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We just saw some major un-sandboxing but now it seems like we're back in the dirt, sort of.
We're seeing hundreds of positions type slides for sites that ranked very well as of last friday.
A few sites are showing no noticable change in rankings however.
Possible penalizations?
Don n Cherie
Wooohooo - I just checked on google again and all the sites seem to have disappeared from the results! One of them had adsense banners so even more reason to celebrate their demise.
My site is still buried for the search term I mentioned in my previous post but hopefully that may come back.
Oh shoosh! just checked again and the spam junk is there again. Looking in more detail there are loads of different designs and domains but basically all built around a keyword-search auto-generated page with search results combined with ebay/adsense/affiliate links to make them some cash.
Darn, I'm an affiliate myself (trying my best to do decent sites) and this is exactly the type of thing that gives us a terrible name.
[added:
Ok....checking -1111111 site:(sitename).co.uk google finds Results 1 - 100 of about 342,000 for just one of these domains (feedback form used to report this one). Another domain shows Results 1 - 100 of about 24,200 (reported) - ack - too many of them though...will have to do this bit by bbit otherwise I'll spend all night at it).
Thanks for the idea of a subdomain instead of a new site for my newest site by the way - good idea which I may use in the future if this sandbox keeps messing up new sites.]
The results look exactly the same (to me) as they were the day before I began the thread.
Not sure why things would go so south for us, then all the way back, I'd think they would just be tuned a little. Either way, I'm not complaining (anymore).
I'm seeing big changes in the travel searches
Hamster77, I'm seeing my main travel related site jump into the top 10 from down at 100 for my main keyphrase.
Another travel related site in another language is right back in the top 10 from oblivion.
It definately looks to me like they've rolled back the Florida filter.
I'm seeing the same things you are Hissingsid.
I was seeing these things a week ago because my areas were hit hard by Florida before the big crash. It seems this one started caugh steam Friday and still growing. You go up and down for a while.
personally i have no problem with this site structure if they are done properly; eg good unique content & are not doorway's eg: have to be linked via navigation on your site.
i have seen a few changes within the past week or so with sites coming back in; just that waiting period kills you (;)
Just about to roll them back, when found this thread...and breathed a sigh of relief. Well, kind of - although drop in SERPS appears to not be self-induced, it's still a drop in SERPS! However, gives me the confidence to ride this one out before making any changes.
Surprised that more people aren't commmenting on these changes in the SERPS, perhaps it's only affecting certain themes?
were i have most seen changes is in the travel turism sector.
One thing I've noticed is that the two sites that are being filtered now haven't had fresh tags for a few days, despite being mostly PR5. I hadn't made changes to either of them for a few months. Perhaps that was a contributing factor.
strangely, since this morning some of my phrases are back where they were before, some not. bouncing around all over the place...
If it is a filter, it's weird - it effects some phrases, but not others which are almost identical e.g. "red widgets" is affected (dropped position in SERPS), "blue widgets" not...very odd. I guess this is one of those Google jigs where it's best to go sit on a beach for a few days and see what it's like when I get back...
Referrals to one of my sites dropped by 25% this week but no apparent change in the serps.
Client is worried. Any suggestions?
Referrals to one of my sites dropped by 25% this week but no apparent change in the serps.
Go to a library, a wireless hotspot or an Internet cafe and try looking at the SERPs from there.
Don't log in or otherwise identify yourself in any way which Google might be able to recognize.
You will very likely see a completely different set of SERPs than what you see from your own computer and from your client's computer.
I get a kick out of that quotations. I bury more of my tracks with Google now days. I noticed with an old Restore program I had that programs removed were not restored. The exception that got restored was the Google toolbar which I had removed like the others.
2-3 days ago I noticed 4 of my websites getting unsandboxed at the same time - the sites were all launched after December 2003 but with the interval of like 2-3 weeks each. They are not spammy, not affiliate directories and absolutely legitimate whatever angle you view them from.
They had been showing #1-3 in the sandbox serps for over a month and had been nowhere in sight in the normal search before this Monday. I have been recording sanbox top10 listings for a while and was always weirded out by how greatly they differed from the normal search top10 - on the average only about 20-25% sites coincided.
Now as older sandbox filter has been lifted I'm seeing 75-80% change in top10 serps for those keywords with my sites kicking the survived oldies' bums.
However the new sandbox search seems something pretty much like older results now...
Can that possibly mean sandbox is developing and new link filters other than just time suspension are being introduced?
But that is evil. Maybe I'm stupid and ignorant but I hadnt realised they would do that. Are you saying they serve up different results based on.....what?
Also, to echo someone above, I too am seeing a much bigger drop in traffic than the drop in SERPS suggests. Weird, but not sure if I buy into the "Google knows who you are and shows you different SERPS" conspiracy theory...though it would certainly explain a few things...and there is that toolbar thing, which I use to check my site's PR...and I do check my sector's SERPS a lot...and I'm on a fixed IP...and I don't block cookies...hmmm, maybe....hey, what's that knock at the door? Be right back...
serve up different results based on.....what?
Yes, of course.
How do you think they know things like where you live when you are searching?
In Adwords, you can do geo-targeting. Do you think all they have attached to your lifetime cookie is an IP address?
"Dare to be naive."
- Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
American architect, inventor
And although I have never checked it out, I have looked at the serps from other people's computers and they have always matched up with what I see on mine.
I am going to check it out. But I will be surprised to fine any differences.
based on what?
As a simple example:
At the local library here, all queries I have ever performed on google result in the
"Did you really mean this?" inquiry at the top of the results and a different set of results pages than what I see at home.
Searching for Widgets yields a list of three other guesses for what widgets might mean.
Were you really looking for wodgets?
Were you really looking for spackle?
Were you really looking for widgetry?
Has anyone started to analyse the changes and reach any conclusions.
The only real conclusions I have come to is that many, many sites which were previously banned or penalized (not to be confused with sandboxed) are back in the SERPS again. :(
Very disappointing to say the least. I thought Google was cleaning this stuff up? Obviously, I was either wrong or something has gone "off" with the algo. Maybe its a temporary hiccough? Pleeeease be a temporary hiccough!
I still cling to the idea this has a lot to do with simltaneous unsandboxing of many sites - at least from what I have been observing recently.
Anyone care to propose your ideas on what else apart from time factor keeps you in the sandbox?
It could be that some of the filters are not fully engaged right now. We've seen that before, during these rolling update-ish thing-ies...then it sorts itself out over the next few days. Kinda.
