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It seems that a major google update is under way. I just checked www.google.com with the normal set of keywords that I generally use to monitor any changes and found what I believe is a major update. Now its back to original results. Its kinda on and off.
One of my site had a 50% increase in the number of pages crawled.
I hadn't much chance to check out whether the update spells good news or not, so lets keep our fingers crossed.
<Imaster adds>
The changes are visible on 216.239.39.104
[edited by: ciml at 2:15 pm (utc) on Dec. 16, 2004]
[edit reason] Addition [/edit]
While I am still doing well, over the last 2 months in my niche, I have seen a lot of sites ranking well in Google using doorway pages, duplicate sites using different URLs by the same registered site owner. I am also seeing my competitors doing well with hidden text and keyword stuffing alt tags.
I don't get it? I also don't really care honestly. My clients and I have choose to do business where the company does not bite the hand that feeds them.
Google had something great and they managed to loose sight of what made Google great. Don't try to fix something if it is not broken.
Ranting done..
NG
12/1/04-12/14/04
Google 1.7% with 2:1 View to Visit Ratio
Yahoo 15.7% with 5:1 View to Visit Ratio
MSN 7.6% with 7:1 View to Visit Ratio
The thing that sticks out is the View to visit ratio for Google. If it were due to coming in on a relevant proper page, that would be understandable but its not. The drop is due to the dreaded 'did not stay' which tells me they weren't getting what they asked for whereas Y and MSN were giving people what they wanted.
Are you, as a complainer, protaganist is a bit too far, prepared to make up their financial deficit using this system which is offered to all webmasters/companies/site owners free of charge to all?
Don't shoot me down without seriously considering your arguments. Our authority widget sites display Adsense to give the opportunity to those Adsense advertisers the chance to be evident on our sites which they would not otherwise, realistically, be noticed.
That is their finanical perogative, not yours, not mine, Adsense for them is beautifully targeted and 99.99% on theme for our widgets, their decision to spend their advertising Dollars in the way they best think fit.
What is very noticeable is that these Adsense advertisers, many from small family companies, still keep investing their money in Adsense.
Why? Because they are getting financially viable returns from it. If they are not they are stupid and no one can compensate for that!
Yes, I agree, getting "perfect" results from ANY SE is a total pain since they ALL turn up some garbage results, by the way, "perfect" means your web site at #1, however, in general, Google's doing one hell of job considering how BADLY many web sites are constructed and optimised!
Are you running a market stall or a professional organisation?
There is nothing wrong with a market stall, I've done it, however there is a world of difference with so-called sociably, financially and ethically responsible Internet businesses and the reality of what they actually are!
You are asking people to believe you via a TV screen...:-)
Think before you respond and click!
I remember last year with the Florida update, that the initial results were very bad, and Googleguy was around at that time to reassure people that as filters were being added into the algorithm, results would change. Right now, the results in some areas appear to be missing some of the main features of Google's past algo's, like anchor text, etc.
There are many things that I find very interesting about this update.
1. It is not on the front page of webmasterworld - therefore, is it not really an update? Weren't we expecting update Vegas? Who now gets to declare the update as official? Only Googleguy?
2. Some search terms seem relatively unaffected.
So, if this isn't an update, I'm not sure what to call it.
Either way, half my sites got tanked on Sept 23rd, so I've already experienced most of the pain. I was hoping with the update, the sites would come back - but I'm still not sure why they got hit so badly on the 23rd. I'm back to just making sure my sites are quality, and I figure with time, they'll come back.
other thing before update my pages ranked 1st position in google, currently not found even in top 100. for example try to search "San Andreas Map" in google.
[google.com...]
even single result is not shawing San Andreas Map.
Other people says that if you run adsense then your result is improved. but i am also use adsense and i lost 95% visitor lose within 4 days!
heh. maybe that explains why he hasn't 'been here' to help us through this? ;)
-kpaul
In my category the top 10 pages don't have it.
I'd say go back to the drawing boards with your theories....
You'll have to look harder to see if you can figure out what it was that made you drop, if it was sudden, look for stuff you could have been penalized for, like duplicate content, page over optimization, bad links schemes, there's so many choices it's hard to chose just one..
Mc
for example try to search "San Andreas Map" in google.[google.com...]
even single result is not shawing San Andreas Map.
that is a good example there, first results are for grand theft auto!
I'm assuming you've filtered out most major bots from the stats, no? What stat program are you using, that sounds like a good one.No bots, it lists the whole referrer field. My IPs are filtered. Its NetTracker and I do like it. Very drillable reports. Its not very free though any it's real time abilities are limited by how often the host updates the log files.
I personally observed big cut in traffic from Google on following dates
04 Dec 2004 (About 30% less)
05 Dec 2004 (About 30% less)
11 Dec 2004 (About 30% less)
12 Dec 2004 (About 30% less)
18 Dec 2004 (About 40% less)
19 Dec 2004 (About 50% less)
20 Dec 2004 (About 80% less)
I have kept my fingers crossed to see what is the outcome. This site is for computer science related free tutorials. It is full of content.
Kartik
...for the relatively ignorant among us (that would be me), what is "viral marketing"?
It works on the "and they told two friends, who told two friends, who told two frients... etc" principle.
Can be wickedly effective if you get it right, especially on the web where people don't tell two friends, they tell their entire mailing list.
I swear, on one site, half my traffic comes from one guy who won't shut up about it in chatrooms.
I'm gonna sit pat on my design until Google stops dancing, and work on a campaign that's already working.
Having adsense on your site doesn't guarantee you high rankings, I don't think anyone here was suggesting that. I think many people are mixing up adwords and adsense however in these discussions, at least that's what it looks like.
You are 100% correct lizardx and thank you for clarifying that point. I never did say that adsense would get you a top 10 listing. I am however saying that SERP's in my sector are cluttered with Adsense sites that have no content whatsoever and they dominate the search terms when they don't have a bit of content. I am also suggesting that Google's results are extremely poor at the moment simply because some of us can't seem to get good results for what we search for. I keep hearing that Google serves up the most relevant results and it is quite mind boggling for me that anybody could agree with that statement. Some here have given good examples of poor relevancy and some have given examples of good relevant content in the SERPs. For those of us that are whining, are we just isolated cases or is it something bigger than that?
Also in my sector it seems blogs, message boards, Adsense sites that have no content, and non-profit organizations seem to be the defacto standard results that I am seeing. I can't say what everyone else is seeing nor can I say the results are not relevant for them. It just seems that google's results have become increasingly irrelevant to the point where it drives end users to using adwords. Furthermore when I find sites that have no content whatsoever that hold the #1 spot for a highly competitive keyword phrase and they have adsense running it is quite interesting. It has not been proven that adsense will increase your rankings nor has it been proven that it does not. Obviously I am not alone in my assumptions either because plenty of us are witnessing this trend and some terms have been given as examples to prove it's not a moot point.
My conclusion is that obviously Google is not what we all remember Google being. Not even a year ago Google was the only search engine most of us ever used because it was seemingly always relevant. I never thought I would second guess the king of search but with the way google has increasingly served up more and more irrelevant results my interest in using google is steadily decreasing. Why can't google address webmasters and search users? Not to knock on googleguy but it seems that msn has msndude and yahoo has tim and they want input about what we think!
Note : This is just my opinion and nothing more, take it for what it's worth. Hopefully none of my words offend anybody. I am just one of the trillions of users that uses google and I wish to speak my view whether right or wrong.
:>~
MLHmptn
For example try to search "San Andreas Map" in google.[google.com...]
even single result is not shawing San Andreas Map.
Why not try searching for this?
[google.com...]
Believe it or not Google is a democracy. And in a democracy, people get what they deserve.
If something happens at the San Andreas fault (God forbid) and the press reports it with links to the San Andreas map, what do you think will be the results? GTA?
Well i guess then you will crib about GTA not being found for the search San Andreas map. (No Offense but i had to get it out of my system)
And for all the people who have already judged Google with its update not yet complete, Do you seriously think that the update is over?
And for the keyword "purchase bikes", i did not find the serps irrelevant. Oh yeah sure got a few results selling bicycles (but are they not called bikes also?)
And when I want to buy something on the net (which i cant get at Amazon) i make it a point to see how many forums list out a specific vendor. Why? Because that vendor being no 1 in the Serps is no guarantee for good service or a good buying experience for me.
While searching today i found a site that redirected to Amazon, and even the Google cache redirected to Amazon. The cache date was from April 4.
I am sure it will be gone. Are you not?
Maybe GG has learned something that MSNDude and Tim have not still learned about. If you are only worried about Google guy not taking user inputs, i think he is here reading most of what you have to say. But that is not the problem is it? You want him to tell you what to avoid, or what to do so that you can hit the top spots.
G must have learned that this only leads to corruption of the SERPS.
I guess Tim and MSNdude still havent.
ANd if you are running an online business, its just like anyother real life business. Sure an online business gives you more flexibility in terms of the services or products you deal with. But any business anywhere has the same universal basics.
"You must be willing to spend money to get money. Time is not enough"
And the person who can get money with spending the least possible amount will make more. But dont forget he/she still has to spend.
So stop analysing Google and start analysing yourself.
The first one is not going to get you anywhere.
The second one might.
Personally I use search engines to find things objectively, if I wanted opinion or topical information I'd go elsewhere.
What you are defending is Google's apparent mechanism of 'If it looks like a rose and smells like a rose then it can't be a rose'. This might be a workable policy in some of the more spammy SERPs but elsewhere is causing a great deal of colateral damage.
Better still, the Google image search seems to return some good relevant results for Bush map
try search "bush city map"
[google.com...]
what you see in first and second site.
I found "The page cannot be displayed"
I have re-try to find that and found completely different result which i saw previous one, so it means currently google database are not stable. if you don't mind send pm which site (url) found in first and second position.
Thanks in advance.
Google image search seems to return some good relevant results
