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both essentially, I've gone months without seeing backward links that I know I have, all from PR4's and above, but what I meant primarily by "penalised" was dropped from the SERPS.
>Wait and see...
Now there's a plan!
Fine to speak in terms of 'what if this sticks' and 'what it means if it does' but for now, pointing out the issues and discussing them is enough for me. Premature to panic (as others have said). I panicked last fall and again this past spring/summer, so I wont fall into that trap again. Instead, I gulp hard once per day and try to get my work done. I also set my check-on-Google-quality-alarm for 8am Wed morning.
Then I'll start screaming ;-)
p.s. I do sympathize with those who wonder why G can't do this on WWW2 and WWW3. They would still get the feedback they're looking for. And the signal that all is done would be clear when the results move to WWW. I'm obviously too simple-minded.
If that was the case why would we know see a listing for an expired domain name come up in the top ten for a search term that brings up over 4.6 million in results? There is lots of junk coming up top when you would think that google would have more "quality" sites to choose from in a very competitive area?
Maybe I should just buy the expired name to get a top 10?
Subway made the very good point that my example is an information site that will naturally show up at the top of the serps for its niche, if there is decent content/info. Commercial is different and I feel for you guys...
I should have qualified my example more clearly that it was meant for .org/info type sites.
Why have you forsaken us...? We have followed your wisdom and have carried out your wishes... we have not placed any other search engine before you, we have neither built idols nor spoken thine name in vain... We have sacrificed and spread the word of your power from land to land... Even now your mighty power grows.... Why have thee chastised the faithfull, cast us down, laid us low? Why have you turned your glorious visage from us...?!
Speak thy will that we may obey! Thine own cammandments lay in ruins at thy feet...!
We beseach you! Lift us on high that we may once again revel in thine glory! Let us once again know thy grace....!
it means that my site will be listed in the first 10 spots?
One of the wisest remarks so far ;)
a) My techno-shy better half let out a yelp while browsing this evening. "What's up?" I asked. She was looking at Yahoo SERPS. "The order is different!" she said. "One of my favourite sites is usually here..." She pointed to the fifth listing on the screen "...but now it's not there!".
Conclusions:
1) Even members of the entirely non-technical browsing public have noticed something is up... and it is interfering with browsing habits they are accustomed to following.
2) As I suspected, I'm not the only one who uses a given search term and the resulting listings as a proxy Bookmark. (It's not something you go around asking people, so I never really had this confirmed before...)
b) About three times as many visitors as normal accessed my site today through Bookmarks.
Unsubstantiated Hypothesis:
Those visitors were unsuccessful in finding my site by their usual method (ie. using Google or Yahoo! SERPS as a proxy Bookmark) and so, if and when they eventually found my site, they bookmarked it and returned later in the day using their browser Bookmark.
I'm not convinced for a moment that the SERPS will stay in their current order, but at least for the sake of Google's (and Yahoo!'s... and AOL's... and Alexa's) public image I think they should have gone through the motions on www1, www2 and www3, instead of getting changed in public.
[edited by: ronin at 12:37 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]
OK - I admit I have been hit hard in florida both for my companies own rankings and our clients but I saw what happened after Esmeralda. Things were bad for a while, a lot of spam was filtered and we finally came back in the top 10. Have this thread again in 4-5 days time if you are still seeing more of the same silly directory filled results - y'all should take a few days out and should quit being so paranoid! :)
The only thing that concerns me is whether sites returned after DomEsme due to the number of complaints and feedback leading to a googletweak, or whether it was just part of the process.
I've emailed feedback to google. I hope everyone moaning here has also done so ;)
Lets just hope the indexes return a little quicker than last time...
Like other people, I've found that with hyphens in the searchterm, it ranks where it always ranked - in the top 3. That's wierd.
have noticed that any title with a hyphen or hyphenated domain names are no where to be found.
Just not so.
In our main keyword two of the top 10 domains have hyphanated urls and two have hyphanated titles. (207,000 results)
In another term 6 of the top 10 have titles with hyphens and 4 out of 10 have hyphens in the url. (239,000 results)
I think this interesting. For a search I used to be #1 on, the top 10 or so links are all coming from Dmoz, they are identical down to the order in which they are listed.
something is not added in yet...I hope
[edited by: jddux at 1:38 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]
This is really odd, I have a lot of unhappy clients today - they aren't even showing in the top 30 if you search for their names, eg 'Widget Town Resort & Spa' - we are not spamming in anyway, never have, and they all still have good PR.
Alta Vista: Met Opera ticket site #4 of non-sponsored results.
Pretty slick there!
If Google was "broken" across the board, then I'd expect even non-competitive SERPs to also have great changes. All sites would have an equal chance of getting hit. Leading me to suspect that what is happening is by design. Any significant change in spam filters would tend to most influence competitive SERPs, and leave non-competitive ones alone (because these have little "spamminess.") Thus, consider the theory a lot of the moaning around here is due to people being whacked by spam filters. Note I am NOT necessarily calling these people spammers. They could be what the military euphemistically refers to as "collateral damage" in the Google War on Spam.
Similar AltaVista rankings here, I am #1 for all my keywords there, and no where to be found on Google. Not quite Google though.
P.S. One of the above meantioned sites only has the keyword usage 3 or 4 times on the index page and has been in #1 spot for 4 years straight!
