brinked - 1:06 am on Dec 11, 2010 (gmt 0)

brinked - have you done any studies for exact match queries, before and after Oct 22?

Unfortunatley I have not done any extensive studies like I usually due. I simply have not had enough time since the birth of my son. I have been comparing SERP's from before oct 22nd and after for my sites as well as my clients and I can say with almost certainty google has discredited exact matches to some degree. I also see them tightening up their OOPs filter which I feel was a bit too strict to begin with.

It also appears (again I have not done a lot of research into this) that they have discredited many types of backlinks such as articles/directories and sitewides.

I would love to go crazy and fully explore these changes, but I did the same thing last holiday season to only have google completely change their algo for the better after the holiday season so I am going to hold off on any major research and use that time to spend time burping my son and taking care of my clients.

And that is exactly what I am preaching to my clients right now, not to put too much stock into their gain/losses until february comes along. And I think a lot of people on these boards needs to do the same. The last thing you want to do is panic and then make a change that will hurt your site in the long run.