ridgway - 7:50 pm on Jan 29, 2004 (gmt 0)

Ronin:

That is the most logical, rational explanation yet for the -afeadfs or +a nonsense.

Alas, i'm dumbfounded.

my site is mountable-widgets.com. info on, and sales of, mountable widgets. nothing else, it's what we specialize in. for two years, the site was dance proof, always on the first page for searches on mountable widgets. it was created before i had any clue about SEO, and it got to the first page on its own. added a few things to the site (a year ago) that i learned here, like key word in title tag and description, etc. it's nothing fancy, and nothing spammy. 100 or so inbound links, yahoo listing, etc. i was smug and happy, thinking i'd done a good job. suddenly google decides that this site should be on the 10th page, below some, to put it kindly, "irrational" results.

what smacked me recently was my own use of google. If people searching for mountable widgets can't find me, then when i search for bluetooth widgets, what relevant sites am i missing that are buried on page 10?

for two years i have been ultra brand-loyal to google, singing their praises from the mountaintop. now, i'm just an annoyed surfer. annoyed because i distincly dislike when companies treat people like idiots.... "Oh, you aren't searching for mountable widgets, you REALLY want information on the rock band WIDGETS TOIL". (yes, this is for real, a rock band fan site shows up on the first page of the search.)

i need a drink.