Last week, many readers alerted me that my blog was no longer ranking number one on Google for the search term “make money online.” Not only was my number one ranking gone, but my home page had also gone missing from the Google index as well. It looked like Google was getting ready to ban me from their search index. I even received an email from someone who said that I was going to get banned and that he knew what may have happen and how to fix it because it had happen to him before. However, he wanted $4,000 for the information. And he offered no guarantee that he can fix the problem. Thanks, but no thanks!
The first thing I did was emailed Aaron Wall of the SEO Book for his opinion. He replied back saying my ranking for make money online had gone down but I wasn’t banned. He didn’t offer any explanation on why the ranking went down or how to fix it, but that didn’t matter. I just wanted to confirm I wasn’t banned.
Getting back the number one ranking required the combined efforts of two very close friends. The first helped me identify the problem and the second helped in optimizing the fix for it. The strategy worked. Within two days of making the changes, Google restored my number one ranking and put my home page back in the index - to the dismay of all the haters who wrote me off, I’m sure. You can’t keep the root of all evil down for long! 
I was going to use this post to explain exactly what I did to restore my number one ranking. However, after reading Kumiko’s comments in my Taipei 101 to number 1 post, I’ve decided against it. I think everyone will agree that this kind of information is extremely valuable - some “SEO Guru” tried to take me for $4,000 by saying he knew the answer (which I highly doubt since he made no guarantee).
While I won’t give the step by step I can offer this piece of advice if you lose a ranking for a desired keyword - Google webmaster tools is your friend! Get to know it really well.
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Darn John … and I read to the end waiting for the big tip. I agree it’s good to know Google better.
Cheers,
Peter
Did you just submit a sitemap maybe?
Very impressive I must say! Very impressive…
Nah, probably just the regular algo shifting that goes on.
My mistake, it’s not an algo shift at all, I’m just not reading things properly.
I know the secret too, same thing happened to me. It’s sooooo simple but so hard to know until it really happens to you.
I can offer the tip to anyone, at the right price
I can too, any one can with the clause - ‘no gurantee’!
I give a guarantee, provided it’s the same scenario.
John next time you think you are banned you can use the on my site.
LOL I can’t believe someone tried to scam you out of $4000.. Was his name Michael by the way?
Lol! What a burn! Sounds like the right profile though
Sorry I don’t know what happened with the code it’s the
Google Banned Checker
And the point oh this post is ???
If you don’t know, then you haven’t been reading this blog long enough.
You have given the clue to everyone. You have to do your own “work” to learn. Can you imagine if we had to be victim to the $4000 opportunists out there?
Way to hang in there.
Well aside from that, John had been doing fine before he reached #1 for this phrase. It’s a growth exercise, not a survival exercise.
lol, agreed
Whats the point of reading a make money online blog when you keep secrets all the secrets to yourself? I really doubt google is that focused on your blog.
[...] did he do? He is not telling. I was going to use this post to explain exactly what I did to restore my number one ranking. [...]
I am sorry to spoil the $4k worth secret. I ran a nice little spy tool on your URL and it told me your dirty secret: you mixed your incoming link anchor text. He, he, he.
More details here.
Outed! Nice post
I’ve subscribed to your RSS.
Outed? He didn’t provide a shred of evidence that even suggests his theory is right. If you want to learn SEO, read the established pro’s (Aaron Wall, Danny Sullivan, Andy Beal, Michael Gray etc).
You wouldn’t go to a banker for medical advice, why would you take SEO advice from someone who’s “bootstrapped” successfull site has a PageRank of 2 and ranks for nothing?
SEO Blog,
My blog is just 1 week old. I am impressed that I even have PageRank. He, he, he. How many of your articles have been featured in Search Engine Watch? Well … my little young blog just did. Check.
I’ve doing SEO for several years, but I chose to make money for myself, ranking my own sites, instead of selling SEO books or offering SEO advice. I do feel respect for those guys you mention.
I provide proof for everything I do. I even include source code. Do you?
Hey genius, I meant your nemedia site that you sell your services from. Your blog doesn’t have PR yet. Being a search marketer you really should know that.
I’m not going to get into a pissing match with you because frankly it’s not worth my time but if you want to look around to see where my blog’s been featured that’s fine.
My point is this: in your post where you supposedly expose what John did you “guess” that he emailed several of the people that linked to him. Wouldn’t those people be on here commenting as to what he did or posting on their own site as you’ve done?
Also, why would he leave the blog review offer up if he needed to change his anchor text? John’s site has over 200,000 links pointing to it, you think 780 of them having Make Money Online as the anchor text (which by the way also happens to be the title of his site) would cause him to suffer an over optimization penalty for 4 days?
SEO Blog,
Please read my comment below. The experts you mentioned recommend you mix your anchor text. I provide the links to their articles.
We do not make money offering SEO services or advice. I am sorry if giving away this information is taking food from your table.
We recently changed the design of Nemedia and we are still debating whether it makes sense to offer SEO/PPC services to outside clients.
This is one of our real money makers Chat247
You can complain all you want, but you will look better if you provided some evidence to back your claims.
First of all, you’re not taking food off my table. I don’t sell SEO services. What do you mean you don’t make money offering SEO services? Your site (nemedia.com)sure seems to be telling a different story. Oh, and a design change has nothing to do with the fact that you’ve got squat for links on that site. The money maker you link to also has a whopping 18 links to it.
Come on man, get a clue!
So, you imply that links = money? Ha, ha, ha, ha. This presumes that SEO is the only way to bring traffic to a site.
Based on the number and quality of the comments in your blog vs mine, I can tell must people are not buying your rant.
Your only comment is teaching you how to get Google to spider your site more often. He, he, he.
Links do = money. Just look at how much money john makes selling links on this site.
The fact that your sites have only 18 links tell me you’re not an SEM that I’d ever hire. You don’t rank for competitive phrases without links. You don’t get organic traffic without ranking. So no, SEO isn’t the only way to get traffic, but it’s one of the key ways and if you’re not doing that for your customers then you’re not doing all you could for them.
SEO Blog,
If you read my blog you will see that we just started considering outside clients.
You are impressed with how much money John makes on this blog? With that income I would only be able to pay my office rent.
I added proof to my blog that I make really good money.
Hamlet, I didn’t say you weren’t successful, I said your sites having only 18 links makes me wonder about your SEO knowledge. You might very well be great at marketing and make a boat load of money, but there’s just no reason your site should have only 18 links to it. If you haven’t focused on SEO, that’s fine but I DO know SEO.
SEO Blog,
I’ve enjoyed this battle of wits. I am sure everyone, including myself, has learned something.
You’ve been added to my contacts in MyBlogLog.
Hopefully, we can continue exchanging ideas and point of views on SEO and SEM related topics in the near future.
Same here… I probably get a bit too worked up at times, and say things I shouldn’t. You really should do some link building for your sites though.
Thanks
Oh lord… now every John Chow reader is an SEO expert.
John, by suggesting that your review offer was the problem, you’ve unintentionally sent thousands of readers down the wrong path.
Rather than commenting on all your readers’ sites as they talk about this, I guess I’ll have to write a post of my own to address this.
Here’s a hint people, if the anchor text from his reviews were the problem, why would he still have the offer page up as well as all the previous batches? He wouldn’t! If the anchor text were the problem, he’d have to email hundreds of reviewers and ask them to change the anchor text. Now that’s what Hamlet suggested happened but did any of you get an email?
John, please tell your readers what you did so they won’t continue to pass along inaccurate information.
SEO Blog,
As you are so smart, why did John remove the instructions for the link back in his latest batch? Why not keep asking people to link back with the same anchor text?
You recommend readers check Aaron, Andy Beal, etc. Guess what? They recommend the same: Mix your anchor text. I link to their articles here
It is good to change your anchor text. However, John has over 200,000 links pointing to this site so I’m willing to bet there’s plenty of variation. Also, John didn’t post the instructions but he did leave up the review offer page. It still instructs people to link to him with the words “make money online”. Not to mention the fact that you can offer no proof that he emailed anyway. Better yet, show me a review that you think changed their anchor text?
SEO Blog,
>It is good to change your anchor text.
I’m glad that we can agree to something.
>However, John has over 200,000 links pointing to this site so I’m willing to bet there’s plenty of variation.
Where are you getting that number from?
Home page links:
Google lists 3,360
Yahoo lists 5,973
>Also, John didn’t post the instructions but he did leave up the review offer page. It still instructs people to link to him with the words “make money online”
So you expect new reviewers to look through his archives to find it?
>Better yet, show me a review that you think changed their anchor text?
I don’t think. I know. I ran a tool and it listed his back links and anchor texts.
I will provide a partial list of reviewers that are using variations of “make money online”. Why are they using something else, instead of “make money online”?
The message here is: “mix your incoming anchor text”. Do not ask everybody to link to you with the same text. I am pretty sure every SEO expert will agree to this.
If your point is to mix up your anchor text occasionally that’s fine. I can agree with you on that. However, when you can’t even find the number of links a site has, I’m more than a bit skeptical in your SEO or SEM skills.
First of all, everyone knows Google’s link count is worthless unless you’re talking about the count from inside Webmaster Central.
Second of all, it would appear that I inverted the numbers. Yahoo’s only showing me about 123,000 links (not the 213,000 I thought). That’s still a far cry from the 6,000 you’re saying.
Want proof? Look at this search in Yahoo. That’s a much more accurate count and again, most any SEO or SEM worth anything would know how to do that.
I wasn’t looking for a fight with you but if you’re going to try and act like you’re god’s gift to the search industry, I feel compelled to take a little wind out of your sails. Unfortunately, I’ve got other things to do so I’m done arguing with you for one day. Enjoy!
SEO Blog,
You can cry all you want. I provided hard proof of my claims. Have you?
Let me educate readers as it seems you are trying to build smoke screens here.
There is a big difference between having +5k links to your home page and +100k links to your whole domain. Is John ranking for “make money online” for his home page or for all the pages inside his domain? He, he, he.
The reality here is that you use SEO in your name, yet you never advised John to mix his incoming link anchor text. I did. He, he, he. Where you waiting to see him fall so that he could use your services? Maybe for $4k? Evil, evil, evil.
Hamlet, I swore I was done with you but I’m afraid your stupidity is going to infect others. John has about 82,000 links to his home page, not 5,000.
Also, I hate to break it to you, but it had nothing to do with his anchor text. It was all about his robots.txt file which is exactly what I said in my post. I’ve published the proof on my post but I’ll come comment on your blog as well so your readers can be sure to see it.
If you’d like to learn a thing or two about SEO, feel free to join our SEO Forum. Its free and we might be able to teach you a thing or two if your pride doesn’t get in the way.
Ok, Hamlet, I’m sorry, but if you make your living as a consultant then honestly you probably should have at least asked someone more knowledgeable than you where the numbers might be coming from before spouting off. Now everyone knows that you are prone to kind of newbie-ish mistakes, such as being unaware that there is a difference in the link command with Yahoo when checking www vs. non-www:
[(link:http://www.johnchow.com OR link:http://johnchow.com) -site:johnchow.com]
Combined (since both styles are definitely pointing at the same page) currently you get a total of 88,200 links pointing at the homepage.
On your blog you make this statement:
I can tell you, it is much more likely that what he actually looked at was Webmaster Tools -> Diagnostic -> robots.txt analysis.
I am humble enough to learn from others if that is the case. I responded to your claim about the robots.txt in my blog again with hard evidence.
I am a professional and I can tell you that calling others stupid is not going to make you smarter. Please try something else.
Michael,
Thanks for the heads up. Firstable, please read all my comments and the about in my blog. I don’t make my living as a consultant and I am not pitching my SEO services here, like others.
I ran the command with as you instructed and the maximum number of results I get is 10,800.
Why don’t you answer the reasonable questions I raise in my blog instead of just quoting them?
If your theory is true please explain what I ask. Why is Google caching the ‘broken’ version of the robots.txt instead of the ‘fixed’ one?
Thanks, gota hear you John? Any comments?
John
Its always good to share knowledge. One of the reasons I visit your blog as you are completely open to your
evil tactics… keep up the good work and I am sure you will share your knowledge.
Knowledge valued at $4000 is something that you can easily share and not allow people like that to scam others.
Random blackmailer owned.
As they should be!
Evil Evil Evil