jimbeetle - 10:43 pm on May 16, 2006 (gmt 0)

Are we being penalized for having affiliate links?

Don't overreact. The affiliate links Matt used as examples were in the footer and looked like run of site links. He made a point of using terms like "not related." I would think that if your affiliate links are well incorporated and not just scattershot or run of site you *should* be okay.

Look at some of the other points Matt made about the new crawl and indexing routines and treatment of supplementals (both in his main post and in his comments). Much of what he describes fits many of the symptoms folks have been experiencing. He has an interesting blurb on being on the "fringe of the crawl" where some pages might pop back and forth between the main and supplemental indexes. That explains a lot right there.

There might not be many quick fixes, though better incoming links is one sure thing. Just be sure to think things through before pulling the trigger on any changes.