Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
This sitemap ranks better on each and every search term than the sites it links to do.
In fact it shloud be the other way round, because the surfer does not want to be presented a sitemap. He wants the site with the content on it.
Interesting you should say that, I've been wondering if they've turned up the "outgoing links" knob too high. I'm also seeing a lot of cases where ranking is being given to pages that link to relevant pages rather than the relevant pages themselves.
Then again this update is such a mess it wouldn't surprise me to learn that a cat walked over the master control panel and randomly knocked all the knobs and switches around...
If we do a search on our keywords on google.ca and select the 'list sites only in canada' check box, we move from 92 to #1.
What's the number of hosts among those 91 matches in the unrestricted search that are hosted in Canada? If zero, then it is logical that you go to number one. If it is not zero, that might be interesting.
As far as suing: They don't owe us anything, and no matter how wrong it is or it may seem, you have NO case.
Thank you.
How will hijack 301/302 redirect effect our site?
Has history ever seen the sort of commercial situation that site-owners like ourselves face now? In such mass numbers? Certainly not a scenario for the faint-hearted, eh? It does remind me of the dangers of monopolies, and of the value of diversification.
First, Google IS NOT a monopoly. Our site receives over 80% of it's traffic from sources OTHER THAN Google. The main problem that these updates always brings to light is the compacency so many webmasters exhibit in failing to develop a SUSTAINABLE marketing plan that does not factor in guaranteed traffic form any one source. We get over 100 buying customers a day from Yahoo/MSN alone. Try it....you'll sleep better.
That's why, if you are relying too much on Google traffic, you have to diversify. Now. Those of you who have benefiited from Allegra need be most afraid. You're more likely to be complacent and therefore more likely to get burned.
That's the key. If you gained, use the additional revenue to build additional traffic streams. If you lost, take it as a valuable lesson and develop a marketing plan that is no longer dependent on what is essentially free advertising. Frankly, if I have to read one more "Oh no....I lost my position in the serps, I'm ruined!" post, I'll puke.
but there is no denying even though other search engines produce traffic there is no denying google seems to bring 90% of the customers.
Sorry...but the 200+ customers that purchased from us over the last 3 days that WERE NOT google referrals refute that. The very thought that the only commercially viable traffic MUST come from google is laughable (although probably EXACTLY what they want you to think). Case in point: Our site was in google purgetory (all results showed up at 100+ pages) until this update, and we still turned a 6 digit profit last year. Imagine that.
block the Google bot because today it wont list your site..?..wow..theres long term strategy for yer!
...just what I was thinking. Talk about throwing the rattle out of the pram...
How does it help you to make threats against Google (there are several of those too)? <sigh>
Because if google doesn't list my site the way I think it deserves to be listed, I'm going to boycott google, and tell all my friends to boycott google, and they'll tell their friends, and they'll tell their friends, and so on, and so on....
YAWN
The truth is (and what so many webnmaster have blinders on to) google caters to the lowest common denominator, i.e. the "average" user (a borderline computer illiterate) who find what they want, have no idea what an affiliate program is, could care less about getting the abosute best reults, as long as they can find what they want in a couple of clicks. These posts of "I've had many users tell me they're switching from google to msn/yahoo, etc"., are simply bunk. The group opinion of your buddies you play dungeons and dragons with doesn't count. Go ask Aunt Sally what engine she's using, and if she's thinking of switching due to this latest update, and I guarantee you'll get the same response everytime: "What update?".
Maybe if more webmasters join forces and start taking actual action against this weird seismic google ups and downs (with absolute disregard to the impact it have on so many web sites/businesses). Maybe then the guys at google will think twice before shacking the boat too hard (SERPs and Adsense). Maybe then they will roll what ever algo changes they have SLOWLY
Yeah, that will work. All the webmasters who arent' ranking where they think they deserve to be will join forces and prevent google from ranking their sites. What an impact that will have.
I already started removing the google search box and recommending MSN & Yahoo search to my visitors on all of my sites.
That makes alot of sense. Hmmmm.....I'm not getting any google traffic, so I'll tell all my users who are reaching me from Yahoo/MSN to...(wait for it)...keep using Yahoo/Msn and stop using google. Yep, that should bring google to it's knees.
The google power over our lives is way too great, and i feel that something must be done about it.
The funny thing is....you're the one giving google that power - by failing to build alternative streams of traffic. It's like hiring an workaholic arsonist as the sole employee to run a gas station. Sure, he works like hell, and makes you a ton of money, but you're always worried he'll burn the place down. If you hired 3 or 4 average employees, you'd get the same amount of work done, without having to worry about your businenss going up in smoke.
If enough webmasters get fed up and ban Googlebot, word will get out that Google's index is not complete, because their bot has been banned. People will go elsewhere to search, because they know Google can't list all the sites due to the ban.
Trouble is....the only webmasters to join your "ban" will be those who already have lousy listing. I doubt the #1 rate site from "travel to (wherever)" would be keen on shutting off that traffic source to make a symbolic "stand".
Around the end of January 2004 my main site dropped like a stone for my keywords, however I took evasing action and now have advertising in place that means I generate the money I need from my site(s)
I have ignored google for the most part and carried on growing my site and it appears within the last 2 days I am getting the rankings that I had a year ago and google has more than doubled its traffic to me, with the extra from MSN and Yahoo I am suitably happy with twice the traffic I have been used to, however I know that if and when it changes I will not be reliant on google again so it's a lesson learned for me, and at this point a nice bonus to be getting much improved SERPS.
At least some webmasters get it ;-)
[edited by: WebFusion at 5:12 pm (utc) on Feb. 7, 2005]
i am the web site manager for an online retailer.
last june / july google caught on to some bad pratice being used by our ecommerce provider and dropped every shop they had using their software (this is of course our opinion only and has not been proven).
we then moved to a new ecommerce company and went live with a new site last november, google came gave PR4 and lsited our pages.
most of our important terms were not in the top 10 pages.
i came in this morning and ran my weekly report and we have jumped massivley, im talking 8 pages or more for most key phrases.
now i am presuming that since our last deep crawl 3/4 months ago, i have added over 250 pages, trimmed pages, adjusted content ect.
and now i believe that ggogle has found these changes through a deep crawl and rewarded the site.
am i right in saying that continous work is rewarded?
