Dear Google, I love you!
Thank you for all that you have done for me over the years. I love my Gmail, couldn’t live without my maps or my calendar, and am even ready to start using Google+ if you would only love me back!
I got pretty for you
Over the past three months, I have changed my theme three times, have risked my site’s life with my samurai I-think-I-know-what-I-am-doing-but-actually-not-at-all editing skills, just to get as pretty as possible for you. I got rid of the bling, like this cloud tag after I read that you didn’t like pages with too many links.
I know you want ”the other ones” to have the best experience possible on my website, that’s fine, I am not jealous… so I have trimmed my URLs, used All in One SEO plugin, learned about meta tags, DoFollow and NoFollow links… I repaired all my broken links thanks to Broken links checker, and have published fresh content, my very own, five times a week, with all the relevant tags and meta for you to index.
So please come over again and look at how much I have improved!
I tried to learn your language
A bit of XML, HTML, SQL, PHP, I tried my best to communicate with you as fluently as possible. I know that you don’t like Flash, so I didn’t even try.
I met your siblings
I got friendly with Analytics and Webmaster tools, in the hope that they would help me gain your heart, I linked them together and analyzed who you were sending over to browse my site. I got a RSS Feed to make it easier for my readers to receive my posts straight to their reader.
SHAMELESS PLUG, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO MY RSS FEED IF YOU STILL HAVEN’T!!! 😀
I am getting to know Adsense and Adword’s keyword tool, but that is a slow process…
I gave you the map to my heart
You can find it right there, in the Webmaster tools. I uploaded my sitemap on an XML file, so you could search every page of my site to your heart’s content.
I got more social
I made nice friends all over the blogosphere. I Twitted and even got a Google+ profile. My friends, who are much more established than I am, were kind enough to link back to my site so you could see that they vouched for me. You like them already, so you know what they say about people being like their five closest friends…
I went all in with you, showed you my real name, my real face, and when you put me in a rich snippet I thought you would notice me more, so, dear Google…
Will you love me back?
After all my efforts, I see that you only refresh your Page Rank when you feel like it, so I am compelled to keep doing all that until you notice me.
You can bring your little Googlebot over and let’s check every inch of RFI, hopefully now you will be happy.
Love, always.
PS: Here are a few posts if you want more tips about how Google can love you too.
Pat Flynn at Smart Passive Income shares lots of valuable tips about blogging
Jeremy at Modest Money talks about blog link building and much more on his blogging tips series
Michelle at Making Sense of Cents gives tips about increasing Google Page Rank
John at Frugal Rules gives blogging tips from a beginner’s perspective
Sean @ One Smart Dollar says
It is a slow and sometimes painful process but you will get your love from Google soon enough 🙂
Pauline P says
I hope so! 🙂
John S @ Frugal Rules says
You must be in my mind, because I’ve been thinking many of the same things. 🙂 Great post and I suspect we just must keep at it and will “feel the love” at some point. Thanks for the mention by the way.
Pauline P says
No worries, we all want some love!
Holly@ClubThrifty says
Google PR is a weird thing. I don’t know how they come up with the ranking system! I hope you get the love you want!
Pauline P says
I have no idea either, but I’ll keep trying!
Michelle says
Thanks for mentioning my post! 🙂
Pauline P says
You’re welcome Michelle!
Thomas S. Moore says
Google is a hot mess as my grandmother would say. What you can do today may not be in favor next month, year, or even later today. Don;t count on G to love you back just keep doing what you are doing and the love will come even if not from the mighty G, though we all love organic traffic.
Pauline P says
Will do! All those penguins and pandas confused me anyway..
Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy says
LOL, an ode to Googs. Love it! Let us know how you fare with seducing the mighty G, Pauline.
Pauline P says
so far: feel like I’m 15 and sending love letters to a guy who doesn’t even know I exist 🙂
Tackling Our Debt says
This post was a lot of fun to read! 🙂
Google changes the way they do things everyday and sometimes it is hard to keep up with them. But from what you have listed you are doing everything they are looking for and more. Plus, you have so much going on which makes your posts incredibly original and interesting. I was telling some of my friends yesterday about your upcoming move.
Google’s PR should be updated soon. They typically do one each season, but never on a specific date.
Pauline P says
Thank you for your kind words! Community love is so much better anyway 🙂
Savvy Scot says
PS google, please visit SavvyScot.com and be kind too. Thanks
Pauline P says
Ok Google, you can go, I’m not jealous…
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank says
I suspect that the big G lost a lot of share trading friends in the last couple of hours. Their share price dropped by 8% on bad earnings.
As for hitting the G spot – I find Google doesn’t really start promoting my websites until they have been around for at least 3-4 months, and even then its normally for obscure keywords which I wasn’t targeting.
Pauline P says
lol G spot 🙂 I rank incredibly high for weird keywords too! A guy ended up on my site googling “i close my eyes i can’t stop thinking about you”…
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies says
Google’s having a bit of a rough day… seems like they’re likely going to need to find a new accounting firm… plus they’re probably not thrilled with their write downs on the Motorola Solutions acquisition… so… forgive google if it takes a bit to get around to re-crawling.
Pauline P says
Poor Google! One more reason to come over for some love!
My Money Design says
Very cute Pauline! I feel the same way. What do you want from me Google? What do I have to do to go up from a 2?
Pauline P says
And it is only going to get harder! Have you done other things that I forgot to list?
Kim@Eyesonthedollar says
I feel the same way, Pauline. Thanks for saying what every newish blogger is thinking! What is the golden google key?
Pauline P says
No idea, if you find it let us know!
Soso@SafeInvesting says
This is like a letter I should have written. Funny.
I love your blog.
Pauline P says
Thank you so much!
Cash Flow Mantra says
This was a great and funny way to start off my day. Plus I signed up for your RSS feed.
Pauline P says
Thank you very much, have a great day!
DC @ Young Adult Money says
You have been putting a ton of time and effort into this site and I know it will pay off for you! Blogging is a slow grind and if you just keep at it and keep making adjustments like you have (and that I need to with my theme!) your site will move up the ranks quick!
Happy Friday!
L Bee and the Money Tree says
I agree with DC, it is a slow grind..especially at first, but blog momentum is like a snowball and it will eventually move on it’s own. I used to blog 5x per week and it sucked, and my content wasn’t nearly as good. I’d try setting up a schedule where you post 3-4 times per week instead, it could make all the difference.
Pauline P says
Thanks for the tips Lauren, I am keeping it to 5 times per week for now, to analyze which day is better or under performs. Then I think I will move to 3 posts per week.
TB at BlueCollarWorkman says
Hahahaha, awesome, man. Maybe google will hear you and up your page rank or send more search traffic your way. 🙂 I keep making little changes too. I think I’ve changed my theme 3 times and I’m always messing around with the sidebars and links and plugins to make it all look and be what I like in websites. My alexa is in a nice place, but that google pagerank is as immovable as a resting hippo for me. *shrug*
Pauline P says
I am also messing everything up with plugins. Don’t get which one goes where. Well, Google will have to love me with my imperfections!
Harry @ PF Pro says
Wow sounds like you’ve put in a ton of work. I have built up quite a bit of content, and now I’m trying to focus on the SEO side. Working on building links right now 🙂
Pauline P says
Good job Harry! I regretted putting so much content before going out there and promoting my blog. I thought at first people wouldn’t come back to a blog with little or no content, but I think I waited too long and many good articles from the beginning didn’t get as much promotion as I would have liked.
Paul Salmon says
I know that Google can make the web process painful at times. I lost quite a bit of traffic at the beginning of the year and it took many months to get it back.
One thing I did see on your template is that the author link added to the head section of your posts isn’t correct. It should point to the full URL of your Google+ profile instead of just the ID. Changing this will tell Google that you are the author of these posts Google will link to your Google+ profile within the search results for your posts.
I enjoyed reading your post.
Pauline P says
Thank you Paul! I was sure I had the authorship thing correct since my picture shows up in Google search results. I’ll have a look again!
Financial Samurai says
Ahhh, I’ve long since stopped wishing Google would do anything for me, and to just focus on what I can control. They are a monopoly/oligopoly, hence we can just hope for the best and just write more!
Pauline P says
You are right, it is too confusing! Hopefully they like my writing eventually.
Financial Samurai says
I think they will. Just stick with it for the long term!