Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
annej - I am very suspicious they do some link buying and wonder if Google is playing around with some algos they think might catch that.
I'm seeing similar signs this morning but I think that this is in reaction to the effect Internetheaven reported above. ie a devaluation in internal links caused an overvaluation in low value external links. I've seen a few sites rise to the very top of Serps that seem to have done it through link buying and link exchanging with off topic and/or poor geo location sites. Those now seem to be dropping.
Also one site that, out of the blue, got sitelinks for a very competitive 2 word term where there is no way it should be top of serps never mind be given sitelinks for that term. I'm pretty sure that this was an indication that external outgoing links, with the right anchor text, was given an undue boost. Today they have lost sitelinks. Lets hope they don't get them back!
What I'm seeing this morning looks like they are either tweaking down the weight of external outgoing links and incoming links or turning internal link anchor weight back up a tad.
Cheers
Sid
[edited by: tedster at 3:16 pm (utc) on May 1, 2008]
On May 4th I made some changes to my site, in particular I had a h1 link at the top of each page with top terms in anchor text, I removed the h1 tags that day. Still kept the links but just in <p> tags.
I'm trying very hard to get back to #1 for our main term and it looks like I may be trying too hard. My hypothesis was that the h1 tags looked like over optimisation, so I changed them. I have reverted back to a backup today and will report back if things improve.
Cheers
Sid
I have thought since these results began appearing in this order that it is almost similiar to Yahoo results. For my main keyword in Yahoo I am always up and down the results. I though the reason why Google search engine was the most popular is it was better than Yahoo!
It has all gone back to normal for us. I wonder if they had geo-location switched off on google.co.uk and have now switched it back on.
I'm now wondering if I've done the right thing with my h1s as I'm at #7 on google.com for our primary target search term.
Ah hum!
Cheers
Sid
Its still jumping around in my sector on the .co.uk results.
I'm also noticing shopping results rotating from top of serp to bottom almost every other time.
So what, I've got to make a website every two weeks to stay in the SERP's?
Lovejoy
About 12 hours ago, I noticed a small variation of the second set with 700,000 plus results.
However, the 970,000 +/- 20,000 results of the second set have been quite steady for the last few hours.
I haven't seen the first set of results for the last 12 plus hours.
I'm also seeing tons of new sites (social blog types of sites) making it to the front page of Google but bounce around.
Just earlier today I was searching for some components for some old band gear that I own and none of the sites I have relied on are showing up in the top 10 of Google. I went to ASK and found what I needed and I have never relied on anything but Google for search until now. This is really crazy to me because now I see how I can game Google. Google is re-structuring for social networks and that's why the ISPs and such are now trying to figure out how they can give us paid commercials when we surf the web.
Where is the free web that I got used too?
By the way, Yahoo must have a spy inside Google because they seem to make natural search results change right after Google does?
[edited by: tedster at 5:09 am (utc) on May 15, 2008]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]
Think I'm getting car sick.
(this is all without being logged into my google account, natch)
I just checked and the results are about 970,000.
Indeed, pretty interesting to watch.
[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 6:11 pm (utc) on May 15, 2008]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]
Hissingsid wrote: On May 4th I made some changes to my site, in particular I had a h1 link at the top of each page with top terms in anchor text, I removed the h1 tags that day. Still kept the links but just in <p> tags.
How does a h1 link make sense? Shouldn't the h1 be the header of that particular page? IMO it cannot be logically the most important information on a page and at the same time point somewhere else? Or may I misunderstand your post?
To continue my post about what I call "weighted local PR": A lot of people refer only to the search term as locally relevant, but IMO the linkgraph of a website is much more important. Maybe the local weight is given to the entire website or just directories.
ATM it appears to me a local newspaper link is much more relevant than a dozen syndicated links from press releases from all over the world.
I also have made the observation that clicks may pay a significant role in rankings: I am watching search terms in google WT and see them rise in the serps to a certain point when they fall back and may rise a little bit again while other fall even deeper. The best search terms have also the lowest bounce rate in google analytics.
Matt Cutts was talking a lot of the new google infrastructure; well, to be able to compute the local relevance of search terms, linkgraphs, click & bounce there is certainly much more computer power needed then before.
It may also be possible that the SERPs are somehow shuffeled and polluted to test the algo improvements, to see if the algo is able to learn and to correct things based on (local) user behaviour.
don't laugh but sometimes its almost like Google would prefer that you couldn't predict where you will be in the serps by manipulating certain factors!
What I can predict is that spammers are showing up in top 3 spots for major industry terms.
How does a h1 link make sense? Shouldn't the h1 be the header of that particular page? IMO it cannot be logically the most important information on a page and at the same time point somewhere else? Or may I misunderstand your post?
Many Textpattern blog templates use this technique, which is where I first came across it. The H1 header at the top of the page is also a link back to the home page. Even the default template uses it.
I used it without thinking on a few minor sites I have and it seems to work very well so I tried it other sites with good results and then on my main site. Yahoo seems to hate it, Google may like it, but this may be on the move which is why I am experimenting with removing it.
Cheers
Sid
IMO this h1 linking is done with SEO in mind as a link to the home page mostly is called "home" or at least uses the same or a few variations textlink. I would not think this is white-hat. I guess you are on the right track removing it. But of course this in none of my business.
Many Textpattern blog templates use this technique, which is where I first came across it. The H1 header at the top of the page is also a link back to the home page. Even the default template uses it.
Nice nic
