besnette - 3:01 pm on Oct 15, 2011 (gmt 0)

It makes no sense to me (I've been a member of WebmasterWorld for 6 years so I don't know why it says "new user...I rarely post, mostly read every day...but today, I am compelled to post..)

My previously non-pandlized site:

- Going on 7 years old
- hundreds of organic, one-way links from .EDU's and .GOV sites - because of my excellent content (something I have been told time and time again from my users, and experts in the field)
- not to mention the thousands of other organic inbound links
- Site has steadily gained traffic the past few months from an already very healthy level, I assumed in response to my adding fresh, unique, original content to my pages (and to existing pages), new articles, and videos
- I don't link out to anyone unless it is a hugely authoritative site, and if they deserve it because of their content
- I don't by/sell links, or participate in link exchanges
- I produce all of my own articles, interviews and tutorials
- I produce original videos
- I have made sure there is plenty of content above the fold,
- Site is about 800 pages - never a too aggressive growth
- Adsense - I have actually been removing many adsense blocks this entire year - and was very conservative about it in the first place -
- I have a directory on my site (aside from my content and articles) where other businesses in my niche can add their information , but I am very choosy about who/what I include, and make sure their information is helpful to my users. I nofollow their websites if they include those. On these pages, I also include original content of my own, linking to my videos and articles.
- I follow google's webmaster guidelines with extreme seriousness, and I follow adsense policy to the letter.

How is it that google, with a "Minor" algo change as happened yesterday basically say that a site is not useful or good, when it's users, and links from many top government and educational sites like the National Institutes of Health, Housing and Urban Development, and many many others have linked to my site based on the usefulness of the content, and the directory that I provide.

My main keyword terms have hung in there from what I can see, but it just simply appears as if many of my pages have simply disappeared. Every single page on my site has valuable and excellent content.

Other, newer websites in my niche still rank well for extremely thin pages, and unoriginal content, so this is indeed very confusing to me..

I hope this helps others out there who truly have built a site because of passion, and an interest in educating others (and themselves), helping others, and the enjoyment of building something that you are extremely proud of...who are seeing the same, upsetting thing as of the 14th.

This isn't right on so many levels. I hope that this is just flux...or a misguided test.

I hope my post helps others in the same boat...