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]

[zaneta]

Thank you Tedster I will read them carefully

[SEOPTI]

sunroof, no recovery from June 4 penalty round. The only way to recover is to close your old domain and create a new site.

[g1smd]

I am seeing the return of [site:domain.com "keyword keyword"] searches showing results from other domains after the expected results on a small number of searches.

This is mainly (only?) happening on searches with a very low number of results (several to dozens), but I still class it as a bug.

[sunroof]

SEOPTI, you created a new site with the same content?

[SEOPTI]

Yes, I created a site with the same content and will push zillions of URLs into their index, sometimes their is no other chance to survive.

[edited by: SEOPTI at 10:48 pm (utc) on Aug. 18, 2008]

[outland88]

One thing I’m noticing this month is Google is failing to place spaces between words in titles in many instances. This is something I’ve only seen Yahoo do when they’re penalizing pages. Could it be Google and Yahoo are sharing a few things or merged something together or is it another bug. It seems to trace back to beginning in early July.

[Nick0r]

I have also noticed this in the past few days. Google is also randomly ignoring '.'s (aka fullstops) in titles and merging words. E.g. if a page was titled "Site Example.com" the title in the SERPs (or more specifically, in a site: search) would show as "Site Examplecom".

I have seen this across multiple sites. The caches are fine - the titles show up properly, as do they in the source. Just another one of Google's bugs :S

[outland88]

I'm seeing even more oddities in Google tonight. Seems like there servers have slowed and inputing things is even slower. Everything find on engines like MSN, Yahoo, etc. Could be my area.

Yes they seem to be ignoring periods, dashes, and running words together in titles.

[potentialgeek]

> Yes they seem to be ignoring periods, dashes, and running words together in titles.

This is a coding error. It makes Google look unprofessional b/c Results are inconsistent.

p/g

[c41lum]

I have just yo-yo'd back out, any body else noticed this. My site had been pretty stable for the last 2 weeks as well, I thought G had sorted itself out.

[eljacko]

Has anyone got a concrete theory on why this is happening?

Been looking at [singhal.info...] Amit Singhal's blog and it states that google are testing different algorithms every other day. Could this be another major Google update in the coming?

[Bewenched]

I've noticed a drop in traffic as well in the last 2 days. No change in PR, but have seen alot of the long-tail keywords that had been bringing traffic simply stop or drastically slow down.

[outland88]

They seem to be yo-yoing the long tail results rapidly in some cases. I've been monitoring it on DC's for a while.

[coldfused]

I was getting ready to come post and ask if anyone else was noticing all of the madness going on. In the Florida market we are showing different results every day for the last few weeks. How much longer?

Enough already.

[Mbwto]

We see a drastic changes in rankings for long tail keywords. Traffic of tail terms increased 5 times with in a day. Any one else seeing it. It looks like some of our small clients are loosing their ranks but our big clients with page rank 6 or more are ranking for everything. Its good for big clients.

Note - I doubt this will stay as it is, because the search results that we are getting are not of good quality as they were before the update.

Things to learn - If this stays, we should concentrate more on getting quality links for the home page of website and not worry about deep linking, because even if you don't have the right keyword phrase that someone is looking for, you will rank high if your home page has good back links.

[confuscius]

Many of those affected by the June 4 fiasco ( and apparently ongoing other fiascos ) have PR6+ websites with quality backlinks and rank for virtually nothing anymore, short or long tail!

In the past if you built a site, got good links and stayed on topic then there was some predictability that your efforts would be rewarded with patience. My advice to anyone thinking of starting an online business built upon the foundation of natural SEO traffic would be simple - think of something else to do with your life.

[Mbwto]

Confucius - " think of something else to do with your life. "

Hehehe.

Dear Confucius, you need to remember what Confucius said. "Never depend on one source of income"

I do feel the pain of my of my small clients who have recently lost their rankings. I am also happy for those who gained it

Here is my advice to new comers -
Create more websites
Work Harder
Also invest your hard earned money somewhere other than search.

PageRank is nowhere near a perfect algorithm. If you are not spamming, that does not mean you are not at risk. Your risk is a little less than those who are spamming.

[edited by: Mbwto at 10:20 pm (utc) on Aug. 21, 2008]

[Quinn]

Mbwto:

I'm noticing a consistent yo-yo for long tail phrases but here's the curious part - "widget" remains stable. "city widget" listings are moving up/down as much as 50 places. "City State Widget" is stable.

I'm seeing this on 3 2500+ page sites.

[Mbwto]

Hi Quinn,

We are seeing the same thing with some of our clients. Some keywords are getting effected but others are not. One of our client had a drastic increase in its tail keyword traffic. While other clients are loosing and gaining the ranks without any exact pattern.

A few of our clients have no effect.

[rocco]

PageRank is nowhere near a perfect algorithm. If you are not spamming, that does not mean you are not at risk. Your risk is a little less than those who are spamming.

Spamming is probably less risky as the exit strategy is already decided. The biggest risk is building a quality site over years and then seeing it pushed down.

[SEOPTI]

confuscius, really wise words!

[dongjp]

to c41lum,
so do i, yo-yo'd away since August 10'th, and yo-yo'd back on August 20'th.

[Northstar]

one of my sites yo-yo'ed back in again, keeping my fingers crossed thats about all you can do now days it seems.

[Mbwto]

2 of our lost tail keyword ranking websites are back. 1 website of our website lost the gaining ranking. So I don't know whats going on?

[Northstar]

Back out again at 4am this morning! This really stinks! I wonder how long these algo. tests will go on.

[dolcevita]

I have 6 years old site and it is one of leading authority sites in <its niche> and this is story.
2 years a go site was affected for the first time. I have also posted here suddenly dropping for all major terms. 30 days later everything was fine and site was back to old position.
This year in March same thing happened again. About 40 days later site come back to old position.
4 months later site was again affected on August 20 (thus 3 days a go). Today is again back to old position.

I have about 5-6 sites and it always happened only to one. During second period in March this year, the site come back almost every week for 24h and then after 24h again disappeared again.
I hope that very quick come back this time (only 2-3 days) will be permanently.
I have 2 times filled reconsideration request (in March this year and 3 days a go again). First time 2 years a go there were a couple duplicates titles and i have completely through robots.txt disabled access for SE to forum (thought about a lot 302 error for SE because most part of forum was not visible for guest and registration was required), second time i really did not have any idea what was wrong.
Last time 2 days a go i have fixed a couple duplicates description.
That's all. Now just waiting and hoping that this come back will be permanently.

[edited by: tedster at 4:34 pm (utc) on Aug. 23, 2008]
moved from another location

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 4:57 pm (utc) on Aug. 25, 2008]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[johnnie]

My rankings have been tanking heavily the past couple of days. Some of my pages were pushed back a couple of pages, others 8 or 9 positions.

[Mbwto]

Since this update only effects tail keywords, i think some webmaster may not have notice it. They will notice this when they will see their monthly visitors. Individually these keywords worth very less but together their effect can be huge.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 4:52 pm (utc) on Aug. 25, 2008]

[Robert Charlton]

I have about 5-6 sites and it always happened only to one.

dolcevita - It's not clear whether Google would downrank a site just because of common ownership, but it might.

Some of the other considerations that might apply to multiple sites include common hosting, content duplicated across different sites, cross-linking, and common inbound link sources. How different or similar are these sites?

[johnnie]

It appears google is heavily cracking down on reciprocal linking; those sites affected are both relatively heavy on the reciprocals. I guess it's time to drop some links...