Forum Moderators: open
Gives a new meaning to the term "anchor text".
Log analysis should be interesting tomorrow...
WBF
Very well said. I see the same thing. Doing a search for White Widgets Company returns pages using that as anchor text to link to the White Widgets Company. Over 20,000 links to the White Widgets Company using that as anchor text, and it's nowhere in the SERP's.
There's always Inktomi. :)
I am finding site unrelated to the search term that rank above (an interior page of) my site when their only relevance is a link pointing TO my site. That link is the ONLY relevent content on the subject in question.Same here. I am seeing crap sites in serps just because they have the keywords as link text to other sites. Thaat means we should now give links to others rather getting links with the keywords as link text.
Another peculiar thing i'm seeing is that the results for same site when searched with different keywords are showing the google directory category listing as it used to do, while at other places the category is missing.
There's always Inktomi.Just went to infospace and checked my inktomi results and guess what. Gone from #2, and the results are surprisingly similar to Google's current results for that search. I'm guessing they want $39 or something. If only Google worked like that sometimes. I would happily dole it out just to have my site in there the last three days.
Thaat means we should now give links to others rather getting links with the keywords as link text.
lol.
I'm also seeing this - I'm placing unexpectedly well on competitive searches based on outgoing anchor text on my site, and am getting decimated on searches for which I have plenty of solid incoming links.
I'm tempted to a put a link to my competitor on my pr7 home page with our key words in order to improve my position in the SERPS. It's a world gone mad.
The only positive thing about the bizarre 180 that anchor text seems to have taken in influencing the SERPS is that it must mean we are still dancing. It must, right?
Many searches are similar to Google's - the ones that are different are usually better. I used to have no respect for Inktomi but these past few months I am really seeing quality SERP's. Can't wait for Ink to replace Google on Yahoo.
I guiltily admit to not having checked Alta Vista in a loooooong time. Interestingly enough, 90% of my sites are doing really really well there. Sadly, it means nothing, but at least there was a nice feel-good few minutes while I checked the results.
Now did anyone see my index page - I seem to have misplaced it.
Yahoo/Dmoz/Google directory
[edited by: KevinC at 8:14 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]
But, just to create debate, what if Yahoo replaces Google with Altavista?
Ooops.
Like I said in my post, those problems existed before Florida. Linksmanager trash links are a disease that Google has to purge itself of completely. I believe that with Florida they did this somewhat, but not enough. I see several sites that were climbing because of those trash links programs either not rise any higher or drop a few points.
Until those ugly, generic link pages are all PR0ed the problem will continue to exist, but it seems to be less of a problem today than last week.
My PR has gone from 4 to 5 on two sites.
These two sites seem to have no backlinks just like a lot of other sites which used to have 30.
Both these two sites have dropped from 1 to 500.
Now I don't think its over, I mean my PR is now 5, no backlinks like my competitors who are for some reason are ranking well.
This has to be the biggest dancer in Googles history.
What a Rock 'n' Roll this is.
My PR is fantastic Google just needs to update the backlinks more.
Not all sites have been updated yet.
Everytime I brood over this, and then I take a 'wait till Wednesday' pill!
[edited by: heini at 10:31 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]
[edit reason] please don't point out sites / thank you [/edit]
Normal search returns approx. 197,000
allinanchor or allintext returns approx. 750
My site is not returned where it use to be using the allinanckor and allintext commands so I'm hoping it is due to the very low number of pages returned.
About this hyphen thing. GG said there had been no penalty this time for keyword1-keyword2 domain names. AFAIR he didn't mention filenames or anchor text. And a penalty is different to devaluation.
IF Google has devalued keyword1-keyword2 in anchor text, or whatever, that could explain the hyphen business.
By searching explicitly for "keyword1-keyword2" you're telling G "yes, I really do want that hyphen". So the value of those hyphenated incoming links goes back up again.
Just a thought.
It did take a couple of hours. Been busy working, so i left this thread a few days ago on page two... of part one(!) Meanwhile it seems an update has taken place.
>> happy members have just learned not to post
Nah, busy working in stead. No significant changes in serps on my end, apart from what could be expected. I'm hip.
>> hyphens
...all in URL upped a bit it seems
>> blogs
Yes fewer, but still way too many forum results when searching for tech or info. Info-sites still suffer in favour of "fresh" questions posted in forums. There are such places as WebmasterWorld where search results from forums might give an answer in stead of a question, but those are rare - for the majority of forums, you get questions when you search for answers.
>> authority sites
...good ol' PR upped a bit it seems
>> domains
... still lacking filter for duplicate content on two-or-more domains (domain aliases). These seem a bit hard for Google to discover.
>> spam
>> hats
SE's define what is "spammy" and what is not. For Google it's in their guidelines. As long as there is some consequence (ie. those that spam do not benefit) it's quite okay, but when spamming pays off there's no reason for guidelines in the first place.
I checked one very competitive industry (three non-adult keywords including "cheap") and it seems as spammy as ever. This was just a quick check though. (just revisited, the top 10 is in fact a bit cleaner now)
>> backlinks, anchor text
...seems you can still benefit in the serps from paid advertising with a plaintext link. I'd expect this to be very hard to counter, but advertising on discussion forums seems to be very helpful.
A general forum filter (ie. less fresh serps) - will probably mean better serps as well in some cases. Just omit WebmasterWorld from it ;) Alternatively, links from a forum should be devalued, just like guestbooks (...are supposed to be).
/claus
[edited by: claus at 11:20 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]