The Google Gong

Remember the great old variety show called “The Gong Show”?

Random performers of various kinds of acts would get on stage and do their thing. They were allowed a time limit, and if they were bad, they were quickly “gonged” off the stage. It was all in good fun, so much so, that people still remember it to this day.

Recently, 15,000 websites won the dubious distinction of the “Google Gong”. More than a slap, the Google Gong was really a ban from Google's search listings, and if the big gorilla Google decides to ban your site, well, you might as well start over with a new one, because the old one is now all but dead.

If you decide to keep it running, the domain might as well be hosted on the planet Pluto, because it is now really on the far distant edge of the Internet system, for in this system Google is the Sun, and Pluto is left way out in the cold in a solitary orbit.

The really interesting thing about the 15,000 websites that experienced the Google Gong, according to the news reports, is that they were affiliate marketing sites! Are not affiliate marketing sites, generally speaking, revenue earners for Google?

Is this now the death bell tolling for affiliate marketers?

I hope not! A great many of us have a lot to lose if it is.

Perhaps Google has found 15,000 sites that are using what is known as Black Hat SEO techniques, and decided to teach them and the rest of us a lesson by way of example.

The World Wide Web is an interesting beast, and those who ride upon it, and control the reins that guide it, can direct that beast to any destination desired.

As strange as it might seem, Google has not banned any porn sites as yet.

Hmmm. What's wrong with this picture?

Perhaps Porn-ville is preferred over Affiliate-ville? So much for Internet freedom.

Google should get the “gong” on this one.