Fresh content, relevant links, good traffic. Is it all humbug?

[dickbaker]

I've been reading and replying to many posts here about the latest Google shuffle. It's to the point where I need to take Dramamine before checking my rankings.

Several years ago I built a site for a retail store, and got that site ranked well for the relevant search phrases. I got the site up to about 20,000 visitors a month which, while not a huge number, was enough to satisfy the owner.

A couple of years later I built my own site in the same niche. I was also focusing on some of the same keywords and phrases that I had for the retail store.

I've been adding content constantly to my site, getting relevant links, and increasing traffic to where my site now gets 350,000 to 500,000 visitors a month.

Meanwhile, I haven't touched the site for my friend's retail store in at least two years. No new content, no new links, no new anything.

And, while my site's rankings for terms like "Acme widgets" have bounced from #3 to #12 to #6 to #9, the retail store's site has stayed steady. There's been no bouncing around. The site is solidly #3 to #5 for the terms the owner wanted.

I've also noticed that some of the sites that are displacing me in the SERPS are sites that have few backlinks, and often haven't been updated in at least a year.

This flies in the face of all of the conventional wisdom I've picked up here on WW. It also makes no sense at all.

[tedster]

I agree that something new seems to be a part of the Google picture recently. The traditional factors are not exactly humbug - they are still part of the total picture, but along with this new x-factor. What the new factor is, I'm not ready to guess. For anyone whose site is strongly affected, it certainly might feel like a completely strange land.

The way some previously lower-ranked sites now pop up on page 1 is part of the picture I think, as well as long-time top ranked sites going to page 2 or 3. There's something new and strange inside that Google black box that we struggle to model for ourselves.

[Wlauzon]

I am definately not so sure about the "fresh content".

I consistently see sites come up in search that are badly outdated, and in fact one of our nearly abandonded sites has had the #2 position for years for one of the most relevant search terms, while our much more active site, updated daily, has been hanging out at #7 for about the same amount of time.

[tedster]

Agreed, freshness is much more important for some sites and some query terms than others. Some types of websites are not expected to update all that often, where others must in order to rank well. And in parallel with site types, some query terms demonstrate so much "burstiness" at various times that fresh content is critical to maintain a ranking for that term.

In 2006, Google introduced a QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) flag on their back end - especially to pick up on the "hot topics" of the day. This type of freshness is query-dependent, rather than dependent on the website's taxonomy.

[Kristos]

QUOTE"The way some previously lower-ranked sites now pop up on page 1 is part of the picture I think, as well as long-time top ranked sites going to page 2 or 3. There's something new and strange inside that Google black box that we struggle to model for ourselves. "
yes Tedster this is exactly correct
site that cater to the information hound (G) by giving more and more what looks like it should have been on wikipedia are the sites that will rise to the top
THINK about, is my site informational ?
and figure out how to make it that way
G is after information, ALL medias, the biggest thing, obeying what the G reps said to me personally, has resulted in dramatic rises in areas we have (just one site) no right to be in if you just gauge age and backlinks - competing directly - ON THE FRONT PAGE - with TRUE authorities in the arena.
A rich (meaning video - audio, pictures and content) USER EXPERIENCE ( I could repeat that 10 times) - USER EXPERIENCE will get you where you need to go
also
watch your css, you PAGE AT THIS POINT in G's evolution, need to look at your page without CSS and make sure it looks like a NEWS page on the internet from 1996 (you may or may not have been around then!)
G is paying REAL CLOSE ATTENTION TO SUCH THINGS