Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2011

[Whitey]

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

< related Panda Farm Update [webmasterworld.com] >

I keep dropping mentions of this , but no takeup , so i did some digging, for clues to my theory Chrome's passing back intelligence that could influence this new algo and future changes :

New Chrome extension: block sites from Google's web search results
Monday, February 14, 2011 | 12:00 PM

Today the Google web search team launched a new Chrome extension to block low-quality sites from appearing in Google’s web search results. Read more in the post below, cross-posted from the Official Google Blog. - Ed


[chrome.blogspot.com...]

Also - [webmasterworld.com...]

I think user behaviour data is being underestimated in this thread. Each website will have an depth profile building that feeds into a potential quality assessment by Google. What say you ?

[edited by: tedster at 8:15 pm (utc) on Mar 15, 2011]

[Shaddows]

@ falsepositive - Exactly

If you just republish stuff, you have zero uniqueness, and you add nothing. Literally anyone could copy you. You have no value.

If, however, you are the most useful copy of widely disseminated information, Google has no reason to remove you, short of legal challenges.

More subtly, if several sites use the same info, but offer different types of contextual usefulness, then some or all might rank on a particular phrase.

Again, unless legally forced to do so, Google has no actual reason to return the original. One should not mistake the desire to eliminate scrapers as the desire to return original content.

[bhartzer]

Is it just me, or has anyone considered the fact that Google might be looking at the number of new pages that you are adding to your site every day?

If Google looks at the average number of new pages that are being added to the sites in a given niche, there might be sites that stand out as adding too much content too quickly.

It just seems to me that if all the sites in a niche typically add 10 pages a month and you're adding 10 pages a day then that might be an indication...

[Shaddows]

Profiling goes on all the time. I guess there could be comparisons to your niche, but there is certainly historic comparisons going on. So if you have a sudden spike in any given metric, you might expect some close scrutiny.

[walkman]

I just searched for a question and #1 was a Ask.com SERPS page listing yahoo ask, ask.answers.co and others.

FAIL is not the word

[crobb305]

For a newly-spanked site, how long would you guys recommend before filing the infamous "reinclusion request"? Today, we are seeing a 60% drop in traffic on 6-year-old site, and I assume that it is due to this update (although the site isn't a "farm" so I have no explanation). According to GWT, we had a spike in spider activity yesterday or the day before, which we see about every two or three months. This spidering is consistent with the timing of the drop in rankings and the 60% drop in traffic.

C

[martinacastro]

I want to share my experience since yesterday for some hot keywords, because I want to know if is my topic or not...

For some kws of the same topic, I see since page 11 results of subdomains or inner pages / or subdirectories, but not absolut domains... only a few (less than 80% approx)

Is someone seeing the same like me?

Regards

[outland88]

Today I’m seeing results on two major keywords that are totally off the wall, bizarre. This is the only time I’ve said it but Google looks like it is totally broke from continually tinkering in those areas. Its like some feed has gone haywire and you’re getting sites strictly from tabloids junk etc. As a poor example its like you’re looking for wall paper and 100 of the top 200 results are showing up with Wall-Mart in the title. The rest are stories like John fell off the wall, it looks like president Wall will step down, Wall nominated as best actor. In fact one brand has its name in the title of so many web sites it looks like the largest spamming effort I’ve ever seen. I thought I had seen everything until now.

[crobb305]

outland88, I agree...something has happened today, and it is very bizarre. I am not just saying that because my site was just hit with an enormous ranking penalty this morning and a 60% drop in traffic, but the results I see on some other phrases are really odd. Earlier today, I was trying to search for a particular product/service, and the search results (here in the USA) kept returning .au results. Needless to say, I copied my search query over to Bing and found pretty much what I was looking for. I'm not sure what is going on, but I hope it gets fixed soon. Not just for my sake, but for everyone who uses G.

[Ummon]

I am seeing the same thing Crobb got hit this morning, dropped from page 1 to page 45. In fairness I got hit in the Jan update prior to panda. Then last week everything came back. I am pretty sure its not related to Panda since my ranking change was world wide.

[frank72]

The same here. Today traffic dropped out of the blue for apparent no reason...everything is sluggish. My traffic got cut almost 30% today...wondering what it is going on

[crobb305]

Just found my site at #553 for its main 2-word phrase. It was #4 yesterday. This drop has caused the 3-word phrases to fall to page 3. Some longer-tails are still page 1 or page 2, but traffic is down 60%. Does this sound familiar in terms of the "farm" update?

[kd454]

@crobb305

that is exactly what happened to one of my sites on feb24th.

I have seen a steady 50% reduction in traffic since then, almost like it has been throttled back to this amount and not allowed to go over it.

I have been seeing this happen in the last few days from people reporting on webmaster central..

[epmaniac]

is anybody seeing improvement in traffic for last 2 days?

[walkman]

So something changed today? I didn't notice anything, my 3 sites (that I make little money on) are still doing better then pre-Panda and my main site still doing worse. But Goooglebot is going nuts--again.

[crobb305]

Walkman, I personally feel like we're just seeing the same crap algorithm spread slowly, as more and more sites get deep crawled. I can't prove that, and I could be wrong, but my site, coincidentally, got its first deep crawl in about 45 days just here within the past 48 hours. Then bam...penalty today.

You mentioned that 3 of your sites are doing better than they were pre-Panda. Mine were too, until today. In fact, over the past two weeks, my traffic was UP some 30% to 40% over the preceding 4 weeks. Have your sites had a deep spider lately (i.e., after the Panda stuff started?)

[edited by: crobb305 at 2:05 am (utc) on Mar 11, 2011]

[walkman]

Crobb,
deep crawls are normal. How many pages do you have, how deep are the pages and what's your PR? Maybe Google extended it to different content categories? My site is crwaled completely pretty much every week

[kd454]

I have started to take a closer look at some of the stuff that replaced my sites, you want to talk about thin nothing filled pages, Google missed there mark.

Some of the sites they put on the "good" side have some the worst thin pages filled with ads, and these sites are taking over.

If your sites are in the health niche or your thinking about making a site in this niche, I either feel for you or don't bother.

On another note: traffic is going further down on one of my sites, I think the second "layer" must be in the works.

Google said they liked the results this algo produced and they were going to make it better, I never read they were going to fix it, seems like they said something along the lines of refine it (which sounds scary to me).

This is the same thing as a Super Walmart coming into a small town and taking over the little guys.

[edited by: kd454 at 2:19 am (utc) on Mar 11, 2011]

[crobb305]

Walkman, I only monitor Gbot activity from within my GWT account, so here are some data as I see them. This particular site is small (~110 pages), and I see a spike in Google spidering about once every 60 to 90 days. For the past 3 months, I have averaged 39 pages (540KB) per day. However, on (or about) December 10, February 15, and March 7, spidering spiked to include all of my pages and about 2,000 KB. Yesterday's spidering seemed to be the one that carried this penalty. The toolbar displays a PR5, the site is 6 years old.

If there is any good news here (in my case), it's that the time between the last two deep crawls was only about 3 weeks (as opposed to 2 to 3 months like I normally see). Maybe I'll get another deep crawl in a couple of weeks, and rankings will be restored.

[walkman]

crobb305,
open the site.log on Textpad and search for Googlebot/2.1. Shows everything

[indyank]

Yes, I too see some strange traffic patterns for the last two days.Do you all see the changes in U.S traffic or rest of the world? I see a change in traffic from countries other than U.S.

[JohnRoy]

@bhartzer

all the sites in a niche typically add 10 pages a month and you're adding 10 pages a day then that might be an indication...

An indication of what?
- that you're the authority in the niche.

webmasterworld is a niche forum. all about webmaster issues. 10 pages a day.

joes-web-fourm is in the same niche. 10 pages a month.

[alecs]

no traffic increase for me, but an increase in adsense. prior to the panda update i was earning X, after the panda update when traffic dropped by 20% i started making X/2, yesterday i made 90/100*X but i wouldn't celebrate just yet.

[frank72]

no traffic increase for me, but an increase in adsense. prior to the panda update i was earning X, after the panda update when traffic dropped by 20% i started making X/2, yesterday i made 90/100*X but i wouldn't celebrate just yet.

Yeah, it works like that for me too. My earnings have increased since Panda update but I am not in the mood to celebrate. If this traffic drop will go on I will have to eat a lot of dust...

[superclown2]

My traffic has dropped 50% but conversions are way up. This indicates to me that G is getting better at showing results more closely matching what the searcher is looking for. Now if I can only get that lost traffic back again ......

[tedster]

If conversions are what a site is after, losing non-converting traffic is a good thing. But it's not so good for sites monetized solely by ads, especially CPM ads. Still, better targeted traffic would be a plus for Google's users, and that is their main focus, after all.

[spaceylacie]

I am another one that lost 40% of site traffic because of the G "farmer" update. I have not been affected by updates in the past, in fact G used to love me. Now, I can't even be found in search results, maybe on page 7 or 8 when I used to be on page one or #1.

Had I relied on G as my primary source of site traffic, my stats right now would be down 80-90%. But, most of the remaining traffic I am getting is from other sources, direct traffic and word-of-mouse advertising mostly. Oh, and Bing and Yahoo, they like me just fine.

I am really considering just quitting as an Adsense publisher. I bought a farm, LOL, literally, using money I have made in the past from G and don't really have much need for them anymore, especially after this bull. I don't think I should have to grovel and write a letter, oh please put me back in the SERPs where I used to be.... even though I think my site was dropped unfairly.

[live3life]

This new index is human reviewed is that correct?
Or related to human data. To correlate more with users that would seem a sensible step. If human reviewed though that could be a step backwards.

[TheMadScientist]

The change was reviewed by a survey of people and compared to user input from the new Chrome page blocking plug-in ... The only thing 'new' about that is comparing it to the data from Chrome blocking ... It's not any more directly related to 'human input' than has been SOP (standard operating procedure) for quite some time.

BTW: Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

[live3life]

OK sites evolve, typically as they increase popularity so they react the web is an evolution not black and white, this site blocked this site's good.

Dealing with spam should not change us into a yin yang web....or a panda

[TheMadScientist]

this site blocked this site's good.

That's not how they're using the data from Chrome ... They're looking and saying 'this is what our system does, how does that compare with the sites people are blocking' ... The Chrome data is used to evaluate (and imo will be used to assist in development of) 'broad changes', but not to influence the general rankings of a specific site or page.


<ADDED>
Trying to put an end to a myth before it gets started:

IOW If you and 1000 friends clicked block on a site or page it might trigger a manual review of the site or page, but would NOT change the rankings of the site or page for anyone else or in the general results ... The Chrome Blocking data has no direct influence on the rankings and they have stated they do not have plan to implement the type of functionality that would allow clicking block to lower the general rankings of a site or page.
</ADDED>