WTF Google?

Can anyone explain to me why Google ranks random YouTube Videos, and old Facebook pages ahead of my forum that has literally 1000's of pictures, hundreds of video links, and thousands of posts related to my niche? It's not as though there is a lot of competition it's basically my forum and one other site that are dedicated to my niche (and the other site isn't even a competitor). What's even worse is that all of the YouTube videos have been removed because of copyright complaints, and the Facebook pages are basically spam and/or haven't been updated in months. Last month I had over 4 million page views (according to Google Analytics), but yet I am consistently at PR6. My site is by far the most relevant site for this niche, I have over 15k members. Also, can anyone explain why under Index status on the Google site maps page it says that I have 1,015 pages indexed, but under the Index page it says that 0 are indexed?

Nobody can explain it, Google is one big clusterfuck. Dont look for answers.

Main reason can be Youtube and Facebook are way better authority sites than your forum, that's why Google is ranking them ahead than your forum.

I can appreciate that, but again the YouTube video's ahead of mine have all been removed. Essentially they are links to videos that no longer exist. If Google's job is to provide relevant websites mine is by far the most relevant. I guess it's just frustrating working so hard over the past year to get my forum where it is, and to then to see Google put random videos ahead of my forum. Ironically most of the random YouTube videos originated from posters on my forum. I do wonder though if this has anything thing to do with the index status that I mentioned in the OP. Again under sitemaps it says I have 1,015 pages indexed, but under the index status page it says no links are indexed.

Unfortunately Google is going to try so hard to remove the black hatters and backlink builders from their search engines that they are going to also remove a lot of valuable forums and websites from their search engines or rank them lower and end up pushing down the sites were looking for in return making many of users mad. Not to mention Google is partnered with youtube so just wait youtube videos will start ranking for all kinds of keywords.

OP, if you can't beat them, join them.

Post a couple of good YouTube videos covering your niche that lead back to your forum and start a couple of Facebook pages that link to your site then dominate the Serps.

If there really is no competition in your niche then you should rank pretty fast.

achristopher said:

I can appreciate that, but again the YouTube video's ahead of mine have all been removed. Essentially they are links to videos that no longer exist. If Google's job is to provide relevant websites mine is by far the most relevant. I guess it's just frustrating working so hard over the past year to get my forum where it is, and to then to see Google put random videos ahead of my forum. Ironically most of the random YouTube videos originated from posters on my forum. I do wonder though if this has anything thing to do with the index status that I mentioned in the OP. Again under sitemaps it says I have 1,015 pages indexed, but under the index status page it says no links are indexed.

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I think I'll have to give that a shot. So far I haven't really done any Blackhat SEO for this forum. Fortunately, I have a big enough member base that the ranking hasn't really hurt me too much. It just bugs the crap out of me that Google works this way.

achristopher said:

If Google's job is to provide relevant websites mine is by far the most relevant.

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And that's where you have it wrong.

Just out of curiosity how do my stats look?

Also OP, if your niche really is that small then Google may be showing results (even old ones) that it thinks are the best match.
Follow my advice above and I think you might get some results as anything new will be relevant and likely to knock those outdated videos and pages out.

I'll give it a shot. I am just scared of negative SEO. I don't want to try too hard and get penalized. I like the idea that if you provide relevant content and have a site that visitors like then you'll rank well, unfortunately that doesn't always seem to be the case.

achristopher said:

I'll give it a shot. I am just scared of negative SEO. I don't want to try too hard and get penalized. I like the idea that if you provide relevant content and have a site that visitors like then you'll rank well, unfortunately that doesn't always seem to be the case.

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Negative SEO is when somebody else in your niche uses blackhat techniques against you to get your site penalised.

What I have suggested is pure whitehat and you have nothing to fear, as it would be quite natural for your site/forum to have relevant YT and FB videos/pages.

No place to jump in here, W130SN said it all.
Get on the sites your outdated "competitors"(if you want to call dead video links competitors haha) are on, and rise in the SERPs.
What's better is they're sites you can get on & guarantee ranking, now you'll be the video someday that someone else is annoyed about.