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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]
About two casks of single malt will be sufficient to let the dust settle. Will be back in two days or buy two more..
whisky sounds good right about now!
Petehall, there are definitely some major shifts going on. I record certain high-perfoming keywords at every update, and they're all over the shop.
I'm not disputing that fact, I just see normal SERPs for our sites.
one my sites lost 90% Google traffic 25 Aug and got nearly all back 23 Sept.
It's that same site again that has dropped down - including about 1600 3 word phrases that I have been #1 for over the past 3 years.
must have been a nervewracking month!
my site in question is a real estate site for spain, and it ranked top #5 for "estate agents townname" for a good 100 towns, now all of them are sitting #100+
wellzy
just relax and have a good Christmas - it'll all change again in January. Although there will always be that nagging question of 'why my site...'
It looks like these are the sites most affected by whatever changes - real or imaginary - there are in the SERPS this week.
Sites that monitor that many keywords are bound to be highly optimised. ;)
Me, I hardly do any optimisation and I often forget to put even the <title> in new content pages. I check my stats once a month, check that my 10,000 per day Google referrals are still there, and I move on. The site hasn't been affected by Florida, California or Outer Mongolia. I won't bother checking now but I'll predict that when I do look at my figures at the end of the month they'll be perfectly fine. It'll be a decent growth from last December and I'll sit back and look again at the end of Jan.
Oh, yes, and I'm usually #1 for my keyword (not VERY competitive but fairly competitive anyway). Sometimes it drops to 3 or 4 but I do absolutely nothing and it goes back to #1. Brett's original Google guide still works. Among those who've seen big drops hands up those who chased no trend... from keyword density to PR to anchor text.
I have always designed sites the same way!
I have dozens of sites and this is the only one affected.
I am seeing some major changes in backlinks on my site. anyone else seeing this?
Then sit back and it will resolve itself in time.
However, its nothing I'm going to worry about. I will lose 60% of my traffic but in terms of income it will only drop 30% because return visitors and particularly Yahoo searchers are very good for me.
A sure sign of Google having problems is when the same URL appears multiple times in the serps. Seeing that a lot right now.
Yes, I am seeing the same thing. I can see some sites appearing on every page, which I don't think I've ever seen before.
Any1 Else?
No - but that is normal behaviour depending on which datacentre you hit.
January cannot come fast enuff
Down to around 20% of normal traffic....DOH!
Hope it settles in the next couple of days.
I'm seeing no changes!
i see the positions i should/did have, does anyone else who's dropped get good results at 64.233.171.147?
some of my rankings "seem" like they've been turned back two or three months, but that can easily be just an appearance.
in then end though, i'll get on with my original list of things to do for the day and check back next week. i don't imagine things are in their final state already.
i see the positions i should/did have, does anyone else who's dropped get good results at 64.233.171.147?
The results there remind me of happier days.
I see less effect from internal backlinks.
A few months back a big internal link player (from 1000s of their own pages) came in a knocked me and another site down a place. Our sites are now back in front; while they have slipped down beneath us. Just a modest shuffle really.
Similarly, pages have moved up the SERPS that I have been gathering a few external backlinks for.
Nothing that could be called major update though in my area....
My site was one of the leading directory sites in a very competitive niche market.
I had assumed I was the benefit of the 'hilltop' factor, and that my site was pretty much immune to the big changes that affected sites on a monthly/quarterly basis. I had reached that assumption based on roughly two years of virtually no negative movement within the SERPS, even as significant changes had been made to Googles algorythms.
I do not use blackhat SEO, and the site is constantly receiving requests for inclusion, so the inbound links to it grow almost every day.
The point of this post is that I'm curious as to whether or not the others affected, also thought they were 'hilltop' sites?
Also, can anyone who was a 'hilltop' site, who lost traffic in prior Google changes, give any insight into what unfolded for them within the next 3-6 months after their sites lost traffic?
Bah humbug. At least the last two weeks have been really good.
Edit:
worker, I am not familiar enough with Hilltop to know if that kept me afloat. I have always maintained a fairly constant level of traffic since the change from monthly to "constant" dance.
I have a fairly large amount of database generated content from a major affilate. I got onto that bandwagon before it became a bandwagon. I've considered that market oversaturated and dying for quite some time. This may be the death blow.
[edited by: peterdaly at 2:31 pm (utc) on Dec. 17, 2004]
