Has there been an Update?

[glengara]

Site has gone from the usual places,and I was wondering has Fast updated while my server was down?

[lazerzubb]

Fast updates there index in batches, they update 25% of their index every week, and next week they update another 25% of the index and so on.
Also more popular sites and sites which have content that changes freq, get updated more often.

[mgswebaus]

Yeah, I reckon there has been an update.

Crazy for me, though!

Brand new homepage (that I update every other day) was at #1 before, now #34.

Old and now non-existent (since January) homepage replaced new homepage at #1!!

:o

I don't get it!

Anybody able to enlighten me?

[Rumbas]

mgswebaus, it looks like a little glitch from Fast if they list your non-existent site.
Wait for the next update and you'll probably be fine. If you update your homepage every other day, this could cause the drop in your rankings. Say, if the last time Fast took a look at your page it could have been talking about red widgets. Second time they came by, you could have been talking about blue widgets. Different content, different rankings.

glengara, is does not matter if your server is down when Fast updates their database. It's when the crawler is stopping by you need to have your ducks lined up ;)
If your gone from the SERPS now, it could have been caused by the server beeing down the last time Fast tried to crawl it.

[mgswebaus]

Thanks, Rumbas, for this helpful reply. :)

Could well be a glitch, I guess. Sure hope so, because I'm not keen for continuing referrals to the dead page - as you can imagine. Much prefer the new page to be up there in lights!

Changes that I make are subtle (simply a recycling series of six on-topic quotations) and I intentionally avoid straying from the page's core content. (Although, could the problem lie in the recycling?)

So, I look forward to the next update to see what bobs up!

Overall, I take this opportunity to thank all posters to these forums - as many say over and over, the forums are a goldmine! Thanks!

[Rumbas]

You're welcome. That's why we are here :)

>I'm not keen for continuing referrals to the dead page

Understandable. If you still have access to server or the domain registrant, could you maybe redirect the traffic to the new domain. This way you wouldn't miss out on that traffic?

When you rotate the topics notice when Fast crawled the page. This way you can see if it has any effect on the rankings. Minor changes to a page should not change the rankings dramatically.

Guess it is a question of "how much is minor changes?"

[mgswebaus]

As reported by lazer and chiyo in that other thread, there's an update right now.
SERPs seem to be switching from one db to another and back again.
Sure hope the db that has returned my homepage to #1 and dumped the 'dead' page is the one that holds!
Even in the other db, the dead page is gone, so that's good, but my new page is down at #20.
Anybody else seeing this switching?

[mack]

Just goes to show the difference in traffic to fast and Google... rank no2 in fast for my a fairly good keyword combo...same combo in google I rank 30 but still get more referals from Google.

[Crazy_Fool]

my sites and my client's sites seem to be listed properly at last - most or all pages on each site are now in the index. not got time to check rankings on all sites, but one of mine is where i want it, #1 :)

[angiolo]

Definitely an upgrade.

I don't think that they refined the algo.

I site submitted three months ago is now in the index.

[Chef_Brian]

Yes Yes ;-)

My little site is starting to get some nice traffic from fast. One thing is nice is that fast delivers results to a number of meta search engines, and that is accounting for a nice little chuck of traffic for my site. Having lots of pages with good key word search phrases is key.

No pun intended ..

Chef Brian

[heini]

Chef, nice to hear Fast works for you.
What metas do you get fast traffic from?

[Chef_Brian]

dogpile
excite
search "star" or something like that

Chef Brian

[mgswebaus]

Two threads going re the update, I know; I'll stay on this one for the sake of continuity.
Glad to confirm my dead page has gone from Fast.
Also it looks to me as if the update has settled now and that it has indeed placed my new page back at #1 for its targetted keywords.
Thanks to all at Fast! :)
And I agree with Chef - nice feed into metas! :)

[Marcia]

Yes definitely an update, but how come under one search term the noframes paragraph is showing and for another the beginning text from the main page inside the frames? For a third search term, same site, my title is showing, but the ODP description.

[chris_f]

Still got no response from FAST/AllTheWeb. Update stands. IMO this is a mega f*@# up. Let's hope it's sorted by the next update. Anyone have any ideas when it'll be?