out). From the Alexa chart above you can see the complaint reporting site has been steadily declining, but on Oct 11, 2014 the decline took a steep drop. Let's see what's being reflected in the SERPWoo reports on this domain:

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If a ROR (ripoff report) is in positions #1 through 5, we aren't seeing much action, in fact, we are seeing slight increases:

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But you start to notice the chunks of data dropping from Positions #6 through 10:

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and on the page 2 the corresponding increases of the lost data from #6-10 increasing it's positioning in #11-15 (What's also significant is the decrease in positions #16-20):

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This showcases that google is devaluing the website overall and if we were monitoring the positions below that, we'd most likely see an increase in positions below the 20th ranking. It's like an air bubble going through a water hose, the huge chunks of drop that correspond in ROR's Alexa drop, are seen moving further and further down the SERPs until off the top 3 pages.

The overall coverage shows very little #1-5 in, but the majority of ROR's SERPs are helpd at #6-10, and #16-20 (basically the lower halfs of page 1 and page 2):

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I suspect we'll see in the coming weeks an increase in #11-15 (from it's current 24% share) and decrease in #6-10 (currently 32% of share of ROR's position) - if this continues we can possibly see a future where ROR reports are a thing of the past.

Temporarily for ORMs, this is going to be a great thing - I assume some people will take credit for this overall drop, sshhh - I won't tell, but what this also means is in the long term ORM might not be as lucrative with ROR out of the picture in the near future, since they were one of the most frustrating to deal with. Lucky there is still the Yelps of the world.

Just checked some ROR competitors - Scam.com is doing the same exact Alexa drop as Ripoffreport:

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Another one - stats for Scambook.com:

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ScamAdviser.com got hit too:

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Mugshot.com also appears to have been hit by something similiar to the others:

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Complaints.com got hit too - but looks like it might recover:

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I checked PissedConsumer.com, - nothing significant, but it also looks like there has been minor increases in SERP results (Use SERP Sightings: PissedConsumer.com). Worth checking out, since this one might represent a site that is moderated to a degree unlike the others as someone pointed out on twitter:

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I visited pissedconsumer.com's faq section, and they do note that a court order can get a review removed and have their own process of removal:

A post may be removed from our website either by order of a court or by a user complying with our removal procedures discussed above. PissedConsumer.com may also consider the removal of a posting, should we determine that a user is in violation of our Terms of Service.

Source: http://www.pissedconsumer.com/static/publications/pissed-consumer-questions-and-answers-faq-2.html

So if the theory goes that the scam reporting sites which do not have some moderation are getting hit the hardest - seems to be holding up. I'll update this post with any new information as it comes in.

Actionable Item: Report the good news to your clients!

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