Google Just Gave Me the John Chow Treatment

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Back in June, John Chow announced that he no longer ranked in Google for his own name. Now I am in the same situation, at least temporarily. If I search Google for my name, this site no longer comes up. And it has been #1 for around two of three years now. Yes, the posts used to go back that far until I had freak smelting accident with Wordpress. Backups, smackups.

I have always had Google suggesting that my name should be Stephen Miller. I am used to that though. Teachers did it in elementary school. Judges did it court. I still quite don’t have the balls to refuse to stand up on the basis that the judge didn’t call my name. Of course when I was younger, it confused me and made me feel like a freak with a weird name. Thanks Google for the constant flashback of being refused my own name. And you had to take one step further. But at least I am in good company.

But 7 of the 10 links that come up on the first page will take you to one of my sites either directly or eventually. Also 7 of the 10 links that come up on page two will get you to me also. The Gunslinger Media guy, a second rate actor, and some NASRAD scientist are stuffed in there between my links. Unique names aren’t so bad now are they.

I haven’t looked through the Google results for my name in a while. They are pretty interesting. It seems that my PeopleAggregator page ranked up there quickly. I just signed up last week. My Findory page has been in the same place forever. Blogcatalog ranks up there pretty high, but MyBlogLog is nowhere to be found. Maybe because I searched in Google and MyBlogLog is owned by Yahoo?

Did I "game Google", as a uppity post on Pronet Advertising suggests could be the only reason? Nope. I did more "gaming" in the years before this. So Pronet, bite me, and just keep your Google brown nosing to yourself. Nope, I just commented on a few blogs regularly and joined a few social networks. In fact, I was more focused on links before this occurred than now. I was focusing more on moving around in the social networks.

Am I worried? Nope. I still get search engine hits, just not for my name. And anyone searching has a 70% chance of finding me on the first two pages of Google.

Tags: google ban, google brown nosing, john chow, named wrong, pronet advertising

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27 Sep, 2007  Uncategorized



18 Comments so far »

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  1. Zachary Fox said

    September 27 2007 @ 4:31 pm

    I’m curious to see if you actually see an increase in referral traffic from all of those sites that link to you. If you could post an update, that would be great.

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  2. Stephan Miller said

    September 28 2007 @ 5:16 am

    I will be sure to do that. I am going to post a screenshot of my CGREF top referrers later. My alexa rank has been increasing steadily over the last month that I have been blogging more steadily. This used to be basically a resume site, showing what I could do for prospective employers. I have a GED. Well, it did that. The job doesn’t pay well, but I figure 2 years from now will be different there or another place that will see real experience in a work environment. Now, I am changing the purpose of this site. And I plan to post frequent updates on traffic increases or decreases.

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  3. Funny Friday: Good Links, Forum Posts, and DealDotCom (9/28/2007) - Internet Marketing Sucks! said

    September 28 2007 @ 8:01 pm

    [...] You can’t be too sure about Google, either, as they keep dishing out John Chow treatments. [...]

  4. Dane Morgan said

    October 2 2007 @ 2:17 am

    Man, I’ve been battling a show winning Great Dane named Morgan for years. and that dog wins more often than not! Interestingly enough there’s a Football (I think) player named Dane Morgan too, and he gets lousy results, so he’s got to be just depressed that this dog and this nobody blogger both spank him all the time.

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  5. Stephan Miller said

    October 2 2007 @ 10:55 am

    That’s funny man. I guess it would have sucked to have been born sharing a name with Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But the Great Dane and the actor have no chance. Take no prisoners.

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  6. swollenpickles said

    October 16 2007 @ 7:43 am

    I think I might be getting the treatment myself right now. Did you ever get back in?

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  7. Stephan Miller said

    October 16 2007 @ 9:12 am

    Yeah, back at number #1 for my name. But I not sure as to why I disappeared for a month. It may be as simple as the fact that Google couldn’t access my sitemap with the hosting provider I had. Check your site with Google Webmaster Tools to see if this is an issue.

    It also makes me think that many bloggers should place a little more importance on their sitemaps than they currently do. That is, if I am correct about what happened to me.

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  8. Digital Order said

    October 17 2007 @ 11:05 pm

    Now some no name blog ranks for johnchow, thats kinda odd

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  9. Craig said

    November 9 2007 @ 9:13 pm

    Well, Stephan … Google loves you again! You are #1 for your name again. I have seen this happen over the years for websites & blogs. One moment your listed the next your not.

    I also have been watching this disappearance from the serps in relationship to blogs that are using WidgetBucks.

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  10. Stephan Miller said

    November 22 2007 @ 10:14 pm

    I just did a search for my name and found you. Interesting and weird at the same time. Kind of like looking into a mirror and seeing somebody else’s face. We have some similar traits, but I think you are much more social than me. It will be interesting to follow your blog for a while. I don’t have one, never have and probably won’t. Takes too much work.

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  11. Stephan Miller 1 (Profile)

    Stephan Miller 1 said

    January 16 2008 @ 11:20 am

    There is absolutely nothing wrong with our name.
    I would actually prefer that you go ahead and become stephen miller, over stephan as I owned the domain long before you ever came on to the scene. I was actually overseas doing some two bit acting for 7 months in a tiger show and I came back to find my domain was somehow mysteriously sold from under me, I was told that there was a mix up and it somehow became available, BS…

    You really should watch how you refer to people as things always have a way of getting back to people especially on the information highway.

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  12. Stephan Miller said

    January 16 2008 @ 11:33 am

    And some people can’t take a joke, which is what most rants are. I am somewhere in the range of a C or D list blogger right now. That makes me third or fourth rate.

    And I also expect things to get back to me. I did not build this site to be in a vacuum.

    Domains usually don’t get sold out from under someone. They just don’t get reregistered. It stops being my domain when I don’t pay that $10 fee every year. I am sorry you lost it but I had no idea.

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  13. Stephan Miller 1 (Profile)

    Stephan Miller 1 said

    January 17 2008 @ 1:00 am

    You didn’t mea

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  14. Stephan Miller 1 (Profile)

    Stephan Miller 1 said

    January 17 2008 @ 1:04 am

    Truthfully it doesn’t matter if it was a joke or not, we share one thing in common, our name.

    When I first had the domain I was paying 70.00 a year to own it through Network solutions and that was no joke, then I moved it to some domain company that already went out of business, so my bad for being cheap.

    I am glad that at least you use it though.
    Take care Stephan Miller ;)

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  15. Stephan Miller said

    January 17 2008 @ 7:37 am

    Domains were high dollar back then. That was before I even had one.

    You take care also
    Stephan

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  16. Big Oak said

    January 28 2008 @ 1:19 am

    You would think Google’s algo would eventually learn after a large number of searches for “Stephan Miller” that the person searching did in fact mean to type “Stephan” and not “Stephen.” I wonder how many searches would need to be conducted for that to change.

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  17. Stephan Miller said

    January 28 2008 @ 7:06 am

    Don’t know. It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t already assume that I was searching for Stephen Miller and intermix the Stephen Miller results in with the Stephan Miller ones even if I don’t click the link to choose Stephen Miller.

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  18. R.I.P Stephan Miller | Stephan Miller said

    April 23 2008 @ 5:22 am

    [...] Stephan Miller actually commented a couple of times on my blog. Really [...]

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