Update Florida - Nov 2003 Google Update Part 2

[GoogleGuy]

Continued from part 1: [webmasterworld.com...]

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I stopped by several times yesterday, but it seemed like people were into the analysis stage already. caveman, this update didn't add any penalties for hyphenated domains, so that's not a factor. Just a reminder that people with specific feedback (good or bad) can send it to webmaster [at] google.com with the keyword "floridaupdate" somewhere in the email. I've mentioned that a few times, but as more than one person has pointed out, it can take 2-3 hours to read the whole thread from beginning to end. :)

[Kirby]

It's looking horrible. Backlinks are down with 60%...

Mine are up 90% on -va.

For one kw phrase with 1,000,000+ results I have bounced from mid page 2 prior to Dom to as high as #3 for the last 6 weeks. On -in, I'm now down to #25 but only dropped to #7 on all others.

For another kw phrase with 1,000,000+ results I have been #1 for two years and still am today on all indexes.

Same links, title, content, tags, etc. None of the theories in the last 1300+ posts explain why one stays (google rocks!) and the other drops 3 pages (google sucks - they're doomed -long live INK).

Hey, maybe G is bi-polar?

<edited by kirby for typos/>

[edited by: Kirby at 6:24 pm (utc) on Nov. 19, 2003]

[Trixxxia]

I can't help but reply to everyone wondering about the '-' in name & keywords & plurals.

So this is my site:
keyword1-keyword2-keyword3-keyword4.com

Since the beginning of this year we've always been in the top 3-10 of

keyphrase which consisted of (keyword1 keyword2 keyword3<-plural)2nd place
keyphrase (keyword1 keyword2) 6-8th place
keyphrase (keyword2 keyword3<-plural)2nd place
keyword1 finally had worked my way to 38th (very big keyword with alot of competition)
keyphrase (keyword1 keyword3<-plural)between 5-10th place

note there aren't any '-' in there
and keyword#3 was always plural.

We don't trade traffic, we hardly traded links because of cheaters but recently started with reputable sites - hardlink only and keyword123 anchortext or keyword1-2-3-4 anchortext.

Note that Google Directory was showing results prior to March this year and we weren't listed then. Google updates with DMOZ listings and it still didn't benefit.

My results have gone away for the holidays early I think because the combinations above I'm nowhere to be found. Only -in is giving me a string of hope but I don't know.

I could only find myself with *some* of the combinations but keyword#3 in singular *somewhere in the 50's* (which cuts the traffic by ohhhhh about 50%)

I hope this may help some of you to understand this algo so perhaps I can readjust or retire :-/

(items in * have been added to clarify)

[drewls]

All this talk of a mighty anti-SEO algo change is poppycock. Hope everyone's foolishly making changes based upon this silly assumption 'cause it's a zero-sum game right? I will refrain from saying Google is broke because we're all guilty of an occasional bug--doesn't mean it don't work, just needs fixing.

I was a victim of the last allinanchor/index page bug, and I didn't change a thing and came out smelling like a rose when Google got it right. Then, many old-timers were saying major algo change, index pages had been devalued, blah-blah-blah. That simply wasn't the case; it was a bug.

Hopefully, everyone's followed the guidelines & built and marketed plenty of internal content that doesn't rely on the index for traffic. I've taken a hit on rankings but stats are holding up pretty well, all things considered. It's going to be a long couple of weeks before Google fixes the bug; get comfortable with it.

I'm quoting this entire post because you are absolutely right.

Everyone's thinking the world has ended and this is obviously just a bug. Why else would some optimized sites, optimized the same way as the missing sites, still be present in the index? If it was an algo change, it would be across the board. This is an obvious flub on Google's part and anyone who changes their title to something irrelevant or some other ridiculous knee-jerk reaction will only prolong their agony.

#2 for allinanchor

+

#2 for allintext

+

#2 for allintitle
____________________

NOWHERE IN SERPS

That doesn't make any sense. I could see a devaluation causing the site to be dropped back a page or two. But not to appear at all? How can anyone think that's deliberate?

ESPECIALLY WHEN...get ready...IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE! Remember the last collossal cockup with missing index pages?

One day it's relevant, the next day, it's only on ATW and AV? That makes little to no logical sense at all.

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Continued in part 3: [webmasterworld.com...]