Google Updates and SERP Changes - February 2010

[mikeclover]

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

I have noticed a big increase in my Blog Traffic, but my keyword traffic is down. I am going to assume that Caffeine has not hit all data servers yet ? I would assume this because my contacts in Chicago, Iowa all say my keyword rankings are -30. My assoicates on the west coast say I am on the first page. Here in Texas I am on the first page. The wierd thing is my traffic is not really down. hmmmmmm

[edited by: tedster at 5:47 pm (utc) on Feb. 1, 2010]

[steveb]

"Why not make a simple announcement?"

Because it goes without saying. The idea that launching of an entirely new way to run their core product would occur like flipping on a light switch is naive.

The issue here seems to be more that they are launching a few things during the same time frame. Personally I think personalization is so bumblefiddled that any other changes are dwarfed in contrast.

[brinked]

"Because it goes without saying. The idea that launching of an entirely new way to run their core product would occur like flipping on a light switch is naive."

Nobody expects it to be turned on with a snap of the finger... I am sorry if that's what you got out of reading my post.

My point is, google made a decision to keep its users in the loop and announcing this new caffeinated update. They provided updates about where it can be tested, when it will be live on a select amount of datacenters and when it will be fully rolled out (after the holidays).

Technically, after the holidays is the first business day after January 1st. There has not been any update from google about caffeine. Because so much time has passed between updates, people will assume something went wrong.

This can not be disputed...read these forums, read up on any community that follows caffeine.

Google cant have it both ways...if you want to keep your users informed, do it 100%, don't leave them in the dark when it becomes convenient. This will only cause people to speculate the worst. But it all comes down to all will be forgotten when it is finally rolled out....except for all the people who are complaining about their drop in serps heh. Cant please everyone.

[barretire]

Technically actually after the holidays can also be 3 months from now. Also I want to point out that Google also made this announcement in my book partially or fully to divert attention from what was going on with Bing. Coincidense ? Maybe.... But maybe not...

[steveb]

"Technically, after the holidays is the first business day after January 1st."

Um, no. Technically it means any time between Jan 2, 2010 and the next zillion years.

More to the point, what diference does it make? "Are we there yet?" doesn't help anything. Google's results change every day. Sometimes they make good tweaks, sometimes bad ones. They don't owe anyone updates on how they change things, but when they do announce changes, fine.

[tedster]

Google did say they would announce when Caffeine is completely rolled out. That's pretty good, IMO. They certainly don't owe the world a play-by-play narration of whatever they are wrestling with.

[arizonadude]

Technically, they should of just kept their mouth shut instead of just releasing something to counter the press that Bing was getting at the time.

That's all that announcement was about. Google does not have a history of announcing changes until after they happen and I doubt that it would of been any different if Bing wasn't stealing the spotlight during that time frame.

[edited by: arizonadude at 4:13 am (utc) on Feb 14, 2010]

[brinked]

"Google did say they would announce when Caffeine is completely rolled out. That's pretty good, IMO. They certainly don't owe the world a play-by-play narration of whatever they are wrestling with."

IMO google does owe us more feedback on caffeine. They asked it's users to provide feedback about google caffeine, which a lot of people (including myself) did.

As a long time customer of google who spends over $50k+ a month on adwords alone for the last 4+ years, YES I absolutely do think that google has to give me some kind of an update as to what's going on.

barretire,steveb, I dont know where you guys are from, but where I come from when somebody says "after the holidays" and its November/December that means the first week of January (dont let your girlfriend fool you into thinking valentines day is a real holiday). My fault for using the word "technically" so loosely, just dont take it out on your scientific calculators. But that's fine, I know a lot of forum people like to disagree just for the sake of disagreeing.

Back to the issue at hand, maybe I am just bitter about google's stock falling $100 over the last few months. But does anyone else think that google requested Matt Cutts to stop tweeting for a month to avoid everyone asking him for caffeine updates?

And to get back on topic: The 6 proxies that I have been monitoring caffeine on have all reverted to pre-caffeine as of yesterday as far as I know. Also, the 1 military IP I have been tracking caffeine on also started showing pre-caffeine as of this afternoon. Is anyone seeing any caffeinated results anywhere? If not, this can be a positive sign they are getting ready to finally roll out...or not...what the heck does anyone really know.

[brinked]

yeah, i agree google made an announcement only as a response to Bing. That is why I feel it was a bad idea. Keep me in the dark google, you have always done so before, why change now?

[edited by: tedster at 5:10 am (utc) on Feb 14, 2010]

[tedster]

The last time anything as massive as Caffeine happened at Google, they rolled out the Big Daddy infrastructure. And they did bring webmasters into the loop in advance - beginning with three months of "Jagger" updates that prepared the way for the changeover.

I'm not happy with a lot that Google has been doing recently, but I cannot fault them for the advance warning about Caffeine. The new infrastructure was in the planning for a very long time.

[walkman]

My guess is that Google is doing the adjustments live, albeit in just a few DCs. So, instead of going live in 100% of DCs with not-final-results only to tweak them for 1 month, they went live in a few first and are fine tuning.

This is just a guess, it's also possible that google has hit some problems

[whitenight]

the 6 proxies that I have been monitoring caffeine on have all reverted to pre-caffeine as of yesterday as far as I know. Also, the 1 military IP I have been tracking caffeine on also started showing pre-caffeine as of this afternoon.

First, let me say THANK YOU brink!
Lately, I feel like when discussing the Caff. I'm getting a lot of "deer in headlights" stares with many SEOs.
Your observational confirmations show me others ARE seeing the same things we are seeing.

Nice work! _{You're now one of my new favs.}

------------------------

While i realize Gorg is on a self-imposed deadline (yes, Gorg, WE know about it too),
the fact that Caff has NOT rolled out is ultimately a good thing.
There were some nasty things included with the recent Caff infrastructure that,
unfortunately, nearly nobody noticed and any delay on THOSE things is a good thing.

[steveb]

"but where I come from when somebody says "after the holidays" and its November/December that means the first week of January"


Expecting that is silly. Seriously, after the holidays means 2010. They don't have to meet your calendar, and expecting them too just creates grief for yourself.

[Hissingsid]

Any other UK folks noticed a semantics tweak on Google.co.uk?

Cheers

Sid

[dertyfern]

Hissingsid, I'm seeing some odd referrals from Google today.

[zeus]

the wierd thing is, for my many keyword I have not been listed anywhere in google serps for 5 month, I have also not done anything to get back be cause nothing is wrong with the site, but in caffeine search i am and was there from the begining.

[mcskoufis]

Zeus can you please say if you saw this in a random google search or a specific data center?

[kd454]

I have been monitoring Caffeine on several data centers and cannot find it anywhere now. If someone has a data center it is running could you please post it?

[helpnow]

zeus - you said 5 months - would you mind saying exactly when it started for you? October? We've had issues with the same symptoms since October 12, just curious if this date means anything to you...

[walkman]

Expecting that is silly. Seriously, after the holidays means 2010. They don't have to meet your calendar, and expecting them too just creates grief for yourself.

Technically even 8 months from now is 'after the holidays' but come on.

I have been monitoring Caffeine on several data centers and cannot find it anywhere now. If someone has a data center it is running could you please post it?

I concur, simply based on a 30% traffic drop.

[brinked]

whiteknight, I have been doing this for over ten years now. I know it says I am a member for several but I have been lurking this forum for about 7-8 years now. I usually come here when I get stuck with something or feel there is an update coming to see what others say. Other boards are filled with too many questions from people who do not know how to do their own research and trial and error to figure something out on their own, but rather want hand outs. Tedster has helped a lot through the years, I always make it a point to visit his threads. Just like why I watch Matt Cutts Webmaster videos, I know the subject of the video is not something I am interested, but sometimes I can take something useful out of it.

The only way you can really get anywhere close to understanding how to rank in G is to fail, fail and then fail some more and then slow things down and experiment so much that you find yourself still awake at 5:30 in the morning with 10 empty pepsi cans on your desk.

It's very important to track everything you do. I log everything down, I closely monitor every single back link and every single SERP that I can because I know a penalty is just around the corner if I slip up like I have done so many times in the past.

Anyway, I guess that means caffeine is not live anywhere for the moment. Looking forward to see what happens this week.

[BillyS]

BillyS,

lol
This is EXACTLY what I've been saying.
Caffeine has been LIVE since Dec 24 10pm PST.
THATS WHY you got an "unexplainable" increase in traffic.

I'm sorry to report that our traffic has not moved one bit over the last several days. In fact, today is about 5% ahead of last Sunday.

As I've mentioned before, it's not always clear what Google is doing. I would not be surprised if they announce the update is over and Caffiene is live on all data centers.

[ChrisHamilton]

Quick intro, long time reader, first time poster.

Anyway -

Caffeine was not live 24th Dec at all.

I have it marked down on the 8th of February. My website in Google.co.uk ranked 13th with 25,000,000 results.

On 209.85.225.103 at the same time, it ranked 5th with 15,000,000 results.

If it was REALLY rolled out by now, Google would have made an announcement.

Caffeine has definitely been removed from all the data centers at the moment though, hopefully its a sign that Google is done testing and is preparing to roll out?

[whitenight]

BillyS,

Lol, it's obvious you're more interested in "proving me wrong" than understanding YOUR OWN SITE'S increase in traffic.

What's wrong with that picture?!

So i hope you won't mind if i take your Caff. "analysis" or post updates with a grain of salt, yes?

-------------------

On the other hand, a handful of people who have built up "analysis trustworthiness" of SERPs
have confirmed what I've been seeing and reporting on.
To them I say "thanks"

Of course, if it fits one's comfort level, I'm sure one's fav "guru" or Gorg employee #1-#3 will be along shortly with something to assuage one's discomfort (or just create more FUD).

Whatever works for each individual, yes?

[crobb305]

Pardon my ignorance here, but what we are going to notice when Caffeine is rolled out? How do we know it hasn't already been rolled out (if it is just an infrastructure change)? I didn't think there was supposed to be a noticeable change in the SERPS.

The only real change I have seen (and mentioned by others) are some sites falling -40 to -60 in December and January, and still no recovery.

[walkman]

Crob, do a search here [209.85.225.103...] and notice a keyword difference with google.com and then check from time to time

Caffeine or cocaine, this is different

[crobb305]

walkman, thank you. I will keep an eye on it. I didn't realize there were visible changes, just thought it was backend stuff for faster indexing, etc. I am falling behind.

C

[Hissingsid]

For me there is absolutely no difference between that IP and Google.com

Sid

[ChrisHamilton]

Thats because Caffeine was removed from all data centers a couple of days ago Sid :(

I havent seen caffeine results for days now..

[cangoou]

Seems Google is trying to clear the mess with Buzz first and then the mess with Caffein...

I'm trying but I'm not able to analyse something at all. Domains I'm watching are vanishing from 2 to 60 without any reason, other domains are just standing still although they gained a lot of good and fresh links. I got 2 sites that haven't seen almost no new link for 6 month - one is ranking better then ever, the other went -20 ranks.

Okay, now is the time where you normally say: Lay back and wait. But we now wait since - well June 09? - and the SERPs seem to me more and more random.

[dertyfern]

For me there is absolutely no difference between that IP and Google.com

Did you clear up your browser? I'm seeing significant differences.