Google Rewards The Rich, Punishes The Experts

[gearmonkey]

Since Google's new update, I am seeing so many people say "Good, and good riddance!", to the websites lost in the blackhole, while not realizing many important websites are losing. The little guys, like me, are being pushed down, while we watch the BIG wealthy sites rise up to the top.

I don't get it. Why do people not care that the hard working blue collar experts are getting phased out while the Yahoo's, eHow's, and Wikipedia's flourish?

Proof
My blog, almost four years old with fresh content added daily, has been featured on main stream websites and print magazines as having highly regarded content, has taken a significant hit. I am near the point where I may have to say goodbye to my online passion if Google doesn't fix their mess.

Why are these sites ranked above mine? I am the expert in my niche, not Wiki, not Yahoo Answers, and not eHow.

My content is what makes eHow and Wiki so useful. My content is what eHow, Yahoo Answers and Wiki use as their source. They use my content to avoid doing painstaking research, then they re-write their version of my hard work.

Now Google decides lazy work is worthy of being pinned to the top of page one? My hard work, my dedication, and my time to do all the research gets pushed down so others can profit; these sites are banking on my expert analysis and painstaking research, while Google slaps me, the expert, in the face...

What happens when the experts decide to say goodbye to the online world? What happens to eHow, Wiki, and Yahoo Answers once the REAL EXPERTS are gone? Will Google still favor the lazy?

These sites link back to my website because they are using my research and analysis as their own personal resource:
-eHow
-Wiki
-Yahoo Answers

Funny, these sites are considered to be an authority in Google, yet they can't even do their own dedicated research. Instead, they have to piggy back off my hard work.

Here's how Google thanks me:

[iAmNameLess]

I disagree, I think many people got off well after the update. Every single site of mine shot up through the rankings, some by 80-90 spots.

Are you backlinking pretty well and throughout your site?

[paulgl]

Blue collar experts?

You want google to clean up "their mess" ? What mess? They
are a business free to do what they want.

Just so you can still make a buck off them?

Like they owe you?

If you were as good as you say, you would not need google.

Google doesn't need you and if you put yourself in a position
to "need" google, that was your fault.

What in the world does yahoo answers have to do with anything???????

Paul

[GeorgR.]

i dont see a significant drop in that screen shot.

Be aware that it must not mean that G "penalized" your site, if you lost rankings its probably because more other sites shot up now and compete with you.

You would have reason to complain if you would have a -25 or worse penalty, but i dont see that at all. It would be a signifcant drop from one day to the other, 50% - 75% of lost traffic. You dont have reason to panic.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

I disagree, I think many people got off well after the update. Every single site of mine shot up through the rankings, some by 80-90 spots.

Are you backlinking pretty well and throughout your site?

Oh, my autoblog moved up significantly, and that one has no backlinks. My main blog has over 30k backlinks I think. Plus 13k on inner pages.

Plus my site/pages have a ton of Yahoo Answer, Wiki, and eHow backlinks.

Here's the stats of my crappy scrapper autoblog with no backlinks:
(it's on pace for a record day, today)

[TZ]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

Since Google's new update, I am seeing so many people say "Good, and good riddance!", to the websites lost in the blackhole, while not realizing many important websites are losing. The little guys, like me, are being pushed down, while we watch the BIG wealthy sites rise up to the top.

I don't get it. Why do people not care that the hard working blue collar experts are getting phased out while the Yahoo's, eHow's, and Wikipedia's flourish?

Proof
My blog, almost four years old with fresh content added daily, has been featured on main stream websites and print magazines as having highly regarded content, has taken a significant hit. I am near the point where I may have to say goodbye to my online passion if Google doesn't fix their mess.

Why are these sites ranked above mine? I am the expert in my niche, not Wiki, not Yahoo Answers, and not eHow.

My content is what makes eHow and Wiki so useful. My content is what eHow, Yahoo Answers and Wiki use as their source. They use my content to avoid doing painstaking research, then they re-write their version of my hard work.

Now Google decides lazy work is worthy of being pinned to the top of page one? My hard work, my dedication, and my time to do all the research gets pushed down so others can profit; these sites are banking on my expert analysis and painstaking research, while Google slaps me, the expert, in the face...

What happens when the experts decide to say goodbye to the online world? What happens to eHow, Wiki, and Yahoo Answers once the REAL EXPERTS are gone? Will Google still favor the lazy?

These sites link back to my website because they are using my research and analysis as their own personal resource:
-eHow
-Wiki
-Yahoo Answers

Funny, these sites are considered to be an authority in Google, yet they can't even do their own dedicated research. Instead, they have to piggy back off my hard work.

Here's how Google thanks me:

Hey Monk,

You sure that's not just seasonal movement you are seeing there bud?

I have a few blogs just like one you are describing and they are seeing an uptick in traffic, while allot of the competition with the small sites are going down.

I HAVE noticed one pattern. With all of our sites, the biggest sites (most pages) are doing better, but the smaller sites are getting hurt a little.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Blue collar experts?

You want google to clean up "their mess" ? What mess? They
are a business free to do what they want.

Just so you can still make a buck off them?

Like they owe you?

If you were as good as you say, you would not need google.

Google doesn't need you and if you put yourself in a position
to "need" google, that was your fault.

What in the world does yahoo answers have to do with anything???????

Paul

You're a very rude and condescending poster that brings nothing to the table. I have yet to find one post that is helpful or insightful.

What does Yahoo Answers have to do with anything??? Mmmm, Google is ranking YA up and my website is sourced on Yahoo Answers in a lot of topics in my niche. My hard work is used as a source by hundreds, if not thousands of people around the world.

Google "punishing" low-quality content is hogwash. They certainly ain't rewarding it.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

Oh, my autoblog moved up significantly, and that one has no backlinks. My main blog has over 30k backlinks I think. Plus 13k on inner pages.

Plus my site/pages have a ton of Yahoo Answer, Wiki, and eHow backlinks.

Here's the stats of my crappy scrapper autoblog with no backlinks:
(it's on pace for a record day, today)

All of our autoblogs have improved, and my guess it's something to do with size.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

i dont see a significant drop in that screen shot.

Be aware that it must not mean that G "penalized" your site, if you lost rankings its probably because more other sites shot up now and compete with you.

You would have reason to complain if you would have a -25 or worse penalty, but i dont see that at all. It would be a signifcant drop from one day to the other, 50% - 75% of lost traffic. You dont have reason to panic.

700-1000 per day loss. That's about a 25% loss, right?

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by TZ

All of our autoblogs have improved, and my guess it's something to do with size.

Site size? Like number of pages? My other autoblog has 22,000 pages. It's been pretty stable traffic wise, but adsense increased.

[TZ]

Originally Posted by gearmonkey

Site size? Like number of pages? My other autoblog has 22,000 pages. It's been pretty stable traffic wise, but adsense increased.

No. I'm not talking about your autoblog. It went up.

How many posts on your "expert site" as you called it?

I can't imagine as site as good as you described losing much ground.

[rcritchett]

This is super interesting.

I'm heavily into this entire thing and have been researching it since they decided on these changes last year (before implementing them). Since they've hit, I've been paying attention to all of the buzz around people getting torched and sunk.

I have no idea what's happening to your blog. Based on what I'm seeing (which of course isn't everything), some of those authority sites are taking hits because of how much LOW quality crap they have on there. It seems like a cleanup of sorts, in many ways.

Keep us informed man!

[iAmNameLess]

gearmonkey... I think you should be a bit more patient with the results, before coming to a conclusion.

I don't think that the algo change has anything to do with quality. I think it has to do with relevance. Out of about 50 sites of mine that I either own or maintain or work on, have experienced an increase in SERPs.

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by TZ

No. I'm not talking about your autoblog. It went up.

How many posts on your "expert site" as you called it?

I can't imagine as site as good as you described losing much ground.

The expert site has 1,300 posts. I post about once a day for the last (almost) 4 years.

[izrafel]

I feel your frustration, but I'm not sure if it is google punishing the experts just yet? You may have a point though

There are alot of big sites or the "rich" who got penalized with the update
Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s “Farmer” Algorithm Change?

BUT at the same time several of the internet giants like youtube facebook etc probably profits from the algorithm change.

Keep ploughing with SEO I'm sure your blog can get back on top

[GeorgR.]

gearmonkey,

is your site covering ONE and ONLY ONE niche?

From your description it sounds like it doesn't. And then you are simply fallen in the "content farm" category, regardless of the actual high quality content.

I say for the last few days GOOGLE IGNORES ACTUAL CONTENT and applied a global penalty on sites...and one of the factors for penalty is covering and serving multiple topics!

[gearmonkey]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

gearmonkey,

is your site covering ONE and ONLY ONE niche?

From your description it sounds like it doesn't. And then you are simply fallen in the "content farm" category, regardless of the actual high quality content.

I say for the last few days GOOGLE IGNORES ACTUAL CONTENT and applied a global penalty on sites...and one of the factors for penalty is covering and serving multiple topics!

No, just one niche. Unless guitar lessons is too different of a niche from guitar reviews. Because I do both.

[parbat]

hello dear gear monkey ,

i really appriciate your talent , i think it should be just a seasonal change with traffic . you need not to worry .

your traffic is based on real quality so you need not to worry about it . if yahoo and wiki is using your answers then it is your benifit indirectly .

[The Prophet]

I t6hink sme webmasters are over reacting with the new update, major search engines make updates like this all the time so just adjsut to the algorithm and restrategize your plan for boosting your rankings

[inter123]

Try to look at it from a positive angle. Traffic is down by 25% which is not good but it could have been far worse - imagine what would be the case if traffic fell by 75%?

You could add another 200 or so posts which would get the traffic levels back up.