Swollen Pickles biatch slapped by Google
It looks like I've just come in on the receiving end of a giant Google bitch slap. Recently I'd noticed a massive drop off in Google search engine traffic. At first I put it down to a weird traffic fluctuation. Today I decided it was time to do some research, and I've uncovered some disturbing stuff. First I read this post about the impending PR update by Bush Mackel, that's what go me started.
Secondly, I did the standard back link check: http://www.google.com/search?q=link:www.swollenpickles.com
When I used to do that, links from www.swollenpickles.com used to dominate the top of the list. Unfortunately, they don't anymore.
Thirdly, I did a standard search for "Swollen Pickles", a term I had proudly ranked as number 1 for, for quite some time. Now, this site is no where to be seen.
And then fourth... I cried into my cocoa pops for 30mins or so.
Why have I been bitch slapped? I'm not so sure, and I'm not sure Google will give me any answers either. I'm guessing it's to do with selling links (via Text-Link-Ads), but I can't be sure. There is something about "Why I should report paid links" here. Seems pretty harsh that I should cop a Google ban for selling one link don't you think?
Does this mean paid reviews are a no no now too?
If I remove Text-Link-Ads, will that redeem me in the eyes of the Google monster? If Google buy out Text-Link-Ads will it then be ok to sell links again? Grrr... I'm angry.
If you've been bitch slapped by Google, when did it happen? How long before you appeared in Google search results again? Did it kill your site?
Edit: I've decided that I'll pull the Text-Link-Ads plugin from swollenpickles.com and file for a "reinclusion request".
Edit no.2 (16 Oct): I've emailed Google, to try and get some more information on what has happened. I've also removed the Text-Link-Ad as this is the only thing I can think of that would have angered the Google monster.
Some people have also asked me what my organic traffic coming from Google was like leading up to the slapping. So I thought I'd post the stats here. Each grouping spans a month, beginning on the 15th of each month (if that makes sense?).
Number of visitors sent from Google (Organic):
Sept - Oct = 318
Aug - Sept = 3,034
Jul - Aug = 4,616
Jun - Jul = 2,366
May - Jun = 1,558
Apr - May = 2,866
Mar - Apr = 2,945
Feb - Mar = 1,547
As you can see from that, the past month has been significantly lower than any of those previously. Very sad.
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9 Responses to “Swollen Pickles biatch slapped by Google”
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Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.
UGH. Sorry to hear that Google got you. I guess I should be happy that my site doesn’t have a real PR yet…Otherwise I would’ve had TLAs on my site too and would’ve undoubtedly been abused by the big G as well.
GL with the reinclusion, you gotta tell me how that goes for you.
Don’t worry it happens time to time. I bet your site will get as much organic traffic as you used to get. Just wait few days.
I received a drop in PR most likely due to the sponsor I have on my website. I don’t like Text Link Ads I much prefer to contact the advertiser on my own. The one I do have I received myself so naturally I received all the money.
They paid me a lot of money to sit on my website for six months. There is no way I’m yanking that or making it nofollow to make the Big G happy. I happen to like the company.
I write original content on all my websites and a few of them get scraped several times a week. That gets annoying. I also see they don’t get penalized regardless of the reports I or others have sent. Talk about ridiculous! Most likely that is due to the fact that those spam sites are making Google money from the adsense ads.
The good news is my traffic wasn’t affected. It keeps going up. I don’t depend on search engines for the majority of my traffic and I did that purposely. I do a lot of networking via social networks, forums, blogs, etc.,
If you are dependent on them for online monetization on them well you sort of have to do what they say even if you don’t agree with it.
The majority of the money I make is through affiliate marketing. I make a lot that way with adsense I average about $70 monthly.
Some people have been successful with their reinclusion. I know David Airey was. He even talks about what he did to make that happen on his website.
Yep, I had one of mine get slapped. I dropped from front page down to page 4. I saw my traffic drop from the 250 a day down to 40-50. I am not selling links or anything though. Traffic seems to be picking back up now, but it is nowhere near where it was.
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