The Google Brew - Mixing Things Up

One thing I have learned over the years about Google, is that it as much as you want to say its predictable, if you do XYZ, you will get 123... it really isn't the case. For those who wonder why it doesn't make sense, let me give you some a taste of Google Brew.

I have run a particular site for 7 years now. It's a real site, with real visitors and has a real mission. It was not built for Adsense, and if adsense disappeared tomorrow, my site would remain online.

Over the years, for the same sight, not really doing anything different, I have went from making 20 cents per day on adsense, to making $250 per day on adsense, to making $20 a day on adsense, to making $2 per day on adsense, all on the same site. Of course, the adsense topic is for another discussion, but typically depends on how much traffic Google is sending me.

Earlier this year, in a 24 hour period, my traffic dropped off from a steady average that it was getting to a 1/6th of what it was getting. The period of time lasted around 6 months. I dropped in the SERPS big time, from 4th place, to bouncing anywhere from 41 to 81 and places in between the entire 6 months. I maintained my page rank of 7 the entire time. The number of indexed pages that showed up grew in the index... but my traffic stayed the same.

Then just out of the blue, almost to the day 6 months later... my traffic increase 6 fold, overnight... and has been steady now for awhile at that level. I regained my 4th place SERPS ranking.

But, hey... thats not good enough for the Google Cook, he must stir in some more special sauce.

So, to go along with my return of SERPS ranking, for the 6 fold increase in daily traffic it sends my way, my PageRank went from 7 to 0. My indexed (site pages are less than 1/10th of what they where prior to the traffic increase. In fact, indexed page results are all messed up, where as site:mydomain.com shows a given result, site:mydomain.com/subdir shows 6 times more indexed pages, this is down from 8-9 times just last week.

As my indexed pages drop off Google, as my PR rank goes from 7 to 0, my SERPS go back to normal, and my daily traffic Google sends me is the same in spite of.

I feel used and abused, not just from the incident, but things like it over the years. In fact, they remind me of my mentally ill wife. You can't really count on them, you really want to hate them, despite being married to them... and you never know if your going to be in the dog house, or the marriage bed on any given day - and outward signs may not be indicative of internal results.

While I am enjoying the new found love and acceptance of Google right now, it is a far cry from the "good days" so long ago. So, I count my blessings, in any shape or form, but prepared that tomorrow, that the bipolar confusion of Google, could change on me tomorrow. And I will sit back in my chair, shaking my head... wondering WHY?!

 

Interesting read. Do you have any theories on why you have experienced any of these events? Did you do anything to try and fix it up through that 6 month phase or was it just business as usual for you?