Google Has a Weird Relationship With Lelia
Date: May 14, 2008
Having been a bit of a geek for quite some time now, I’ve been through a lot with Google. I remember our first time together, when I found myself in the loving arms of Google’s index. I remember when I was picked as number one for the search term “lelia,” finally coming ahead of Lelia Broussard, a singer-songwriter chick who is probably much cooler than I am, really. That made me feel special, like I was Google’s only real girlfriend.
Being with Google for about four years now, I also know that it’s a bit like being with an alcoholic. Sometimes you’re abused a little, but then Google comes crawling back and wants everything to be okay, and you say “all right,” and then there you are again, in the index. It’s sort of a screwed up relationship, but I came to appreciate it as users flowed into my site from the high priority given to me by Google for a number of terms and phrases.
For the past six months, though, it would seem Google’s switched from alcohol and the occasional joint to crack cocaine. I swear, what is going on with the search results? Google’s changed their algorithm for ranking sites some in the past, and things have gone a bit funny, as stated before, but then things have leveled out, and pretty quickly, at that. This time, though, there’s seemingly no end to the insanity.
This website went from being #1 for the search term “lelia,” a placement its enjoyed for about three+ years now, to being nearly on page three of the results. I’ve finally made my way back to #8 now (without any real changes on my end, too), but things are still abnormal. My placement changes, going up or down for seemingly no reason, every few days, to once a week.
Proof: This website is, as of my writing this on the 14th of May, 2008, #5 in the results. This says to me that Google’s changed a bit from their original ranking system rules that used to prioritize sites according to who was linking to them and how “valuable” and reputable those links were. For some reason, I just don’t see how a site that hasn’t been updated since 2000 (just think, that kid’s probably seven or eight years old now) is suddenly jumping the ranks because of so many people linking to it. The site that’s currently enjoying #1 is Behind the Name’s shoddy definition of my name, another page that probably isn’t getting all that much link love, surely, and not just because my name is rarer than an honest politician.
Sometimes change is a bad thing, Google. Please go back to alcohol and marijuana. We had a good thing going.
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