Four Years At #1, Gone Overnight 11/20

[customdy]

Hi, we have been at #1 in Google for our top Keywords for the last 4 years, last night I checked google still #1, this morning we are #46 and it is not our index page that would comes up.
When I do a site:www.example.com our index still comes up and the PR is still 4.

Any suggestions on what to do?
Thanks Dave

[g1smd]

>> <a href="/products/widgetA.html">My Product</a>
>> <a href="/index.html?id=abcd">My Product</a>
>> <a href="/products/widgetA.html">My Product LongName</a>
>> <a href="/index.html?id=abcd">My Product LongName</a>

>> NOT duplicate content! <<

If both URLs lead to the same content then that IS duplicate content:

/index.html?id=abcd
/products/widgetA.html

[helpnow]

> <a href="/products/widgetA.html">My Product</a>
> <a href="/index.html?id=abcd">My Product</a>
> <a href="/products/widgetA.html">My Product LongName</a>
> <a href="/index.html?id=abcd">My Product LongName</a>

+++++++

"If both URLs lead to the same content then that IS duplicate content:

/index.html?id=abcd
/products/widgetA.html"

++++++

Right, of course, I see the nuance you are referring to...

Dup Content = Same content, different URLS

I was more concerned that there was a belief that different _anchor text_, as in "My Product LongName" vs. "My product", was a problem. Of course, that in itself is not a problem, but you are quite right, if indeed the content on these two pages, "/index.html?id=abcd" and "/products/widgetA.html" are the same, yeah, for sure, that's dup content.

<grin>

I think we're all on the same page... (No pun intended)

[customdy]

Can someone make some sense out of this........

The datacenter that seems to have the problem for us is 216.239.37.99 If I ping www.google.com from the PC where we have the bad results.

However, if I use a google database tool and query all of the datacenters we come back in the #1 position in ALL datacenters including 216.239.37.99.

How can this be? Read the first post of the discussion.

Thanks

[helpnow]

I am not an expert on dcs, but, I also watch different dcs, but have begun to wonder why I bother. The point is, I don't think too much can be gleaned from what you do or don't see on a dc somewhere. Take dcs with a grain of salt, a simple curiosity.

[randle]

It seems to us as time goes on that the very concept of a “data center” is dramatically changing. I know people love to analyze and focus on data center activity, but it’s so fluid these days. Search google.com for your main key word and see what you see. Then pull up a certain DC, search your main key word, and things are different. Then go use your favorite key word positioning tool, and the DC’s show all kinds of different positioning. Then bring up one of those DC’s that’s showing that your site is not even there, and then search that DC using your main key word, and there’s your site!

If your focused on data center activity, what are you really seeing?

[customdy]

So since we are still #1 on all of the datacenters according to the datacenter tools (google dance, etc), #1
from our office, and the only place I can get the very bad results is from the home Pcs, I guess I just wait it out,this sure has me nervous if google can do this to me on this one datacenter (whereever this result is coming from) I fear that this could spread to others.......
This sure looks like some type of pentalty but I can't imagine what it could be.

[CainIV]

To tell a short story about how Google chooses which domain to choose, I recently registered and domain (not for profit) and then setup hosting and the site etc.

Noone has linked to me, but within one week the site was indexed, as non-www.

I really believe Google has its own way of determining which way to link to you. Could even be a temporary link to me that has changed but was pointed to non-www.

Be safe, think 301, htaccess and everthing guys like on this furm have been talking about to prevent your site from ever falling into this issue,

Laymens terms: Prevention works.

[skweb]

I am not sure if this is such a big deal in Google's mind to have a website with domain.com or domain.com/index.html

For those of us who are using the beta Blogger, Google points all home page links to whatever.blogspot.com/index.html rather than without it. If they thought it were a big deal, they would have designed it differently.

[g1smd]

If you link back to /index.html then that is where your PageRank will be consolidated.

If Google lists only "/" then they might be listing a URL with less, or no, PageRank.

It is usually best to get just "/" listed, and to link only to "/" too.

[tedster]

They are two different urls, and they can have different PR. That seems to be a strong indicator that you might want to see all the possible PR accumulate on one url, especially if we're talking about the domain root.

(g1smd and I like to play tag team)

[customdy]

I made a few minor tweeks to the title meta tag to de-optimize it, took out some reduntant words, as of today, back to #1 position!