Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
Have been waiting for google's pending update but didn't get any on that. From last two days I have noticed extreme changes in search results for same google domain (like .com or .de or .nl etc.) with different interface language selected (like hl=de or hl=en or hl=nl). When you change the interface language the whole bunch of results are different.
Is this the actual update this time? Enabling the geo centric data which google wanted to implement for better localization? If yes (and if someone else is also seeing this change) then may be we can all identify the parameters of this new change, like language, servers in geographical locations or extensions (.de, .nl etc.)
-- rishi
I have some news to share, which to me is a new discovery regarding the haps on Google, however, to most it's probably common knowledge. To set the pace, we thrive in the ever vast music industry. Furthermore, the comparison of the data is from 9/10 and now.
We have an awesome online marketing director who each month gathers online data about us and our top 50 competitors (basically anyone on our radar). For the sake of argument, we will use our top 10. Since we thrive in music, some of the names of our competitors are HUGE and you will recognize them. As it turns out, 50% went down and 50% went up. The ones that went down included CDBaby (PR8 to 6), ArtistDirect, Download, PureVolume, and many other dot coms. In other words, they suffered the same fate as we did. Now, these are not sites to shake a stick at, and I find it hard to believe they resort to ill SEO activity. The named ones suffered a loss in PR (between 1-2 points), Alexa ranking, but not in saturation, ext. links, or simply doing a search on their brand name. Their Google stats aside from PR remained untouched. As if they are being danced or something.
The other ones that did well are in a way less popular sites like AcidPlanet, ArtistLaunch, Broadjam, SoundClick, and MySpace. With the exception of MySpace, the first 4 sites are in a way insignificant but somehow got a boost. They jumped in links, saturation, and in brand name popularity, but not in PR and Alexa. Those numbers stagnated with Alexa shifting a slight margin but nothing significant.
Now, I have other data I can perhaps share over a private chat, however, the jest of the idea we got is the above. I am now ruling out us being penalized. I just don't see it. Update? Maybe. I am now convinced google is either recalc'ing the entire web, redoing their algo, focusing on most clicks per site, or our fellow member RESELLER is one insightful webmaster with his Bacon Polenta theory. It is just a matter of time before things reappear, however, for the good or bad no one knows.
I sure hope Google gets it together, and because they are staying so hush hush I am going to assume they feel we will be happy with the results later on.
Toodles
Addition: Coincides with what Pirates is referring too... Authority sites are now pending human review, whether they are idiots is yet to be known!
[edited by: Yippee at 3:09 am (utc) on Oct. 18, 2005]
I am sure that super competitive terms are being reviewed for these Google won't be criticized.
However middle level, low level competition seriously suffer from today's ranking quality and I started comparing MSN and Yahoo to Google on multiple search terms and people TRY to proove me wrong when I say that a regular search today returns more relevant results from Yahoo or MSN than from Google.
It should be done a real scientific test though...
I for one am not happy with the results over all. I still believe they implemented penalties erratically and unselectively by a machine that misunderstood the commands.
IMHO
I know things are really out of kilter with Surfer Joe and Jill when I see a large influx of them searching for my site by actually entering in my full domain name. I usually do well to keep track of these things as often as is humanly posssible. And well, this I've seen quite a bit lately.
A new Bacon Polenta Update day! Isn´t it wonderful to be alive?
Shall spend half the day in a neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) Workshop.
Today´s subject: The best place to start change is with yourself!
Ok. I see fellow members still aren´t in agreement whether its an update or something else. Some also asked why no name until this advanced stage of the update?
Usually I use to recall GoogleGuy posts to support my arguments or to remind fellow members of important parts of a discussion.
Allow me this time to recall msg #:4 of this thread, by tedster in reply to few words I wrote at the right beginning of this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]
================================================
tedster
Administrator
view member profile
send local msg
joined-May 26, 2000
posts:10229
msg #:4 5:18 pm on Oct 5, 2005 (utc 0)
>>those changes were left without a name<<
Just to clarify for all readers, Google considers it to be an update when they add a new element to their algorithm. But over the past years, they already have installed many elements and those elements come with "dials" that can be turned up and turned down.
Such adjustments can generate significant changes in the SERPs, especially in some market sectors. But Google does not consider that kind of change to be an update -- even though an affected site may feel like the sky just fell or a rainbow landed on them.
It's getting harder and harder to know when to haul out the naming machine!
===============================================
Wish you all a great day!
It's getting harder and harder to know when to haul out the naming machine!
Anything that does this much damage deserves a name. How about Katrina or Rita?
You may have noticed that threads of updates are usually very Looooooooong ones. 800 to 1.015 posts, some informative and some just posts.
And some fellow members develop a trend within those updates, to be specialized in specific part of the updates, and become the stars of such topics. Those fellow members are really dedicated people and write in passion and defend their opinions strongly. And we have people from outside the threads whos opinions might have effects on the discussions, like our fellow member Matt Cutts. And we share, learn and grow together through the update threads.
In this connection, speciall THANK YOU goes to:
- Mr. Canonicals - Dayo_UK
- Mr. Supplementals - SteveB
- Mr. "I wouldn´t be surprised if.." - GoogleGuy
- Mr. "Google is always right" - EFV
- Mr. "Lets put it on ice till something more definative comes up" - Brett Tabke
and the winner of all winners is:
- Mr. Bacon Polenta - Matt Cutts
Anybody else to add to the list ;-)
That would be too much credit given to this crap (trying to be polite)
I was thinking of more in the like "bozo update" because it's ridiculous, sometimes funny, and GG definetely terrible for being so popular!
I have my name (quite unique) on one of my sites on a PR4 homepage with many nice links to it. guess what....sub pages with neither sense nor content like (forum profiles for example) would show up and not my site which is sent back to page 3....knowing that in between some pages do not even have anything close to my name...come on...what a search engine!...ridiculous I say.
[edited by: followgreg at 7:18 am (utc) on Oct. 18, 2005]
VERY INTERESTING NEWS!
Matt just wrote on his blog:
"Just to give you a heads-up, I think a new set of backlinks (and possibly PageRank) will probably be visible relatively soon; I’m guessing within the next few days. I still expect some flux after that though, just to let you know.
Thanks Matt. Much appreciated.
Master of Ceremonies - Reseller :-)
Isn´t it wonderful to be alive?
Send me what ever you are on :)
Firstly, I also agree that this is not an update, and we can’t draw any conclusions YET!
In Japan there is an expression that says: “ in a storm the mighty oak tree falls, while the flexible bamboo survives”.
This requires understanding that “flexibility” is at the heart of being “adaptive” and therefore the key to surviving and prospering.
SEO is all about flexibility and adaptation, what ever Google throws at you, don’t give up. What works now will also not necessarily work in the future.
Also, do a search for "matt cutts", you will notice a .edu with an mini homepage for Matt Cutts (not really maintained by him *notice*) which outranks his .com...
Also, Last modified: January, 2004 LOL!
[edited by: jaffstar at 8:05 am (utc) on Oct. 18, 2005]
Hopefully we'll see one soon.
As Steveb has been saying - Google are trying to fix a bug or ten - but they have been trying to fix it on and off for ages - and they are still nowhere near.
Cant see why adding lots of supplementals helps in this attempt though.
OK, if you have Canonical url issues (supplemental outranking problems) call it what you will - then you can look at the DCs everyday and think that Google maybe updating. Canonical urls throw rankings very much askew - always crap but always moving. As per my observations.
>>>>cant wait till GG gets here and say that there's no supplemental issue and that all is peachy.
Lol - might also ask for feedback soon, and come out with we are happy with the results. Feedback to f***U* at Google.com
One would have to assume that the changes which will be reflected in this PR, Backlink update have already been implemented to the Algo.
Expect some flux - dont know if he means pr and backlink flux or serp flux. But flux is nothing - we need a fix MC.
As if none of us knew that a PR update is presently due, especially after this shuffle, and 3 months after the previous update, do you know what I find mostly interesting in Matt’s post? I am quoting the words “I think”, “possibly”, “probably”, “relatively”, “guessing”, “few days”
Captivating! Truly informative! Right to the point..
For your info, my site usually #6 or #7 on around 8,000,000 results (at Google – many more at Yahoo and MSN) rose to #3 on Sept. 21st. On Sept 22nd it degraded to #30+ and two days ago it sank to #110. Yesterday it “upgraded” to #72 until today.
By the way, a few pages ago, on this same thread, someone asked for a definition on the words “supplementals” and “scrapers” – no one answered but I would also ask for the meaning of “canonical”.
Can you PLEASE shed some light to us, unprofessional SEOs, regarding these 3 words?
Thank you
Briefly my definitions (which probably are more likely to be understood by a layperson anyway - but GG would be able to define Canonical better.)
Canonical - main home/start page of the site. EG. The Canonical url of this site is www.webmasterworld.com. If Google indexes the non-www of the site then Canonical url problems can follow - eg perhaps the canonical url of webmasterworld would be webmasterworld.com.
The Canonical url of the site does not have to be the homepage - eg if every link within WebmasterWorld site pointed to www.webmasterworld.com/forum3 then that would probably be picked as the Canonical url.
Supplemental - Pages that Google does not crawl regularly and have little or no backlinks or perhaps have very similar content - The idea here was for Google to display these pages when the main index did not return many matches. (You will see a little supplemental tag next to the Search Engine listing and the cache date may be very very old)
Scraper - A site that copies the content of another site and normally displays snippets from that site in a directory, search result format. Basically if Google allowed Yahoo to crawl its search results pages and there were displayed in the Yahoo serps then you could call that a Scraper (or sometimes scrapper - lol). There are sites designed soley for this purpose.
Maria - you may be on post number 1 as post in Google update threads dont count :/
So why have all our sites just lost over half their traffic?
Its the most dramatic shift I've seen in 3 years, but not an update?
Seems like were in the exact same boat as you. Lost about 60% of revenue, can't see any pattern to sites being dropped, just hope this is not the end results.
