My (German) sites hit by search filter on August 1st

[jetteroheller]

My main site started 1997, the sub sites mostly 2004.

My best month with AdSense had been
March 2006 - let's call it 100%

Since the econimic crisis 2008, my income declines.

March 2011 was my best month since Mai 2010 - 62% of highest ever.
I hoped for a recovery, an ongoing upward trend.

But April, May and June declined below 50% of highest ever level.
July even worse, only 41%

My main actions in July to improve situation had been Google +1 buttons. Pictures in high resolution - mostly original from the digital camera - are only available for a +1 click.

Some extra ressoruces like PDFs are also only available for +1 clicks.

My Sunday July 31th stats showed a goog upward trend.

But since August 1st about 6:00 AM west coast time, it seems that my sites are heave hit by a search filter.

Best indicator: Most of my sites are German, and German is a very heavy Google land. When a German page receives as much visitors from Bing as from Google, it's an indicator, that something nasty has happened.

Any idea about this?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Bribing people for +1's, interesting :-)

While I like the approach of getting something in return for your content without money changing hands it may be a problem. Google wouldn't want +1 to be relegated as a bartering tool. I'd be very interested to hear how you coded that btw.

Anyway, are you basing your search results on adsense figures? You need proper data to analyze before beginning to formulate a plan of attack. Without having real data to draw conclusions from it's probably best to continue building your site how YOU want it to be and ignore what Google is doing. You don't want, and the world doesn't need, another site that is Google designed especially since a) Google shares no specifics on what they deem perfect and b) their criteria change 200+ times a year.

Keep building and improving, let Google figure it out.

[jetteroheller]

It was writte "Offering extra content for +1 is ok".

Clicking on the locked resource activates a javascript.
Over the content is an overlay

big on red LOCKED

If You want to use this ressoruce, give one of the following pages an +1

+1 Button this page
+1 Button starting page of NNNNN site
+1 Button one of my most important pages
+1 Button one of my most important pages

As soon as there is a +1 given, the first line changes

big on green <a href=to-locked-file>FREE</a>

When the user has clicked +1 before on the page,
the overlay opens with
big on green <a href=to-locked-file>FREE</a>

I tried to open the new window by javascript,
but pop up blockers stop thie mehtod,
so the only solution was a real <a href> link
where the user has to click on it

But I do not think this is the reason.
A friend of my has built his web site also with my CMS.
Same style, only he did not impplment the new script, because hs ist just right now on vacation.

His site has the same effect.

Why I write in terms of AdSense income?

I have referer log files since 1997. First 10 years very reliable, but since some years, decreasing numbers in referer log, while other indicators show the opposit. So the only real number is AdSense payment.

[jetteroheller]

Seems sinc 3rd August 4:00 am back to July level.
It's a significant change.

[tangor]

Panda is in play. The give me more of a +1 might have a minor effect, probably not, but is not a way to get +1. Google wants that from the SERP and not your page... (my opinion)