Why does Google Hate Me?

[burnsai]

So, I've got this International Dating site (see my signature). Been working on SEO for 5 months.

Was on page #1 of Google for 7-8 of my not so competitive keywords - it was bringing in 60-80 Uniques a day - I know it's not alot, but this is a ridiculously competitive market - and just getting there was a massive battle.

Then on July 24th all my rankings just went down the tubes - all those page-one keywords are now hovering in the low 30s or lower.

I've read plenty on the dreaded Google Slap, but I'm not really sure what I did to incur their wrath.

I would love some suggestions on why this might have happened and what I can do to remedy the situation.

By the way, this is a Joomla site. This is the last time I use Joomla for anything in which I care about SEO!

[Information Publishing]

You really don't have to do much to incur the BIG G wrath, they are always changing things when we get comfortable after fighting our way to any sort of vantage point. What is joomla? Could it be the BIG G is de-prioritising sites made with it if its a web building or hosting type software?

[Brad Gosse]

Just posted this vid about my 1 year google slap. Hope it helps

YouTube - How I got Google Slapped For 1 Full Year

[rapidscc]

I don't think its actually intended..Have anyone here heard of caffeine..not the coffee..

it's something google search developers have been playing around with..it mentioned that the developers were changing something under the hood to give quality search results..although I think it was being implemented to beat the microsoft+yahoo alliance, the developers at google's flagship product simply brushes it aside and said it has nothing to do with it. They said they were just improving the service..

also they said the it should come in unnoticed, except of course by web masters...

Maybe you were affected?

Also In my opinion google is so BIG to single out individuals..or particular sites unless they really did something naughty...

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by Information Publishing

You really don't have to do much to incur the BIG G wrath, they are always changing things when we get comfortable after fighting our way to any sort of vantage point. What is joomla? Could it be the BIG G is de-prioritising sites made with it if its a web building or hosting type software?

It could have something to do with your link building ... it could be Google is taking a look at affiliate dating sites ... could be a bunch of reasons. You'll probably never know which it is.

Joomla is a very popular CMS ... not a hosting type software.

[MasterLanta]

Urrrg the google slap! i hope i never get this (even thou im not in a good ranging yet)

lol




jim

x

[MisterMunch]

I think the lesson here is to collect visitors while you got them. Email, Rss, Twitter etc.

But I do not do that either, so who am I to say.

[InternetMarketingIQ]

Google doesn't even know who you are. And it has NOTHING to do with Joomla. I have a Joomla site that consistently brings in big bucks...and is making me big money.

There are billions of webpages that Google indexes. They do it with software.

They didn't sit down one day and say... man that one guy with his joomla dating site is ranking too high... flip the switch lets get rid of him.

Think of your site as one of the stars in the Galaxy and Google's job is to track all the stars. You have got to really do something to get their attention.

They made a tweak to their algorithm that made your site less important to what they now believe will return a more relevant result.

It's really that simple.

So your job is to look at what you have and figure out what might have been at trigger for the new algorithm. But that's every ones job. In 2008 they stated they made 450 algorithm adjustments.

The major problem that people have is they tend to focus all their energies on SEO and Ranking. And if you can get Organic Rank that's great. But it's actually easier to focus on customers and traffic from sources other than Search.

Seriously you can get real traffic by building relationships. The problem is most affiliate marketers do not have sites that can create enough value to form the needed relationships.

[Micheallatour]

Don't take it personal. This happens to all of us.

The big "G" is something that none of us will ever understand.
We just have to deal with it.

[Heuristic]

It sometimes seems as though Google is 2 steps ahead of everyone. Look at it this way: they deal with some extremely smart BH's, spammers and such. People that make what we do look like nothing. They are battle-hardened, so when it comes to trying to "trick" the algo, they stop us without breaking a sweat. For what it's worth, I also think Google hates me lol.

@ Brad - Being in an uber competitive area like that, do you think you got turned in by a competitor?

[anth.elias]

Originally Posted by rapidscc

I don't think its actually intended..Have anyone here heard of caffeine..not the coffee..

it's something google search developers have been playing around with..it mentioned that the developers were changing something under the hood to give quality search results..although I think it was being implemented to beat the microsoft+yahoo alliance, the developers at google's flagship product simply brushes it aside and said it has nothing to do with it. They said they were just improving the service..

also they said the it should come in unnoticed, except of course by web masters...

Maybe you were affected?

Also In my opinion google is so BIG to single out individuals..or particular sites unless they really did something naughty...

Nope that has nothing to do with Google new search technology, in fact it's not available to the general public right now- it's here if you want to read about it Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Help test some next-generation infrastructure.

How old is your site? what kind of backlinks to you have? Who are you linking to, Who is linking to you- Don't worry to much about dropping down, just keep working on your backlinks, and fresh content, keyword rich content for your niche plus backlinks = Traffic

[seojr]

Seo is like a wife she has to be maintained all the time

her personality is ever so changing

Ok seriously - your in the dating field - do you actually know how much your top competitors are pumpin into SEO a year - actually a month!!!?

This has a big knock on effect to any site in its way!!

Welcome ot the world of SEO

[Brad Gosse]

Originally Posted by steve39

@ Brad - Being in an uber competitive area like that, do you think you got turned in by a competitor?

No way to know for sure. I learned my lesson though and cleaned up my act. Now I am doing the right things.

Best advice is not to automate, purchase or outsource the job of publishing relevant content that links back to your site.

[burnsai]

Wow! I posted this an hour ago and already got so much useful info. I love this forum. Thanks, everyone for your input.

@Brad - Ouch! One year - hope I didn't piss them off that much.

@2b1ask1 - Nice! I can't believe I missed that one - I'm usually pretty good with keywords research. Changing title tag right after I post this.

And for the record... I still think Google hates me!

[burnsai]

Good News. Google doesn't hate me anymore.

For anyone stressing about a similar "Slap" - in my experience it took almost a month for my rankings to return - now they are wayyyyy better than they were before the unfortunate event.

Hang in there!

[LegitBlogger]

Sometimes such drops are temporal, especially if you
haven't done anything wrong,

[dburk]

Hi burnsai,

Glad to hear your Google love came back. What you have experienced is what we in the business like to call the "Google Dance". When Google updates their algorithm or does a data refresh you will see rankings shift around a bit before they settle down. This happens frequently so you might as well get use to it.

By the way a "Google Slap" has absolutely nothing to do with organic search listings, it is a term that applies to AdWords accounts when their quality scores suddenly drop. I mention this because it helps us communicate when we all use terminology in a consistent fashion.

[Stallion]

Same thing happened to a few of my sites. I was in the top 10 last month. Got slapped to past 100th position. I'm not back to the top 10 year, but I'm creeping up the ranks.

[amerigo]

Had the same thing happen to a full network of sites, around the same time.

Just keep building good quality backlinks, and forget about your traffic (for now).

Just got my kephrases back, the other day, by using this method. Best of luck to you