Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi

Message Too Old, No Replies

Google Update Bourbon Part 2

May 2005

         

steveb

6:19 pm on May 23, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Continued from: [webmasterworld.com...]



"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.

Lipik

6:19 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



First of all : I don't understand it anymore.
A SE is supposed to give you good results if you search for a 'keyword'.
My site is about 'a country' so the most important keyword is the name of that country. I was #1 for lot's of combinations of 'country+city' or other combinations. for 'country' I was between #2 and #5 for more than 2 years. My site was all hand-made original information about that country. Not 1000's of pages. (my PR is and was 4)
Now my site ranks at #235. I would't be sad if the other 234 sites where better than mine, but... #1 is a link site (you now, a one-page-site with over 300 links, I thougt 100 links was the max for G.?)
The 20 first results are 7 of such link-pages, 4 are general info about all country's, with mostly only one page about the specific country. One result (#11) is a page with only the flag and the name of the country.
#2 and #3 is the same page. #4 and #15 is the same page. 6 pages (out of 20 first) are pages I can say they are OK. My opinion is : these are no good results at all. Should I use my domain name just for one page with only links... linking at the other link-pages? ;-)

helleborine

6:23 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Same number of backlinks with www. and non-www. here too.

Dayo_UK

6:26 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)



OMG Hellibourne.

They worked yours out without a redirect too! Your PR has consolidated to a PR4 on the effected DCs (you were PR2 www and PR4 non-www)

Are your serps any better on that DC - even if marginally?

[edited by: Dayo_UK at 6:27 pm (utc) on May 24, 2005]

MikeNoLastName

6:26 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



"On 72.14.207.104, I'm seeing identical numbers when I search on..."

Wah? Like Bddmed I get 0 when I search on:
link:mysite.com
vs
link:www.mysite.com

The SERPs are almost back to normal for us on this DC though, compared to the others.

On the BAD DC's (where we have dropped to #90+) I show equal amounts in both link: queries. What's going on?

After we started sliding to 90+ on Sunday, I re-added in the htaccess code to rewrite mysite.com to www.mysite.com. Perhaps this is working itself in. I had previously removed it because last update our pages started getting dumped from the index and I thought it was because of this, but it turned out to be something else.

[edited by: MikeNoLastName at 6:35 pm (utc) on May 24, 2005]

steveb

6:30 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



"There is concensus over at least the two following facts:
1. Authority sites are severely penalized in the SERPs."

I'd hate to see your dictionary given your definition of "facts" and "consensus". Authority sites are doing just fine this update, with atypical exceptions as always.

lorenzinho2

6:46 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



< After we started sliding to 90+ on Sunday...

That's interesting, that's pretty quick turnaround for Google to reconcile www and non-www.

We're showing different backlinks for www and non-www, which is not surprising as we haven't redirected.

I guess what I don't understand - and granted, I'm from the "liberal arts" side of webmastering - is how there can be confusion as to what the primary url is when comparing a www version that appears hundreds of thousands of times on the site, and in tens of thousands of inbound links, and a non-www version that appears in three inbound links and not at all on the site.

It would appear that Google has guessed wrong on the canonical url of our site - or at least I'm hoping that's what the problem is.

novice

6:47 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



It's understandable, since Canadians (other than hockey players) are known for being polite. :-)

Hockey players are losing a lot of money not playing this year. I don't think the word polite is even in their vocabulary :)

72.14.207.104 works great for me, hope that's were we end up.

Dayo_UK

6:52 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)



is how there can be confusion as to what the primary url is when comparing a www version that appears hundreds of thousands of times on the site, and in tens of thousands of inbound links, and a non-www version that appears in three inbound links and not at all on the site.

Thats one for Google.

Scoreboard

6:54 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Authority sites are doing just fine this update, with atypical exceptions as always.

Someone's drinking a little too much of the Kool Aid today.

fearlessrick

7:11 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Google stock (GOOG) was up 9.99 points earlier today. Now it's up only 2 and change.

Somebody getting the idea that these people are morons?

Nothing would straighten this company out quicker than a nice 20-40% drop in share price. Of course, we could all just replace half our adsense ads with banners for Yahoo search, play some put options and watch the money roll in when G announces their next quarterly report.

The idea that the money will go elsewhere (not from our sites) is not absolute. With fewer places to display ads, there will be fewer clicks and budgets will last longer. If there are less places to click, less clicks equals less income for everybody.

While Google has been completely one-sided about not encouraging people to click on their ads, they never said we couldn't put up banners on our sites saying, "don't click on the ads."

G needs to learn that when you create an income stream, it isn't good business to capriciously distort and disrupt that stream. One can argue all they like that it's the computers, the algo, etc., but bottom line, it is Google management that must be brought to task for their completely un-business-like approach.

They should also become acquainted with the precept of KARMA - what comes around goes around.

[edited by: fearlessrick at 7:16 pm (utc) on May 24, 2005]

np2003

7:14 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I believe this is the worst google update ever. A lot of high authority sites are de-ranked. Suits me fine, I just hope Google is happy because their results with this update are far from relevant.

fearlessrick

7:20 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Agreed. I am giving Google until the end of the month to restore traffic levels and adsense revenue. They built this system and they and they only have wrought this mess. It's up to them to fix it.

If not fixed by the end of the month, I could care less what happens to them and whether I am kicked out of adsense or not. The income is now a piddle, not worth the effort. G wanted us to trust them, now we see that our trust has been displaced and abused.

May 31 all bets are off, if not sooner.

ugnius

7:32 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



guys try to send complaints to google too, not just to this forum.

fearlessrick

7:39 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Does this work for you? Sent earlier today to adsense:

I signed on to adsense with a goal of making some money by publishing relevant, intelligent content. You've basically just pulled the rug out from under my feet.

Whoever is managing your business has rocks in his head. You don't do this to PARTNERS! My adsense revenue is off by 80%. How do you plan on fixing that, since you caused the problem?

My advice to you people is to leave the damn internet alone. Go screw up some other facet of people's life.

Pissed, angry and looking for alternatives to Google for search, ads, and just about anything else.

Sincerely,

(I edited this here, but I assure you they know from whom it came)

PS: I've been in advertising and publishing for over 20 years and I've never seen anything as botched and stupid as Adsense. You may make a lot of money now, but as soon as a competitor enters the field, you'll be toast. Please get a clue, you morons.

Slone

7:39 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



After reading all these posts a few things come to mind that I seriously think is being missed.

1.) Google updates are not updates... Not in the sense they once used to be. Google updates are nothing more than alg changes to keep SEOs, Web designer, and alike busy! Cracks me up!

2.) Google is no longer about search. They are a software company at the moment, and any changes to the SERPs are just a joy ride at the controls.

While my opinions may seem cranky, still as we do business in the SERPs... changes to the index should be watched and discussed.

I remember when updates actually had some value.
Slone

Generally pleased with the results, although I see more junk showing up.

np2003

7:40 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



GUYS, REPORT this GOOGLE engineers. You must tell them this update is the worst one yet, their URL is at:

"Dissatisfied? Help us improve"

[google.com...]

Slone

7:46 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



"Dissatisfied? Help us improve"

you are kidding right? ;)

walkman

7:47 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)



"GUYS, REPORT this GOOGLE engineers."
the more of these reports they get from us, the happier they are. At least they know that whatever they tried it's working.

reseller

7:48 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



ugnius

>guys try to send complaints to google too, not just to this forum.<

Trust me the folks of Google are here all the time, even when our fellow member GG on a week vacation. I can feel them ;-)

Moreover these forums have much much power than emails sent to an email box at Google. And these forums have a huge impact on the public too.

[edited by: reseller at 7:50 pm (utc) on May 24, 2005]

thecityofgold2005

7:50 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



72.14.207.104 suits me just fine. cleaner results for my keywords. i vote for that to be the winner.

FromRocky

7:57 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I've gave up on this thread. No more new info but complain and complain.

Dayo_UK

8:09 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)



FromRocky

Dont think I have complained once (may have stated preferances) - but I have found new information - that Google is sorting out Caconical Urls - perhaps with help from the webmasters - perhaps not.

That this dance is far from settled - normally I give up in update threads too - but this update is much more interesting. :)

reseller

8:11 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Slone

>1.) Google updates are not updates... Not in the sense they once used to be. Google updates are nothing more than alg changes to keep SEOs, Web designer, and alike busy! Cracks me up<

Already last March I wrote about the "updates" something in the direction of your thoughts:

msg #:286
[webmasterworld.com...]

msg #:306
[webmasterworld.com...]

Enjoy ;-)

Kirby

8:14 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I believe this is the worst google update ever. A lot of high authority sites are de-ranked. Suits me fine, I just hope Google is happy because their results with this update are far from relevant.

And a lot of authority sites are untouched. In fact, the vast majority of the results in my highly competitive commercial niche are very good, unless you are a cheesy link farm disguised as a directory. As mentioned, its a zero sum game.

Slone

8:18 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



FromRockey - This is now the culture. Sad eh?

Reseller - Nice, I missed those posts.

Like I said in post: 217

I remember when updates actually had some value.

Do people here think the general public using Google notice these changes to the SERPs? ha Nope. To Google their search engine is just a UI for people to try and find something and if they can't they click on ads...

My take:
- SERPs are trash - Even when you can find one or two things.
- Updates are just a joy ride
- Ads are spammed as much as they ever could be..

Google is no longer about search..

[edited by: Slone at 8:21 pm (utc) on May 24, 2005]

johnhh

8:19 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



thecityofgold2005: yep suit me - worlwide as well

Actually I have just found a site that competes( not as good of course - grin! ) in a load of #1 keyword positions using "invisible key words" - lines and lines of them - same forground colour as background. These show up in the summary - I thought you got thrown off for that - not promoted - is this off topic? oh well....

Dayo_UK

8:33 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)



Personally I think the 72... range and 216.239.37.104 are worth watching at the moment the 72s and the above 216 seem to be holding steady(ish)

lorenzinho2

8:37 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Dayo, I think they're holding steady because they are the old results.

man, i have to do some work. this stuff is so distracting

Dayo_UK

8:38 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)



But with new page rank for sites where google has caconolized (sp?)

Work time has finished UK - sorry

bunltd

8:43 pm on May 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I think they're holding steady because they are the old results.

They're not unlike the old results, but they are different. What I see are the new results, but with my site back where it should be, instead of on page 9-10. 72... looks more like what I'd expect.

LisaB

This 704 message thread spans 24 pages: 704