Google: Really Honest or Really Stupid?

Like many others here, I took a major hit recently on my top producing site. In Sept my adsense earnings were slightly over $4k. My Adwords spending was around $500. On Sept 22nd every top 20 result was wiped out for my main site. Traffic is down roughly 30%.

I have bought some links for this site, they were all relevant and also brought good traffic, however. The site is completely my own work, dmoz listed, by far the most expansive source for info in my niche (there are no other dedicated sites or forums). Links come from lots of articles I've written, directories, natural links, and a few purchased site wides.

I've submitted 2 Reinclusion requests, the first about 3 weeks ago. I was extremely polite, explained my situation, and asked if I had received a penalty. No response yet whatsoever. Anyone had similar experiences?

I'm not asking for much. If they think my site is trash, at least tell me. Explain why I've been penalized. If it's just standard algo change, tell me that too.

I understand that they cannot favor sites who bring in lots of revenue or use Adwords. However, considering I will probably bring them $50k+ of business over the next year, I think I deserve at least a response.

So, as a believer in Google as a company (I am also an investor, though a small one), I'm trying to figure out if they are ignoring me to maintain their impartiality. If so, they do risk losing a publisher, but I will certainly respect their decision.

I can't help thinking that it is incredibly stupid of Google to not even respond to webmasters such as myself. At this point I will be exploring Yahoo's new offering and some affiliate programs.

For now it seems that Adsense is the best advertising tool for most publishers. I will probably stick with them, as will most others. As competition arises, though, Google may lose the luxury of completely ignoring their smaller publishers.

 

From my experiences on both the publisher and advertiser (sometimes major advertiser, ie$20k to $50k+ a month), they're a pretty equal opportunity ignorer when it comes to the natural results.

I've never been able to get much more than a "You're in the index, you're not banned" response from them. They don't have the time or the resources to respond to every publisher that asks them a question about why something happened to their rankings.

Toonces51

 

Check this out

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=33935

 

I feel your pain man. The same thing happen to me. My site was number 1 in the niche I sell to. I've had the site running for over a year, the domain is registered for 3. What just pisses me off is, that my site was replaced by email groups, directories, and a bunch of non related junk. Most of it's just crap.

All I can do is hope that Google gets their act together because the search results are just starting to suck. The only way I can find anything close to relevent is when I do a lot of advanced searching, like putting quotes around things, adding add or Or. The days of just entering a simple keyword and getting good results seem to be over with Google.

It's all a tactic by google to get people to pay for their listing. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually Google doesn't become a pay to listed site. I have no problem with a company making a profit. I do have a problem when a company uses deceptive tactics to try and get people to buy into their advertising.

I quit using PPC long again because I personally don't give a rats butt if people visit mysite. I just want those who do visit to buy a membership. I found with PPC, people would be visiting but not converting to any sales. A total waste.

I'm as pissed off as you are for sure! The whole top 10 list for this one particular search changed.

 

Why did this thread get sent to General Business, when it clearly deals with Google?

 

I agree that this can be a real pain, and I understand your frustrations. I suffer from this time to time as well.

But I can't help feeling that we the SEO community are to blame for all this. I see so many sites that are SEO'd to the max just to get to the top to sell adsense. The only time its annoying to us is when we are on the other end searching for something ourselves. I think we need to take responsibility for our own actions.

Just my two cents...

 

I think there is some problem going with google.
Anyway this thread should have been under google.

 

I don't mean to sound mean, but the problem I see with you guys is that it sounds as if you rely on Googe a little bit too much. First off, Google is a corporation, and they look out for their own interests FIRST before those of their publishers.

If I were pulling in the kind of money you guys are talking about( 4 grand a month or higher) I wouldn't be putting all my eggs into "the internet basket". I would be investing in a bunch of online and offline ventures.

In others words, you guys have nothing to complain about. Save your money, invest it wisely, and don't rely on Google to keep you in the top position.