Ten Reasons Why Google Took My PR

It appears that Google has done the latest PR updates and they have decided that this blog no longer deserved the PR3 ranking and instead reduced it to PR0. I don’t think that anyone really knows what methods Google uses to decide a site’s PR ranking although there are a lot of SEO guru wannabes who will tell you different. Now I am by no means a SEO expert but I have come up with a few reason why Google took my PR from me.

  1. They Don’t Like The Word Bullshit? Get over it will you? That’s the name of the blog so learn to live with it. Besides, there is nothing wrong with the word bullshit. The world is full of it, in fact some people say that ‘bullshit makes the world go round.’ Heck I’ve even heard a lot of people saying how Google has derived a new level of bullshit and are quietly calling it GoogleShit. Just the other day I heard a couple of SEO gurus talking about the ‘Shit coming out of Google these days.”
  2. Disgruntled Google Employee. Yeah, some Google pawn is just having a bad day and decided to take it out on hard working Bloggers and Webmasters. Morons.
  3. Corruption Within Google? Why not? After all, this blog’s main purpose is to expose all the bullshit and corruption within the world. Isn’t  it possible that I could have stepped on someone’s toes and some corrupt employee within the Google Empire decided to teach me a lesson?
  4. Not Enough Good Content? They have got to be kidding. Their moronic spiderbots wouldn’t know good content if they tripped over it.
  5. Not Enough Backlinks? This is quite possible, but I ask you does backlinks make a good blog, or does it merely show that the blogger is good at marketing a product?
  6. Some Obnoxious Sites Are Linking To Me. They say that Google will penalize a blog if incoming links are from sites that it considers unsavory.  For stuff sake you Google wankers, surely it’s not my fault if these turkeys decide to link to my blog. Penalize them not me.
  7. Not Posting As Often As I Was? Wow? That would make it entirely my fault, but I will never know if this is the case because no-one from the Google Empire would take the time to tell me that I have erred. Wouldn’t it be nice if you got a little note saying that your site was downgraded because….. I can’t see that happening any time soon. I reckon the Google bigwigs are having way too much fun sitting in their leather recliners having a Scotch and Coke whilst laughing at everyone madly trying to fix their falling PR.
  8. Doing Paid Posts? Nope, that can’t be it as sites such as PayperPost won’t accept this blog because of the name. They even suggested I should change the name. Morons, if I change the name of the blog, the domain still remains the same.
  9. They Don’t Like My new Avatar! Well that’s just too bad because it’s here to stay.
  10. ………….

I’ve left number ten empty so we can have a bit of fun. All you have to do is use the comment field to add what you think the tenth reason for downgrading  this blog was. [eminimall]

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

This Post Has 42 Comments

  1. BS Artist

    Now there is an original one, and it is so true, because everyone knows that my ass is my best feature! Shit, does that mean I should change my avatar after all?

  2. BS Artist

    GoogleSlap, now why didn’t I think of that term? :doh_tb:

  3. BS Artist

    My sentiments exactly Kristi. Also, who has the right to judge good content, after all if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, could this not also be true for content?

  4. BS Artist

    That’s too bad Dennis. Hope your OK now mate. Anyway, that doesn’t apply to me because I’ve add a lot of content since the last update, so I am still scratching my head as to why I lost all my PR.

  5. Mitch

    Sire, like it or not, I think you got dinged because of the name. Remember, Google is an American company, so their filters are going to treat even outside content as if it’s geared for an American audience.

    At least your site is still in their listings. That would be the real beatdown.

  6. BS Artist

    That may be true, but why did they give me a PR3 in the first place? Was it to just to build me up so they could knock me down? If so, that’s not a very nice thing to do.

  7. manodogs

    The Rundown went from PR3 to Pr0, too. I don’t know why. Even worse, I used one of those “PR prediction” tools and it said my predicted PR was 0!!! And it had a big WARNING tag, though it did not explain.

  8. Proxy

    Hey BS… I am afraid to tell you that Google nuked your PR because you are selling text links. The ‘backgammon online’ specifically and the fact that you promoted it here: http://www.loadofbullshit.com/2008/07/22/advertising-on-the-front-page-of-blogs-is-smart/

    I know you offer other advertising, but Google has been nuking the PR of web sites which sell text links for about 6 months now because it messes with their algorythm.

    Anyway… thats my number 10 guess 🙂

    Proxys last blog post..proxiespace.com

    1. BS Artist

      Hey Proxy, I picked up on that just before I approved your post. The thing is why doesn’t Google nuke bloggers like Problogger who also sell links. After all they have advertising all over their pages?

  9. BS Artist

    An explanation would have gone well. You mentioned on one of my other blogs how it may have been because you took on some poker links. I just noticed that I have a link pointing to a backgammon site. Shit maybe that was the cause of it.

    1. manodogs

      But like we both said, they don’t provide you with an explanation. If it is so simple, I would remove them or at least place “nofollow” in there or something. But who knows what it is, or what all it is and it isn’t going to change for another few months or whatever anyway, so…

      Another thing that bothers me is how they keep changing the time between updates, as though they’re “springing” it on everyone. If everyone knows the rules and wants to follow them, they can “fix” them before an update. If Google wants people to follow their rules, then why not allow us the opportunity to correct whatever it is they want us to correct, instead of trying to just prove to everyone how powerful they are?

      manodogss last blog post..The Simpsons is 20

      1. BS Artist

        I agree with you mate, but I just can’t see it happening anytime soon.

        As for that link, I’m going to leave it there for as long as I am getting paid for it. It’s making me more money than my PR.

      2. Proxy

        I was discussing the update intervals with a few friends the other day and it dawned on us that Google have really started to push the PageRank updates when they want people to be talking about them.

        This update went on while it was Google’s birthday… the last one rolled out around the time that new search engine came out.

        Another interesting talking point is the fact that Matt Cutts actually came out and told people that the last two updates were about to happen. Google has never announced PR updates before, so why are they doing it now? Just to keep people talking about them IMO.

        Proxys last blog post..proxiespace.com

        1. BS Artist

          Now that is interesting isn’t it?

          I tried to visit your last post at proxiespace.com but it keeps coming up with an error message.

        2. manodogs

          As cynical as it sounds, you could be very right. I hadn’t heard about either update before they happened, but I know Google keeps changing the criteria. Otherwise, I don’t think our PRs would be fluctuating so dramatically.

          A 2.44/2.57 is not exactly blowing the roof off anything and it took a good year or more to get it back to that after it was slapped to 0 the first time. I feel I really deserved that PR and if there is any one thing that can make me lose all of it so quickly, I would love to know what – exactly – it is instead of having to guess.

          manodogss last blog post..The Simpsons is 20

          1. BS Artist

            That is what pissed me off, the fact that I went from PR3 To PR0 in one go, and if they did it just because of one link, well that’s just bullshit.

          2. manodogs

            No kidding. Like I said, the only thing I did differently this go-round was take on more casino ads. While certain states are fighting the industry, I know Google takes casino ads because they have shown-up on my sites several times!

            Maybe I took more sponsored posts this go-round than the last few, but that’s because I had more offers due to the increased PR! Further, I always maintain 2-3+ posts between them and delete them after 30 days, 1 year, whatever the limit is. So, not only has the frequency not increased, I have actually removed older posts, meaning fewer sponsored posts overall!

            Since I only have one text link, excepting sponsored posts, it just doesn’t make any sense.

            Like you said, even given all of the above, I could stand losing a point or two due to whatever, but all my PR in one fell swoop!? And no one will tell you why!?

            Total bullshit.

            manodogss last blog post..The Simpsons is 20

  10. BS Artist

    Manodogs, it’s all total crap and I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over it, especially knowing that Google doesn’t give a shit anyway. After all I’m only small fry and nothing I can do will affect them.

    Perhaps if we were all to band together and remove all adsense code from our blogs, they may take some notice, but I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

  11. manodogs

    Already did that several months back! I tried to get others to follow suit but, like you said, it didn’t happen. Not sure why, because unless you’re pulling in thousands of hits/day, it isn’t a good return, and just about everyone complains about PR.

    manodogss last blog post..The Simpsons is 20

  12. BS Artist

    I find that to be a problem even out in the real world. I work for a company that is continually trying to shaft us and we could all do a lot better if we stuck together. Instead everyone goes their own way thinking they can strike a good deal and instead find out they were wrong.

    The sad thing is that they don’t learn from their mistakes.

  13. manodogs

    Yes, between the PR thing and the constant BS I was getting from AdSense, I finally threw in the towel on Google. I honestly do not even use their search functions anymore unless everything else falls short and I absolutely have to.

    Again, unless you are bringing literally thousands of hits per month or have dozens of sites (which bring as much collectively), AdSense is not going to make you much money. By switching to a competing ad network, I’ve made as much in the last two months as I did with AdSense in something like 7-8! And the ads are targeted to my visitors (which accounts for most of it), as opposed to being targeted to keywords, which are often confusing to those things.

    No matter how many posts on comic books I have, I do one post on Britney Spears and AdSense shows Britney Spears ads until the post is pushed-off the frontpage! Worse, I have to watch how many times I even say “comic books” for fear of “stacking” or whatever, and non-paid links to supporting sites are sometimes considered “bad” and blah and blahblah and blahblahblah! Google is absolutely obsessed with controlling all the content online.

    The same holds true for PR. You spend more time trying to please Google and their constantly-changing rules than it’s worth, so why bother?

    Google wants you to “SEO” your site, then gets mad when you do it too well; Google wants you to use keywords, then gets mad when you use too many; Google wants you to use META tags, then gets mad when you do it too effectively… of course, you never know they’re mad until you wake up and find you have no PR or $3.00 has been deducted from your earnings for “invalid clicks.” And – the biggest grievance by far – Google refuses to explain or justify any of it because it’s “proprietary.”

    They want everyone to use “nofollow” tags, but because a lot of people don’t know how to, they slap all of us who do. When we start using them, Google says we’re “fooling their algorithm” by doing what they asked us to in the first place, and slaps us!

    No matter what else, Google’s algorithm is their problem and if it doesn’t work right, they have given me no incentive to care – they have only threatened and terrorized me with their little PR schtick! Besides, no matter what I do, the minute I start doing it well enough to matter, they’re convinced I’m somehow gaming their broken system and it’s back to PR0. No incentive, whatsoever.

    Whoever noted it above is very right about them just being petty little tyrants. I made a point of removing all AdSense from the entire site (there may be one or two pages I forgot) this past interim and voila! I’m at PR0… I continue to be an outspoken and vehement opponent of Google’s stranglehold on we Netizens and I joined the movement against the AP when they decided to come after us (though they have since reversed their position and I am going to remove those badges). I know most people will not join me, but I will continue doing what I know is right – like creating quality, original content – and let Google and the rest of them catch-up to me.

    After all, at the end of the day, we’re all trying to make a profit. While Google can only help me make one, my content is what helps Google make theirs, so at some point, there will be a tete-a-tete. Google may win, but I will at least feel justified – and good – about not selling-out and bowing-down to what I know is wrong.

    Everyone said I was going overboard when I told them this is the way it would be and I was proven right: Google didn’t like sponsored posts, now they don’t like text links, they don’t like casino ads even though they sell them, and they don’t like pill ads even though they show them too. If you keep giving in, there will come a time when Google will tell you, flat-out, “You have no right to make any money on your own content; you can only sell it to us. If you don’t, we will bury it. If you use any other advertising program or method, we will bury your content. If you use a blue or red font, we will bury you. The title of all your posts must contain the word ‘Google.’ Please remove the word ‘Google’ from the title of all your posts, as it confuses our algorithm.”

    Of course, they will only pay $.01 per post and if you make more than 10 posts per day, it’s spam, and if you include your name it will be rejected, ad nauseam. And you won’t know your posts (or which ones) have been rejected for three months, because they will backtrack and invalidate half of them the following month, etc., etc.

    -shaking head-

  14. BS Artist

    Man that is a mouthful and the problem is it all makes perfect sense. What ad network are you using now?

    I haven’t taken any adsense of my blogs, yet, but what I have done is utilized other ad networks, such as Chitika, as direct competition to the Google as I figure any monetary value they take from them is a good thing and it also subsidizes me when they don’t perform.

    They actually matched Google’s revenue in the first month, and this month, whilst Google dropped by 50%, Chitika grew by 50% and my total ad revenue doubled! The beauty about Chitika is that they send money to my PayPal account every month.

  15. manodogs

    The one I am currently working with mainly is Project Wonderful. I don’t think there is any bonus for referring people (I wish there were!), but I highly recommend it. I signed-up for Chitika under you, actually, I just haven’t incorporated it into anything yet.

    I have been trying to sign-up for the Freebies4webmasters under you, as well, but it won’t let me.

    Anyway, I highly recommend PW. Check it out and let me know what you think!

    manodogss last blog post..The Simpsons is 20

  16. BS Artist

    The funny thing is that I actually use Project Wonderful on all my other blogs. I used to use it on this one but took it off for a bit while I trialled something else. I think that it is time to reinstate the code.

    I can’t understand why Freebies4Webmasters won’t allow you to sign up? I am about to do an update on them as to their legitimacy. I can safely say that they actually do pay. I have just received 35 British pounds for last month, as well as 20 pounds for those who signed under me.

  17. manodogs

    Well, it was working up until about halfway through Sept. I kept having this niggling feeling I needed to go ahead and sign-up, but I wasn’t sure which pages I wanted to put the code on and I spent too long agonizing over it, studying stats, etc.

    When I went to sign-up, I filled-out about half the form and the stupid browser froze because of something in the background. I put it off for another couple days and now it gives me this error about how “new accounts cannot be taken due to some error we are working to resolve.”

    I was hoping at least my e-mail, etc., “took,” but it didn’t. Contact them and refer me directly, if you like. I was going to put them on http://www.theweirding.net and manodogs.blogspot.com. If they count sub-domains as separate domains, then I’ll add those as well.

    manodogss last blog post..The Simpsons is 20

  18. BS Artist

    I just tried to log in using another browser, as Firefox remembers my details and I am automatically logged in, and I am getting the same message as per the email you sent. It seems that they are actually having some technical difficulties. Perhaps you should try again at a later date.

  19. BS Artist

    I doubt that was why I got stung but then you never know……

  20. Dragon Blogger

    Sorry to hear about your rank loss mate, I am paranoid that my blog will lose its PR2. Technorati those frigging b@stards just flagged my blog and won’t let me link it again, trying to figure out how my blog offended them. I think its because I use alot of “Tags” for many of my posts.

    Dragon Bloggers last blog post..Dragon Blogger’s Tips to Losing Weight

  21. BS Artist

    That’s sound like crap to me mate as I figure everyone uses tags. I didn’t realize you could get penalized for over doing it. Are you an Aussie or a Pom?

  22. Dragon Blogger

    I was going to say whats a POM? I am actually American, but you wanna know whats funny. My son who is 5 watches “The Wiggles” so much that he goes around calling his friends at school his “Mates” he doesn’t even use the word friend. So I kind of picked up the habit, (yes I sat and watched The Wiggles too)

  23. BS Artist

    A Pom is someone who is from England and as they also use the term mate I figured it I had covered all the bases. I never even thought of the ‘Wiggles’ factor.

  24. BS Artist

    Thanks Brian. It’s amazing how certain posts get a better reaction than others and not according to the bloggers expectations either.

Leave a Reply