Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

[edited by: tedster at 3:52 am (utc) on Jun 2, 2013]

[Saffron]

6. Does the article link to half a dozen keyword related, thin pages on the same domain?

Is linking to other articles on your site bad?

I write a lot of medical articles, and link to other content. For example, if I'm listing symptoms of a cold I might put...

Runny nose
Sneezing
Fever

etc., and each of those symptoms would have a link to the relevant article.

It does seem that Google love Demand Media again. Wasn't that the whole point of Panda, to penalise sites like that? DM scrape a lot of my content, but at least they do provide a link to my site, so that brings in a tiny bit of traffic, but still :(

It just stuns me that Yahoo answers is now outranking me. Where's the authority?

[SerpsGuy]

I am still removing duplicate content, and still in supplemental. Today I checked out webmaster tools and saw my index count dropped to 109 pages, from 172. Searching site: shows only 80 results.

[chrisv1963]

It just stuns me that Yahoo answers is now outranking me. Where's the authority?

It's outranking me too, often with wrong answers!

[Saffron]

I really wish Google would clarify this. They have issued "guidelines" for webmasters, and I certainly have followed them to the letter. Unique, quality, thorough & detailed, regularly adding new content, and my site has been decimated and replaced with Yahoo answers, Wikihow (they're a new favourite) and ehow.

How is it possible? Are these guidelines just put out to make a mockery of us? I'm actually starting to wonder if "thin" content is the way to go because the way my area of expertise is going now, a lot of the sites outranking me contain thin content. I wonder if I just go into too much detail and that has caused a penalty?

[backdraft7]

Finally ran a keyword check - it's running red with drops in position and lost (deleted) positions. Another super destructive update this one appears to be. Traffic is at a trickle.

[Awarn]

This whole process is like a live computer game. It seems like I start on page five and gradually work up through page 2 and get close and then the time runs out on the level and Google makes me start the level over because of a new update. Problem is I am running out of lives. This game is costing me everything.

[bsand715]

Do we have winners in here?

"Uh" Almost afraid to post this. Early Old site 8 or so years ago. Shallow thin keyworded site one I just left out in cyber space, no update in years. Came up out of obscurity to number one. I almost fell over when I saw it.

My Quality authoritative top "once" ranked site with good customer trust and content that has been used by several institution with permission on articles is fast dropping.

[Awarn]

Yes I have a site that used to be good years ago that I just threw out an index page on to keep the domain there and its moving up as is a blog. However the 20K main site is 5 pages back. Looks like the same old crap, Ebay, Amazon, host crowding and blogs. Scary world when they think the kid with a blog knows more about the subject than the guy with 20 years experience and a ton of money invested in it.

[bsand715]

I'm actually starting to wonder if "thin" content is the way to go

Yes

because the way my area of expertise is going now, a lot of the sites outranking me contain thin content. I wonder if I just go into too much detail and that has caused a penalty?

Same with a lot of Good older authority sites. See the picture.

[bsand715]

Martin Ice web I think your post are point on.

[bsand715]

Is it just me? Or Is every other search result base web site on the internet showing better results than google?

[chalkywhite]

GWT shows from 30000 impressions per day to 12000 , thats in 4 weeks. insane.

[getcooking]

Finally ran a keyword check - it's running red with drops in position and lost (deleted) positions.

We had a HUGE drop in keywords in the last 24 hours, that's after a significant increase in keywords the 24 hours prior to that (with a drop the 24 hours before THAT). Definitely some serious shakeups.

I just hope that when the roller coaster ends, we haven't been thrown off the ride.

[scottb]

Google seems to be put spamming and marketing in the same pot.

If I put a link on another site (like guest blogging or my Facebook posts), I'm usually doing it because I want people to click on that link and come to my site. I try to do those links according to Google rules.

Those sites are listed in Google Analytics as referring sites.

Based on what's happening to my pages, Google now seems to think that I'm being a spammer when I post those links.

[Saffron]

This game is costing me everything.

Us too. Family of four (two kids), and we can no longer meet the mortgage. 11 years down the drain :( I am looking for a job but haven't found anything.

It's sickening to see your work trashed and replaced with scraped and thin content all in the name of "improving search results".

[HuskyPup]

Well there ya goes ... I created a 10 page blogspot site on 16th June, keyword in the title, keyword above image, an image with keyword.jpg, keyword under the image, nothing else on the page.

4 are now ranking top ten with another 4 in top 20 ... way to go eh?

[chrisv1963]

Well there ya goes ... I created a 10 page blogspot site on 16th June, keyword in the title, keyword above image, an image with keyword.jpg, keyword under the image, nothing else on the page.

4 are now ranking top ten with another 4 in top 20 ... way to go eh?

Thanks for the tip. I need to change my business plan! No more investments in good content and in finding good writers in my industry. Basically I only need to make Blogpost pages with crap, well chosen keywords, (stolen) photos and paste AdSense ads on it.

[indyank]

Well there ya goes ... I created a 10 page blogspot site on 16th June, keyword in the title, keyword above image, an image with keyword.jpg, keyword under the image, nothing else on the page.

4 are now ranking top ten with another 4 in top 20 ... way to go eh?

Husky, I am observing this trend right from Panda 1. Blogs or any other content hosted on google servers aren't affected by any of these animals. This holds true to this day. They obviously seem to be excluding blogspot, youtube etc. from their quality checks.

This exclusion is very obvious.

[kma9090]

GWT shows from 30000 impressions per day to 12000 , thats in 4 weeks. insane.

I am down from 60000 impressions to 3500 per day. This happened in 1 day on the 6th June.
The previous week 30 May I was at 75000 impressions

[gford]

One term I follow a single domain owns 7 of the top 10 spots. No one this two word phrase should have this happen. #insane

[backdraft7]

it's small business genocide I tell ya..

[EditorialGuy]

Food for thought:

Matt Cutts recently spoke of two changes that were in the works for this summer, which began only a week ago: a softening of the Panda algorithm for sites that have been downranked in the past for being in a "grey area," and a boost for site owners who have authority or expertise on their topics.

Whatever's been happening over the last couple of days doesn't appear to fall under either of those headings, so it may be too early to make judgments about what Google likes or doesn't like.

[ColourOfSpring]

Husky, I am observing this trend right from Panda 1. Blogs or any other content hosted on google servers aren't affected by any of these animals. This holds true to this day. They obviously seem to be excluding blogspot, youtube etc. from their quality checks.

This exclusion is very obvious.

/facepalm.

Hardly a granular algo is it? Seriously, Google is becoming evermore the black hat playground. Google's SERPs display the opposite to what their guidelines say they will reward. The guidelines say one thing, the SERPs reward another.

[ColourOfSpring]

Anyone else seeing lime green URLs?

[Awarn]

Since when do you believe Matt Cutts? He is supposedly in charge of fighting spam and I sure see more spam than ever. So either he is full of #### or he doesn't know how to do his job. Either way, what he says is worthless. He says the disavow works, Negative SEO doesn't work, If you build a site for your customers it will rank, He is fighting spamming on payday loans ...... You seeing a pattern?

[johnhh]

he says is worthless

I don't think personal attacks are especially useful. Mr Cutts is just one person in a major corporation. What he says probably reflects what he is told, he doesn't write the algo.
What he is told is probably the intentions, what happens is that the intentions don't happen and have not happened since Panda 1.
Google have made and continue to make major errors, you only have to look at the nice clean results on Bing, but they will not admit that and so every update is spun out as a 'major step forward'.

[ColourOfSpring]

I don't think personal attacks are especially useful. Mr Cutts is just one person in a major corporation. What he says probably reflects what he is told, he doesn't write the algo.

To be fair, Matt Cutts is a lightning rod for Google - he's there to soak up the flak from webmasters and at the same time, feed them with enough information to appease them, but at the same time, make that information ambiguous enough to sound useful without actually being so. Google knew long ago that there'd need to be a conduit between them and webmasters - Matt Cutts is the man. The disavow tool is the software equivilant of Matt Cutts - it doesn't actually do much 99% of the time, but that 1% that it does do something useful is that people remember. The other 99% of the time it's a case of people craving the puzzle to solve rather than thinking "hey, why doesn't this actually work?"

When someone's spent so much time on following Google's guidelines, and Matt Cutts is there smiling away telling you that you are doing everything right, but the SERPs tell you a 100% opposite reality to the fiction, then it's hardly a surprise someone gets angry at the lightning rod - that conduit - that mislead them in regards to what Google reward.

[Awarn]

Matt Cutts is the Head of Google Webspam team and is part of the Search Quality team. If I am the head of the team and a part of Search Quality I know how this thing was tested and what the results are. Either the product is not tested or you decide. I see spam and bad results. I have seen this continually. Maybe he is just the scapegoat but I don't trust what he says.

[johnhh]

ColourOfSpring - sure and he put himself forward, but saying

he is full of ####

is not very constructive. Although actually I think he is more comfortable with his SEO buddies than individual webmasters.

Don't get me wrong - I've lost hundreds and thousands on following the guidelines, now I just ignore them !

Actually there has been a tone change here, away from Google bashing towards, well, just laughing at them for getting everything so wrong.

_{and if I get another search showing the same site 5-10 times I think I will cry.}

[GeraniumV]

To be honest I see a lot of the spam gone in the space I watch. But a lot of good sites have been butchered - is the collateral damage going to be worth it? - they seem to think so! At the moment I prefer Bing for all but technical searches.