Google, Accountability, Dealing with Huge SERP Drops.
I am at a complete loss of words today. I have several sites, and up to a +3 year old website, that Google has decided to stop sending traffic to… Of course, they can do this without reason, effecting my livelihood and income, without repercussion and without accountability!
What the hell am I, the little guy supposed to do to Google? The implications to these smaller sites were dramatic!
I’m not alone… but I can say it was NOT an adsense issue like those at WarriorForum, several of the effected sites did not even have adsense on them! For me, I think the longtail search just got cut off!
Google Killed the Little Guy with a Long Tail!
Listen, I know I am preaching to the choir here, but Google is MORE than just a search engine, they are a public utility company and NEED to be regulated Oh God… did I just say that?! Somebody hit me now!
I HATE all the government in our shit already – but Google has WAY TOO MUCH power and influence, and needs to be regulated!
</rant – time to find solutions>
Cheese, You’ve Been Moved Again!
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Google Mayday Update and SERP Changes
- Dealing with 404 Errors after Moving BANS off the Domain Root
- Niche Store Writer Review | Dealing with BANS Duplicate Content
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Yup… been there matey!
@Tao – Yup
Same problem here, I have lose over night more then 10 000 and after 7-8 days another 10 000 unique visitors on 1 of my sites over night because Long Tail !!!!!
I don’t know what it is. I created some articles for backlinks, added some other articles to my sites and some of my sites go from 5th to 200th. Then I have some sites that never ranked for a search term go from not being ranked, to being ranked and moving up.
I don’t get it either, but, I remember SoggyDave saying, doing something is better than doing nothing.
But I do feel your pain, it can happen with PPC as well, when your competitors ads become more compelling or when Google (or ad company) just doesn’t want to give your ads preference anymore.
Wouldn’t it just hurt them as well if they just stopped sending traffic to your site if you had things on your site that benefited them (adsense). I’m telling ya – google thinks they own and are the internet sometimes.
Maybe it’s time for a new job.
I have to admit that my “other” life (the one where I don’t do anything on the Internet) has been taking over lately, and I’ve had no time to focus on my Internet life. So, this is new to me. I might be affected, but haven’t even had a chance to check my sites.
If Google has killed the longtail, the how do you suggest we go about trying to get traffic? Seems like just about everything I’ve learned about creating sites has been thrown out the window…
Rochelle
Caffeine updates, May Day updates, screw the little guy updates. We are all at the mercy of the Google gods. Adsense, long-tail, mini-sites, affiliate sites, who the hell knows. Matt C. in the site evaluation google video even mentioned that we should go after the long-tail. I really am looking forward to the Yahoo-MSN alliance and Obama taking over Google like GM.
I hate feeling scared about doing something with my sites wondering whether or not Google will like it or not. Will this get my adsense account banned? Will this get my adwords account banned? Will this get my sites deindexed for no reason?
Matt C. made it sound so simple in his video. You need text on your page. You need unique text on your page. Perhaps you need compelling unique text on your page so people will link to it. Is that it? Oh and I should use google webmaster tools to check that viagra isn’t one of searched keywords.
Me too . When you find solution, please do share. :-)
@Neso – Believe me… I feel your pain!
@Sean – Agree and disagree with the something is better than nothing analogy. Its GREAT to do something, but if you can do it better with just a small amount of extra effort, isnt it worth it?
Have no doubt though… Dave’s method of article spin marketing and host & post marketing does work!
An oh… Google DOES Own the internet!
@Rochelle – Nothing really too different Rochelle, just another new way of chasing the cookie!
In the brief 48 hour period that I have watched traffic at a 3-year old authority (or so I thought) site go from 5000 to 750 daily pageviews, its been 100% long tail death!
When I look at other sites doing well across MANY different niche markets, the key difference is “offsite” backlinks! Period. Backlinks.
Pick a phrase you used to outrank everyone with… compare your old landing page to the one that now outranks you. Backlinks.
Time to go grey-hat again…
Mark
Write your attorney general.
Include Google and ePN
@Bill – LOL, thats funny… Don’t you know the US Gov is in bed with G? How did I see it put… J Edgar Google.
nice thought though.
The little guys have no influence with government. If the gov’t gets involved then the guys with the most money will rule the SERPs since they’ll have Washington lobbyists.
I cannot think of a worse idea.
@Mark S – Agree… its got to be the webmasters that change things.
Easier to adapt…
I’ve been hit with the drop in traffic too. Seems to be a common story.
Thank God for Yahoo and Bing traffic.
I’m sure whoever is getting the Google traffic I lost is pretty happy now.
This is a tough game to play in. Every time things look like they are stepping forward, EPN or Google knocks you two steps back.
@Greg – The shitty thing to me Greg is that the most common sites that are taking the place of several of my former authority… are content farms.
OBVIOUSLY made-for-adsense sites with nothing but rewritten articles on the landing pages. Most with side-by-side 300×250 adsense blocks on top of the content.
It is what it is… Time to move on and find some solutions. (Changing hats again)
Hmmmm, backlinks you say? Gotta get some of those :)
On a serious note, I think you are pretty right on with that. I have really good performing site that completely depended on long tail, but I just didn’t spend much time promoting it, and there wasn’t a need because it was so awesome by itself. It’s the one that is now only getting 10% of average traffic. I have several others that were bit as well, but this one was a favorite performer with great EPC and Adsense CPM.
Good luck to you guys on getting back on track. We all figured it out in some form or another before, I’m sure we can do it again. Just in time for the next update!
Anyone who cares to read it – the first comment in this post at Search Engine land says it all.
Welcome to the Mayhem people..I have been facing this since March 14 when traffic tumbled downhill and is still rolling down..
I give up, so sick of dancing to the latest tune, just as things seemed to finally be falling into place. Although my main keywords are ranking on the 1st page traffic across the board is in half. At least it isn’t because of my moving the few bans sites I had left over to phpbay, so not my doing – the 1 saving grace.
Google is not what it was. It is now a huge corporate in bed with other huge corporates. Search for any product and chances are the first page will contain amazon, ebay, nexttag etc. The web is now controlled by a dozen corporate giants which is what Google wants. Quality/Authority is now determined by being a known brand. Each month that passes none brand affiliate sites/adsense sites etc will be pushed further and further down the serps.
The change in my own browsing habits confirms this to me. For myself, I actually use the sponsored links more than serps to track down products and I hardly use search engines for information any longer – I’d rather buy a book which, unfortunately, usually comes from amazon!
Yahoo and Bing offer more diversity but with the serps merger going through later in the year choice will further be restricted. There is not enough competition on the web and hasn’t been for some time. And most depressing of all is that there is no sign of change on the horizon.
We need a new Google to do to it what Google did to others when it first started out. Keep praying.
@Anand Srinivasan – I am actually sick to my stomach over all of it this morning Anand. Not only for my own losses, but the way Google can just randomly affect so many, without fear of repercussion.
@Cherie – I wish it were that easy…
@Mike – Agree 100%. This latest change kills a high percentage of small business owners out there, who cannot, and have no desire to compete with the monopolies.
The message is clear… if your site is in the field of commerce, buy ads from us, or don’t expect free (Very loaded word, with all the data we have to give in order to use google) traffic.
Another good read, for those following the update: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4144824-4-30.htm
Mark
@Sean – An oh… Google DOES Own the internet!
I hate to see these type of comments (above). I build my website for my visitors and NEVER for Google. Google as a company can go to hell for all I care!
They might be the number 1 search engine in the world but, they are failing because – they stopped focusing on their core business (search), became greedy, decided to turn into a mini-government and now they are failing.
You guys should know that they are nothing more than a bunch of greedy executives, and they will fail when the time comes. Think Enron, think Google. They are walking that path now!
Nice one Richie – Google only own the internet because it is the consumers search engine of the choice. However, they are no longer serving the consumer but rather their corporate partners. The great thing about the internet is that we (consumers) can end the monopoly at the click of the mouse.
I think there are a lot of consumers looking for an alternative but someone has to step up and deliver it.
Mike
@Mike – You said it all…God bless you!
We really need a new ‘Google’, the one we knew years ago.
The Google where you create an adwords ad and it appears within hours, not weeks or months – all in the name of ‘review’.
Reviewing and reserving ad spots for the likes of Ebay, Amazon, Nexttag, and other huge corporations. But, not for small businesses.
I seldom click their ads now, I prefer copy and paste. If they will block my means of livelyhood (adwords), then I will do my best to stop giving them those cents (drop in an ocean I know).
But, if everybody is doing it, then they will notice. My programmer is about to complete a PPCwebspy type Firefox plugin that will allow you to click on the destination URL only without clicking on the ads itself.
@Google – Recognize the power of small business and crush your competitors or fail and go bankrupt!!
I hate the word regulated as well, but I am fed up too, it’s nice that the big guns are still ranking and now I can sleep at night knowing that Amazon will continue to make bank, but I guess all of us little guys, that usually offer a lot of value to the web because we have to work 5 times harder to compete just get hosed ————— Thanks Google and BTW you suck!
@Mark Hansen –
Changing hats is becoming like a full time job x3 with freaking Google.
@Sonia –
I feel your pain, I too have gotten into this mode of being scared to do anything on my sites in fear of how Google might react, whatever, I am changing my whole focus for a while, and only thinking – Users and getting traffic, any which way I can, period.
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