About a month ago I had an HTML code problem in my sidebar that screwed up the (already limited) aethestics here. I took everything out and have been re-building bit by bit when I find a spare moment.
What's most interesting is that in the five weeks or so since I removed the Google Ads link my traffic has plummeted by 50% and my Technorati Authority ranking went from a 22 to a 6.
I've never had a huge audience here, but for a couple years I've had between 100 and 150 hits a day. Curiously, when I wasn't linking to Google, the number of Google searches which landed here dropped, and dropped precipitously.
I wonder if Google punishes sites which don't link to them? Does anyone know? Or perhaps I'm simply paranoid and this blog sucks, which is why the traffic dropped off.
4 comments:
no, it most definitely is "pay to play"
you don't get to be a monster like google by making everything free! ha!
:) jv
That seems like an interesting coincidence. I've been tempted to take Google ads down, but I love it when they slap down those "Is Palin sexy enough to be VP? Take the poll now) column ad.
I've never made a cent from Google ads, though. We have a modest readership (in the mid-to-high hundreds, depending on trends). but when I read that Perez Hilton and Drudge bring in a hundred grand a month, it makes think I should start reporting on the mating habits of local politicos.
For some reason, we're listed twice at Technorati, with pretty measly authority for each. If you add them together, it's not as bad, but still pretty wimpy.
I didn't take my Google ads down, but sometime early this summer, my daily traffic dropped by half (was averaging nearly 1000 a day - mostly searches for "big cock" and various other non-relevant terms. Not that I'm prudish, just that isn't my subject matter usually). Technorati also dropped my ranking by about half. Something changed in *somebody's* algorithm.
I wouldn't be surprised if Daddy Google sliced off your ranking though, like Designerd says, "pay to play" is the rule of the game.
I only have two readers so I can't contribute.
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