WidgetBucks is banned in Google and they know why

Google is at war again.

Yesterday, it slapped a lot of websites with a PageRank (PR) downgrade to send a signal that it hates paid text link ads. Now, it has been discovered that Google is also against WidgetBucks, a recently launched widget advertising program, apparently because of hidden text links.

Go to Google.com and try searching for “WidgetBucks” or “widgetbucks.com”. Chances are you won’t see its official site (www.widgetbucks.com) on the first page of the results. In fact, you won’t see it even on the next 10 pages.

Why?

Because Google has banned the site from appearing in the search results.

But why?

There is no official word from Google yet but it looks like WidgetBucks violated Big G’s guideline on hidden text and links:

If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages. When evaluating your site to see if it includes hidden text or links, look for anything that’s not easily viewable by visitors of your site. Are any text or links there solely for search engines rather than visitors?

Got Chance explains this more:

After looking at [the WidgetBucks ad code], i understood that it is the Flash animation that rolls over this text-link and hides/covers it. The Flash is generated using the Javascript code. So, i used my Web Developer toolbar to disable javascript. Then, i viewed my site (that used WidgetBucks). As expected, i found the Text Link alone.

In other words, the Widgetbucks ad code contains a text link hidden under the Flash animation. We checked the ad code from WidgetBucks and indeed found the text link in question (highlighted below).

Original WidgetBucks ad code

<!– START CUSTOM WIDGETBUCKS CODE –>
<script src=”http://www.widgetbucks.com/script/widgetMagic.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
<div id=”container_vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU” class=”wbtw160x300″>
<a href=”http://www.widgetbucks.com” target=”_blank”>WidgetBucks – Trend Watch – WidgetBucks.com</a>
</div><script type=”text/javascript”>writeWBStyles(“www.widgetbucks.com”);
setTimeout(function(){var day = “” + new Date().getMonth() + new Date().getDate() + new
Date().getYear();var widget = new mpireWidget(“http://www.widgetbucks.com/widgets/
wbtw160x300.swf?uid=vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU&apiURL= http://www.widgetbucks.com&day=”+day,”
vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU”);widget.write(“container_vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU”);}, Math.floor((Math.random() * 150) – (-(Math.random() * 150))) – (-200))</script>
<!– END CUSTOM WIDGETBUCKS CODE –>

The presence of a text link hidden under the Flash animation (which is visible when the browser’s Javascript is disabled) is a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines which most probably explains why WidgetBucks is banned in Google’s search results.

WidgetBucks, however, is now aware of this as shown by an email they sent to members a few hours ago. The “important notice” advises everyone to update their ad codes:

It is very important to note that this update will require action on your part. You will need to update code of your existing widgets for the speedier load times to take affect on your site, blog or network.

Although WidgetBucks claims that the code update is for “speedier load times,” we believe it is more because they want to lift Google’s ban on them.

I logged in to my WidgetBucks account and checked the updated code for our ad code above. The only obvious change is that the <a href> tag in the “WidgetBucks – Trend Watch – WidgetBucks.com” line is now gone.

Updated WidgetBucks ad code

<!– START CUSTOM WIDGETBUCKS CODE –>
<script src=”http://images.widgetbucks.com/script/widgetMagic.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
<div id=”container_vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU” class=”wbtw160x300″>
WidgetBucks – Trend Watch – WidgetBucks.com
</div><script type=”text/javascript”>writeWBStyles(“images.widgetbucks.com”);
setTimeout(function(){var day = “” + new Date().getMonth() + new Date().getDate() + new
Date().getYear();var widget = new mpireWidget(“http://images.widgetbucks.com/widgets/
wbtw160x300.swf?uid=vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU&apiURL= http://www.widgetbucks.com&day=”+day,”
vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU”);widget.write(“container_vz7Th6iymLdL0NdU”);}, Math.floor((Math.random() * 150) – (-(Math.random() * 150))) – (-200))</script>
<!– END CUSTOM WIDGETBUCKS CODE –>

Removing the hidden link in the ad code is certainly an effort on WidgetBucks’s part to please Google. But whether Google will buy it and move to place WidgetBucks back in the search results remains to be seen.