Scary site visits from corp.google.com

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I have noticed visits from these referrers to one of my sites in particular:

listnr.corp.google.com
stirp.corp.google.com
data.corp.google.com
qatool.corp.google.com
roboslicer.corp.google.com
collab.corp.google.com

It seems to be Google's intranet - discussion forums or whatever they use.

Slightly worrying, I mean it can't be a good thing right? Someone at Google is presumably posting about my site on their internal boards.

It's more likely to be, "hey, this guy shouldn't be ranking like this/getting so much traffic - how can we fix that?" versus "hey, this guy should rank higher, let's send him more traffic?".

Although I've noticed it for at least 4 weeks and no manual action yet.

The site in question is 100% absolutely legit (no black or grey hat), but has blown up in terms of rankings and the traffic that Google is sending lately, all in relation to rich schema/markup which is applied according to their guidelines/not spammy.

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Your assessment of the situation sounds correct. You used their guidance and tools to great effect, to the point where maybe they're worried about it being something that can be exploited. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get whacked or anything, I don't think. You might lose some of the gains in a future update if they dial it down some.

Based on what you've shared, I don't think you need to fear anything. Worst case scenario you slip back to where you were (doubtful). Average case scenario, you keep some portion of the gains as they tweak the knobs a bit in the future.
 
I don’t know your niche but many companies have internal list of tools for their employees. For example, it might be a guide for employee travel with tools the company approves of. Your worries might be unfounded.
 
I don’t know your niche but many companies have internal list of tools for their employees. For example, it might be a guide for employee travel with tools the company approves of. Your worries might be unfounded.
Thanks, but that's not it.

I also remembered I have been active in various public Google forums concerning some issues with the markup and bug fixing them. Perhaps they are sharing the URLs back to their tech teams.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and was curious what BUSO thought of it too. Perhaps others have similar referrals?
 
Tell me what you did and I will apply to my sites and then if I get canned and you get canned we can confirm the worst :wink:
 
Maybe they are posting your website internally, saying "use this website as a template. It's not spammy and has quality information on it. Our staff should use it as a good point of reference". :wink:
 
Seriously, does no one else have these referrers in their logs/GA?
All the time.

I mean I even get them on my PBNs. Of the times they visit, my traffic always goes up - so I must be doing something right.
 
All the time.

I mean I even get them on my PBNs. Of the times they visit, my traffic always goes up - so I must be doing something right.
Cool. This is on a site that I go out of my way to make the content helpful for readers. So maybe it does work, and hopefully being used as a "good" example.
 
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