Update Allegra - Google Update 2-2-2005

[illusionist]

My site which came back on december 26 update, seems to have disappeared again on this data center [216.239.53.99...] . Its notwhere to be found even in allinanchor, allintitle etc? I see majot change on that data center, is this a new update?

[valeyard]

Welcome to LSI hell, folks.

Oh no, not a repeat of the Austin fiasco.

It is about that time again.

[bobx]

hey guys,

one site I work on that was affected disastrously in the December fiasco, now has most results gone from page 15-30 , to page 1 - 5. traffic has gone up 2x or more.

then, here the weirdest one, I got a site, running already 5 years+ , and it used to get like 5k uniques / day from google. Now, I was trying to get on page 1 , for the term "top models", and I was always in page2-3 , and then, voilla, december fiasco came along, and then the page was nowhere to be seen for that query.
However, the site itself as a whole actually INCREASED in traffic about 25%!. So, more obscure term search URLs were somehow visible in december, and the heavy competition query terms had vanished. At least regarding my site.

Now, since January 15, traffic has gradually tapered down, and now it sits at 1k / day. So, 1/5 or 1/6 of its Mid-december output.

However Incredibly, now I am on page 1 results for the term "top models".

does this mean they are now making PEAKS out of all sites, to get better domain distribution across searches? or?

[Spine]

Huh, my site is the same on some terms, up on others, and down on some, fairly normal that way.

But, the sites surrounding me are 1/2 crap now, when I thought the results since December were fairly clean looking.

[Imaster]

Every site I operate is doing better across the board. Two sites are suddenly out of the sandbox and traffic is going haywire in a good way. This one's got my vote.

Thats interesting, Atomic. I have 2 sites sandboxed since May and they are still where they were - sandboxed :(

Anyone else noticed their sites getting out of sandbox today.

[robster124]

Update what? Where did that come from?!

[twebdonny]

I cannot stress enough how Important it is to WRITE G
and let them know your displeasure with this update. The one thing that has always impressed me with G is that they seem to actually read user feedback as opposed to Y which just sends form letters out that do not apply to the situation addressed in any way.

Write them, Write them NOW>

They are listening, DO NOT let the NAYsayers in this forum
dissuade you from writing. It makes a difference!

Suggestions: [e-mail]

Praise and complaints: [e-mail]

Not satisfied with search results? [e-mail]

Report errors, bugs and broken links: [e-mail]

I have a question and/or need help using Google: [e-mail]

[walkman]

question:
is your site GONE (as in not in the index at all) or gone from the top rankings (e.g. it was in the top ten and now is on page 22)?

[Anolonda]

Forget writing. Boycott.

People forget that Google is publicly owned now. MSN and Yahoo have a lot of press right now, lets organize and take advantage of it.

Take action and start spreading word of mouth. Call your clients (those of you who have them) and tell them Google is taking money out of their pockets. Tell them that Yahoo or MSN are the better search engine for their sites to be found (which, as far as I can tell, they are right now).

But most importantly, link to MSN or Yahoo search page on your own sites. Saturate the online community with links to the competition. When shareholders see smoke, they start worrying about fire. Hit Google where they are hitting us, in the wallet.

[twebdonny]

Our site now shows up on the 2nd page of results when searching for the domain name and no longer shows the "more results from" tag and entries.

[edited by: twebdonny at 9:08 pm (utc) on Feb. 3, 2005]

[twebdonny]

Boycotting although it makes you feel better
will not result in any immediate change to this current
filter/algo that has been implimented. Thousands of
letters, that G does read may have a faster more positive
effect.

I say write them NOW and in numbers they will notice.

Suggestions: [e-mail]

Praise and complaints: [e-mail]

Not satisfied with search results? [e-mail]

Report errors, bugs and broken links: [e-mail]

I have a question and/or need help using Google: [e-mail]

[Crush]

twebdonny, whilst I feel for you man, there is also nothing you can do here. Just wait and maybe your site will come back. In the meantime, learn adwords well cause you are going to need it.

A business stratergy based on hope is a bad one. Google likes to fix these things with thier algo. Cross your fingers and you will be back soon. This will make you stonger for next time.

[caveman]

I can't decide if I miss these update threads, or not. Oh well, at least there's some new action. ;-)

BTW, who's the allergy sufferer around here? Someone trying to buy some cheap pharma traffic?

[twebdonny]

Ya See Crush, you are, what I call a Naysayer...there is
nothing you can do here....yadda yadda yadda

Actually We all can do a lot more than just sit and complain, we can notify G that something has gone awry.

If it was just my site, sure, sit and wait, but this is much bigger and much different and Should be addressed.

I have written, and if my site does recover I'll know why.
Will you take the chance and do nothing?

btw: I have been an Adwords Advertiser since inception.

[Anolonda]

Respectfully, I disagree.

It is time for Google to learn what Yahoo learned years ago. Web designers/developers/marketers are the ones that people listen to. We made Google what it is, not the other way around. Google says, "Hey, we're a free listing, so we'll do what we want." I say that is a big mistake. No Google doesn't owe me anything, but that is a two way street.

I have never, EVER tried to take advantage of SEO techniques to get my sites on the first SERP. I played by the rules, optimized for legitimate content. I have tried to do the same for my clients. My phone has been ringing off the hook. What do I tell my clients? "Well, Google is trying something new..."

This is absolutely absurd. I have had enough. Boycott Google and sell your clients Google's competition.

[Dynamoo]

I run a number of sites for myself and a few customers.

This is what I can see:

First of all, my biggest site which averages about 5000 uniques a day and has several Google #1 results has been pasted. Oh well.

Some secondary sites of mine competing in the same sector are waaay up.

However, I look after a whole host of ancillary sites for customers and myself which aren't showing a Title/Description in Google, or indeed aren't showing up at all. The problem sites are all hosted in the UK in the 81.21.x.x range if that's any help. Some of these have been wiped out of the SERPs even for domain name, and yet these are pretty run of the mill sites listed in places like DMOZ. Oddly, one of the sites that has benefited the most from the change is also hosted on the same servers as the one that has vanished.

There seem to be a couple of things going on - firstly, there's some sort of algo tweak that's impacting on long-established sites.. this is a bummer if, like me, you've been screwed but hey that's Google.

Secondly, and more importantly, there seems to be a definite bug where sites aren't ranking and aren't displaying their titles and snippets correctly even though they are perfectly ordinary sites with no SEO that target specific niches. I'd call this a bug - and hopefully a bug that Google will fix quickly.

[I_Brian]

So in other words - we're talking about a continuation of the problems that started December 15th?

[twebdonny]

What I see is a minor algo tweak a few months ago that
has led to a vicious cycle that maybe G didn't forsee occurring.
Maybe it will peter itself and run out of steam, then again, maybe
it will continue to grow worse.
Write G and let them know how this has affected you.

[Crush]

"Ya See Crush, you are, what I call a Naysayer"

twebdonny, I am an old timer as far as these events are concerned. I have had sites wiped out before, written to google, even used my google rep. You will just get back the standard mail. You can run around the room with your hands on your head as much as you like but you are going to have to deal with reality here. They are not going to listen the voices of even a 1000 webmasters. You been punk'd and Ashton Kutcher is not going to come round the corner with his crew and slap you on the back ( for those of you who watch mtv)

Tomorrow is another day, use it wisely instead of venting anger.

[edited by: Crush at 9:41 pm (utc) on Feb. 3, 2005]

[dvduval]

I would characterize this as nothing more than a tightening up of the sandbox. They have learned that certain sandbox type tweaks lead to greater adwords money, so they just "ramping up" the adwords cash flow. They must be really worried about MSN, so they grabbing the only thing they think will help them...cash.

This update makes total sense.

[twebdonny]

Not venting anger at all Crush, ya see 2 years ago
our site was wiped out of G. I wrote, got a real person response, was respidered and reincluded 3 days later.
Sorry to hear you didn't have the same results.

[edited by: twebdonny at 9:42 pm (utc) on Feb. 3, 2005]

[willybfriendly]

I do not see drastic changes in my areas.

BUT

one of the single word terms I rank for shows 3 images at the top fo the SERPs with a heading "See 25,300 image results for widgets" This is something I have never seen before.

I have only got this to replicate on a limited number of terms, all one word queries. If interested, a generic one that works is "collies", or the misspelled "siames" - "siamese" does not work! (Hope this is within the TOS, Mods)

If G starts doing this more widescale then I expect we will see some additional efforts at image based SEO. Those are the top spots afterall...

WBF

[zeus]

I still dont see any big changes, because those changes on 216.239.39.104 has been so for a month or so, some domains are gone then they are back, more supplemental results, then less -
it has been that way for some time on 216.239.39.104, trust me I follow it every 30 min now since 3 nov when I also got hit by the google glitch, where they cant see the difference between a site redirecting and the original.

[sailorjwd]

As they say in Ground Hog Day... 'anything different is good'. Now atleast when I search my company name I come up first - that wasn't happening this morning.

Niel.. it ain't no hobby site - it supports me and 5 other families (at least it did until today).

[nuevojefe]

Can I see a vote of how many people who are suffering the query "keyword(s) domain.tld" equals only one [not the usual targeted page?]listing and no "More results from www.domain.tld" when there should be AND have a U.S. state and/or city directory style site or part of the site.

Hope that made sense.

5 votes of yes for 5 sites here.

[Rugles]

Ok, after saying I did not see any major changes for the areas I watch closely. Now I see some significant changes. As dramatic a change to the SERPS as the old dance.

[Vespasian]

A top notch search engine will eventually get this fixed because some very good information sites are now missing. And they're not marginal or average sites, but very good ones with lots of content. The average person should be able to see that info when they do a search.

And there is still a lot of crunching going on. The approximately 30 datacenters I've been checking have been changing all day, with a site being where it should, and then disappearing into oblivion, and then coming back. I just hope it doesn't take too long.

[brixton]

I strongly believe that this update has to do with the advertised new MSN search official open. So don't expect any changes until the next update. See you then and remember this day how many of us will be happy or be angry again .

[foxtunes]

I'm sure this hasn't finished. In the keywords I monitor the results right now are a joke.

[RoadTrips]

Did the sites who are back fix their duplicate content problems in the last month and a half?

[Chico_Loco]

Well, I've emailed them, and I don't expect a reply, nor a resolution.

In the meantime, I will continue with my new plan, which is to promote MSN search. If they had the same traffic as Google does, then I would not be having an issue right now.