Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
So yesterday I had decent traffic for the first time in a few weeks - today it's the lowest i've ever seen it. Like since launching it 4 years ago.
No clue why...Can't put my finger on it at all.
[edited by: tedster at 5:42 pm (utc) on April 1, 2007]
About three days ago, our pages in the index dropped to around 950 again so we just thought Google was dropping all of those new pages.
Today we're right back to that 1,140 mark. So I suspect there is some churning of the index (perhaps some kind of data push). This might help explain why some webmasters are seeing this recent back and forth ranking.
What should I do - reinclusion request?
Edit: I just noticed that I am seeing pages that have ranked in the past on a different site for multiple keywords which is essentially giving me more than 40% of page one property (top 4 positions) with a few competitive keywords. Thats not happpened in a while and i know that it must change.
I usually have the top 2 spots on these keywords, but not 4. That only happens when Google is playing with links. Not sure if thats internals or externals, but the site that used to rank (the one not usually in the top 2) has better internal linking than the one that has always ranked. Hope that makes sense. ;)
I can also see in GA that I had a 46% traffic drop yesterday compared to Monday's. I am going to make an educated guess that tomorrow i will have a 40%+ increase.
My rankings were good for exact 24 hrs.
Is Google experimenting something or what?
Anyone else saw these changes?
[edited by: tedster at 5:07 pm (utc) on April 11, 2007]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]
The index page was not cached anymore when my site was in the deep hole... the inner pages were cached
I have a website several years old, which was performing fine in Google UK search until January 9th 2007. It was getting about 3,000 visitors a day, with many search terms bringing the relevant page of the website onto the first page of Google returns.
Then since January 9th 2007, the search performance has been changing wildly every week or so. Specifically, on January 9th the number of visitors dropped by 90% to about 300, and very few search terms came up on the first page of Google returns.
This Not Performing situation continued for four days to January 13th, when suddenly the website started Performing again at its old level. Since then there has been this extraordinary pattern of Performing and Not Performing:
Performing: 4 days
Not Performing: 2 days
Performing: 3 days
Not Performing: 25 days
Performing: 7 days
Not Performing: 6 days
Performing: 2 days
Not Performing: 9 days
Performing: 4 days
Not Performing: 4 days
Performing: 20 days
Not Performing: 1 day
For each 'Performing' period the website gets about 3,000 visitors a day, with many search terms coming up on the first page of Google. And for each 'Not Performing' period traffic suddenly drops to about 10% of its normal level.
The website fully conforms, so far as I am aware, to all Google guidelines, and nothing about the website has changed over these three months. Just these extraordinary ups and downs in Google traffic.
I would be very grateful to know of any similar experiences, and for advice as to anything that I can do about it. I am finding this up and down experience very bad for the nerves! The website carries Google Adsense ads, and the traffic variation is resulting in violent swings in income.
Alex Reid, Cambridge UK.
[edited by: tedster at 4:24 pm (utc) on April 12, 2007]
read some of the other posts
your experience is mirrored by many, including me
your performing days seem to outnukber your non performing
consider yourself lucky - for now
It sounds just like what we are going through and many others who find their way to this forum. It makes you wonder if Google in fact have full control of their search engine or if it is just full of bugs right now. No wonder social bookmarking is taking off, many people I know once used a google search term and simnply expected to see the same results next time they searched, even if the site they were looking for was not at number 1 it might have slipped to 3 or 4 - Can you imagine how an end user must feel these days? Google organic search is not reliable right now and not only webmasters but end users will seek a better option if Google does not deliver.
I am also seeing some radical changes in the rankings on many kys.....
Just hoping these things turned up again....
Sv
So I suspect there is some churning of the index (perhaps some kind of data push). This might help explain why some webmasters are seeing this recent back and forth ranking.
Thats a very qualified guess, IMO.
Those succesive data push/ data refresh might affect ranking of some sites in a remarkable way. Combined with the possibility that the folks at the plex are also tweaking few filters all that might be behind what the friends on this thread are reporting; back and forth in ranking!
Btw, I see you stopped watching that grass of yours grow :-)
Chances are if your bouncing back and forth like that your on a borderline penalty or filter.
