Google Update Bourbon Part 3

[Sweet Cognac]

Continued From:

[webmasterworld.com...]

---

My whole site has a new cache date of May 25th. Maybe once these other sites around me get recached, I won't hold such an honorable top position. But at least Google has found my pages worthy to sit in the Search again.:) It seems strange to look at the stats and see Google in there, after 6 months of just seeing Yahoo and MSN referrals.

My website has plenty of outbound links, but they are on relevant pages. The problem my site has always had, was a lack of "inbound links." I got tired of searching for people to link to me (with all the spammy sites around) and gave up. So my pages have acquired some links naturally I guess(and I'll bet I still don't have more than 30 inbound links for the whole site) Still have a PR4, which I've had since it disappeared in Nov.

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 8:54 pm (utc) on May 27, 2005]

[wattsnew]

sailorjwd,

<<250 pages with 60 left in Google - all penalized severly.>>

Are the missing pages URL only or simply gone in site:*?

[rookiecrd1]

Well Personally I wasn't affected too badly, so this is a pretty much an unbiased view. I searched google several times today like I usually do for a variety of phrases. I was absolutely shocked by the results. Seemed like every site was either a made for adsense/google site, with no useful content at all! I literally had to goto MSN and search,. I found what i was looking for right away at MSN. I sure as heck hope this is not the permanant update, as if it is I will certainly be using MSN much more in the future.

Brian

[Ledfish]

I have to believe that something with this update is really messed up bad and not in a way that Google is happy with either.

My reason for saying that is I notice alot of people talking about adsense and how they believe that killed their sites by associating them with scrapers. I also just hear alot of people talking about their adsense income taking a huge huge drop.

I wonder how many of the currently well ranked sites are running adsense, because if those that serve adsense have taken a huge hit, than that would mean that Google it self is taking a huge hit as well. Sure adwords might go up some, but I can't imagine it would offset the loss in adsense revenue to Google and I can't imagine that Google is going to let that go on for very long.

When it all comes down to it though, Googles problems with the overwhelming amount of spammers and scrapers and to a certain degree agressive SEO is not the doing of webmasters, it really is the doing of Google itself when it created Adsense. If it wasn't for Adsense, alot of sites wouldn't exist because they would not reasonably produce a revenue stream. So many sites today exist sole as machine to earn Adsense revenue from. But like I said, it's not the fault of webmaster, it Google own fault.

[roadhazard]

Hi, I try to be careful with Adsense. I have about 1,000 pages and building, and Adsense on every page, but the small square which only has FOUR listings. Then I put about 8 affiliate listings on each page, no more. My site is just out of the sandbox and I get a FEW Google searches, maybe two or max three a day so far. Site is exactly one year old. All white hat optimization. The new G patent states a favoritism for Amazon links so I do ofen put an Amazon search link on a page, but not always. I do not think my site is being penalized, just moving VERY SLOWLY toward early SERPS. The G. Search today found my page on G SERPS page 28. But HEY, I am in the index. Just got to move forward now...I do not have any low class affiliates. I work really hard many hours every day on the site and I have faith it will keep moving forward. In a way, I do not blame Google for wanting seasoned sites in the early SERPS. Sure it is hard moving forward, but the rewards will be there when our sites reach 4-5 years of age, I think.

[rookiecrd1]

For all those people who say that having adsense on a site in any way is affecting SERPS, I don't see this as being feasible. Since Google Makes money when adsense publishers make money, I don't think they'd penalize it. Also, what is this saying to publishers "if you sue our banners, you will be penalize"

[Gerwin7]

But is it possible Google will penalize sites not using AdSense?

[fearlessrick]

Google certainly could penalize adsense-enabled sites and here's why:

Suppose a searcher is looking for "blue widget hammers" and that search would pull your site up in the results in one o the top spots.

The searcher would then go to your site and find what he's looking for, maybe not even clicking on any of your adsense ads. But even if he did click on one, google would share that revenue with the site.

Now, if a searcher cannot find you because you are buried in the SERPs, it's ore likely that he would click on one of the well-targeted ads on Google - one which they keep all the revenue.

So, from that standpoint, it makes perfect sense to jumble up their search algo to make less relevant results appear higher. Of course, they lose all credibility as a search engine, just as they would had they opted to have adsense-enabled sites rank higher.

They've put themselves in a box and their algo can't get them out.

I have to say, today's results on my site are so absurd, even taking into account that it's a holiday weekend, but today's earnings are now less than 10% of my average over the past four months. It's hardly even worth displaying the ads anymore.

It's appaling and a disgrace what Google has done with this "update."

[fearlessrick]

I forgot to mention that hat is even more insulting and absurd that Google's response to an obvious problem is complete and total silence.

I am through with these fools.

[ShunT]

fearlessrick - that's the biggest BS I've ever heard (it really is). Without search results Google is NOTHING. If a user can't get relevant searchs she/he will stop using google period - then Google makes NOTHING.

People are jumping conclusions before they even know what happened....

[decaff]

From my perch...
I see the following:

First, some very good points are being made here about Adsense and what Google may or may not be doing to stem the tide of scrapper sites meant to rank well in order to drive traffic through their Adsense ads..

Ledfish (msg 123)
fearlessrick (msg 127)

Very good points here about how Google may have dug themselves into a hole with their own algorithm...they obviously don't want their SERPs to sour from the "average users" (that's you me and everyong else)...with cluttered spammy listings...AND ... if a huge volume of sites are finding their way into the top of the listings in competitive sectors (as much of the recent chatter would confirm) just for the reason of creating some fractional Adsense revenue...but not for the reason of building an actual human audience...then Google must be factoring the equation of excessive Adsense Payouts vs. Cluttered useless SERPs...which will reduce their user base and cut into their revenue channels...

On the other hand...if the SERPs become "cluttered and redundant" with large volumes of scrapper/spam sites wanting only to aquire traffic volume from Google for Adsense revenue.... then Google can benefit on the PPC side of the equation as they continue to tighten up their editorial requirements for Adwords to differentiate these display ads across their distribution network from organic SERPs (the reason why I say this .. is that organic SERPs tend to be more generic in nature at the title/description level...and Google can tweak their algorithm to favor the more specific copy that tends to represented in the AdWords...by "allowing" scrapper sites to do well...though there is huge "SERPs pollution" occuring...

Unfortunately, some very strong original content driven/ecommerce sites that offer exactly what the user base is looking for per keyword phrase sectors are being damaged and negleted in all of this...

So Google is juggling some very fine points in their "algorithmic approach" ... in order to keep their revenue growing and their shareholders happy...