Panda Recovery: Gone

[Shatner]

Starting on Wednesday this week it looked like I was starting to recovery.

Where my Google traffic had been down 70% post Panda it was now at only 45%, and one day was even nearly 40%.

A tracked a couple of keywords where I was now ranking on the first page.

Saturday that was all taken away again.

Everything reverted right back to post-Panda form. 70% of Google traffic gone. All the keywords which had moved to page 1, were not only bumped off page 1 but can no longer bef found ranked for that keyword at all, or any other keyword.

Right back to square one.

Any of the others who thought they might be recovering see this?

[browsee]

Thanks again mslina. Some how, my site:example.com count is going down very slowly, it is 10 times more than actual urls in my sitemap. Something wrong with this count. I am not sure if there is any other way to find out how many urls are actually indexed, suggestions are welcome.

[walkman]

Or it could be that Google's user stats for a site require about 3-6 months worth of data and any new changes will not affect significantly those stats for quite a while.

Certainly possible but I doubt Google would give user stats that much clout. Or probably Google being spiteful against "bad actors" and too sure of their algo.

[browsee]

my site:example.com count is going down very slowly, it is 10 times more than actual urls in my sitemap.

Strange! this morning they changed the number(indexed urls) in my site:example.com.

[TheMadScientist]

Something wrong with this count.

It's only a 'quick estimate' and not intended to be accurate to the best of my knowledge ... There's a video on it somewhere and I finally heard someone from Google say what I've thought for years: They have better use for their resources than to worry about giving an accurate count, in fact, it's only estimated to the first 3 digits regardless of number: EG 123,000,000 or 123,000 or 123 ... IOW: the 4th digit and any additional will always be 0, unless they've changed something since the video I saw was produced.

I wouldn't be too overly surprised if that's how they 'fire' engineers ... Hey, you've been doing such a great job we've decided to put you on the site operator team ... You can even work from home ... Just fill out this paperwork, send it in to the State of California and your check will come in the mail...

[mslina2002]

Strange! this morning they changed the number(indexed urls) in my site:example.com.

I saw something strange too. Same thing yesterday morning. The count was were it should be if all the pages were eventually de-indexed which would be -89% of site PP (prepanda). Drastic drop from previous day.

The site:example.com typically does produce inaccurate results and fluctuations but these 2 instances it was a drastic drop so had to do a double take. The second time when I hit refresh it was back to normal. It was a quick flash so thought I needed another cup of coffee.

[Shatner]

Update: The fluctuations seem to have mostly stopped and I've settled back in at being exactly where I've been since Panda 2.0, which is the lowest point in Google traffic for my site at any time in the past 5 years.

This in spite of NUMEROUS adjustments I've made, all of which have been detailed here.

I'd make more adjustments but I can't think of anything. Hopefully the last round made about a week ago will have some impact at some point, but I'm not crossing my fingers.

[browsee]

The site:example.com typically does produce inaccurate results and fluctuations but these 2 instances it was a drastic drop so had to do a double take. The second time when I hit refresh it was back to normal. It was a quick flash so thought I needed another cup of coffee.

Great, my number is back to 10 times the number of indexed urls. I need another cup of coffee now :)

[Planet13]

That suggests to me that there is a "time freeze" associated with sites that have been hit or (as Tedster stated elsewhere) there is a two level crawl associated with the algo now, one of which happens only infrequently.

It might also be that post Panda, google is particularly targeting sites that make significant changes and is reindexing at a slower rate than sites that remain more constant.

It might be someone at google is thinking, "Well, mostly sites that were affected by Panda are going to make major overhauls in the next few months, so we should be careful adjusting the rank of sites that make significant changes during this period."

[walkman]

It might also be that post Panda, google is particularly targeting sites that make significant changes and is reindexing at a slower rate than sites that remain more constant.

I hope not, otherwise it's like telling people to get out of the building to be saved and shooting them with an Ak47. Reindexing is not an issue for me, Google takes all pages every 2-3 days. Over the past 9-10 weeks, it's safe to assume Google has visited everyone's site /page.

site: is a mess for me too, it has the old index numbers, tags and all.

Shatner, I have made major adjustments, added lots of content and there isn't much more I can change. Either way, my site is much better than right after Panda so it makes zero sense to keep going down.

The good news is that Bing has picked them up referrals from them are quite more than before Panda.

[browsee]

It might also be that post Panda, google is particularly targeting sites that make significant changes and is reindexing at a slower rate than sites that remain more constant.

Actually it is quite opposite, Googlebot has been hitting most of my pages(only during the week, slow on weekends). I made a title change recently, next day I saw the new title in the search results. However, traffic still sucks.

[Shatner]

>>>Actually it is quite opposite, Googlebot has been hitting most of my pages(only during the week, slow on weekends). I made a title change recently, next day I saw the new title in the search results. However, traffic still sucks.

Interesting thing about that. When I make a title change, it does show up on Google pretty quickly.

However, if I google search for the old title... that page still shows up even though that phrase is no longer present on the page at all in some cases.

[Shaddows]

However, if I google search for the old title... that page still shows up even though that phrase is no longer present on the page at all in some cases.

Its almost as if there is a page history stored, where changes are logged over time. Extrapolating, its almost as if past sins can linger for a while. Or, to restate, changes do not instantly impact rankings. If only a Googler would confirm this... Oh, wait.

[indyank]

However, if I google search for the old title... that page still shows up even though that phrase is no longer present on the page at all in some cases.

If those pages are linked to by others with the page title then it will show up.If it had been linked internally with the title and if all those internal links will use the new title as anchor text, then you need to wait until all the pages get crawled. It will take sometime.

But the real issue with panda is someone else who copied your page will rank for your title or any sentence in it. There was a good example cited from hubpages CEO's blog in another thread.

[Shatner]

>>But the real issue with panda is someone else who copied your page will rank for your title or any sentence in it.

That too. I submitted a DMCA on a scraper stealing my content to Adsense. Adsense notified them, and they removed all of our content, but kept the pages with our titles on them there. So basically they are blank pages with our title and nothing else on them.

Those pages continue to outrank my content and have done so for several weeks.

[chrisv1963]

So basically they are blank pages with our title and nothing else on them.
Those pages continue to outrank my content and have done so for several weeks.

Well ... blank pages = no "low quality content" on those pages => great according to Mr Panda's algo idea.

Google search is one big joke these days and it's about time shareholders realize that the core of Google's business is broken.

[Shaddows]

Google search is one big joke these days and it's about time shareholders realize that the core of Google's business is broken.

Typically, shareholders care when revenues dry up. Not a lot of evidence of that so far (recent shareprice dip was due to increased operational costs), indeed revenues had a double-digit increase IIRC.

[Shatner]

>>Well ... blank pages = no "low quality content" on those pages => great according to Mr Panda's algo idea.

It's more like Google still isn't taking into account the fact that those pages are blank. It's only really crawling to check things like page titles, but as for the actual content of the page it's not paying any attention to it or adjusting its rankings. Google still considers those pages to have content on them.

Just a theory.

[browsee]

I submitted a DMCA on a scraper stealing my content to Adsense.

@Shatner, how did you submit to Adsense, is there a special url?

I've been waiting to see if things improve, I did not submit any DMCA, but enough is enough. Do we need to submit DMCA and also Adsense report?

Also, yesterday one guy scrapped 100 urls, do we need to submit 100 reports?

Thanks

[Shatner]

I find that Adsense is MUCH quicker to respond and after you submit the notice they suspend the account within a couple of days.

On the other hand it can take Google Search weeks and months to respond if at all.

[danijelzi]

On the other hand it can take Google Search weeks and months to respond if at all.

In my case, Google Search usually responds after a week, with removal of the infringing pages from SERPs.

[browsee]

Thanks Shatner and Danijelzi. One more question, one scrapper used Actual titles, sub headers etc but changed the content little bit(remixed). Do you think I can file DMCA.

Thanks.