Honestly, I really didn’t think I would be writing this post.
Google is on the hunt again, this time I am finding they are going after the mommies.
My blog dropped to a PR of 3 sometime in the last week. And the ONLY paid text ads I have on this site are run through TextLinkAds. So Google has stooped to a new low that I didn’t think they would do – they seem to be going specifically after their competitor’s publishers.
The last time they did this I had the impression they were going after sites that sell text link ads directly to advertisers or the PayPerPost crowd – I really didn’t think they would start targeting bloggers that were only using TextLinkAds.com. Obviously I’ve been flipping naive.
I really thought we had seen the end of Google’s cherry picking on bloggers.
Evidently not.
I hunted around and it seemed like my peers in the blogging/business space weren’t affected this time around. But I did find a several other prominent mom/women bloggers that were hit:
I’m not going to rehash the story of why Google is right or wrong. I will say that:
- We have no control over whether TLA follows or nofollows the ads they place on our sites. Our only choice is to either run the ads or give up the revenue completely, even when running the ads is actually appreciated by our readers.
- I have never taken money for an irrelevant ad on this site in the entire year and a half I have run it. In fact, my editorial guideline is that I am only willing to accept advertisers that I would be willing to link to for free.
- I have refused to sell “followed” text link ads directly to advertisers – to the tune of well over $1000 in revenue lost (probably more)
- I have never pimped my page rank – I have always sold relevant traffic to advertisers who add value to my readers’ experience. I have even turned away relevant advertisers if I didn’t think they would get enough interest from the audience on this site.
- Most of all, many mom bloggers don’t have a FRICKING CLUE as to what page rank or NoFollow is, let alone have the technical understanding to implement those changes site-wide in an appropriate manner
I was pissed before when Google dropped the page rank of my peers.
Now I’m downright livid.
It’s not about the little green bar, I could give a shit about that. I am concerned about a loss of traffic, which may or may not be following this devaluation (my guess is that it is, because I don’t trust Google at ALL). And with nine authors now relying on me to drive traffic and income, I’m not just gambling with my own livelihood.
Ah, but thankfully, the sites I featured last two weeks ago that are blatantly disregarding Google’s guidelines all still have their SERPs ranking and their page rank. Because, you know, I just love it when a company hits mom businesses and lets shitty companies continue to operate as usual.
You GO, Larry & Sergey.
Edit – Should I be taking this as a compliment? Google seems to focusing on sites that have some influence… I guess I am in great company because I noticed today that they have also devalued Yahoo down from PR10 to PR9.
So much for Shoemoney’s theory that we shouldn’t do anything to make Google look stupid. They seem to be doing a fine job of that all by themselves.
Get Your FREE 21-Page Internet Business Idea Guide
Enter your name and email below and we’ll send you our unique 21-page guide chock full of Internet business ideas – for free! Your information will be kept private, of course.
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
Easton Ellsworth is owner of 
Take a step back. Take a deep breath.
Count to 10, take another deep breath..exhale…
Sorry to hear about this..
I wish you’d talked to me before. I would have been able to tell you that TLA was a big part of this hit. It’s all about the paid/follow/nofollow issue, regardless of how the payment is made (paid posts, tla brokers, or private transactions). Google doesn’t care that your intentions are noble. They want to end the paid/followed links business any way possible. And yes, you should have kept your mouth shut, because the louder the voice, the more likely they’ll get hit. After all, Google wants to hit those who have the ears of others, so the message is spread loud and clear. Sorry to see it happen to you, though.
There is a lesson here to be learned about fairness (or lack thereof), risk of overdependence on a single marketing channel, and the need for diversification in ones marketing/sales strategy. This applies to all business. Wal*Mart suppliers know this all to well. Don’t blog about getting squeezed or screwed. It happens. Blog about how you plan to diversify to reach your audience. ( See “Wal-Smart” by William Marquard. )
No joy, Wendy.
When I was penalised by Google, it was partly because of Text Link Ads. It’s against their TOS to add ‘nofollow’ to their links, which rubs Google the wrong way.
In my case, my PR remained intact, but I was given a -50 search rank penalty (or something very similar). Not great when you appear at #70 for your own name.
Point well taken, Stanley, though I will say that I don’t depend on text link advertising for a large portion of my revenue, nor depend on Google for a large portion of my traffic.
But both of them do represent a nice-sized chunk, and will require some adjustments, but that would be the case of any if my monetization strategies were threatened.
While I’m sorry your PR dropped, I doubt very highly that Google is targeting mothers/women/females and punishing them for *gasp* blogging.
Wendy? Clearly I’ve missed something here since I’ve had my head up my proverbial butt for a few months now (thanks to the huz, no doubt). I do no about pagerank and no follow and i still don’t know what you guys are talking about but let me give it a whirl…
Google is penalizing people who use Text Link Ads but not Google ads by lowering their pagerank? Well, maybe if Google ads were a tad more lucrative more people would use them instead of TLA. And I DO use them in other places in my vast blogging empire (heh!), but not on my personal blog.
In any case, any detailed explanation you could point me toward would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Hey Wendy,
Sorry to hear that you took a hit too. I think Google wants to own the internet and control all the advertising. But that’s just my opinion.
Wow! That just plain SUCKS, Wendy! I’m sorry you are taking such a hit!
I’m so new on the block that I still have a PR 0, but I guess if I ever want to get beyond that, I’ll need to get rid of the one TLA ad (and affilate banner) that I have up on my blog (I’ll just finish out the month so I can collect my $7, lol).
If it weren’t for your recent posts on this, I wouldn’t have had any idea that TLA’s were “bad” (at least as far as Google and PR go).
Ah, Izzy, I should have been clearer in that I knew that you and the others I mentioned know about NoFollow and Page Rank.
We are the exception, not the rule.
Google is cracking down on paid links, not blogging, linking, or anything else. I won’t go into the hypocrisy of it, nor the fact that it really isn’t my job to make Google’s life easier, but here are a few links from the last month about it:
Andy Beard put up a post last week with quite a few links to stories covering the topic:
http://andybeard.eu/2007/11/google-toolbar-pagerank-fluctuations-round-4.html
And a few others to get you up to speed:
http://gevil.org/google-news/greedy-google-fudding-webmasters-over.html
http://andybeard.eu/2007/10/google-evil.html
And my favorite series on what and why Google is doing this and why it’s a load of shit in the first place:
http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/nofollow-is-for.php
(That’s part one of 5)
Honestly, I really have to back away from my keyboard on this one and take a deep breath like my buddy Nick so rightly suggests. I have been pissed at Google for weeks, and the anger is eating me up, which is SO unlike me.
I’ve never posted a “rant” before that didn’t end up on a positive note, and in fact, have only posted one “rant” before ever. So I guess I must admit I have let them get to me.
Yep, it sucks. The whole thing is crazy.
My little site gets Google slapped, and, other dishonest people not following the rules have no penalty at all.
Even if people were to make changes to comply, no telling how long it will be before Google updates again.
I feel for you Mrs Piersall. This is the reason why monopolies are bad. If only Yahoo could compete…
From Google’s site:
PageRank reflects Google’s view of the importance of web pages…there is no human involvement or manipulation of results, which is why users have come to trust Google as a source of objective information untainted by paid placement.
(http://www.google.com/corporate/tech.html)
@Antonio :: I’m speechless.
Chipped Polish is new, but two weeks ago I got bumped up to PR2 (thanks, I think, to your kind link to me). The other day I noticed it is now a PR1.
For WAHMs who do primarily PayPerPost type gigs with their blogs, this is a serious blow to their finances. On the PPP board everyone is talking about how much money they’re losing. I haven’t ventured much into other types of advertising funding, but I will say I notices some splogs (who I’ve personally reported) go up in PR. WTF? Of course, the splogs primarily run Google Ads, so there ya go.
How exactly is my $500 going to hurt Google’s pocketbook?
I’m sorry this happened to you, Wendy. That really sucks. I’m hoping that someone somewhere will start really giving the Big G a run for their money.
At least I am in good company
I refuse to let Google tell me how my sites can and can’t make money – especially when I follow the rules. Diversity is the key!
I’m wondering, too, Wendy, if you plan to discontinue TLA and/or anything else that lets juice flow?
Wendy — While I certainly appreciate your position. Just exactly how does page rank determine what your traffic is. Quite frankly, I use Camino as my browser and I NEVER look at a blogs page rank before I go visit it. What do I and others look for CONTENT. Content is what gets us traffic. Content is what gets us links. Content is what gets us comments and content is what gets us noticed. My new blog, which we started the end of September is getting on an average over 500 hits a day. We have a 1 page rank I think. I would venture to guess, my readers and yours don’t even know what our page ranks are. Too hell with Google. And if they keep this crap up, big brother is going to have just one more reason to control the Internet and than we will all be in trouble.
Lizzie – the only program I use that Google has a problem with is TLA, and I’m not sure what I will do about it yet.
I’d like to keep it on principle. But I’m not sure of the consequences of that choice yet.
Agreed. I was PR6 and now I’m PR5. As far as I know, the only thing “naughty” that I’ve done is TLA.
I hope you continue to use TLA, Wendy. I’m not going to stop using them just because Big G are telling me I’m not allowed to make money with anything other than AdCents.
Keep on keeping, on!
Grant, the higher your page rank, the more traffic Google will send you through their natural search results.
I agree that I never look at somebody’s page rank before I link editorially – in fact, I have adamantly advised my readers against the practice.
Hi Wendy
Well I certainly know what you are going through.
SearchEngineGuide have recently had their PageRank restored after an extremely difficult, if comical decision process.
It isn’t too difficult, all you have to do is remove all offending links and then go grovelling to Google with a reinclusion request stating in detail all the “sins” you have supposedly committed and how you rectified them.
It becomes a little more difficult if you are in my position, as I can’t honestly tell Google I regard the links I have given as being paid, when I chose them myself in an editorial manner.
Your readers might also find this post useful, because in it I summed up everything I felt could potentially be looked on as naughty by Google.
http://andybeard.eu/2007/10/penalty-confirmed-but-i-dont-sell-pagerank.html
Sorry to hear about your downgrade. What’s surprising is that Google took my measly 3 and turned it into a 2 lol. I don’t even have TLA. Ah well, I’ll just gun for a 7 next time heh.
Yeah, Baron, they aren’t exactly being smart about how they are handling this.
My index page went down from a 5 to a 4 in the last update – and not only are there NO ADS on that page, but there are certainly no text ads on it! But I wasn’t going to raise a stink about it because I didn’t want to draw attention to it.
Wendy — I know what you are saying about page rank and Google sending more traffic if it is higher. And I know we rely on the search engines to find us too. But it is our content, links and our readers that count the most with a blog. Blogging gets better results than a static web site when it comes to page rank and placement in the search engines. I for one think it will all work out in the end. I know for a fact, from my own personal experience in doing a very niched centered blog, that I was placed in the search engines higher than other higher page ranked blogs. Why? Content and incoming links. And I landed the links because of content. Well written, relevant content, and a niched centered blog will get results.
Me too: http://sleepyblogger.com/?p=706
@ Grant: Excellent points and I agree with you. Well done on your own traffic in such a short amount of time (feel free to share the secrets!)
@Wendy. Welcome to the party! I lost pr from 4 to 2. Doesn’t matter, serp unaffected, more visitors and I have continued with TLA. This is just another ploy to garner more market share! Don’t fret! I lost my head when i lost PR, didn’t blog about it and just monitored stats and am happy with it. Don’t bow and keep writing great content
We are noticeable in this blogosphere…
@Antonio Howell – PR can be manipulated and is as confirmed by Andy. All systems can be manipulated.
I can’t believe Google reduced your page rank because I know your blog is so much more influential than mine.
For some reason my blog index page has a PR5 and I only found this out last week. I had signed up for TLA but no one bought and finally 3 months later I deactivated the plugin and removed the widget (oddly traffic increased) and 3 days later after I found out my PR they told me someone purchased a link. I added the widget back but then had some communication issues with TLA and saw this post and others and have since removed it again.
I have been learning a ton about PR this past couple of weeks from all the posts out there on Google.
I hope Google comes to their senses and puts you to your well deserved PR of much greater than 5.
I’m a bit concerned right now because due to an extremely unexpected event a transformer went down (a bad accident nearby) for our otherwise 99.9% uptime webhost with their data center in Dallas and our sites are down…including my blog! Ugh!
Yeah, Google dropped my PR AND penalized my Blogger blog, but that turned out great because I focused on building up my PaulaNealMooney.com and another really hot niche site.
So Google can try to hurt us — but all things will turn out fine in the end.
My traffic dropped on Blogger, but it’s going thru the roof on the other sites, so it’s a love /hate relationship with the Big G.
Google, that is.
Hi Wendy, I’m so sorry to hear about this. As you know it happened to me the first time it went down. I was able to get one of the two points back by removing the links and groveling. I don’t know what’s going to happen to the other point.
For now, it isn’t going to affect your traffic and hopefully that never changes. If it does, then everyone will really have to adjust. Even when I was -2 it didn’t affect traffic at all. If you decide to try to restore it, I’m here to help!
Hi Wendy, I went through the same thing myself with of my sites. It went from a PR5 to a PR4. the only factor that appears to have caused it is TLA. Like you, I find the whole thing very frustrating. The level of greed coming out of google is amazing. Imagine how TLA must be feeling. Google is basically dictating business terms to TLA clients, which will obviously have a massive negative impact upon them. Maybe not legally, but at least ethically this appears to be some form of restraint of trade.
I also find it strange how the splogs can retain such high PR. I have contacted google at various times to discuss splogs that have reproduced my entire sites content. Needless to say, nothing was done from google’s end. It seems as long as they get their money, that is all that matters. Whether the ad is clicked on a splog or a legitimate quality site means little to them.
And to think that I used to say MS was bad. Mind you, I had concerns about 4 or 5 years ago about the power google was gathering with their search.
I’m kind of glad I’m a google-tard in that I’ve never really invested too much time into doing what was best for my page rank or adsense profit.
A former mentor I had once told several of us to never write to be dugg, stumbled or for page ranks – but for your readers – the rest falls into place.
The wisest words I’ve heard yet and somehow they keep growing wiser still.
None of this makes any sense to me, but somehow I don’t think your page will suffer, groveling to Google doesn’t always work. I tried to get Adsense restored and was told no repeatedly and I still don’t know why I was removed form that network. The list of possible reasons was form letter style and forget about them answering any correspondence from you. Courts post about his plight was interesting because its the first time I’ve heard about a reconciliation. Stay the course Wendy, I’ll be back
Don’t remove the TLA links Mrs Piersall. As a matter of fact do not change anything you are doing.
You have to stand-up to bullies and not give in to them.
Keep your chin-up Mrs Piersall. (”We” your readers have found you and are not going anywhere because your PR is lower).
Giggle started this whole mess by trying to solve their “comment spamming” problem and created the NOFOLLOW tag as the solution. Now that NOFOLLOW tag has caused more problems than Giggle wants to admit and they penalize the good guys.
Giggle may act like they own the internet but they don’t “We” the people do.
I can’t believe it. This is a new low – don’t googleplex workers have mothers too!
Thanks for the explanation, Wendy. I think I’m going to stick with my TLA. They’re very lucrative and it takes me 6 months to earn with Adsense what I make in a month with them. Is there anything one can really do to remedy this, short of dumping TLA?
I think Google doesn’t realize the effect they’re having on people in the real world and the effect their decisions are having. At some point a lot of us are going to say enough is enough. We’ll have to if we want to stay in business.
Wendy – this topic came up at BlogWorld and I’ve confirmed the answer with someone from Google. Supposedly it is ONLY PageRank that got affected, NOT natural search engine rankings. I’m not quite sure how they accomplish that, but supposedly they have.
PageRank, per se, only matters if you are selling links and pricing them based on your PR. So for now, I’d say wait and see… if your number of Google referrers doesn’t drop, don’t sweat it.
I’m sorry to hear about that but I’m not surprised they have targeted a lot of websites. Personally I think their will be a lot more website hit before it is all over. I have 8 websites they all went down to 0. I write the occasional sponsored post on one of them the others I don’t.
However, I won’t be changing anything around to please Google I do believe if people keep doing exactly what they say there really is no reason for them to change. I’m not about to do that.
I’m not dependent on them to make money online. My traffic has increased.