(AllHipHop News) After the lyric website Rap Genius was accused of uses link schemes to get unnatural hits, Google has apparently penalized the site. A link to “rapgenius.com” is no longer available on the first page for a Google search of “rap genius.”
Rap Genius was recently exposed as using an “affiliate program” to garnered traffic to the site. The “growth hacking” plan offered bloggers a tweet mentioning their post in exchange for back links to Rap Genius. This would help Rap Genius increase their Google search engine ranking position which is a violation of Google’s linking policy.
The founders of Rap Genius did issue a statement on the matter. Writing in part:
We’re going to be requesting that site owners take down links to Rap Genius that don’t fit well with their editorial content. Going forward, we do believe a track list widget that bloggers can embed has value, but we’ll develop one in JS rather than HTML.
Rap Genius is the product of many passionate communities collaborating to create a massive, living knowledge base for the world to enjoy. We do not want to break Google’s rules, and will do whatever it takes to learn them inside out and comply with them. Thank you very much!
Earlier this year Rap Genius was sent a take down notice by the National Music Publishers Association for publishing licensed lyrics without permission. RG later announced a licensing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing allowing them to keep up lyrics from Sony/ATV artists.
[ALSO READ: Rap Genius Announces Licensing Deal With Sony/ATV Music Publishing]