Google.com SERP Changes - August 2008

[daveshap]

< continued from: [webmasterworld.com...] >

One thing I'm noticing is when I intentionally do a query that is one letter off and then click on the Google "did you mean" link, it returns one set of results, then when I click on the search button again the results are different even though the query is technically the same. The results after clicking on the search button are more in line with what I'd traditionally seen.

Perhaps Google is using different datacenters for query refinement results?

[edited by: tedster at 2:21 pm (utc) on Aug. 1, 2008]

[innocbystr]

Dickbaker, it's advertised as: View a Web Page as 'Googlebot'.

Blair

[tedster]

Where can I find out more about this -950 penalty and remedies

In the Hot Topics [webmasterworld.com], which is always pinned to the top of this forum's index page. It's the longest running discussion we've ever had, but there's a top level summary here: Google -30 & 950 Penalties - brief summaries [webmasterworld.com]

[innocbystr]

Thanks tedster. I've had problems with these two keywords getting listed from day one (a little over a year ago). Have never had that problem on any of my other sites. I'll give your two links a good going over.

Blair

[dickbaker]

This yo-yo effect has gotten out of hand.

For the Acme Sporting Widgets phrase I mentioned a couple of posts back, the first page results include a site I hadn't seen before. I checked it out.

It looks like it was created by a nine year-old. Yahoo shows that it has five backlinks. When I tried to guesstimate traffic by using Google trends and the Alexa ranking tool, the site didn't even show when compared to other sites on the first page.

When I did a site: search on Yahoo, there were 49 results, including results such as this from the shopping cart page: http://www.example.com/store/shopcart/?product_id=123&add=1.

A site: search is showing shopping cart results? What's more, the site doesn't even use its own checkout. It redirects to a third-party processor.

And this site ranks #5 out of over 300,000 results on Google. Unbelievable.

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 10:52 pm (utc) on Aug. 6, 2008]
[edit reason] Please use example.com - it can never be owned [/edit]

[smc1]

hey guys,

since 21 july my google traffic dropped from 40k daily uniques to 10k daily uniques.

I haven't changed my forum since months, only added new content, 100% whitehat.

Anyone got similar problems?

I've checked some keywords where I usually on page #1, now I'm on page #3, #6 or !#20!

The site got a natural linkbuilding (5k links), no bought links.

Sorry for my bad english.

[edited by: tedster at 10:13 pm (utc) on Aug. 10, 2008]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]

[JoeSinkwitz]

smc1, this is just a hunch, but I think you're going to experience a yo-yo. Also, if you haven't looked at G webmaster tools for this site, do so...you'll probably have some dupe metas, a few short metas, and maybe some broken links.

[StaceyJ]

On one of my keyword phrases that I used to rank very well for there is now a webring site at #1 & 2. #*$!? My site is now hovering around ~50 or so. Talk about garbage... and of course they have adsense on there.

[StaceyJ]

And another garbage site at 10 & 11 for the same keyword phrase has the exact same Title and Meta Description on both of those pages and many more.

[gunjanp]

Hey Friends,

I need your support..I have done optimization for my one websites..

All my Meta Tags are unique..
My all content are unique...
I am adding 2 to 3 articles in News section every week..
I am doing Directories Submission, Article Submission and SBM daily for getting links...

In previous month my ranking was well on most of the keywords. But from this month i don't know why my ranking is going down and down day by day.. and traffic from Google is also decrease..

From my side i observed that in Google.com so much spam sites ar increasing and due to these spam sites my ranking going down..Because my site is only 1 year old..

I found that on <one keyword> for #1 to #30 only 1 site is genuine and all other sites are spam sites..

So friends give me your suggestions and idea now what is the solution for getting my ranking again in 1 to 10..

[edited by: tedster at 5:07 pm (utc) on Aug. 11, 2008]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]

[tedster]

Without naming any specifics, can you describe what kind of spam sites you see appearing? In other words, why do you label them spam?

[gunjanp]

All sites are .edu and .gov domains and they are hacked sites they are redirected on other <highly competitive market area> related sites...

Even they are using forums, bebo, linkedin, digg, profile page for promoting their websites...So those are not genuine sites all are redirecting to other site..

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 5:26 pm (utc) on Aug. 11, 2008]
[edit reason] Removed specifics [/edit]

[marketingmagic]

and you've sent in spam reports right?

[smc1]

StaceyJ,

are you sure? Because I'm waiting 22 days now (seems a little bit long for the yo-yo effect), every day I only get 10k uniques instead of the usual 40k.

Too bad, on some keywords a malware site ranks on place #1 instead of my site that ranked 2 years on that place.

My site is 4 years old, I'm using adsense and analytics btw.

I also use wmt+sitemaps.

"you'll probably have some dupe metas, a few short metas, and maybe some broken links."

thats correct, can this cause such a huge traffic drop?

[JoeSinkwitz]

Yes, the dupes can cause a drop and should be fixed asap. Once they are fixed and those pages are recached you'll probably see the upswing. While fixing the pages, go get yourself some authoritative links.

[StaceyJ]

StaceyJ,

are you sure? Because I'm waiting 22 days now (seems a little bit long for the yo-yo effect), every day I only get 10k uniques instead of the usual 40k.

Sorry, am I sure of what?

The yo-yo effect has been going on for a lot longer than 22 days.

"you'll probably have some dupe metas, a few short metas, and maybe some broken links."

thats correct, can this cause such a huge traffic drop?

Well, G seems to be making more of a point of them in GWT so I would take that as a hint. General feeling seems to be dup titles and Meta descriptions are bad, but then again you have my post above about the site at #10 & 11, so go figure...

[JoeSinkwitz]

Stacey, he got you and I mixed up. I guess my beard isn't very full yet.

[smc1]

ohps I'm sorry, my post should belong to JoeSinkwitz, this forum needs a quote function =P

[potentialgeek]

> Well, G seems to be making more of a point of them in GWT so I would take that as a hint.

Disagree. Without additional comment from Matt Cutts or another rep like GoogleGuy I don't think you can read anything into it. We don't even know if the people who do GWT are on the same Team as the SERP Team.

> General feeling seems to be dup titles and Meta descriptions are bad.

Yesterday I saw a site that had moved high and most all its titles sidewide are identical. Why doesn't Google see that as spam?

p/g

[Receptional Andy]

Sidewide duplicate titles aren't spam - they're a major failing in terms of page construction.

They're bad from a promotional point of view since they're about as big a missed opportunity as you're likely to see with on-page SEO. That doesn't mean that it's impossible that one or more of those pages with key elements duplicated can perform well, it just means that the traffic potential is severely limited.

[sunroof]

Has anyone recovered from June 4th catastrophe?

At that day many good and old sites were badly hurt.

One site of mine lost 3/4 of Google traffic on that day and still hasn't came back.

[icedowl]

My main site that is now over eight years old is finally making a comeback from the depths of you name it, but it has nothing to do with the June 4th problems. I simply put in the time and effort to rebuild every single page from the ground up, doing the right things along the way that I've mostly learned here at WW. Lots of elbow grease too with nearly a thousand pages to recreate.

My primary cures were to make sure that each page had a unique and long enough descriptive meta description and title. The meta descriptions had been lacking and many had been duplicated. The titles have really not changed much from what they had been, just improved a tad. I haven't bothered much over keywords as knowing them wouldn't change the way I write anyhow. I stick to what's natural. As a side effect of the rewrite, the page sizes were all reduced from around 20k down to an average of 7-8k without losing any of the original information. The site also now has a different menu system with links to the main sections along the top and links to subsections at the left side of those section pages. It probably had suffered from the "mega menu" syndrome.

It's now pretty much a tie between Google and Yahoo for traffic and it's looking like Google may finally pull ahead in this race. At the worst point in time over the last many months (well over a year), Yahoo managed to send 25 visitors for every 1 from Google.

My fingers are crossed that this trend continues.

[Northstar]

So has anyone seen any major movement on their site since July? I wonder it their are going to be any more change to googles algo or is this what we are stuck with for another year?

[con771]

..."or is this what we are stuck with for another year?"

Wow that's one heck of a scary throught!. I've gotten worse since July... no signs of things getting better yet!

[outland88]

I think things will start hopping again after the Olympics.

[smc1]

no change on my site yet, still getting 10k daily uniques instead of 40k from google. I hope this won't take months -_-

I've filled a reinclusion request 2 weeks ago, no idea if google _ever_ replies, but I think it's worth a try :p

[BillyS]

ohps I'm sorry, my post should belong to JoeSinkwitz, this forum needs a quote function =P

[ChicagoFan67]

Most of my pages have been holding steady in the #1, #2 or #3 position for many months now. However, this morning I woke to find that many of them had been demoted by 1 position. Where I was once #1 I'm now #2. This seems to be occuring for search terms where there do exist other pages like mine. Where there are not, I'm fine. Where I was #2 I've been moved down to #3, however in these instances the #1 site has everytime retained its positon at the top.

Some kind of small site-wide penalty perhaps? It is really starting to look like Google has singled me out.

[potentialgeek]

Wow. I see an eBay directory with #1 SERP for a competitive phrase.

%&^%$#!

Shouldn't that be in the Froogle/Shopping search results?

p/g

[zaneta]

My site was first with one major keyword for almost two years having also 6 internal links appearing under the url in google searches
Suddenly lost first position and when 11 to 15 but not with the www.example.com as usually was but with www.example.com/index.htm !

Strange is that when checking in google results when this page was cashed ahows 27 January
When checking when URL = www.example.com is cashed shows 7 August
Any comments why this happened ?

[tedster]

What you are describing, zaneta, involves a kind of "canonical url" problem, as explained here: [webmasterworld.com...]

Now why did it just show up now? ...and with such an old cache date? That may be a harder thing to explain, except to say that Google's data contains mysteries and bugs. At any rate, I hope the thread I linked to helps you with some ideas for a fix.