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]
The traffic on my other sites has either remained stable or increased slightly during the same time period. (I am in the UK).
All those reporting a drop in traffic since the 9th May, do you use banner advertising across more than 80% of your pages?
Today, the number is 1,030,000.
The number of results was 970,000 some 48 hours ago as I wrote on message #:3650978.
G certainly used the "age" knob in the last days in favor to older sites
I don't think so. My 5yo site is acting like a yoyo. Within hours I'm on top five, in the middle of nowhere or buried on page 20 or so.
Other strange things:
I'm getting visit for the most unusual keywords.
Search for keywordA Google.com returns pageA (which is correct)
Search for KeywordA Google.co.au returns PageB which even if it contains KeywordA it's not specific to that word/sentence.
I also lost ranking on .co.uk and at my previous place there is a post of mine in yahoo-answer with reference to my site. It's rather hysterical.
G certainly used the "age" knob in the last days in favor to older sites
I'm still seeing at least one old site dropping and reappearing in the top SERPs. I hope this whole issue can resolved soon.
All those reporting a drop in traffic since the 9th May, do you use banner advertising across more than 80% of your pages?
Having said that, it appears to be coming back to normal ... but I don't want to speak too soon.
I wonder what Google did on that weekend. I wonder if it was hardware or software improvements. Or perhaps newer data deployment?
Regardless of what happened, I can see today slightly improved search results.
I used to rank number 1 a few months ago for one of those terms in the .co.uk - and stayed there for awhile. Then it was up and down for a long time and from about the beginning on April it began to steadily slide. I just put it down to Google messing around with something and status quo would be resumed soon enough.
I now find today that i am no longer on the first page.
What I don't understand is the websites that are now above me are mostly spammers and content scrappers. I update my website everyday with at least two new pages, have a bunch of links from authority websites in my niche and don't do any anything dodgy with regards to seo.
I'm certain that the links I have received since the start of the year are not to blame - the only two things that i can think of causing this decline is a site-wide external link i got (which i am still on the fence about whether or not they do more harm than good) and a change to my homepage copy (which was after the steady decline began anyway).
Would people recommend some urgent action - i dont want to slide anymore - or let things settle for awhile?
Cheers.
I'm now looking at 966,000 results.
I know that Google rankings change often on the weekend for testing or such. That is usually when I see the biggest changes. It's just curious to see such a definite pattern over the course of almost a month. I hope it's a sign of a more permanent shift in the near future but who knows.
[edited by: tedster at 7:40 pm (utc) on May 19, 2008]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]
The only thing I can think is that we are appearing in the first page over the weekend and then drop back down over the week. That just seems really odd to me...
Google began experimenting with time sensitive results a while back. Weekend versus week-day is one version, and seasonal variations (winter, spring, summer, autumn, gift-giving holidays, etc) are another. Some people report what appear to be time of day variations too.
So it might seem odd, but believe your eyes - it is happening. There are all kinds of factors that are now influencing the sERPs, or soon will be. Check out this April 2007 patent on Scoring based on Traffic Analysis [appft1.uspto.gov]
I did have my first site drop one year ago and at the same time my new site replaced the old one as I was only promoting the new site at the time.
I have been receiving many offers for triangular linking but I never do it as I can't have any control as with reciprocal linking. Many say that reciprocal links were not as important as they used to be but I personally don't think so. Any advice?
My site in question users a very small number of affiliate banner ads, with the rest mostly mostly adsense.
I was hit by the May 9 drop, and the only ads I show are G/adsense.
I have a website with affiliate ads on pretty much every page and the keywords i am competing for are highly competitive.
What size, wouldn't happen to be 468x60 would it?
What size, wouldn't happen to be 468x60 would it?
I have one "indicator" term which is more volatile than others I watch. That seems to just be moving me up and down between 7 and 9 on Google.com when I look at the DCs on a proxy checker but I'm stuck at #2 on google.co.uk.
There are two different sets of SERPS on the DCs for this term but the differences are very minor just the top 3 shuffling. And for other, less volatile terms I'm just seeing one version of SERPS.
Cheers
Sid
The results using a proxy service out of the US, are completely different - no .co.uk or .au sites - serps make sense.
Here they don't as for our sector you aren't going to be doing business with a company in the UK or Austrailia as the freight charges would be stupid.
They had removed them about 12-14 weeks ago, then brought them back about 8-10 weeks ago, where they remain.
Any one else seeing UK and AU sites doing this?
Its seems like google has switched the May 9TH changes back on. Anybody else seening this.
I haven't noticed any switching. My rankings have been AWOL since May 9th.
Seems new sites of a certain criteria are being allowed to jet up more though. Surprised to see new sites able to be propped up by network linking.
I am seeing a similar thing, since the 9th any site which has affiliates on it has been slapped big time.
We have lots of original content but monetize through affiliate networks.
How can anyone afford to create a quality content filled site and then not earn any money out of it to pay the hosting bills.
Are you sure Google might be thinking your pushing the ads too hard and made people suffer or could there be coincidences of something else?
<snip>
nothing but BAD news, what is going on, I see sites with 25 back links out rank my site wit hover 700! unbelievable, bad update. Not just that but we actually have better quality content than any other site that ranks right now.
[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 5:11 pm (utc) on May 21, 2008]
[edit reason] removed link [/edit]
In my area there is a web with just a image on it placed higher than my content which has 60 IBL and has been featured on Google and Yahoo news. CRaZy.
What should i do sit tight or report it to Google.
Are getting listed higher than me for my own unique content. Even through they link to me.
You think you're results are bad? High value term I'm looking at has an affiliate URL as the No.4 spot out of millions! Just the URL, no title, no description and if you click on it, it 301's to the merchant that is listed in the No.1 spot!
