Google's Cutts: Your Ugly Face Didn't Hurt Your Rankings, Penguin Did.

May 31, 2013 - 9:03 am 31 by

Google+ PenguinAlex Yumashev wrote a blog post about how authorship lead to a drop in traffic from Google to his site.

He said he noticed this when Google sent him a warning that his traffic suddenly dropped. He noticed his authorship showed up for a specific blog post in the Google search results. He also said people were clicking on the number two results, not the number one result because of maybe his "stupid ugly face" (quoting the author).

Matt Cutts of Google took offense to the title, which reads "How Google Authorship decreased our traffic by 90%." Why? Well, Matt looked into it and he said the real reason is not because of his "ugly face" but rather because he was hit by the Penguin algorithm.

Matt wrote in a Hacker News thread:

Authorship had nothing to do with this site's drop. The site has been affected by our Penguin webspam algorithm and that accounts for the drop.

He then goes on defending Google+ and it's role in Google's search ranking.

Authorship markup launched before Google+ was even available to the outside world.

I like the "outside world" addition.

Typically, authorship and having your picture show in the search results will lead to an increase in CTR and traffic.

Forum discussion at Hacker News.

Image credit to BigStockPhoto

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Maps

Google Tests Local Panel Tab Buttons Under Main Search Bar

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:11 am
Bing Search

Microsoft Laying Off 9,000 Employees - 4% Of Workforce

Jul 3, 2025 - 7:05 am
Google Ads

Confirmed: Google Ads Errors & High Latency Issues

Jul 2, 2025 - 7:55 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 2, 2025

Jul 2, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google June 2025 Core Update Volatility Just Began - Do You See It?

Jul 2, 2025 - 8:35 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

July 2025 Google Webmaster Report

Jul 2, 2025 - 7:51 am
Previous Story: Google's Cutts On Internal Links Hurting You