Google.com SERP Changes - November 2008

[b2net]

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

A set of holiday season penalties and filters just rolled out.

[edited by: tedster at 3:21 am (utc) on Nov. 1, 2008]

[petehall]

Oh my god, this is terrible. I cannot believe what I am seeing.

[gouri]

Can you guys please provide some details on this? I am not exactly sure on what is going on and I think you guys are more on top of this.

[bucklersbury]

I am also seeing major shake up in the SERPS we are monitoring - a #1 site dropped out completely.

[Shaddows]

I see chaos. Major keywords look ok here. I might be seeing some site-wide penalties on some sites (not necessarily my niche though)- I thought they were retired apart from serious transgressions.

Anyone with multiple sites/clients noticing patterns yet?

[petehall]

Seems to be completely random to me

[petehall]

bucklersbury - are the inner pages still ranking? I think you may find just the home page has disappeared of that no1 site.

[whitenight]

lol its pretty awful, but it IS what i predicted.

That said, it looks like they are still working on it (i hope)
if not, yet again, another failed MESS of a holiday update by Google.

This is the company on the cusp of AI? lol yea right.

[fenryr]

google.de is getting hit hard, too :(

[andrewshim]

I am also seeing major shake up in the SERPS we are monitoring - a #1 site dropped out completely.

also hit hard. what exactly is this holiday filter?

[claimsweb]

yep - definitely something major going down in my sectors and literally just kicked off in the last few hours. Lets hope this is a trick cos it certainly doesnt look like a treat from where Im sitting.

[tigger]

with 2 sites I've had dropped from number one to frig knows where for the index pages I'm not wondering if its just work in progress and these index will return - both of the sites I've seen drop have been sat at number one for years both with pretty solid seo (no doggy tricks) so was surprised to see them both vanish - but other pages within the url are still ranking so it makes me think work is in hand and may/hope they will bounce back

[whitenight]

what exactly is this holiday filter?

See gford's post (about 15 back)

-----------

Personally I'm giving these "experimental" SERPs until the US presidential election (Nov. 5th) to be fixed, reversed, whatever-the-heck-they-need-to-do to make them even half-way decent compared to even MSN.

If not, you can fully expect my edited rants from the #6 BUG of last year to make a reappearance...
of course, the same ambassadors can ask MC what's going on beforehand so we don't repeat the #6 BUG feedback. ;)

[Dubhglais]

I am seeing a number of home pages being dropped for their own name with sitemap and other secondary pages being returned.

This is being discussed on the following thread [webmasterworld.com...]

I am seeing client sites being dropped almost in front of my eyes

[venti]

Add us to the list of majorly hit by this. Starting Wednesday... we are down about 40%. Today is going to be even worse. We are not in an industry that should be effected by "holiday trends" at all... purely informational subjects..

[edited by: venti at 5:12 pm (utc) on Oct. 31, 2008]

[b2net]

Are you guys seeing the same thing as me: subpages rank ok but the main page has dropped to page 6 for it's core keywords, however it still ranks for other keywords. Sitelinks have disappeard when searching for the site name. Site was a solid #2.

[gford]

I have not seen this hit my monitored sites yet. But maybe my client sites have been, no word from anyone yet, which is a good thing.

Can anyone PM an example, I dont need site names, just example before/after.

[venti]

@b2net: our homepage still shows up at the top but we did lose our sitelinks. Webmaster tools still shows them. We have a LOT of "subpages" and while the ones I check are still showing well, our overall traffic is way down suggesting the opposite.

[tigger]

about right b2net, although the index on my two sites have dropped completely and don't rank period - sub pages are still holding some number 1 places

[petehall]

There's a lot of us in the same boat, so I do hope this is a temporary scenario...

[yahalimu]

All our site links have now gone as of today, on 4 sites.
One site has dropped from 2nd to 21st, the other risen from 19th to 4th.

Major changes..

I suspect new filters related to anchor texts.. I.e. variation of anchor texts (or not) is being noticed and acted upon.
Maybe forum links are de-valued ?

[Shaddows]

Say my site was www.mysitename.tld

I've lost sitelinks for searches for
mysitename
mysitename.tld

still have it for www.mysitename.tld (though I have no idea who would seach for that!)

And my best selling product page has gone from a solid #2 for the best two-word phrase (behind manufacturer site) , replaced by my own forums (two pages, one indented) on forum.mysitename.tld

And its returning two review pages from my site at #1 for the three-word phrase.

That will hurt!

[spiritualseo]

I have some product based keywords that produce really strange results. The results are filled with sites that are not even remotely close to what the searcher might be looking for. Book search results, shopping comparision sites, old news articles, amazon listings you name it. Hakia! - here I come....

[spiritualseo]

@Shaddows - you are absolutely right. I search for "sitename" and my site is listed 10th. Wow!

[ModernM]

Home page has been kicked back 5 - 10 positions depending on keyword. Site links gone but sub pages seem ok.

Cal

[Dave_Hybrid]

Seeing weird results also, my site is ok so far but some competitive searches I monitor are ranking pretty new domains in top 3 with like 5 backlinks, weird to say the least.

[Dave_Hybrid]

Scrub that, being hit now too, rankings falling by the minute, sucks.

[SEOPTI]

Lucky Google, more penalties for webmasters. They really know how to do all the penalty stuff <sarcastic>

[edited by: SEOPTI at 6:50 pm (utc) on Oct. 31, 2008]

[Rugles]

I am also seeing major shake up in the SERPS we are monitoring - a #1 site dropped out completely.

I am seeing a competitor, who has been #1 for close to 2 years, drop to the mid 30's for a very competitive 2 word keyword.

This has just happened in the last couple of hours.

Luckily, our rankings are holding steady.

So I am guessing there has been some sort of a penalty racheted upwards in the last 24 hours.

Fasten your seatbelts, it could be a wild ride!

[Timetraveler]

Seeing very bad changes for high money keywords of mine. No pattern as of yet, just random pages getting knocked out completely. Happy Halloween.