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Update Florida - Nov 2003 Google Update Part 4

         

Kackle

5:57 am on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)



Continued from: [webmasterworld.com...]

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.

gosman

2:08 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have been away for a day and a half.

Anyone care to give me an update?

Is the dance over?

James_Dale

2:10 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



more examples:

Keyword1 Keyword2. INFO Keyword1 Keyword2. Is it real? I love you MORE INFO keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 keyword4 ... For jesus lives in every shot If you believe
it becomes real Do you ... I'll talk to god I've acted out my love in stages ...
MORE INFO keyword1 keyword2. Please let me know that it’s real Out of the underground
Everything became so ... re not my first love So take my hand I love you in a ...

Remember: this site is #2 for one of the biggest money terms on the internet. It has remained in place throughout Florida. There is just no consistency here...

claus

2:22 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



- James_Dale, Yidaki was right there, it's the same thing - just filler words

dazzlindonna,
I've even tried replacing "cheap" with "adult", as some posts suggest that an adult filter is being applied; it still gives on-topic serps. Even for "cheap adult widgeting" "buy adult widgeting" or "free adult widgeting" i find on-topic serps

Perhaps we're not talking about the same type "widgeting" - the one i referred to is a product that every webmaster needs, unless they run their own server or are an ISP.

/claus

dazzlindonna

2:28 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



claus, we are talking about the same thing (except for the nichekeyword). and i agreed with you that the results are relevant. the only difference i see is that they are old relevant returns - minus newer, just as relevant, sites that worked their way to the top in the last six months.

lgn1

2:31 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Don't get your hope up SACHAC. I was in the boat as you were up until yesterday, and now all my listings are burried after 4-5 years in the top 5 positions.

I have tried to figure out what has gone wrong, but it appears that the results are at best random, as what ever theory you come up with using one keyword set, does not work with another keyword set.

I can only conclude that this update is so messed up, that

A) the update is far from complete and things will get much better in the next couple of days.

B) The Google algorthim has gone totally haywire, and google will try for a few more days, before throwing the whole thing out and revert to a pre-Florida index.

Up until now, I have been rewarded for not using SEO techniques, but concentrating on content. It may not be today or tomorrow, but I expect that I will be restored to my former position once this whole mess is over.

Also of note, it appears tha -va has switched over to the
garbage results. Has anybody seen a datacenter, that shows
some glimmer of hope, now that -va is gone over to the dark side?

James_Dale

2:35 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



No, but Altavista results are looking much, much better than Google. Try running a few searches there. I am switching for sure... pity about the sponsored matches on top, but still infinitely better than Google. I recommend you check it out!

BradBristol

2:37 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)



James Dale
Did those keywords appear in both the title and H tags or just the title and text?

dazzlindonna

2:43 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



claus,

if you do your same search with -dkidkdid after it, you'll see a difference. for my particular nichekeyword, it returns pre-florida results. not sure if yours does or not. but if so, you can probably see that both are relevant returns and then analyze both to see why they are different now. if you come up with anything, let us know.

lbobke

2:45 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



No, but Altavista results are looking much, much better than Google

Always liked Altavista for their advanced search options. On the other hand, if they were still #1, I'm sure there'd now be lots of complaints about their updates.
By the way: haven't seen very much on optimizing for search engines other than Google for a while...

Laurenz

James_Dale

2:48 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Brad, ('m from Bristol too)

I can't check H1s etc, since the page is cloaked. Not sure how to access the actual cloaked page.

James_Dale

2:53 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Remember Paddy Bolger's Search Engine Lobby Group?

I quite like the SELG site, but I'm thinking about building something a little bit more informative, with more content, etc. Any takers?

BradBristol

2:54 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)



Thanks James :-)

What I am seeing is that the keywords have to be in the title and H tags for this to work.

I'm a Yank, not from Bristol that is my name... ;-)

chinook

2:59 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Since optimization seems to be in tatters and everybody trying to figure out what the heck happened, I might as well throw in one more possible theory.

All previous seo techniques are gone!
There is no dictionary!
It is not about throwing out ecommerce sites since that would mean google should get thrown out too (they do sell advertising don't they)!
It is not about over-optimizing!
It is not about any of the hundreds of other theories!

We know that Google has been interested in AI. We know the issues with dmoz, which has been in the past the reference base. We know GG has said many times before they are more interested in "automated" methods of spam reduction & relevancy scoring.
What we may be seeing is the first of AI as applied to web searches. Ok so what about the inconsistencies etc. Well we have to train the new AI brain. This would work much like a Bayesian filter works ( spam reduction using statistical probability).

If you browse through a keyword listing extensively, some general conclusions come to light. Some listings are relevant, some are close and some just do not belong there. As is common in the statistics world the phrase "95% confidence level" applies which means that 5 % simply doesn't even make sense (these are our listings that don't make sense).

So if this AI theory is right then over time results will get better as the AI brain is more fully trained.

Just trying to make sense of what has become a slippery slope.

lgn1

3:06 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



If Google is using AI, then the AI is in a comma :)

claus

3:07 pm on Nov 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Old index... uhm... it was mentioned a couple of times earlier on (as i recall, it was "old backlinks" and "new sites dropped")... If that's the case right now, then this might last yet another couple of days i think. Unfortunately i don't have a local copy of Google SERPS six months ago, so there's no way i can tell accurately - memory tend to be biased.
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