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Kackle - can you explain the "dictionary" for me? And how I might benefit from it - Im reading your posts hard but dont see where youre coming from.
Sure. But you have to act quickly. Google will fix this one just like they fixed the hyphen.
1. Google is depreciating pages/sites that are over-optimized for certain keywords or keyword combinations. It does this by looking up search terms in a dictionary of target keywords or keyword pairs that it has compiled. This dictionary is Top Secret, because if you knew what was in the dictionary, you could avoid these words in your optimization efforts.
2. If the search term or terms hit on a dictionary entry, the search results for that user's search are flagged. This means that before the results are delivered, the order of the links, or even the inclusion of links, are adjusted so as to penalize pages that have overoptimizated for those terms. Most likely the title, headlines, links and anchor text are examined. It's possible that external anchor text pointing to that page has also been pre-collected and is available for scanning, but this is much less likely. (Besides, external links are not something within your immediate control, so don't worry about it right now.)
3. You want to find out which keywords that are relevant to your site are in Google's dictionary. Compile as many relevant keywords you can think of that searchers might use to find your site. Now take these words singly and in pairs, according to how users might search. Run two searches for each combination and compare the results.
4. If the results are strikingly different for the pre-filter and the post-filter search on a particular term or combination of terms, it means that some variation of those terms has been flagged because something was found in Google's dictionary.
5. Do lots of searches and you can come up with a list of "sensitive" words that you'll want to avoid when you re-optimize your pages.
It's a nice weekend project.
I just skimmed the letter, but I didn't see anyhting that said SEs couldn't filter out sites that were trying to sell things...did I miss that?
In my neck of the woods I am seeing this.
If there is a keyword phrase repeated in the title, any keyword(s) in the title become a stopword.
Let's use this example
Title-Unique Wedding xydse at Wedding xydse.com
The page will be penalised for any keywords in the title.
For example,
If the word 'abdce' is present on the page (even only once), the page will be penalized for 'unique adcde' even though those words aren't repeated.
If some searches for 'unique wedding', the penalty will definitely apply.
If someone searches for 'wedding xysde', their cpu explodes.
The page will still show well for 'abcde 12345'
Is anyone else seeing this?
I'm not seeing that, most of my sites have been hit hard for the main keyword phrase but secondary ones are doing fine with keyword/phrase in title/H1 & first line of body text, I've just tested some pages and one secondary phrase is 3rd pulling up 600,000 resultsDid you catch the part about a keyword phrase being repeated within the title tag?
When I read this, it looks rude, but its just meant to be a question.:)
"Don't just search for keyword keyword - Search for keyword keyword -jghjgr on Google!
Remember, jgjgr - just get jolly good RESULTS!" ;)
('tis nice to see my site again using that method. *Waves at missing site*)
One of our most important 2 word keyword phrases which took a big hit is back at #1 where it had been for 3 years running...in www-gv...may mean nothing but it gives me hope that the filters are being worked on and calibrated back to more sane results... at least for now..
I still only see www-va showing what appears to be the latest yahoo backlinks....762,000 ... waiting for the others to fall into step...
Looks like it will be a long weekend...I don't drink coffee, coca-cola, smoke, do any drugs of any type....oh yes...chocolate...hmmmmm...I may want to check my health insurance and up it some...and re-calibrate my scale...
and that widget sellers are all being herded over to Froogle, as news is herded into Google News, and as blogs will be herded over to an un-named blog engine.
Quite possible. And I don't think an FTC complaint would fly, because all Google has to do is claim that they're trying to phase out e-commerce from the main index, and shunt it to Froogle or Adwords, because the widget-sellers are wreaking havoc on their wonderful algorithms.
I don't care about e-commerce. What I dislike is Google's secrecy and Google's dishonesty. If they slap a crude filter on their results, and claim that it's more "secret sauce" too brilliant for the unwashed masses to appreciate, then I want everyone to know that it is actually a crude filter. There are a lot of "little guys" like me who might benefit by knowing this sooner rather than later, irrespective of whether they're selling stuff I'd rather not see peddled on the Internet. All of us are facing the same giant.
Google has too much power, they're making too much money, they're enjoying a reputation that is undeserved, and they're getting very close to playing us all for fools. They aren't sending black helicopters after us yet. But give them another five years at this rate, and they'll be telling us what we can and cannot upload onto their servers.
I am getting fantastic results with location keyword -floridaYes I quoted myself.
Given the above fictitious example. If search for 'Wedding xydse', I get pre florida results (or more accurately, current results without the new filter). If I search for the equivalent of 'Unique Wedding xydse', the results are identical to the current results.
A very general theory -> broad match + overrelevancy filter
not all keywords just the major ones
When I use quotes "regional area" the serps appear as pre florida and we are right where we were before all this started.
It's almost like a regular search with a two word phrase has completely changed. This is not right as someone typing in regional area means "regional area". This is obviously returning poor results and is a glitch.
I can only hope that it will be corrected (and soon)
If I recall correctly, the original complaint was made by a consumer group & Ralph Nader back in 2001 for deceptive advertising.
The FTC finally responded in 2002, setting forth "guidelines" for SEs to avoid engaging in what the FTC would consider a violation of federal law. This letter was sent out not just to the offending SEs, but reportedly ALL the major SEs (Google included), a "shot across the bow" so to speak, warning all of them about what the FTC considered deceptive advertising practices by SEs.
While it did require that paid ads be listed as such, it was not limitted to just that issue, but also included other deceptive practices by SEs regarding the basis for their rankings, and responded to the "bait and switch" argument made in the original complaint.
One of those issues was the "skewing" or distorting of rankings based on paid programs, rather than based purely on relevancy, and the requirement to clearly disclose to the user the effects that any paid program had on the ranking algo.
If a hypothetical SE "X" were to alter their ranking algo for searches containing commercially "competitive" phrases included in their paid listings, and did not clearly disclose this, and describe in detail the effects this had on their rankings, they would be in apparent violation of the FTC guidelines.
If this alteration caused otherwise highly ranked results to be shifted off the top listings for "valuable" searches, and resulted in less than optimum results in the top listings, along with "spot-on" PPC paid listings, such that users might be more likely to click the PPC, then this would also constitute another method for Seach Engine "bait and switch" that formed the basis for the original federal complaint.
If a company got caught engaging in such illegal tactics in order to increase their PPC revenues over the holiday shopping season, or to make their #'s look better before an upcoming IPO, the results would be devastating.
Again, I just can't believe that Google would do something that stupid.
I can only hope that this will all go away once the index settles-down.
You know, I am leading towards the latter. I am seeing some really noticeable theme here - how people who have obviously optimized for keywords using title tags and header tags with the keywords in them being dropped from the SERPS. Also, if you do a search for porn someone mentioned, you only find safe sites right now! not sites porn webmasters have optimized. also, sites that have tried to NOT optimize are appearing higher, and sites that have tried to optimize for keywords are gone totally (I think I said that already. I may be rambling. It's 5 am here.)
I may be wrong, but I am starting to see a very common theme. I am de-optimizing my site now to see if that changes things. Who knows: maybe google has increased the penalty barrier to a higher standard? (meaning it is now punishing sites that have obviously tried to optimize, and not sites that are much more relevant to the material)
example: people who have built sites with nothing but useless content on them and optimized the useless content for keywords (and the useless content is about that keyword) even if it has very good optimization vs sites that are brand names related to the material.
Again, I may be wrong, but I think that this update's theme is centered around keeping good content in the engine and discarding the rest...which could be very bad for us all indeed.
Well i have also noticed:
1.if your "index" page uses a high keyword density then it's gonna be penalized.
2.the most important page after "index" is the contact page.
Has anyone else noticed that?
2.the most important page after "index" is the contact page.yup
-va has got all the backlinks and the new PR
#VA datacentre
216.239.37.100 toolbarqueries.google.com
So i think there is still some time until dance complete...
up to here pretty much what ALL the results look like after Florida update.
But on #10 is what I like best:
Florida Psychiatric Society Home Page
– who said that Google don’t know what the people are actually looking for? Or it is just me?
Nope. Wait, maybe?
First test, searched for -
keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 keyword4
All keywords in title, keyword 2 appears twice.
#1 listing!
But then, I tried -
keyword1 keyword2 keyword5
Keyword1 is in title, keyword2 in twice, keyword5 on page but not title.
Lower-PR sub-page listed before this higher-PR page!
Difference with keywords is that on page coming up first, keyword2 is listed only ONCE in title, but keyword5 is listed TWICE on page.
That difference is enough to make the lower-PR page rank better, even though the keyword5 has the LEAST prominence in the search phrase.
To sumarize -
* Last word in search listed twice in body
was "more relevant" than -
* Higher PR
* Second word in search listed twice in title
* Last word in search listed once in body
maybe G is gonna change the first page importance as everybody knows that first page counts a lot...
Nope. Wait, maybe?It's probably different for each targeted phrase and level of optomization, but the key factor in our niche appears to be the repetition of key phrases in the title, rather than keywords. It may be that the penalty is more severe for phrases or just that phrases occur more often in our niche due to the two word name for our location.
They are clearly trying to increase adwords revenue by steering people away from the free results on all the "money keywords".
I seriously doubt that this is a good long-term strategy for Google. The "IPO bug" has obviously hit Googleplex and everyone has $ signs in front of their eyes. :)
I think that this update's theme is centered around keeping good content in the engine and discarding the rest...which could be very bad for us all indeed.
Erm, sorry i don't get it - how can this be bad?
They are clearly trying to increase adwords revenue by steering people away from the free results on all the "money keywords".
I doubt that heavily.
I have about 30 domains, which all, (except one) are doing as well as they did before the Florida Update.
All domains are in "money earning areas" and I am earning as much money as before with my domains.
Maybe Google tries to chuck out commercial sites which have millions of product sites and no content except the terms of serive and the pricelist, but sites which offer information about products, related products ... aren't affected by this seperation.
greg
Does anybody tried searching: Google Florida Update...But on #10 is what I like best:
Florida Psychiatric Society Home Page
LOL, dsz11, is that Google's computer's way of telling us it's schizophrenic?
This is a classic example of what I was talking about before (see post #679, Page 46) regarding a loss of keyword proximity/prominence in both the body and the title.
Only 1 of the keywords appears in the title, and the most prominent keyword in the search phrase (Google), does not appear until near the bottom of the page, in small text, and not adjacent to either of the other two search words.
Both of the other two search words only appear by themselves as well, NONE of the 3 search words for this Top-10 listing appear together even as a two-word phrase anywhere on the page!
THIS is why the results are so non-relevant, folks!
Maybe Google tries to chuck out commercial sites which have millions of product sites and no content except the terms of serive and the pricelist, but sites which offer information about products, related products ... aren't affected by this seperation.
This is not true.
One of our missing sites is a content filled site on our area that was started in 1995. We get a constant flow of congratulations on the helpfulness and information on the site.
That brings up a question. Are people in areas with two word names (New York, New dehli, Los Angeles, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Lake Tahoe, Rhode Island, etc. experiencing a more severe hit because of the automatic phrasing effect of a two word location?
YES! Just have a look at our profile site.
Our site is named after our area and of course it has the names in it's title with all the variations. The funny thing is that when you type in the area name and include the country we are #1 - verrrry strange.
Some very good info.
Ya wanna bet someone gets called into work at the "plex" first thing in the morning to fix this little window into the secret dictionary...
