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Google is much fresher nowadays than it was originally, but this is partly at the expense of short term index stability. Although frustrating for webmasters wanting to see exactly what's happening at Google, it gives searchers a better chance of finding some relevant content (even if not yours or mine!).
I'll add though that I'm in the same boat with some sites and although stats are a bit up and down, across the board, they are pretty much the same (when averaging them out over the last month).
We are in for an interesting summer working out what is going on and how it will effect us. Exciting and interesting!
Nick
[edited by: Nick_W at 3:43 pm (utc) on June 14, 2003]
How does completely removing a page from the index give users a better chance of finding relevant content?
Nick
Exactly correct. My personal home page which was placed very high (mostly #1) for many keyword searches including my own name vanished yesterday. I had a few useful articles on a special and unique topic and visitors were finding me from the search for that particular keyword and/or word-of-mouth. Yesterday my traffic from Google came to an end, and basically it is hurting the visitors.
If Google ranks a site on the first page of their results, they must find it somewhat useful. So, to remove the page entirely the next day (not just from the first page but gone completely) suggests one of the following:
1. The SERPS were originally flawed in displaying that page.
2. The SERPS were not flawed originally and a relevant page is no longer in the index for users to find.
Again, this is assuming it is not some spam penalty.
we had a site listed last week for the first time ... now we have gone from google?
It is quite usual for Google to add new pages (from a new site or not) only for a short time after freshbot [webmasterworld.com] visited the page.
To be able to return quickly the SERP, the number of pages added by freshbot but not yet indexed in the 'monthly' update cannot be too big. That would explain that after some time the pages found be freshie drop out of the SERP to make place for other new pages found somewhere on the web.
I had a site built in March show up for the first time EVER in searches yesterday. Never in google before. Got about 150 hits and at 7:45PM EST last nite, it disappeared again. Can't be found in google anymore.
Something changed last nite at around 7:30-7:45 and stuff that had been added that morning disappeared again. It's acting like it wants to be added but then doesn't hold on as google tweaks the formula.
And that traffic came from AOL and Yahoo also. Not just google. and now that site isn't in any of those 3 indexes.
dunn
And that traffic came from AOL and Yahoo also. Not just google. and now that site isn't in any of those 3 indexes.
AOL and Yahoo use the data from Google (see Search Engine Relationship Chart [webmasterworld.com])
Yes, but since the backdate, old pages/sites that are fully indexed and assigned PR have also started disappearing and reappearing. Hopfeully, the next update will work these glitches out. If not, it would be quite annoying.
Yes, but since the backdate, old pages/sites that are fully indexed and assigned PR have also started disappearing and reappearing. Hopfeully, the next update will work these glitches out. If not, it would be quite annoying.
I find it pretty damn annoying already! :)
I was just hoping it would settle in and then add some backlinks...but noooo, now a whole bunch of Freshbot data takes over and bumps my (heavily crawled by freshbot PR5+)page from the serps entirely...
GG, do us all a favor and please tell these guys to stop giving us freakin ulcers over here! :)
Problem for me, as with IITian, is that traffic dies off for me when my cache reverts to something ancient. It's only been in the past month that I have optimized a number of pages to have keyword-targeted titles. For those short periods that Google has made available to searchers these newer versions, my position in the SERPs has jumped into the top 5 or 10 for many relevant keywords. With the old pages in the index, my site doesn't do nearly as well. But at least my site hasn't dropped out altogether. I feel sorry for those of you with phantom indexes :((
To cheer me up at times like this, I cruise over to FAST and can always see my latest and freshest pages coming up high in the SERPs. Too bad that less than 5% of my traffic comes from FAST.
truth_speak,
My pages too have been visited by both deepbot and freshbot many times. My feeling is that the deepbot lost my pages during the April crawl - my first. However, seems like results are better now(at least for me - exceeds my expectations!) Hope the new Google will be better than ever.
Gone for days, back again, gone, back, shake it all about, they do the okie-kokie and profits plunge, that's what it's all about... ;)
In the past 2.5 years I have never seen an INDEXED (not fresh) site drop in and out until now.
Everflux, has always meant a flux in SERPS, not complete removal, however temporary.
<<Everflux, has always meant a flux in SERPS, not complete removal, however temporary.>>
That's not true. Newer sites will flash in and out.
You site may have had a penalty since int's been well established.
Err...I added that I was not speaking of fresh sites. And this has been the case long before dominic - fresh pages dropping in and out of SERPS. What has many perplexed is that older, established sites have been dropping in and out of the index since Dominic.
Everflux was around before freshbot even existed. MANY older sites have, for the first time, been popping in and out of the index, and no, it's not a penalty.
here's what nutandbolts said,
"Don't stress about it. I have sites over 2 years old doing this in this month's Google "update" so it's not just the newish sites affected by spotty Dominic. "
Read about 1000 others saying the same thing.
Everyone here knows that freshbot will pick up a site for a few days or so and then it will vanish. This is the first time I have ever seen completely indexed (showing backlinks/PR frp months or years) sites drop in and out of the index on a regular basis.
Search phrase "blue widgets"
We're #3 out of 1,770,000 for blue
We're #12 out of 4,000,000 for "widgets"
But for "blue widgets" (which is what just about all the anchor text leading to our site says) we're nowhere to be found on 7 of the 9 datacenters...
