John Chow In Google’s Penalty Box
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If you’ve done a Google search lately for ‘make money online’, you know that John Chow is no longer ranked #1. If you do a search for ‘John Chow’, JohnChow.com doesn’t come up until page 7, at least on the datacenter that’s pulling up at my house. Where is he coming up where you all live?
He first ran into trouble about a month ago (May 31st) when he first lost his ranking as the #1 ‘make money onliner’. That felt like a fluke to me, especially since his homepage dropped out of the index. He wouldn’t tell how he was able to get it back into the index - I can tell you that he was likely able to do that by setting his homepage as his most important page with an XML sitemap. He probably just made or altered the sitemap, and submitted it to Google Webmaster Tools.
This time it seems to me like he has bigger problems. Since he was the only one of the top 10 that dropped like a rock, this feels like a manual penalty. If it is, John will likely lose most of his Google traffic, even for long-tail keywords.
Why John Got Sent To The Penalty Box
John’s being sent to the penalty box was likely due to one of the following theories:
- His overly-aggressive link baiting. While his link baiting is masterful, it isn’t a natural way to get links. It’s one of those things that a lot of people could get away with, but John got caught since he got too big. I guess when you’re that big it’s only a matter of time until the wrong person sees how you’re getting all those links.
- He’s linking to a ton of unrelated sites that add little or no value to his ‘make money online’ subject material. He’s got 15 site-wide, sponsored links and has done 87 batches with his ‘review for a linkback’ promotion. That’s a lot of out-bound links that are pointing to sites. It is a definite possibility that his continued linking to such sites passed over some kind of Google boundary, triggering a filter. His 15 sponsored links are especially dangerous since he has over 3000 pages in Google’s index - that’s 45,000 outbound links that aren’t related to his subject material.
The Sad Truth
I’m not sure if John’s rankings are going to be coming back this time. I sincerely hope that I’m wrong, but it doesn’t look good. Luckily for John, the majority of his traffic doesn’t come from Google anymore. He has a very established readership already. Let me throw out a few ramifications of this penalty though.
- His advertisers aren’t getting as much value now. Links from him aren’t as powerful since he has obviously been penalized. It’s sad, but if I was advertising there I’d back out now. Those sites aren’t getting PR6 value anymore.
- His traffic will be hurt to a certain degree. It will be harder to grow - I’m sure he was getting at least 1,000 visitors a day from Google. Now I bet he’s getting a lot less than that.
Does anyone have a theory about why John got sent to the penalty box?
Can anyone think of any other problems this could cause?
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June 29th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
My vote’s on the excessive and blatant use of his review scheme. Although, I’d much rather Google intelligently discounted links used in such a scheme from anyone, rather than penalizing one site.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
That would be better overall, it would definitely put an end to everyone’s scheming. (that i sometimes indulge in)
June 29th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I tried to look after John Cow and it is true - it doesn’t appear on the first three pages. I think it’s stupid what happened. I always liked that website. It was fool with great stuffs.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I really like his site as well and will definitely keep reading it. He may be able to bring his rankings back somehow eventually.
June 29th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
http://www.johnchow.com/its-all-about-pushing-the-limit/
From the article, the MMO search nets him 150 hits / day.
So far, Alexa does not show his traffic down.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Ya I read the article. ‘Make Money Online’ is only one of his keywords though and the penalty seems to be effecting all of his rankings.
As far as Alexa, only time will tell. We definitely wouldn’t be able to see anything yet.
How many daily searches would you guess he’s getting overall if he gets 150 from ‘make money online’?
March 29th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
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June 29th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
That is sad….
June 29th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Every time I hear something like this, I kind of get scared. I joined couple of viral links and I can’t stop it…
June 29th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I think it’s a good wake up call for everyone. We should all be building links as naturally as we can.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:03 pm
We should be building links naturally, but even if we don’t most of us probably won’t get caught. The reason John did get caught is because his blog is just so big and receives so much traffic and also more links back, which makes its noticeable.
July 1st, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I also joined a couple of viral campaigns and I am reluctant to join any more. It can be a fun diversion, but if you are serious about building a quality destination for readers, I think it is much better to build links organically. I don’t care too much for all the “gaming” & “scheming” that goes on to get links.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Uh oh. I didn’t even have any idea this was going on until I read your post. Like Andy said, it scares me a little too. I’ve joined those viral trains - ViraLinks and ViralTags, and the latter was especially powerful. I hope the users of the viral trains don’t get penalized as well.
June 29th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
If Google had changed their algorithm to discount John’s linking scheme, I’d say you’d have something to worry about. Since they’re just penalizing his site across the board, I don’t think you have anything to worry about yet.
June 29th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Thanks Jay!
June 29th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Jay is right on this one, it doesn’t seem like it’s a change in the Google algo. It seems to be penalizing just John - I guess that means you have to be extra careful when you have a lot of exposure.
June 29th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
It’s obvious that google found something it didn’t like. We can keep on guessing what happened but evenually we will find out what happened. I wonder if John uses linking statagies like the Reciprocal Review Carousel. The idea is based on few simple and yet effective link-building and blogging techniques.
I am particapating in this experiment and I invite you to try it also. You can learn more at http://learnabouthealth.blogspot.com/
June 30th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I’m not sure we even need to guess at ‘behind the scenes’ linking techniques, there are plenty that he does on his site to get him in trouble.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I think his anchor link strategy was wrong. Making “Make Money Online” his only anchor link made the game very obvious.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
He definitely should have varied his anchor text, you’re 100% right there.
June 29th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
John’s blog doesn’t deserve to be #1 for “Make Money Online”. It’s far too specific to blogging. Most people typing in that search term would be looking for something more general, perhaps a list of different ways to make money on the net, e.g. online store, online trading, etc.
However, losing his rankings for his own name makes Google look stupid. Their job is to help people find exactly what they are looking for, and in this case, they aren’t doing that. Yahoo and MSN, on the other hand, are showing the results you would expect from a search engine.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
True that, he should definitely be #1 for his name.
Ironically John just barely got ranked first in MSN for ‘John Chow’. He wasn’t first for a really long time.
June 30th, 2007 at 4:20 am
It was only a matter of time until Google will punish him.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Lesson to learn from john choa blog , linking to a ton of unrelated sites may be dangerous at the end , once you are too big and too high , wind will blow stronger and fall deeper .
June 30th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Hopefully everyone will learn their lessons!
June 30th, 2007 at 8:14 am
I almost kicked him out of my reader when he introduced the get paid to remove the no follow in comments.
He is a marketing genius I agree, but this is what happens when you put money in front of everything. He has stopped giving value to his readers looong back. He is just rambling on not giving any new information or value like other bloggers like kumiko, problogger, copyblogger. Tell me 5 new things you learnt from his blog recently in the past 5 weeks. . . .none as far as I am concerned.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:44 am
You are so right. I don’t even visit his site that often anymore. I like Court’s site much better.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
That was pretty lame when he did that. I would like to see more ‘make money’ lessons on his site - he obviously has the knowledge.
Andy, thanks for a great compliment!
June 30th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I agree, I made a similar point in my blog lately, about how John’s blog is for making money online, not about making money online.
July 3rd, 2007 at 1:05 am
i have NO idea. all i know is, i get excited when i get more than 2 comments a day
i will never blow up like john!
July 3rd, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Interesting turn of events. After reading and learning from John Chow for about 2-3 months, I eventually dropped his feed. It just started to feel too self-absorbed (even though he was doing a lot to help others).
July 10th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
In the few months since I started taking a look at John’s site, I found it more annoying than beneficial? Too much emphasis placed on paid reviews and getting another link.
I’m with commenter Andy above…I’d much rather come here to Court’s site and learn something or pick up some great tips!
July 19th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
that has to suck. now he has to find a way to get his fame the normal and hard way. xD
July 20th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
John is a honest internet marketer and I believe he has done a lot to help a lot of us.
I started my own blog in February 2007 and since stumbling upon John Chow dot Com I have managed to add some serious quality content to my blog most of it based upon suggestions and advice given by John Chow and I have read every single post he has made on his blog. The archive section is a precious “cave” of valuable gems.
John Chow has indeed added value to the work of the blogging community and I dont believe any one of us should celebrate this momentary set-back.
I know very well a minor bunch of misguided bloggers are silentlr exchanging kudos as they believe its their time to shine now that the most respected blogger is out of the way.
But for those who are content with the latest move against John Chow by Google I believe if you feel you can now benefit from the spotlight to be had, please ensure that you exceed the value that John Chow was offering when he was in the number one position
August 10th, 2007 at 7:03 am
God, that’s nightmarish. Especially since i just read the post about him setting a good example of how to build links. I guess it doesn’t pay to get TOO big.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I guess getting TOO big is not the problem per se. If he was doing the right linking strategy, no amount of bigness would have given him a problem.
The lesson: always play it fair and square. Don’t try to “cheat” the system.
August 17th, 2007 at 5:31 am
I agree that I think his link baiting scheme went a little over the top - I think it borders on black-hat to be honest.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:00 am
He comes up on page 5 for me.
October 5th, 2007 at 8:31 am
[…] not be conducting any similar techniques in future. A certain John Chow is well known for his continued Google penalty for black hat […]
November 19th, 2007 at 4:11 am
It is too difficult to guess what he has done to be punished by Google. Be it blogging or managing your own business, if you act greedily you will be punished sooner or later. Personally i rarely check his blog. I prefer Court’s blog. Why ? Because she is much more open to sharing success with others.
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:59 am
[…] best example is John Chow Case. He’s in hot soup. His Google PR is slammed from almost 10/10 to almost zero. And even though […]
January 19th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Hmmm, It must have hurt the first time he started noticing Google was penalizing him. Imagine your blog being penalized, in one way you have to empathise with him but on the other hand he was using “evil” techniques.
Oh well, don’t make Google angry!
My two cents,
Fabien
February 5th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
poor john chow…
February 10th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Well its a lesson we all can learn from.
Steve
February 11th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I don’t really get why google did this other than to “show him he’s not that smart”. When you think about it he’s just making more highways on the internet. People can get around easier. It’s more interconnected. Whats the problem? So he had a cool idea to get some links…so what? Why punish him for that?
March 12th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Baiting Google is never a good idea for several reasons. 1. They will eventually discover what you were up to 2. Even if they don’t… a competitor of yours is going to spill the beans.
Sitewide links are not a good idea and are extremely foolish in such large quantities.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:44 am
To tell you the truth, I don’t really like John Chow’s site. I think the guy doesn’t really add any value to the subject and kind of get the feeling he’s full of himself. I mean, all he really talks about is the money he’s getting and he’s got this cult following of people who are just obsessed with money.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:41 am
He has done a lot to get on google’s bad side… but I guess to some extent it did help him out… if it was done for nothing, then it would be a shame…
May 4th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
[…] John Chow. Maybe one of the biggest G slaps in history and all related to bad linking strategies. John Chow In Google’s Penalty Box | Internet Marketing | Strategy & Services I certainly would not ever want to risk losing what he had! __________________ Increase Traffic […]
March 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Good Stuff. I’m in the process of promoting a free press release distribution site called BriefingWire.com, and I’ll make sure I do everything to stay out of Google’s penalty box. Thanks.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:06 am
[…] not be conducting any similar techniques in future. A certain John Chow is well known for his continued Google penalty for black hat […]
April 26th, 2009 at 4:00 am
[…] the index; search for “John Chow” now & JohnChow.com comes up around page 7 notes Courtney Tuttle. (Search Engine Land has a more complete list of the major sites who lost PR […]
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:16 am
Two years later, and his needlessly aggressive plan to rank for “make money online” is still handicapping him. Why the HELL did he do this in the first place?
For argument’s sake, let’s contrast him to another Internet Marketing niche blogger, Dosh Dosh, who took the longer (but not harder) path to building authority in Google. He released a popular wordpress theme, but his link in the footer without targeted anchor text, and then used his own keyword-rich internal linkage to dominate for keywords. Much smarter.