It is not uncommon for a webmaster to complain that his competitors are cheating and doing great in Google but all his white-hat efforts are not being rewarded by Google.
But when you have a patient webmaster, who has been in the game since 1993, who is a large part of the SEO and webmaster community, who has participated in dozens of Google Webmaster Hangouts complain, it is interesting to watch.
Gary Lee, a webmaster since 1993, started his respectable rant at around the 8 minute mark on yesterday's Google+ hangout with Google's John Mueller and didn't finish until 13 and a half minute mark, so over 5 minutes of ranting.
Here is the video, well worth a watch and see how John from Google can't say much outside of that he will pass it along and keep up the good work. In a sense, it is the algorithm failing here and there isn't much John can do about it personally.
Here is the video at the start time and I'll quote a lot of it below if you want to read some of it instead:
Gary Lee: Been online since 1993…I’m still seeing incredibly poor stuff going on, I’m told to do all the right things… We’re playing by the rules, doing all the right things. But we are going lower in the rankings. Our site looks great, we had user testing, we’ve done all the things that everyone is saying we should do and we are seeing negative results. On a positive side, we are seeing more user engagement, lower bounce rates, so our users love us but it is just Google that hates us.
Yet we see sites and businesses that consistently break the rules. One site that was breaking the rules got banned but they got a new site, which is back up there breaking the rules. It is just unreal.
It is such a double standard. What is the point. We are spending thousands in AdWords. It is just wrong…
John: I passed your note along and I totally appreciate that. I can understand this is frustrating… I think you’re headed in the right direction. Your heart is in the right place. It is hard to wait and not see significant changes.
Gary: Four years of what we’ve done has not paid off. Companies crash and burn in four years. Something is horribly wrong but we can’t keep sitting around like this.
You told me this a year ago, that I’m doing the right job and I’m on the right track. But we are still in the same spot. The algorithm is not working.
John: I appreciate the feedback and pass it along.
It almost makes you wonder, why bother...
Forum discussion at Google+.
Image credit to Zazzle
