Warmest Greetings,

:: Tuesday, November 05, 2002 ::

Google - From Engine Saint to Engine Bully

All across the world are cries of "What the hell just happened to my PageRank?"
The recent Google Dance has produced shock after shock as webmasters check to see how their website(s) faired after the latest round of indexing. Even web sites that belong to well known and reputable search engine marketing specialists have taken a hit, with one of them (that I'm aware of) having a slew of sudden penalized pages (PR0), for no obvious reason. Maybe.

Some possible reasons for punishment by the Google PR God are the following:

1. Use of Zeus reciprocal linking software (to which David Notestine must be having a fit over if this is in fact true since he tried so hard to get Google's blessing on his software.)
2. Use of ANY, (read that again), reciprocal link or ranking utility that bugs Google on a regular basis for rank or link checks.
3. Any outbound link from your site that goes to a PR0 page is potentially hazardous to the health of your own web site. This means you must constantly check all your outbound links (as if anyone has time for that). There's some discussion in the field that "bad" outbound links are balanced against the amount of "good" outbound links and the overall value of your web site. Why must we be forced to guess? Why all the dramatic emphasis on links, as if they were the only gauge of a site's worth?
4. Your site belongs to the SearchKing Network
5. Your site is linked to a site in the SearchKing Network
6. You committed any number of negative SEO tactics and were caught by Google or reported by someone (there ARE search engine police out there!) and your page/site was found guilty.

It's getting ugly out there. I'm very discouraged with Google because so much weight, unwarranted in my opinion, has been put into having a site that scores a high PR value. Actual business plan requirements factor in that score, recip linking is targeted to that score, rank and value are tied to that score and so on. Yet so many variables are out of our control, such as the destiny of any link we link to or who links to ours, or the reaction by Google, if any, to the software tools we may use to evaluate how a site or page is doing overall in searches.

And what about the people who don't put a Google Toolbar on their computer and therefore have no clue or interest in what a page's PR value is?

Perhaps a large B&M company with a web presence is unconcerned with all this Google hype, but a small or home business is not in a position to be jeapordized in this way. Stop for moment to consider the mom who wants to stay at home so badly to raise her kids, but can only afford to if she tries to start a little home based business via a web site. Her path is long and hard enough, and one mistake, such as trusting a company she may have networked with, or linking to a PR0 site could destroy her chances overnight (or after a Google Dance.)

Consider any mom and pop online shop that caters to your local area and provides excellent customer service but may not have the prettiest site, or the money to pay for pay per click, pay for rank or Google Ads. But they keep plugging away at it. Perhaps due to their lack of skills or small budget which doesn't cover web site consulting by someone who can keep them abreast of what NOT to do, they find themselves in a situation where their site is no longer in Google at all. Being in Google is now more vital than being in Yahoo!'s Directory.

Google is contributing to putting companies out of business. This isn't the forward-thinking type of company I thought Google wanted to be.

We discuss this in the Cre8asiteForums, if you'd like to join us - Google - From Engine Saint to Engine Bully

Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 11/05/2002 09:53:24 AM

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