Google Launches Update Targeting Spam... Again? Penguin Update

[netmeg]

Matt Cutts "In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content. While we can't divulge specific signals because we don't want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for users, our advice for webmasters is to focus on creating high quality sites that create a good user experience and employ white hat SEO methods instead of engaging in aggressive webspam tactics."

[insidesearch.blogspot.com...]

Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognizable as spamming without deep analysis or expertise, but the common thread is that these sites are doing much more than white hat SEO; we believe they are engaging in webspam tactics to manipulate search engine rankings.

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 4:31 pm (utc) on Apr 25, 2012]
[edit reason] added quotes - updated link [/edit]

[SincerelySandy]

I remember Altavista having better serps...

Judging by googles results for "search engine" in plural or singular form, it would appear that google also feels as though Altavista is more "relevant" than google if you're looking for a search engine.

[fabulousyarn]

On one hand, I'm totally bummed. I've been slapped - and seemingly, for what I thought I was doing right - ie, using the names of the products I'm selling on the page, and in the titles, and the desc, so we could get rannked and people could actually find what they want. Sigh. On the other hand, there is no other advertising model in the world that gives it away for free. This is just google going traditional - we will now just simply pay for visibility. Sad, but true.

[Marshall]

using the names of the products I'm selling on the page,

I did a Google search for a product my one customer sells and, to my knowledge, only one other company had available online. I entered the exact title of the product as it appears on my client's page. Both my client and the other store ranked 9th and 10th respectively on page two. The primary results were stores with similar products, minus an important descriptive word, Amazon, or directory sites. What does that tell you?

Marshall

[fabulousyarn]

It is totally clear - I am watching Amazon take over the top three positions - for custom made products that I sell on my own site and on amazon. Why would amazon rank higher - simply because they have superior technology and MASS. What does this force me to do? Sell on amazon. That was easy.

[BaseballGuy]

On the other hand, there is no other advertising model in the world that gives it away for free. This is just google going traditional - we will now just simply pay for visibility.

Or you go blackhat. Had a chat with a few of my buddies....their sites went unscathed via Panda and now Penguin. These are pretty big eCommerce and affiliate sites as well.

They understand why a white hat like myself is so upset because I got dinged.

[fabulousyarn]

Yup. I have long said that they need two separate algorithms, one for shoppers, and one for informational results only. I guess, then tho, they'd be giving it away for free.

[mslina2002]

Crud, seems like we're getting garbage traffic yet again.

Ugh, same here. Traffic still up but conversions are nil.

I guess it's Terrible Thursday again...

They are probably tweaking something again in the lab.

[furshka]

It is a humbling experience reading all the comments above. I have learned to take nothing for granted. Specially the traffic my site gets from Google.

I hope Google sorts out the mess and you all get your livelihood back.

[CainIV]

Does anyone else here feel like this update encourages boys to play in mud, but never get dirty? :)

[michaelj72]

cainIV says: "Does anyone else here feel like this update encourages boys to play in mud, but never get dirty? :)"

i would rephrase that just a bit to "...play in the mud, but never get caught..."

some/enough of these new serps in the (few) niches that I check, well some of it is just downright ridiculous. i hope they are still working on this algo...

and too many of these big players who rank so well get there by simply being the big players (well what else is new you may say, but that's really often not the 'quality' content people are looking for), in my opinion a local niche should generally be quite full or nearly full or well represented with sites by local people who know the landscape - not by the huge brands (more concentration of wealth and power, please!) who have cookie cutter sites/sub-domains or whatever they are called for each local....and quite often with terribly outdated info too
ah well, we work with what we got

[Martin Ice Web]

The realy annoying thing about is, that whatever I do, nothing helps. It is sad to see that sites with nearly no content, sites that are not loading, doorways and so on are take over one place after another. The only constant is amazon, what is nailed on first page. If this should be some "leveling", I can´t see it.
Every day there´s something they change. I see up to 4 times the same domain in the first 10 results.

Mainly the first result is not ecom ( in case they can find any crap to put on #1 ). Secon dis ecom but big player. Mainly a long list of their products with same name ( only vary the lenght/ colour ) and description. Witch I thought for my site is something that would rise a keyword/ over seo filter? But not for these sites.

I will make some tea and will sit and wait...

[afzee]

What I don't understand the double facet of Google, says they hitted those websites which were involved in aggressive link spam, not building user friendly website etc....and website's which were involved in aggressive SEO (somewhere I notice Google pointing ab't meta tags too) importantly degrading webpages having Meta Title stuffed with keywords as it used to work in old days before this update....But still website's involved in such meta title writing pattern are shown in top-10 while good guys are not there?

[afzee]

"The realy annoying thing about is, that whatever I do, nothing helps. It is sad to see that sites with nearly no content, sites that are not loading, doorways and so on are take over one place after another. The only constant is amazon, what is nailed on first page. If this should be some "leveling", I can´t see it.
Every day there´s something they change. I see up to 4 times the same domain in the first 10 results. "

Certainly that's what I feel why Google instead of removing such websites they are awarding them with better results....that's not fair!

Also why Amazon.com always shows in top-10 for most of the searched products while the original product selling e-comm is not at top results. Is that Google weighing BRANDs or they have different policies for huge website to other e-commerce.

Google you need to treat everyone EQUAL you can't have different parameter's, good guys need to be awarded and definitely BAD guys need to thrown out.

[reseller]

From what I have been reading here and on other places I think hundreds (or maybe thousands) of legitimate white hat small business sites have been hit by Google's Penguin Update.

I really think something went wrong with Penguin Update. There is no logic in Google killing so many white hat small business sites.

[Jez123]

There is no logic in Google killing so many white hat small business sites.

Apart from driving them towards Adwords? The sites that has replaced mine in the SERP is very poorly put together and will not sell much. The ones below it are not much, if any, better. The whole poor quality SERP drives people to click the ads and for me to buy them.

[zippyonenut]

What's interesting is the fact they are trying to takeout the SEO that Yahoo/Bing likes...

Also, why have the last 2 updates been named Panda and Penguin? Is it because the are cute loveable animals or is it their color, Black & White.. Guess everything is suppose to be in black & white..

[Jez123]

Is it because the are cute loveable animals or is it their color

No, it's because penguins smell of fish!

[BillyS]

Some of the results are laughable right now. That's actually good news. Brand is so powerful that key search words don't even have to be on the page anymore.

Last night I was doing some resarch on a process using diadvantages of the BLANK process

Google sent me to big name companies, none of which had any disadvantages listed. The pages had very little content, but had the word BLANK in the title.

I say that's good because the quality of results stink right now. Penguin, Panda or the combinaiton of the two, Google has a lot of tweaking to do in the coming year.

[afzee]

The whole poor quality SERP drives people to click the ads and for me to buy them.

Yeah something fishy out there with every google update. Most of genuine and greatly optimized small website's has been thrown out of the SERP's & on top Google now showing low quality websites. What they intent to do...Click on Adwords :-)

[Ummon]

You know now that people are mentioning amazon I just noticed. They are ranking for some of the "adult content" keywords I used to rank for. It it wasn't so pathetic it would be funny

[deadsea]

BillyS: That is why I turned on verbatim search for me. It would be great if Google were only replacing synonyms and ignoring stop words. Instead it is often ignoring words which are vital to understanding the query correctly. If you try verbatim, you will be pleased with the results for yourself.

Similar to your example, I was trying to look for people that had used a product in an unintended way. I searched for "<manufacturer> <product> <usage>". None of the results even mentioned my usage of the product. The first two results were the manufacturers website. Completely useless results to me.

I don't think this problem with Google search is related to penguin though. Google appears to have really started ignoring words in queries around August.

[reseller]

Interesting article related to Google's Penguin Update.

Google Penguin Creates Mass Unemployment in India [affiliatetemple.com...]

[Jez123]

@ reseller "“If you see a funny picture post it on your blog…you can get a lot of links very quickly”"

Yeah and google will can you for un organic linking!

Thanks for posting that link. Very interesting.

[BillyS]

I don't think this problem with Google search is related to penguin though. Google appears to have really started ignoring words in queries around August.

deadsea - I think you're right, the introduction of Panda really started the downhill slide. Something in those 500 factors is too powerful or too weak. Google has to see a lot of people coming right back to their query and looking at pages 2 and 3.

As a webmaster, I'm seeing more traffic on lower postion terms. That tells me searchers are not finding what they are looking for in the first five spots.

[Gandhalf]

I have read lots of threads but could not find an answer to this one

What is affiliates links exactly ?

I have an amazon store on both sites that were hit: nothing fancy, nothing annoying or intrusive for the users: does this have anything to do with affiliate links and penalties (I don't have abnormal backlinks either)

[100up]

>Interesting article related to Google's Penguin Update: "Google Penguin Creates Mass Unemployment in India"

>Thanks for posting that link. Very interesting.

...by interesting you mean hilarious, I hope. Although what's happening to people here is not funny, that article is definitely a joke.

[kurzo]

It seems to me that Google is moving towards a *gasp* MFA model!

Surround your ads with garbage content and watch the money pour in

[Jez123]

@100up I was actually referring the the video and the quote above it. I found that amusing as I think that's what the next target will be.

[diberry]

@ reseller "“If you see a funny picture post it on your blog…you can get a lot of links very quickly”"

It gets worse. He's criticizing "hateful" link bait, i.e., ranting all the time about various people or companies. Uh, is Google making itself the Web Morals Police? What if your site is a consumer complaints board? What if you write about racism and how ugly it is, and your readers appreciate that you root our all the racist comments in politics these days and tell it like it is? Google will punish you for not loving on people you and your audience genuinely feel are making the world an uglier place?

That's sick. That's just sick, Google. Oh, I know, they're talking about people being controversial for no good reason. The problem here is: any post that stirs up passion is going to be linkbait. How can an algo reliably tell the difference between linkbait that's coming from the heart and linkbait that's cynically all about building traffic? Hell, sometimes when I write about something I'm genuinely passionate and driven to express my feelings about, I'm also aware "Oh, yeah, this'll bring the traffic." If I can't even separate the two, how can an algo?

Dump Google, folks. They've done gone and flipped their lids, LOL.

[edited by: tedster at 1:57 am (utc) on May 10, 2012]

[jmccormac]

@reseller That's got to be a spoof. :)

Regards...jmcc