Is Google Blocking FreeRepublic.com?

Poe.com ^ | February 22, 2009 | Richard Lawrence Poe

[Richard Poe]

CONSERVATIVE COMANCHE blogger David Yeagley is enjoying a record surge in Web traffic, following the redesign of his BadEagle.com Web site. But you'd never know it from reading our Google Analytics report.

While most traffic counters show Yeagley's readership skyrocketing since the January 14 relaunch, Google Analytics shows Yeagley in a nose-dive. Part of the problem appears to be that Google is ignoring any traffic we get from the popular, conservative discussion board FreeRepublic.com.

As the designer of Yeagley's new site, I was pleased to see a big traffic spike on January 31, two weeks after our relaunch. The spike came largely from FreeRepublic.

The charts above -- both from WordPress Stats -- indicate that David Yeagley's BadEagle.com blog got a spike of 1,078 page views on January 31, at least 413 of which came from FreeRepublic.com. The chart below -- from Google Analytics -- shows no spike on January 31, and no sign of any traffic from FreeRepublic.com.



On January 30, a Freeper calling herself Sioux-san had posted Dr. Yeagley's article "Michael Medved and `White Women'" at FreeRepublic.com. She graciously provided a link back to BadEagle.com, where the original article appeared.

Over the next 24 hours, some 413 Freepers followed that link back to BadEagle, according to our internal traffic counter WordPress Stats. In its list of referring Web sites, WordPress clearly indicated that those 413 page views came from FreeRepublic, and at least 326 of them specifically from the article posted at FreeRepublic by Sioux-san.

Strangely, our Google Analytics account showed no sign of any visits from FreeRepublic during the same 24-hour period. Not a single visit. Not a single Freeper. Not one.

Indeed, while Site Meter and WordPress Stats showed a big spike in our traffic on January 31, Google Analytics showed a drop.

With its massive traffic, FreeRepublic ought to be a kingmaker on the Internet. It ought to be able to make or break other Web sites by choosing which sites to grace with its traffic and which sites to ignore.

Our experience with the mysterious, vanishing traffic spike of January 31 may indicate that liberal Internet gatekeepers have found a way to curtail FreeRepublic's influence -- and the influence of conservative Web sites generally.

[Plutarch]

We should conduct an experiment. Various links are posted at FR, and Freepers click on them. The statistics from the receiving links are tallied, these are compared to the Google stats.

To add a control, Freepers would be directed to a neutral third link, and there click on the target link. If Google tallies from the the neutral links, but not FR, then Google has some explaining to do.

[goodnesswins]

Try SCROOGLE.ORG....(NOT .com - it’s porn) here...

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

They are doing a number on GOOGLE...and it doesn’t track w/cookies, and doesn’t post ads, but posts funny cartoons mocking google.

[snarks_when_bored]

I’ve not read the piece referred to in this post, but I remember reading a Yeagley piece a year or two ago about white women (at FrontPageMagazine.com, I believe). If it wasn’t satire, it was repellent; if it was satire, it was poorly done. Yeagley needs to work on his writing chops.

[familyop]

"I am talking here about outgoing traffic. When FreeRepublic links to other Web sites, does Google keep proper track of the traffic those Web sites are receiving from FreeRepublic?

Our experience suggests that it does not -- at least not in all cases. "

That would depend on how the webmasters for those sites try to get traffic. Hidden keywords and/or other violations will cause many or all of their hits to be voided. "Professional" website traffic "experts" are notorious for getting initial floods for their clients' sites, only to their customers penalized by search engines soon after.

Reputable search engine companies have their policies on search engine optimizations in their on-site documents for that.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Well, given the kinds of sites they seem to allow and the caliber of teaching in many classes, I’d say that they shouldn’t have a beef with anything. BTW, don’t worry too much, Darwinism still reigns as the main religion on most campuses that I’ve seen.

[familyop]

Correction:
...only to have their customers penalized by search engines soon after.

[Richard Poe]

neefer writes: Last night I was on an FR gun control thread. Went to Google in an attempt to find more info about the Hungarian Revolution and guns. To my surprise, Google listed that very thread at the top of the results page. Thread was only about an hour old.

Well, I can only repeat what I wrote to familyop above. My article does not suggest that Google is blocking FreeRepublic from its search engine. It suggests that it is failing to give proper credit to Web sites for incoming traffic they receive from FreeRepublic.

This is a different issue than the one you address.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

They have also been removing unfavorable images and cartoons targeted at Obama. There seems to be a general cleansing of conservative content. Orwellian.

[sionnsar]

I do use Scroogle from time to time.

[BuckeyeTexan]

He’s not referring to keyword searches on Google that return Free Republic in the search results. He’s talking about the Google traffic analysis statistics for websites to which Free Republic provides external links from its articles.

[TomServo]

My article does not suggest that Google is blocking FreeRepublic from its search engine.

And yet your headline imples otherwise.

Is Google Blocking FreeRepublic.com?

Which is it?

[PGalt]

Interesting & an interesting thread. Thanks for posting. BTTT!

[GOPJ]

Richard - you have a way of finding the great stuff to post. You’re a FreeRepublic treasure. Hope I’m still on the ping list...

[KarinG1]

Forgive my ignorance, but I don’t see why Google Analytics would know anything about traffic coming to your site from FR. I searched for the site name you mentioned at Google using FR as the source and this thread was the second result.

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=BadEagle.com+site:freerepublic.com&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[aimhigh]

When I do a Google search for BadEagle.com, the first listing is for BadEagle. The second listing has the following text:

Oct 11, 2006 ... On the outside one would never guess that Badeagle.com is a site filled with Hate Speech preaching White Supremacy and the hatred of Blacks, ...

That has to turn a lot of people away from the site. I'm curious if Google placed it there on purpose.

[familyop]

"He’s not referring to keyword searches on Google that return Free Republic in the search results. He’s talking about the Google traffic analysis statistics for websites to which Free Republic provides external links from its articles."

See comment #24 and #26.

I've admin'd news sites including search engine optimizations. Lefty Google is endlessly stubborn on changing any policy for the sake of any other organization. Google has what we might call a very mechanical general policy of "diversity," but Google is also analytically equal about how they treat various sites. They won't manually intervene, unless they see a real and massive violation of their policy.

My biggest gripe about Google, is that its administrators have implemented different policies for communist nations to suit those nations (China being one example). But so have most of our big slaver corporates that are often announced as being vanguards of freedom and capitalism (Microslut, and all).

[BufordP]

I use Firefox with the NoScript add-on. With the NoScript add-on I can selectively allow/disallow scripts to run on Firefox. For the most part, I do not allow google-analytics scripts to run at any time. How many other Freepers are doing the same I can't say. But it would probably explain why google would not get any stats from me.

[Richard Poe]

familyop writes: That would depend on how the webmasters for those sites try to get traffic. Hidden keywords and/or other violations will cause many or all of their hits to be voided. "Professional" website traffic "experts" are notorious for getting initial floods for their clients' sites, only to have their customers penalized by search engines soon after.

As my article notes, I am the designer of the Web site in question. I would not know how to game the system in the manner you describe, even if I wished to do so (and I certainly do not!).

You appear to be implying that Google may be legitimately penalizing us for some wrongdoing on our part. If that is your point, it is unwarranted.

The situation is exactly as my article describes. A Freeper named Sioux-san innocently posted one of Dr. Yeagley's articles on FreeRepublic. At least 326 Freepers responded by viewing Dr. Yeagley's page through the link Sioux-san provided

WordPress Stats and Site Meter duly and properly recorded the traffic surge from FreeRepublic. Google Analytics did not.

[hugorand]

ixquick and cuil both claim they don’t log user searches like Google does