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?

[nzmatt]

Now that we've followed all the rules, writing loads of content, we now find ourselves in a worse position than before... and no, I won't be using AdWords again.

I'm sorry; it must be my nature - but I believe webmasters who say they have followed the rules...and know what they are doing.

Why assume otherwise - to reinforce your mind set?

[Chico_Loco]

>> Why assume otherwise..

Even a clown wouldn't need to draw an assumption as to the circumstances.. I've concisely described them above.

I think I might know a little something as to what is spam, and what isn't.

If I was a spammer, I probably wouldn't be here complainin', I'd be either enjoying the benefits of having at least a few sites that are doing well, or building more spam sites. I have just 2 sites. 1 is unaffected and the other is heavily affected

I don't call anyone else here a spammer, particularly not members with more posts than I, so please have the same common courtesy before posting next time.

[steveb]

This is the ranting about the update, not the ranting about business models thread.

<It's good to diversify, but telling a pro hockey player to diversify is silly. Building a business model on free search is simply a risk to reward equation, that's all.>

[GoogleGuy]

Chico_Loco, we test everything in depth before deploy it to ensure that the changes improve quality, but I always want to hear feedback on spammy or low-quality sites in our results (or high-quality sites that people feel aren't where they deserve to be). I created a Google Group that you can send feedback to: [e-mail] .

Some things to bear in mind:
- Anyone can send in feedback. I'm on the group and I'll gather some other engineers to read messages on it as well.
- This will let anyone send comments directly to engineers who read the messages--it's not going through an extra step of user support processing it. The flip side is that although we'll read all the comments we get, and see if we can use the feedback to improve our quality, we won't be able to reply to individual messages. If you're especially happy or unhappy with something in our search results right now, this is the best way to tell us. You'll want to include a concrete search phrase and the exact url that you think is spam or high-quality content. :)
- With any change, there are going to be some sites that move into the first search page and some sites that move out. That's the reality of any change in search engine results--but I do want to hear feedback.

I'll set aside some time tomorrow to sit with some other engineers and read through the feedback we get. If there's a spammy site that's been annoying you, or a very high quality site that you think should do better, please let us know.

Best wishes,
GoogleGuy

[eyezshine]

I don't see anything wrong with building a site that relies on the search engines for free traffic. But knowing that you can't rely on it should be in your head all the time.

I have built websites for people and seen them quit their job and just live it up and then go down the tubes when their site suddenly stopped getting free traffic.

I told them they should not depend on the money their website makes because it don't last but they didn't listen.

Free search engine traffic is like hanging your site on a bungee cord and then throwing it off a bridge. the traffic is up and down for years and from the 4 years I've been at it, I don't think it will ever stop bouncing.

But I do know one thing, You can never depend on it.

[GoogleGuy]

P.S. I'm heading to bed, but I thought of one more thing: it's always helpful to include your WebmasterWorld handle or a name if you're willing. For example, if BigDave or europeforvisitors complain about something, that carries a little more weight in my mind; I know I can respect their opinions from reading their posts over the last several years.

[steveb]

There is no way to see this group, right? (feb05feedback shows no such group)

[eyezshine]

Googleguy,

Why don't you ever let us know what's going on. Clearly there is a sandbox and clearly sites are getting duplicate penalties from 302 redirects caused by PHP click tracking scripts.

Clearly I have a PR5 site that ranked #1 for a 126,000,000 result keyword but it is blocked from the index because of the 302 redirect problem.

That site was in the top 10 for 3 years and now nothing. The pages are still indexed but none of them show up for any searches anymore except for major obscure keywords.

I've seen this happen to many of my sites that I have built for people and the only thing they all have in common is they all have 302 redirects from PHP scripts.

Could you talk to your engineers about that problem?

I have tried allmost everything and the only way it can be solved is if you fixed it.

[mufad]

Ive been hit,
Was #1 for several search terms in my field, for over a year, used to get thousands of visitors every day from google but now its down to 20 per day. My site has moved to #150 from being #1, allinanchor, allintext and allintitle still shows my site as #1. link: shows about 2000 backlinks in google, site: shows 60,000 pages.
Site is MIA (shows at #120) for domain name search, my domain name has no keywords, its a brand name, directories and sites linking to my site are showing above my site.
Some facts,
1> Recently shifted web host
2> Site Uses subdomains
3> No black hat tricks used
4> Has plenty of duplicate as well as original content - its an article directory where people submit their articles and I approve the good ones after reviewing them. It is likely the people who submit the articles submit the same articles elsewhere also and if they have a website they would have the article on their site too.
5> Its a template based site, so every page on the site has the same menu and layout
6> Uses excessive adsense, multiple units (max 3 I know) on every page.
7> I had modified the template few weeks ago to shift the position of the adsense. This would result in every page being changed.

I have not filtered my access logs to see the pattern of googlebot visits but I can do it if that helps understanding what is happening. Infact I did not know Allerga update is going on until yesterday when I found that google traffic has dropped since 7th Feb.

May be others who have been hit can share the features of their site. So far it looks like its not just a devaluation of internal links. Aggressive duplicate content penalty is likely, but its not fair. Even pages with unique content are off, its like every page on my domain is hijacked out of the top results where it belongs and buried somewhere deep inside.

I hope its not over yet ...
Mufad.

[McMohan]

Nice to see you here GG :) If you looked back through the thread, you will find certain specific complaints, some of which are disturbing.
And yes, the most common complaint has been that of websites not ranking for their own unique company names.

(added: Congrats europeforvisitors and BigDave :))

Whenever appropriate, do shed some light upon sandbox thing. Its now becoming like a Hitchcock suspense thriller :)

Mc