Google Update Bourbon Part 2

May 2005

[steveb]

Continued from: [webmasterworld.com...]

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"We know how the webmasters feel about this update."

No, that is zero sum game. The most useless posts here are from people saying the serps on some datacenter suck or are good because their own stuff ranks bad or good on that datacenter. Not only does nobody else care, there is someone thinking the exact opposite due to how their stuff is ranking.

In any case (repeating mantra from past several updates), a lot folks should consider that screw ups are not deliberate policies. Google has been a technical mess for more than a year now, just over two years really. Allegra was just a blip of an update, but was a huge technical disaster. Google also has a horrible time figuring out canonical pages, particularly when webmasters deliberately do inconsistent things.

This update seems to me to be another minor bit of shuffling, with the added "bonus" of a lot of anomalies, most caused by lazy or uniformed webmastering (meaning if you have been reading webmasterworld and haven't had a 301 on for non-www and www since at least last summer, you only have yourself to blame).

I see almost no changes in my niches, except... a HUGE increase in straight redirect domains. This tactical trash gets discovered fairly quickly but apparently a new tactic has been discovered and needs to be squashed; authority sites performing same as recently; sites still in the sandbox dumped back to pre-Allegra levels, while sites that got out of the sandbox with Allegra doing a bit better.

[reseller]

Dayo_UK

>I would have thought the Page rank would spread through all the DCs though.<

Not sure if the "old" Page Rank is still an important factor for ranking on the serps, and it could be therfore it isnīt spreading as expected. I.e.. What You See Is What You Get, unfortunately ;-)

[Chard]

Well, it's happened - I can finally see the new serps on my PC. I've been watching this thread since it started and only today has the new ranking caught up with me - dropped from #6 to #11
I have to say it could've been worse (but probably not over yet!)- some say better to be top of page 2 than bottom of page 1
In all honesty, in my industry, I have to admit that the serps are now good. We are a tiny company and have enjoyed 1st page rankings against the big boys for years, but the results do look quite realistic now.
My industry doesn't seem to be swamped with scraper site and cr*p. The top 4 or 5 results are unchanged and there's been a few shuffles after that, with us shuffling downwards unfortunately.
If it stays like this, I suppose I can live with it, though I do feel for all those out there who have been blitzed off the map, especially when it's not even clear why it's happened.

[MikeNoLastName]

Don't mind me, but...
it appears the DCs are rotating...
What previously had 1,400,000 pages in the SERPs,
now only has 786,000 again...
I think it's become an endless rotation of different algorithms.... and ALL of them $uk!

[JudgeJeffries]

Algo #II has just switched into .co.uk

[1milehgh80210]

Yep, Nothin's over.

[RichTC]

UK has just moved over and its much better i have to say.

Cleaned out some very poor sites and over all the results index looks very good.

Much better compared to last night anyway

[JudgeJeffries]

On my search terms the UK results are now as clean as a whistle. Almost all of the obvious rubbish has gone.

[Liane]

That may be true and I am finding the same thing ... all the crap seems to be gone in my little corner as well! Good going Google!

But the update is still not over! Still finding different results on a few DC's.

[needinfo]

JudgeJeffries

what IP address does your google.co.uk translate to?

[johnhh]

On google.co.uk we are getting a Google "server error" message when clicking the "cache" link - so something is up.

[JudgeJeffries]

216.239.59.147

smart eh? (thanks needinfo!)

[Simon_Says]

Just a quick confirmation that new UK hosted .co.uk site (went live early Jan) has just come out of sandbox for its company name (company name is also the domain name). Went straight in at posn 1 - now settled at 5 or 6. Certainly an indicator that the update is not complete.

Doesn't yet show any movement for target phrases, some of which have seriously low levels of competition.

Backlinks for the site haven't been updated (or at least not visibly).

MSN picked the site up quickly from day 1 and continues to revisit and improve site rankings.

As another thought, MSN and Yahoo to a lesser extent have been showing more referrals across a number of domains over the last 4-6 weeks.

Good luck everyone!

[helleborine]

Not much happening on the data centers on searches for my company name. Looks the same as yesterday - still an abomination.

I hope they are slowing down the "update" to assess the damage and try to fix it.

I'm not confident that the same people that created this mess to begin with have the know-how to do the repairs. I hope they're asking Yahoo for tips.

I'd love to have a list of sites that floated, and sites that tanked to analyze what went on...

[WebInker]

This is what Im seeing currently, the 'un-sandboxed' results that were appearing on 64.233.163.10 and 64.233.167.10 last week have now propagated to the following DCs:

64.233.163.99
64.233.163.104
64.233.167.99
64.233.167.104
64.233.163.10
64.233.167.10
64.233.187.99
64.233.187.104
64.233.189.104
66.102.9.99 (www.google.co.uk)
66.102.9.147 (www.google.co.uk)
66.102.9.104
66.102.11.99
66.102.11.104
216.239.57.99
216.239.57.104
216.239.59.99 (www.google.com)
216.239.59.147 (www.google.com)
216.239.63.99
216.239.63.104

[Dayo_UK]

I think there would be a bit more noise if Sandbox sites had come out to that degree.

Still can see more than 1 (more than 2 - but I can see 2 also - depends on the site) result sets about.

For example I have a result that returns at number 4, 10 and 14 depending in the DC.

But Datacenters have not been known to align since Allerga.

PR - Still not spreading (EG Consolidated PR and Backlinks for those effected) - most I have seen it on is 4 Datacenters (C classes) - but that has been swinging up from 0/1 to 4 for a few days now.

Also Backlink Update (seperate from Consolidated PR/Backlinks) not spreading to all DCs.

[WebInker]

Hence why I said "This is what Im seeing currently" but should have also said "for my sites" as they've all been released from the sandbox .... yay! They are also positioned the same across all those DCs but not for the following:

216.239.53.99
216.239.53.104
216.239.39.99
216.239.39.104
216.239.37.99
216.239.37.104
72.14.207.99
72.14.207.104
66.102.7.99
66.102.7.104
64.233.161.99
64.233.161.104

Also my PR dropped for all internal pages but they are appearing higher in the results.

[reseller]

And when do we expect that charming fat lady to sing her famous song :-)

[helleborine]

She's already sung.

Shall we start clapping for an encore?

[thecityofgold2005]

I see three distinct sets of SERPS:

1. These dcs are returning results close to the 'old' results. (from 3.13 million pages)

64.233.161.104 - (4) DCs, 66.102.7.104 - (4) DCs, 64.233.179.104 - (2) DCs, 64.233.189.104 - (1) DCs
links: 4320
pages indexed: 24

2. These return 'new' results. (from 2.44 million pages)

64.233.167.104 - (2) DCs, 64.233.171.104 - (4) DCs, 216.239.37.104 - (4) DCs, 216.239.39.104 - (2) DCs, 216.239.57.104 - (4) DCs, 216.239.53.104 - (2) DCs, 64.233.187.104 - (4) DCs
links: 3710
pages indexed: 24

3. These return the 'new' results. (from 2.42 million pages)

66.102.9.104 - (2) DCs, 66.102.11.104 - (2) DCs, 216.239.59.104 - (3) DCs
links: 4320
pages indexed: 26

[reseller]

helleborine

>She's already sung.<

Well.. the folks of UK said yesterday the same, to wake up this morning and discover that the charming fat lady is still singing ;-)

[RichTC]

UK Results are now very clean. Have to say they look superb. Some real cr@p has been cleaned out the index.

Very good job has been done here i have to say. Much better.

No idea how google have done it, but the results are currently the best ive seen in ages and thats looking at ALL sectors not just our own.

[Dayo_UK]

What do you mean by cr@p?

Less redirects?

Less Duplicate Content?

More Relevant Results?

Less Scrapers?

[helleborine]

I think "relevance" has been hit badly!

My sector is now polluted with old chestnut sites with little to offer, and good luck finding a site by keying in exact terms, titles or company names.

[jaffstar]

It appears that Algo 2 has propogated 2 27 DC's.

Tuesday:3 DCs with this Algo
Wednesday:7
Thursday:16
Friday:27

These results show a site of mine ranking top 10 for the first time. Therefore, they are out of the sandbox!

Anyone wanting to check, you can find it on the following DC's.

64.233.171.99
64.233.171.104
64.233.171.105
64.233.171.147
216.239.57.147
64.233.167.147
64.233.179.99
64.233.179.104
64.233.185.99
64.233.185.104
64.233.187.104
64.233.187.99
216.239.57.99
216.239.59.99
66.102.11.99
66.102.9.99
64.233.167.99
64.233.167.104
216.239.59.147
216.239.63.104
216.239.59.104
66.102.11.104
66.102.9.104
216.239.57.104
216.239.57.98
216.239.57.105
216.239.59.105

[davthp]

To Rich TC

The UK results in our sector are awful I'm hoping the update is still going on.

[undoneme]

I agree the fat lady has almost finished signing. I see the new results on more and more DCs. It should be ending anytime now.

[RichTC]

Dayo UK

Yes.

Far less scrapers
Far less re-directs
More specific content related results

Sites using no content with black hat links pointing back to the home pages or doorways are down graded.

This algo likes pages rich in content and is ranking them higher. If your link is to a page about "blue sky widgets" and the page is rich in content about blue sky widgets it features well.

Previously sites were using links to blue sky widgets and the pages had no content just links to more blue sky widgets directed to home pages or elsewhere and were ranking high. Now the pages have to have real content behind them.

Less directory sites as a result and whilst we have a few directory sites that feature they tend to be the better ones.

I think the days of black hat seo are numbered and i like it.

This algo is a great improvement on the SERPS, the SERPS are now the best ever imo

[reseller]

RichTC

>I think the days of black hat seo are numbered and i like it.<

I think that the days of the white hat seo are numbered :-)

[jaffstar]

I think that the days of the white seo are numbered :-)

Could not agree more :)

[mikeD]

yep these results are much better for my white hat sites (UK)