The Real Reason Your Site Dropped in Google
June 5th, 2008
“Show ME the money!” – Jerry Maguire
The June comic for Ranked Hard is about the decision that many of those that do business on the Internet have to deal with – using Pay Per Click either over SEO or in conjunction with SEO. Now, while we’re not actually implying that Google actively targets websites that haven’t signed up for Adwords (just having some fun guys), we do realize that as some companies drop in the rankings, they begin to look to PPC to help.
The thing that you have to keep in mind is that spending money on PPC campaigns won’t improve your rankings within the search engines, and while you will show up for the terms you want within the sponsored listing section, this can cost you a great deal of money depending on the terms and the number of people that actually click through your terms.
When your rankings are fluctuating within the search engines, considering PPC is perfectly acceptable behavior, but remember that you’ll be spending more money on top of any SEO efforts you might be putting forth without any guarantee that the PPC will help. While Google doesn’t actively have it out for any one website, they are more than happy to accept money from anybody that wants to give it to them, and don’t they have enough already?
I have a t-shirt from SEO Shirts that says “PPC The Lazy Man’s SEO”. Tried to find an image of it but no luck. Looks they are revamping their site.
Comment by Arnie — June 5, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
I had interesting Google experience.
My Tomato series of videos and other family Playlists were wiped out for “violation of TOS”.
I tried to contact to find out what I did wrong. No answers.
Miraculously 8 days later all was restored, again nothing form the Powers to be to share What I did wrong.
So I am operating in the Dark. Will it happen again? I posted my Videos on three other venues and they are getting play
Comment by Chuck Bartok — June 5, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
Better watch out… Google’s going to come after you for this!!!! (Just kidding.)
I hear this very same thing from clients. And, “rumors” have been around since the beginning of AdWords that this was indeed true. However, I find it hard to believe that Google would be “stupid” (or arrogant) enough to actually penalize non-AdWords subscribers in their natural rankings.
As a matter of fact, I’ve had some clients actually rise in natural rankings shortly after pausing or canceling AdWords accounts. (And, they’re still ranked very well – without returning to the use of AdWords.) So, that certainly proved to me that this is not a real factor.
Brian Douglas
Louisville SEO Company
Comment by Brian — June 5, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
[...] and by the way – do you wanna know why your sites rankings have dropped in google? Check out this cartoon – that just might be [...]
Pingback by << mediadonis » Yeaw - I´m an Affilinet Top Publisher — June 6, 2008 @ 8:07 am
lol lol, Good answer to my problem
Comment by Eugene — June 10, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
After seeing wild swings in rankings for several clients (and dealing with many uncomfortable conversations, just like in your cartoon), I really hope Google gets back to some semblance of normalcy soon. You can read more about this if interested in Google Drinks a Fighting Problem: http://webmarketcentral.blogspot.com/2008/05/google-drinks-fighting-problem.html
Comment by Tom Pick — June 10, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
[...] Another great strip by Ranked Hard, this comic depicts The Real Reason Your Site Dropped in Google. [...]
Pingback by Blog Comic SATURDAY! - Why Your Site Really Lost SERPs — June 14, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
Looks like Google could use some new computer monitors. The idea that someone at Google would use a monitor that old is how we know for sure this is fiction
Comment by Will — June 19, 2008 @ 1:32 pm
To be frank, i like the comic above.
Comment by belajar seo — July 1, 2008 @ 12:56 am
[...] could manipulate natural search results based on a company’s PPC activity, but ultimately probably has something a bit more sophisticated in mind. Philosophically, the [...]
Pingback by Google and the Parable of the Turkey | Blogging — July 22, 2008 @ 8:18 am
[...] Lost SERPs By admin | July 22, 2008 Another great strip by Ranked Hard, this comic depicts The Real Reason Your Site Dropped in Google. Good thing I use AdWords! Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS [...]
Pingback by Blog Comic SATURDAY! - Why Your Site Lost SERPs — July 25, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
How devious, makes perfect sense as well drop the rankings, need some help back up, we offer adwords… ^^,
Comment by Jason Marsh - Website Designer — July 31, 2008 @ 8:42 am
To rank good in Google, give more importance to offline optimzation.
Comment by Kim, Sales Training Specialist — August 29, 2008 @ 8:20 am
Paying for adwords is a waste of money, in particular in the current negative economic environment, as your ROI will simply drop.
You are better off targeting very specific groups, which are able to afford your product, and of course be creative!
Comment by css designer — October 20, 2008 @ 6:59 pm
In my experience, yes it did. may be because lot adsense guys store your site information
Comment by Shiva — October 21, 2008 @ 3:59 am
lol, In my experience Page rank doesn’t play any vital role in SERP’s of your website. Its just to measure the page quality and nothing else. I have seen many websites with no PR or lesser PR does well in SERP than website having good PR.
May be I am wrong but guys stop concentrating on PR and don’t worry about PR dropping of your site.
Comment by Vishal — October 23, 2008 @ 12:17 am
A real good job you did. I am quite impress.
I did a blog-posting about your project at my small swedish SEO-blog. Is it possible to add one of your comics to the blogposting as an illustration of your work?
Also good luck with your comics in the future also!
Best regards
Hans
Comment by Hans — October 27, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
Strange enough I can’t get our page ranked high at all, while lots of amateur pages in the same business, having no idea on webdesign get right to the top.
Comment by Top google rankings — December 11, 2008 @ 10:54 pm
It seems to me lately that massive amounts of backlinks carries more eight than anything.Very interesting thoughts here though.
Comment by tordon — January 16, 2009 @ 2:06 am
Next time question would be – Who should we drop in the next update, Sir?
The answer would be – who hasn’t spend more than $100 on Adwords yet
Comment by Abed — January 29, 2009 @ 5:08 am
PPC may not be the go-to tool for most website owners, but we all know that PPC can be a potent tool as well in making the website gets more traffic.
Comment by Justin Brooke — February 5, 2009 @ 2:33 am
Happy to find this post since I thought I was being paranoid (which is probably still true). I got a call about PPC on Google – the salesguy knew which page my new site was on – it had been moving up and was on page 7 I think. He pressed and I got a little testy. My site fell off the map the next day or so. Gone. I went back as far as 50 or 60 pages. Took weeks but I’m finally back – in fact on page 1 or 2 for my main search term. But I couldn’t help but think that by not kissing up – never mind signing up – I was being penalized. Seemed farfetched but it sure was a weird coincidence.
Comment by Liz — June 17, 2009 @ 8:51 pm