Forum Moderators: open
Update is on :)
My question is are we just watching what is potentially going to happen to the new update based on what is currently on www2.google and the update has not offically started or has the update started and main site www.google.com just has not received my keyword serps yet?
It has been over 8 hours and what I am seeing on www2 has not effected any of my current SERPs.
I've just logged in and been totally surprised to see an update going on. I thought it would be much later this month with the deepbot still being around on 27th April.
I've skimmed through the 100's of posts and have probably picked up the wrong info. in my haste, could somebody please correct the understanding I have which follows:-
1) Google intends to go live with old backlink and PR data.
2) The backlink and PR data is even older than the current data being used in the live system.
If I'm right then this is a pretty radical approach and either Google is so impressed by it's new algo's that it thinks the SERPs will be vastly better or perhaps it is an acknowledgement of the fact that it is taking longer and longer to process the deepcrawl data.
Still can't work out why they can't use the current deepcrawl data though.
We're all guessing and speculating, which is probably why you're confused!
It's fun though!
TJ
My most important KW is topped by someone with nothing but guestbook links. I sent a spam report a few weeks ago, but his site still appears in this new index - it has even climbed a good few positions!
Should I send another spam report with my WW ID included?
[edited by: James_Dale at 2:09 pm (utc) on May 6, 2003]
That is the question on everyones mind. "Why can't they use current deepcrawl data"?
www3 = part of a caching server which will be located at the same place but wil have its own database. (I think)
(I think)
I think everyone should start putting that at the end of their messages on this subject!
TJ
A competitor known for spam has risen from the ashes to #4. His on page optimization consists of hidden links in h1 tags that link to his own site. He has no backlinks showing.
Since only GG really has a clue what is up and how this will play out, I'm taking my kid to Disneyland and waiting for the dust to settle.
GG, thanks for the posts. Let me know who wins the drinking game.
i am following this thread since todays morning - and read said something about that "google drinking game".
Is this something real - and if not: what about inventing it? *g*
With NO axe to grind (i.e., our overall standings haven't changed much in the new SERP's, so no accusations of having an agenda please), it is sadly the case that several high ranking sites in our various categories got hammered, while embarrassingly spammy sites climbed dramatically.
GoogleGuy, not the first time you've read THAT in the last several days. ;-)
Conclusions:
1) I'll wait one or two weeks to see how the SERP's are affected by the addition of the filters that are apparently not turned on yet.
2) I'll start paying much more attention to FAST and Inktomi, in the event that the addition of currently omitted filters does not remove the blatant spammers from the SERP's in this go-round.
So far, betting against Google's ability to achieve relevance and superiority has been foolish...but the ghosts of fallen empires and New Coke ARE haunting this forum for a reason...
that's exactly what I did, albeit very quickly.
mfishy,
I'll wait for Googleguy to resurface and then ask him to clarify why the currently used deepcrawl data isn't being used.
Everything seems to be back to normal except for this one small problem. My new PHP pages had their <title> tags completely ignored and the bot just picked the first 4 words that weren't in the header.
I just did a search on that and it came back with a few of the boys using the same cart and their results are all messed up too.
Looks unprofessional but I've still got increasing unique visitors from it. :)
Since the last update, though, I broke out my too-long pages into sections for each person covered. This way there are a lot more pages than my launch on 3/1, more content and more specific keywords and title tags for each section.
So, the changes to the site as I proceeded with the launch may be the key to the increased traffic instead of the algo change.
The people complaining about the biggest drops, from what I can see, are those who have practiced agressive SEO. One person mentioned they are back where they were before they started SEO.
Has anyone considered that this algo change might also be to get rid of some of the things too well known about google, that are being exploited to provide skewed results, such as anchor text and DMOZ/Yahoo listings? Perhaps the most common SEO processes have been noted and are being adjusted against.
Remember, SEO is basically the process of pleasing the bots, not the surfer. Google wants good surfer oriented reaults, not good SEO. You all may be victims on your own success.
Alex
- Uncap Med, Idiot
- Mice Pad Conduit
- Dunce/Idiot Map
and
- Dude, I'm to Panic
to name just a few :D
i am going to have some drinks this evening i think - i am not sure what my boss will tell me about this if THIS is what'll be in google for the next time.
he gave me some more time to get our website "refurbished" - and we lost our good positions *grml*
[offtopic]
see you tomorrow - i am off from working for today and glad to see my girlfriend... she isn't into computers and so she just smiles at me (and i love HER SMILE *g*) when i tell her such stories...
[/offtopic]
Fortunately Im still at #2, and amazon is at 4 or 5.
Hopefully amazon gets bumped back down once all the filters kick in.
By the way, the #1 site in my line of business, has done an excelent job of keyword stuffing,
and they are still #1 despite have a lower PR than my site.
I have several sites and as everyone has reported backlinks have gone down across the board...but it seems to me that my backlinks went to what they were back in Nov/Dec and some of the backlinks currently showing are ones that were taken down a couple of months ago. Another interesting observation is two of my sites I keep the closest eye on went back to thier ranking as of several months ago....almost exactly. One site went from 3 to 71 with no changes whatsoever. Another, seems to have dissappeared completely under certain keywords. But, is there under one main keyword. Any thoughts?
The new results show 1 or 2 insignificant internal pages (contact, faq., spec sheet) listed at 30-50 for the top keywords.
For all 3 clients their main pages have vanished from the results. On all of their terms, their main page no longer shows up, but they have internal pages showing up 3-5 pages deeper.
None of these clients have any duplicate websites or cross-linking and no spammy optimization or hidden text.
I fail to see how an update would produce results for a website contact form to rank higher than their PR7 main page.
allinanchor:key words
still show these sites among the top 3, allinurl still shows more pages indexed than competitors, and even though backlinks are just under 50% in most cases, they are still more than competitors.
I am seeing results with titles that don't have the keyword, such as "Category Page" rank unusually high.
The "new" results seem to rank competitors duplicate spam sites and doorways very high.
I guess I'm posting this info to confirm that I am seeing the same thing as many others.
What a sad day this is, hundreds of companies and SEOs trying to not have a breakdown.... and hoping this just isn't real.
If it's any more comforting, I see a couple of major corporations who have met the same fate, industry leaders who have vanished from the rankings, and in there place, home-made duplicate spam sites.
i don't understand that page-rank-thingy :(
*justwantedtosay*
Good SEO should lead to good surfer oriented results as well. The problem is that content and results are subjective and we don't know how Google perceives what it crawls.
