Google's AdSense Farm Update Was a Re-ranking - NOT a Penalty

[TheMadScientist]

I know quite a few of us have said the changes in the SERPs related the AdSense Farm Update is not a penalty, and I've tried to explain it, but there are too many threads to get it in all of them and not everyone reads every post, so I'm going to go ahead and post this in it's own thread so people can link to it rather than trying to explain the difference if they would like.

PENALTY CHANGES - how they work

BEFORE PENALTIES
#1 = will get penalty
#2
#3 = will get penalty
#4
#5

Every result with no penalty just moves up, filling in the gaps that were opened.
They all stay in the same relationship with each other.

AFTER PENALTIES
new #1 = was #2
new #2 = was #4
new #3 = was #5
new #4 = was #6
new #5 = was #7

RE-RANKING CHANGES - how they work

BEFORE RE-RANKING
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

All the results now get shuffled, some go up different amounts and some go down:

AFTER RE-RANKING
new #1 = was #3 [up 2]
new #2 = was #21 [up 19]
new #3 = was #2 [down 1]
new #4 = was #1 [down 3]
new #5 = was #11 [up 6]

So there's a big difference between a penalty change and a re-ranking.
If you only look at drops you don't see the bigger picture of what happened.

[edited by: tedster at 7:47 pm (utc) on Mar 1, 2011]

[Shaddows]

honestman, it sounds exactly like google considers you a legitimate target as either a plain link seller (embedded dofollow links), or massive advertiser (with additional nofollow links).

I'm not saying that's fair, but it sounds like your site might be close to the targetted profile.

However, to back tedster, there are many counter examples- just look through the winners list for sites with embedded outbounds, both nofollow and dofollow.

[honestman]

@Shaddows

Thank you for your feedback. I cannot submit the links on this forum, but I have several SEO expert friends who have looked at sample pages and see absolutely nothing wrong. And these sites have been around for far more than 10 years ranking at the top of their niches.

I have spent days looking at the "winner's list" and do not see where we do anything differently. Yes, we do have ads on our site outside of the content area, and yes we let G know about them as they insist is required with the nofollow attribute, but each of these pages are very popular and remain at the top of other search engines. We are hunted down by reporters from major media for our expertise, in part, due to these pages as we have been told explicitly.

So let's just say that I am still baffled as to what G wants, except when links are reduced the ranking now goes up (and these are not pages with over 100 links). Of course, since the criteria have changed but there are no definitions, it is as if I were in the middle of building a house and the most basic blueprints were changed on me.

Of course, there is the possibility that I have suddenly turned into an idiot--with which many of you might agree.

[falsepositive]

Something I was wondering about is this: the algo affected "12% of searches". What does that mean exactly? Does that mean that if your site was targeting a topic that fell in that "12% of searches" bucket, then you would be affected, whereas another site that did not (but which may have an actual "bad quality profile") would escape the hit? I ask because some sites that I'm seeing that I think should deserve the hit (in my niche) were actually spared, and I am not sure exactly why. The only thing I can think of is that they may not be writing for keyword searches and are not competing for certain terms.

So does that mean: I can have a fairly ugly/low quality site but if I do not write for certain search terms, I am spared from Panda (even if I break all the quality rules in the book)?

[ckissi]

@falsepositive, excellent note. G should explain it more and they should make rules public, if not deep at least some basic information.. I mean something that's really informative, not just "bla bla" we hear for years already.

On one side they want to improve web but on other side they don't exactly tell you what they mean about "quality page with quality content".

Does it mean that only super deep review/analysis of something is good and everything other is just a crap ?!

[Reno]

On one side they want to improve web but on other side they don't exactly tell you what they mean about "quality page with quality content".

My complaint as well. They do not show their algo hand by laying out clear definitions as to what they call "quality", and in so doing, they can help raise the standards across the boards. But as it is now with their typical (and purposeful) obfuscation, nothing is made better ~ in fact, things may be made worse.

............................

[indyank]

honestman, you said that when you take away the external links, the page rank seem to increase.have you tested adding a nofollow attribute than completely removing the outbound link.

I have a feeling that a nofollow external link is even worser.any ideas?

[Shaddows]

How would you define a "quality" novel?

More to the point, if it was your business to recommend books, would you push people to the popular Dan Brown books? Not sure how many other authors survive transatlantic references, but I would suggest quality and popularity might not correlate. But then, if everyone was talking about Dan Brown, but you could never find the book, you might find a different book repository

[Reno]

How would you define a "quality" novel?

It means different things to different people. But to emphasize the point, it is Google that is using the word "quality" over and over and over ~ and no one knows what they mean. Personally, I'd be a lot happier if they'd use more specific phrasing, but that's not like them to be clearer..

.......................

[honestman]

@indyank

Thank you for the suggestion. I am experimenting with everything on every type of page on huge sites. I don't want to change something when it still makes sense to me and other search engines in haste, so I will take my time until there is more information out there on what exactly G wants (which signals). Quality has always been our hallmark on our sites and we have numerous "Best of" awards, so we are recognized for our quality. Something else seems to be triggering a drop in rankings, but so far links out have been one issue I can isolate.