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My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

cringely.com

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Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#51

Post by tjr »

gagege wrote: post #42
Systemic33 wrote: post #28

I think it is quite terrifying, that one company can singlehandedly shut down business, even if you have never used a Google service in your entire life; because all your customers only discover you through Google. And what is to be done about it? you aren't a Google customer in the direct sense, so they feel no obligation to assist, and it seems as if even actual customers get negligible support. The only way out of…

Let's say I own a single store and it happens to be in a space in a mall. Also, the mall is letting me do business there for free. I get exposure, electricity, easy access, all kinds of good stuff, for free. (The mall is Google) Suddenly the mall wants to extort me by charging me money to use their space, electricity, water, etc. Those jerks!

Does Google let you buy search result placement? Not ads, but better placement in search results?

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#52

Post by mempko »

tedunangst wrote: post #13

Eric Schmidt said he was sorry but he couldn’t help. Now I’m angry. Wow. I think I respect Google more now. I don't like the "take it to the people" approach needed to get action out of Google, but I like "I know people who know people" approach even less. The chairman of the company should not be dicking about with search results because a friend asked.

Except he could have given some helpful hint...

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#53

Post by mkhaytman »

sergiotapia wrote: post #34
ChuckMcM wrote: post #18

And apparently Mr Cringely doesn't know anything about Webmaster Tools, which would probably be the first stop of anyone wanting to know about a sudden change in rank. Sudden changes are usually the function of 'action' rather than 'inaction' so I'm guessing that somewhere there was an action. Did she succumb to some black hat SEO marketing pitch? Did Cringely piss off some black hat SEO person? Did her site get comp…

You're talking out of your ass and it's really infuriating to hear people disregard real, tangible problems you are facing. Google makes software, and no software is perfect. I've been bitten by shitty google services before. My most recent sting was Google Webmaster Tools not showing any Googlebot crawls to me website. My website is very niche and literally 1 of 4 competitors in the same arena. 5 month. 5 MONTHS. an…

I'd contend you're the one talking out of their ass.

Relying on another company for all your business isn't a sound business strategy. The person in the article put all their eggs in one basket and this is the result.

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#54

Post by maaaats »

wonderyak wrote: post #20

This is what I see on Google: https://i.cloudup.com/7ymLpPBmma-3000x3000.png The first organic results don't even show up with the size of my window. The whole situation these days on the SERP for any purchasable item is pretty sad. Luckily, I don't use Google that much when pricing or shopping. Results for data are much more helpful and useful for me.

And the shading is so much more hidden now. I had to tilt my screen properly to even see that it was ads.

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#55

Post by 300bps »

sergiotapia wrote: post #34
ChuckMcM wrote: post #18

And apparently Mr Cringely doesn't know anything about Webmaster Tools, which would probably be the first stop of anyone wanting to know about a sudden change in rank. Sudden changes are usually the function of 'action' rather than 'inaction' so I'm guessing that somewhere there was an action. Did she succumb to some black hat SEO marketing pitch? Did Cringely piss off some black hat SEO person? Did her site get comp…

You're talking out of your ass and it's really infuriating to hear people disregard real, tangible problems you are facing. Google makes software, and no software is perfect. I've been bitten by shitty google services before. My most recent sting was Google Webmaster Tools not showing any Googlebot crawls to me website. My website is very niche and literally 1 of 4 competitors in the same arena. 5 month. 5 MONTHS. an…

Hello friend. You seem angry so I'm going to attempt to tread lightly as I throw some friendly suggestions out.

1. Do you have a verified valid robots.txt that Google can read?

2. Does your verified valid robots.txt point to a verified valid sitemap or sitemap index?

3. Did your submit your verified valid sitemap or sitemap index to Google Webmaster Tools?

Based on the responses to this, I or someone else might be able to help you further. Good luck to you.

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#56

Post by noveltysystems »

Maintaining rank and attracting organic traffic from Google requires constant, continuous work, and there are plenty of ways to shoot yourself in the foot. We all compete for this traffic; getting angry at Google and writing a pissed-off blog post won't change her ranking - stepping up to the plate and competing for the traffic using white-hat SEO, semantic markup, webmaster tools, syndication through social media, etc. is the only way forward. SEO has changed - adapt or die.

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#58

Post by ry0ohki »

sergiotapia wrote: post #34
ChuckMcM wrote: post #18

And apparently Mr Cringely doesn't know anything about Webmaster Tools, which would probably be the first stop of anyone wanting to know about a sudden change in rank. Sudden changes are usually the function of 'action' rather than 'inaction' so I'm guessing that somewhere there was an action. Did she succumb to some black hat SEO marketing pitch? Did Cringely piss off some black hat SEO person? Did her site get comp…

You're talking out of your ass and it's really infuriating to hear people disregard real, tangible problems you are facing. Google makes software, and no software is perfect. I've been bitten by shitty google services before. My most recent sting was Google Webmaster Tools not showing any Googlebot crawls to me website. My website is very niche and literally 1 of 4 competitors in the same arena. 5 month. 5 MONTHS. an…

Try posting it to Google Plus, you should get crawled instantly (not necessarily indexed though).

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#59

Post by mkhaytman »

drhayes9 wrote: post #47
VMG wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did she not actually update the content for the last 5 years (including Copyright notice) so it doesn't appear to be a dead site. That's a function of inaction however. Moral: don't base your income on something as volatile as your Google ranking

That's a pretty unrealistic moral in the face of the reality of how the consumer web works. I mean, I get the whole "don't depend on another company for your revenue" (e.g. apps in the Apple app store), but you're saying "don't count on Google sending traffic to your site". Plus, her ranking didn't change -- her site vanished out of the index. EDIT: Unless you mean "don't depend entirely on organic traffic"? I can so…

How did you infer the site was deindexed? They said specifically by typing the URL of the site, it would show up.

Re: My sister's a quilter and Google mugged her

#60

Post by 300bps »

mempko wrote: post #52
tedunangst wrote: post #13

Eric Schmidt said he was sorry but he couldn’t help. Now I’m angry. Wow. I think I respect Google more now. I don't like the "take it to the people" approach needed to get action out of Google, but I like "I know people who know people" approach even less. The chairman of the company should not be dicking about with search results because a friend asked.

Except he could have given some helpful hint...

In reality, he couldn't. There are likely several million sites that are wondering about their Google page ranking as well. Figure several thousand of them know someone who knows someone who knows Eric Schmidt. From a practical standpoint, how many hours are in the day and how many do you think he should devote to such activities? From a fairness perspective, is it fair that you give inside Google information to someone because they're an acquaintance of an acquaintance?

Eric Schmidt said he was sorry but he couldn’t help. Now I’m angry.

This line strikes me as very similar to the person who makes a scene in a restaurant when they can't get a table right away. "Don't you know who I am?! My sister has the former #1 Photo Quilting business online!"

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