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I have to tell you when my index page fell off the planet a few weeks ago I did not know what to do. A week or so ago I noticed that my Index page was gone. I could not get it to come up doing site:domain.com -asdf. I had about 10 kw's I was watching on a regular basis. They were all number one and a week or so ago they were gone. My reports normally had my index page ranking for about 80% of terms that were important because they all had the same first 2 words.
What I did:
I made an exact copy of my home page and called it keyword1-keyword2.html. I made my index page a perm 301 redirect to this new page. I then changed all references to Home the new page. A few days later all my terms were back with the new page.
I felt I had nothing to lose because it was gone and I was losing business.
Interesting find, but for the long run wouldn't it be better to find what the problem was rather than trying to jip the system? You should know where jipping the system will get you :)
I lost my ranking for nearly 2 months but came back stronger than ever in 2004. I took a step back and decided on what I felt was the direction that Google took. After some thought and a few experiments I found what the problem was with my site.
Do what I did. Research, analyze, and experiment. The information is out there. It's up to you to decide what is true or false. With some work, and a bit of luck you will find the answer.
Sorry I can't give any tips here.. I've spent too much time trying to figure the puzzle out to just give it away :(
The ideas I developed came straight from this and the priv forums as well as reading the white papers from companies that Google acquired last spring. I shared my findings with one trusted WW friend.
After sharing publicly in this forum the "keyword-keyword" thing I found by chance after the update, I learned several lessons:
#1. Don't post your findings in the pubs because it will most likely be reversed by Google and ruin it for everyone.
In the words of a WW moderator: "Do you realize what you just did announcing that on the most popular thread in the most popular forum of the most popular SEO site on the internet?"
On the other hand, helping Google realize they had a bug in their system made me feel a little better about the situation.
#2. Others will claim your findings as their own as a writer/contributor of a popular SEO newsletter (from another SEO oriented forum site) did last month.
Seeing this guy claim HE found the "keyword-keyword" thing, after the news first broke here at WW when I posted it 4 days after Florida, left a very bad taste in my mouth. Writing him and raising hell was the first thought that came to mind. Then I decided that I have better things to do with my time like finding the solution to the Florida problem.
#3. My competitors are on here. 'Nuff said :)
By the way I keep seeing Bretts posts about how WW is the largest forum in the net. Is that true and how does he back that up.
I believe that Florida has destroyed WW. It used to be full of insight. Ever since Florida everybody has there secrets. It was easy to talk about before because it was so easy. Even I have more secrets that I am scared to let out. Actually I think what people think is that GG has been watching us for how we do things and then killed them. I am very sad to see things go this way. I enjoyed the way things were.
Yep and Mr. GoogleGuy has been essentially silent for quite a while. Some other forums have expressed concerns about Google folk lurking around to scarf up SEO ideas that they can counter with their "algorithm".
There's a bit of room for mischief if we are aware of that when we post ;)
Best wishes
Sid
After sharing publicly in this forum the "keyword-keyword" thing I found by chance after the update, I learned several lessons:#1. Don't post your findings in the pubs because it will most likely be reversed by Google and ruin it for everyone.
Yes. But then neither is the Private forum any private from Search engine representatives :)