Google and PR Becoming Less Relevant?
While Kara has been focusing on Yahoo, I’ve been focusing on Google. I’ve been focusing on Google because recently I was slapped by a PR wipe-out. Like that phrase? Me too … I “stole” it from a “mentor” of sorts of mine, Lynn Terry. I’m finding more and more every day that I was clearly not the only one.
Needless to say, when I first noticed no PR on MommysHelperOnline.com I was devistated! I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what on earth could have happened. I’ve always built my traffic, PR and SEO naturally and “by the book”. Never once did I ever do anything “black” or any “tricks” and this is how I’m rewarded?!? I personally have always known that PR is basically worthless.Â
However, way too many people put too much stock in PR that I was worried it would have bad effects on my traffic etc. I’ve had enough time to watch how things were going and enough time to do some research. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that nothing has changed in my traffic or ad sales and Google wasn’t just picking on me. A lot of websites were shot down with this recent dance.
Frankly, I’m tired of the way Google believes they rule the internet and are so “secretive” on how they do things. What’s with the big secret? Tell us what the heck you’re doing and let us fight to the top in a real competition. Stop making us guess!
I loved how Paul Short summed it up …
Soon people will ask “What is PR?†and the answer will be “Who cares.â€
And according to his research …
This is consistent with discussions I’ve had with quite a few webmasters over the past few months: Socal networking and bookmarking is rapidly becomming a major source of traffic for their sites. In fact, some webmasters are at the point where they have completely given up on SEO in favor of social traffic.
Sounds good to me! I’m going to continue with what I’ve been doing. And heck, I’m going to follow some of the other webmasters around. It’s more than obvious that social networks have been taking the internet by storm so, I’ll continue hanging out on my (of course) favorite social network, MyWahmSpace.com Besides, it’s so much more fun and I’ll bank on that social traffic!
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Comments
Very, very interesting topic. You know I believe there is nothing wrong about using “what’s hot” as far as marketing goes. Although I don’t agree with throwing out what already works to go with something new.
I also think it depends on the type of site. Blogs in particular are going to benefit more from social networking and referrals without a doubt (I’ve noticed that my blog posts appear at the top of searches for just a short time, then drop back down…I think this is because Google sees blog posts as “time sensitive”, but I’m just speculating).
However, resource sites and niche sites (that are NOT garbage Adsense sites or affiliate sites) I believe are going to benefit more from SEO. I mean think about it, when was the last time you emailed a friend and said “you have GOT to check out this new chicken recipe, it is SO hot right now!”.
I believe there are certain things you just don’t pass around to friends or click on a random basis, but rather search for when you need it. So while YES I believe referral marketing is good in SOME industries, others really need to stick with SEO (Which by the way, Idea Queen receives about 95% of it’s traffic from search engines).
Posted by: Kara | January 22nd, 2008 12:15
Great blog ladies! I don’t understand Google at all. For a few days I will be on page one, a few days later I am on page two and then next week back up to page one…and I did nothing different. I would love to know how they judge things and page rank things too. errrr!
Posted by: Shelly | January 29th, 2008 20:10
Shelly - really it’s not what YOU are doing, but rather what the OTHERS are doing. Now I see you are a rep for a direct sales company, so maybe you are referring to your blog or another site? Rep sites are going to be VERY random, and Google is going to take preference to unique sites (not the actual rep doorway - they actually pay little attention to these as they are “duplicate” pages).
As I mentioned it’s my belief blog posts tend to jump around a bit regardless before they land. I’m also starting to think newer pages in general are getting the same treatment. First they are up, then they are gone, then they are back. Almost like Google is trying to figure out where to put it. Of course it’s a computer deciding all this, so it’s not *quite* like that. But I do think it takes awhile for all their spiders and databases to get settled.
Plus of course don’t forget that all search engines are constantly updating. Every minute of every day they are updating and shifting. We only see major shifts a few times a year, but subtle changes are ALWAYS happening as the database updates. New pages appear, old pages go away, and updates on current pages (across the entire web) are always being updated as well. Google takes notice of everything and adjusts results accordingly.
I could go on for days here, but I’ll stop now.
Posted by: Kara | January 30th, 2008 11:04
I had 2 blogs drop from 4 to 0. I’ve found the best way to get over it is to just remove the Google PR toolbar from your browser. Then you’ll slowly forget about PR completely. After all, ask someone who isn’t into SEO about PR and they have no idea what it is and don’t care.
Posted by: Maggie Climbing | February 2nd, 2008 14:33
You know Maggie - I thought about doing just that, lol! I was that angry. Now? Now I just don’t care because it’s worthless. PR means absolutely NOTHING and I’m not going to worry about what-so-ever!
Posted by: Anita | February 4th, 2008 19:48