Google.com SERP Changes - January 2009

[potentialgeek]

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Google is giving SERP #2 in a very competitive sector to a site that uses browser "hijacking" (back button disabled by redirects/forwards to same page). Not sure if it's a javascript trick that loads when you hit the back button. This site also has a mirror site in the top 20! lol.

Shouldn't Google by 2009 be able to detect and not reward these old-as-the-hills schemes?

p/g

[edited by: tedster at 3:43 pm (utc) on Jan. 1, 2009]

[JnJ22]

Yes, they all are publicly traded.

[tedster]

Are you taking note of the Google IP address as the SERPs shift around for you? I'm thinking you might be seeing different data centers, rather than a changing algo.

[JnJ22]

The results are varying by location and time. For example, they are back to the previous (exact) results from here this evening, but a colleague in another region still sees the new (exact) results. They have flip flopped identically in this region and 2 others around the U.S. a couple times Sun and Mon. Whether we are logged in is not affecting it.

these are verticals we have monitored for over a year, never seen a shake up like this. Long tail keywords not affected.

The time of day fluctuation is not atypical, and different data center fluctuation as well, just normally in small rankings changes. This is the entire top 10 replaced, maybe only 2 of the original top 10 are still there. We only see it in 2 of the verticals we monitor, but the other verticals do not have a Big Name product manufacturer to compete with.

Needless to say, a site dropping from #2 to #8 is going to take a hit. I'm even more curious end of the day that no one has chimed in noticing this, must not be too widespread. Does that indicate manual changes I wonder?

[eljacko]

JnJ22 - you must have noticed that more broad terms have now changed? It's different DC's but overall it's a very strange concept.

The change in DC's and the rapid changes through out the main broad keywords indicates google is running a few of these algos.

Is this the end of the update or is there more?

[eljacko]

The strange thing is that I am working on the .co.uk servers, looking at the .com I am still appearing.

[JnJ22]

eljacko, i haven't noticed other verticals or other broad terms changing still, have you? And the new results you see, are they newly populated with publicly traded companies or manufacturers?

I'm not finding any other verticals where I see this phenomenon still.

And this AM, I see it for one of our verticals, but back to the old results for the other. Same google IP.

[eljacko]

Hello

I see the same now, AM was a disaster but I think this is not the end of it, should see a change soon again, it's the public trading companies I am looking at. I have seen other broad words creep up in some DC's which must be a good sign. I guess not losing more than 10 positions must be good right?

[JoeSinkwitz]

There is a reason why the brands are showing, but whether or not G fixes the problem is another thing.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:31 pm (utc) on Jan. 27, 2009]

[eljacko]

hope it does or it at least it stays the way it is so we can build the rankings back up

[outland88]

I see what you’re saying JnJJ2. It just started this morning in my areas.

[Bewenched]

I've seen a change in traffic to our site since this morning. We are down quite a bit.

[indias next no1]

yes, traffic is down since morning

[Whitey]

No change in traffic yet , but we are seeing a site knocked out for almost 1 year beginning to bubble to the top. Happened around 14 Jan and seems to be entering 2nd phase of strengthening.

Nothing was altered before the increase , except for some very modest linking.

Coincidentally we just released all interlinks at the same time [ 14 Jan ] - so the changes are likely too fast to be related. Especially taking into account Internetheaven's earlier remarks :

Seems Google have turned off the interlinking filter ... probably at the request of the huge worldwide corporations that use Adwords and which interlink all their various businesses. I'd love to be able to name a few on these boards, you should see the mess of the footerlinks of some of these billion dollar companies

Anyone else confirming this ?

[eljacko]

Agin seeing wierd things happening during the AM. I have read and thought whether or not it's the GoogleBomb.

[JnJ22]

The results I see alternate between 2 exact different top 10s, which is not uncommon in my experience- our site when on its way up will hit a #2 spot, fluctuate depending on time of day between #2 and #4, bounce between these slots for a couple weeks and then settle in at #2. So seeing the fluctuation in different DCs and time of day does not surprise me.

What surprises me is the drastic nature of seeing an all new top 10. Some of these sites, while big household names, are not optimized the least. Ex the #6 site does not have this term in their title tag, nor anywhere on their page, very little content in their homepage. Many of these sites were not even top 30 in the old results.

[workingNOMAD]

I see no change in the serps that i watch

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

[edited by: tedster at 8:33 am (utc) on Feb. 2, 2009]