How local newspaper advertorial helped lead to Interflora’s Google downfall
Google’s penalty to Interflora looks like it originates in part from local newspaper advertorial content.
High profile big brand SEO penalties don’t come along that often, so Interflora getting excluded from Google results is probably going to make news. It looks like the florist had gone to great lengths to give freebies to bloggers in return for links, and this has come back to haunt them. According to SEO blogger Martin Macdonald, Interflora are no longer ranking for terms like flower or florist, and I’ve seen myself that they don’t come up until page three in Google when I search for their brand name.
Interflora on page 3 of Google for their own name
Anthony Shapley has been digging around into it, and one of the suspect sets of content he has identified is a surge in advertorial placement for Interflora on local and regional newspapers in the UK leading up to Valentine’s day. Anthony also notes that a lot of local newspaper sites also appear to have taken a Google penalty in the last few days.
Local newspaper advertorial listed in Google.
Given that they have a paid search marketing budget, it is still an Interflora ad you see at the top of search results when you type their name into Google. Always interesting, of course, that Google feel they can sell their own links to Interflora through AdWords, whilst punishing them for buying them elsewhere.
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by Martin Belam, February 22, 2013 
I’m a designer and journalist, and the founder of Emblem, a digital consultancy offering user experience design, information architecture and training services. I’ve spent over a decade building products for brands like the Guardian, Sony, Vodafone and the BBC, and now work with clients in the publishing, media, arts, heritage and culture sectors. To find out about working with us, please email.
It seems as if the timing of this article on Google Webmaster Central is no coincidence, then:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-reminder-about-selling-links.html
I find it very interesting with the reactions of the bloggers who received a mail from Interflora with a request of removing links to Interflora that Martin MacDonalds post shows. They are very suspicious and sending flowers to bloggers were probably not the link bait that they hoped for.
Wow, that is bad. I know many will point to the fact that Interflora was using “black hat” techniques, but I sympathize with the company. Interflora employs so many workers, and this is going to cost jobs (starting with the in-house SEO team). And this practice of giving away freebies in exchange for publicity has been around for a LONG time, Interflora just included Google into it. I’m not so sure they deserved the heavy hand of Google on this one.