Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

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

[taberstruths]

Personally, as much as I am not a fan of G, the amount of redundant G bashing is getting old. Can we all just say that we hate G and that G sucks and then go on? To beat a dead horse is not productive or informative.

[johnhh]

For people who were not around in this forum in 2005, you might like to take a look at what WebmasterWorld used to get from the Google employee Googleguy (aka Matt Cutts), then compare to what we get now [webmasterworld.com...]

_{note the reference to member reseller - well worth watching when he/she posts, even though on that fateful day 12 April 2011 when Panda stuck us he posted 'hey whats up' and we were dead ! Calls it right 99% of the time !}

[ColourOfSpring]

Personally, as much as I am not a fan of G, the amount of redundant G bashing is getting old. Can we all just say that we hate G and that G sucks and then go on? To beat a dead horse is not productive or informative.

Yes, it's old. But it's also like saying that moaning about government corruption is old. The moaning exists because there's very little you can genuinely do. That's why the moaning exists. We can pretend we have a dialogue with Google, but the reality is we don't. Google tell us what they want to tell us. That's not a dialogue. That's a kind of dictatorship. They "listen" to us only when it suits them. Why? They don't really need us webmasters. There's enough content out there to kill off the majority of SMEs without making a dent to their own service. That's the reality. We have no power to negotiate, just like a North Korean citizen has no power to negotiate with their totalitarian government. However, there is a difference in that we can simply ignore Google and promote other traffic driving sources. To me, that's the most positive thing you can do. Google are not the internet at the end of the day, they're just a desperate, private company trying to make a buck. They rely on the myth that they are the internet. They're just a day away from a calamity.

[Martin Ice Web]

Even I donīt like they way google is going since first panda and it is obvious that they haunting for every single buck that they could squeeze out of the serps/webmasters, i think that Matt Cutts is not the man who decides which way to go. Thats CEO matter and he employed and has to do what his job is. From old post/videos you can see that he is changing his mind in order to get firm with googles strategy. What else could he do? In his position I wouldnīt do anything other then he does. Thats politics. I think that his spam team/quality team and googles efforts to earn 100 billion bucks till 2016 does not go together anymore. To blame is the CEOs.

[mrengine]

Personally, as much as I am not a fan of G, the amount of redundant G bashing is getting old. Can we all just say that we hate G and that G sucks and then go on? To beat a dead horse is not productive or informative.

When there is a lack of positive improvements in the search results, and spun and copied garbage rising to the top, there will be few productive positive events for anyone to comment on.

Now we could advise people to spin content, post it on blogspot to rank pages or complain that our original content pages don't rank. Both are the same and accurate IMO.

[johnhh]

ColourOfSpring - see my post above yours - it has not been always like this.
_{next video from Matt Cutts - watch him working out the value of his share options!}

[taberstruths]

I understand everyone's consternation. However this is something that people can do. Improve their sites for their existing customers, engage in social media which you can control, find other traffic souces, ect.

I am not picking on anyone. It is just negativity breeds negativity and more and more people are saying "can't" My father used to say "Can't never did anything". He was right.

What we all need is people experimenting, people making observations about what they are seeing beyond calling it spam, blogspot, ect. Blogspot sites are actually subdomains. Could it be something to do with subdomains? How many links, types of links that might be unique, ect. Keyword density or lack therof. Social signals, user metrics if they are listed with Alexa or another site. All of that would be productive and much more useful than another round of Google is out for the money, Matt Cutts is an idiot, or any variation thereof.

[rish3]

Personally, as much as I am not a fan of G, the amount of redundant G bashing is getting old. Can we all just say that we hate G and that G sucks and then go on? To beat a dead horse is not productive or informative.

The fact that the google bashing is running a bit rampant here is telling to me. Historically, the bashing would be either moderated or discouraged, and the pressure of the majority would quash it.

That's clearly no longer the case.

Even more interesting to me is that the Google bashing on blackhat and greyhat forums is way down. Very little noise about the last few updates there. They all seem to be happy with their new churn/burn model.

Or, in short, forums tend to echo the majority sentiment of their members, and it's difficult to change that.

[reseller]

@johnhh

note the reference to member reseller - well worth watching when he/she posts,...

I'm a HE :-)

[johnhh]

@reseller
ha LOL :) I thought that may wake u up ! - please post if u see any everflux ! - any difference if u are DC watching ?, a topic that seems to have been forgotten.

[turbocharged]

I understand everyone's consternation. However this is something that people can do. Improve their sites for their existing customers, engage in social media which you can control, find other traffic souces, ect.

This is true, but do note that this is the Google SEO News and Discussion forum. Maybe part of your frustrations arise from frequenting a section of the forum that deals with Google search and not the alternative traffic/design methods you speak of. I'm not trying to be mean, but most of us here are discussing Google search and ontopic issues.

[edited by: turbocharged at 9:39 pm (utc) on Jun 28, 2013]

[ColourOfSpring]

ColourOfSpring - see my post above yours - it has not been always like this.
next video from Matt Cutts - watch him working out the value of his share options!

johnhh, yes, interesting - I guess that's just the way it goes - companies get big enough that politics takes over and that kind of freedom of communication is lost and you end up with carefully orchestrated videos and media interviews instead of candid exchanges on a messageboard.

[reseller]

@johnhh

Thanks for the kind words :-)

[Saffron]

Personally, as much as I am not a fan of G, the amount of redundant G bashing is getting old. Can we all just say that we hate G and that G sucks and then go on? To beat a dead horse is not productive or informative.

I think part of my frustration is that they were a really good company. Many people supported them because they seemed to genuinely care and offered good products. But now it feels like since Panda/Penguin they've turned their backs on small websites in favour of big brands.

I would love to see the "old" Google return. I honestly think that if they continue along this path, not only will they send a lot of websites to the wall, but they will lose visitors. It's going to hurt them, too.

I have already ditched Google as a search engine because I just don't like their search results. I have spoken to at least one other person, who is not a site owner, just a friend who said she no longer uses Google for the same reason. I think it won't be long before people start noticing.

When you do a search for a topic, you don't want to be hit with the same site repeatedly. I know I like to see different results from different sites. Read the first 5 articles and get an overall picture of the topic I've searched for.

[bsand715]

Personally, as much as I am not a fan of G, the amount of redundant G bashing is getting old. Can we all just say that we hate G and that G sucks and then go on? To beat a dead horse is not productive or informative.

I don't think anyone hates google just frustrated at what The SERPS are returning. What Google says you should do and what google returns are two different things at the time.
Google is still number 1. I still am a big fan of google and hope it returns to its former self. But until then or until Google falls from its position as number 1. We will probably let loose a rant or two. Here's hoping they will get it straighten out.

[JesterMagic]

@johnhh - Thanks for the reminder of how MC use to communicate with us. His vague answers to questions most of the time really do not give any new information now days in the videos.

I don't think it is MC's doing per say but the politics at Google and just spam taking over.

[johnhh]

@reseller - no problem you always look out for us
@JesterMagic - those were the days long lost in all this corporate speak - as u say

[GeraniumV]

<i>would love to see the "old" Google return</i>

You've got to think that the "new Google" tested it with real people (it would be dumb not too) - and they seem to like the results.

The only time I remember a disaster with a roll out was Coca-Cola - the new Coke disappeared and the "Old Coke" came back as Classic Coke. So your best hope is a "Classic Google"!

[robster124]

Just started to see shifting in my UK niche (leisure) which hadn't experienced any changes at all this week.

Unfortunately all I can report right now is a lot more domain crowding on the terms I follow. I can only imagine the flux reported elsewhere here is going to happen in this niche over the next few days as well.

[Saffron]

It's funny, the one website of mine that has picked up is the one I walked away from two years ago. It hasn't been touched. And all of a sudden, it's picked up. The other three, which I work on, have been absolutely hammered. Very weird.

[Wilburforce]

It's funny, the one website of mine that has picked up is the one I walked away from two years ago.

Among the many sites that currently outrank me for Key Term are one whose owners ceased trading over a year ago, and another from a business that went into liquidation - and whose site hasn't been touched in the meantime - in 2010!

[Saffron]

Mine was dropped in 2011 when Panda hit it. I had worked on it for 1-2 years, probably has 100 articles. It dropped from around 1000 visits a day to less than 100. Now it's hovering around the 150 a day. All unique content, still don't know why Panda hit it, but it did.

It's almost worth just sitting back and doing nothing. My main site, which I've worked my backside off, continues to plummet. I did everything, and I really mean EVERYTHING that Google recommended, and it didn't stop the bloodbath.

But, I was checking out a major competitor of mine today. I noticed I hadn't seen them around in search much. They've been hit much worse than me. I'm an "enthusiast", but this site is run by people actually in the profession, and the site has been crucified. The content is exceptional, they must be hurting. This is definitely not an issue on quality of content because both of our sites are of a high quality when it comes to content.

I'm not here to attack Matt Cutts, despite what people think of me! But I do have to wonder why Google are hitting good sites in favour of rubbish. This isn't just recent, it's been going on since early this year. My competitor seems to have been hit at the same time as me. Why on earth is wikihow doing so well now?

I know, I know, I should stop whinging. It's just so incredibly frustrating.

[Savanadry]

I know, I know, I should stop whinging. It's just so incredibly frustrating.

Why should we stop moaning? It seems to me WebmasterWorld is the home of the white hat, we are genuine webmasters with sites that have provided a service for years. We have been unfairly ousted by spam and blackhats. This is affecting our lives and our employees lives.

We, of all people, have a right to moan.

Not that I think it does any good - google, like any huge corporate entity is run for profit, nothing more than that. If providing bad serp's increases clicks on ads then they would be failing their shareholders if they didn't do it. In fact under corporate law I believe they could end up in court if they don't strive for the highest profits within their control. We can't blame them for that, we just need to understand it.

Luckily the general public is catching on to the mess the Google serp's are, they are also catching on to the fact that google is not the fluffy, friendly company they once thought they were.

It's only a matter of time before we hit tipping point and google becomes the new AV, lycos, yahoo, so just try to hang on until then.

BTW I'm writing to each and every one of the google management team about the bad serp's (if you were Matt Cutts would you report to your superiors that whitehats were being very vocal about bad serp's, and the blackhats seemed quieter and more content than ever?) - but couldn't find any email contacts, just g+ (sigh), I decided to send by registered post instead. I hope others here will take the time to do the same. May not do any good, but at least we will know our message is getting through to those that have some power to stop the rot and change things while there is still time.

[edited by: Savanadry at 9:52 am (utc) on Jun 29, 2013]

[scottb]

A lot of major sites seem to be getting hit hard too.

HubPages is a big site that tries to follow the Google rules, rewards high-quality content and either push down or push out low-quality content. It doesn't seem to help. If they can't manage Google, I wonder who can?

[spreporter]

@reseler hi reseler back to action? We had a lot of fun back in florida, brandy, caffeine updates....I was posting with another nickname back then...well keep up the good job.......DC watching is like trainspoting

[spreporter]

My 5 cents in the thread......golden rule......never put all your eggs in one bascet....life is too short.

[HuskyPup]

Why Google? Just what are you doing?

I have had one specific image ranked at #1 or #2 since 2005, today, that image is #2 and hosted on an eBay ad! Mine has completely disappeared ... FFS, WTF is going on?

[taberstruths]

If old or abandoned sites are rising to the top then the question is what do those types of sites have in common? Off the top of my head is that they either have a very small amount of links that have been built recently or that they are have not been changed recently. Both of those things could be unexpected consequences of an algo shift targeting link velocity or minor tweaks for SEO purposes.

Or it could be just the garbage rising to the top to be skimmed.

[ColourOfSpring]

I think the only viable future is to have one foot online, one foot offline - when it comes to making money. Making a living online has just gotten an awful lot harder for anyone "burdened" with ethics and takes pride in providing a good service/product. Blackhats - have at it. I don't have the motivation to do that stuff - churn and burn - I imagine it's mechanical and unsatisfying. I think for most people from 2013 onwards, the internet will be seen as a part-time thing because investing all of your time is just too risky. Let's face it - Google can list a small number of brands in the top 50 results and people are happy with that. Google aren't going away - they're going to be the major traffic driver for years to come. Fair play - it's just the way it goes and the market has spoken. Google don't need the SMEs, and it seems for a lot of products, nor do consumers. There is a period of shock/anger, then you have to move on and adjust. Now....to find an offline job.....

[Martin Ice Web]

@COS, I think to show only 50 brands in serps will make poeple not very happy. Poeple get bored very fast if they see every search the same odd brands. Wasnīt it Alstavista fault not to produce good results?
The brands now on top are known places poeple are going to without google or are unrelated to the search query.
Shopping queries are the ones that converts ads to money. Since amazon opeīned its plattform to resellers ( about 3 years ago ) google is loosing this conversions to amazon. Soon after amazons opening google released panda and penguin. Vanished half of the google competitors in regard of price search engines. Most german big compare engines have been hit or are way down googles own services like hotel finder, google flight .... although this services do not have nearly 10% of UE that the others have! But they outrank the better ones in favour of google services!
If you look at the efforts google does to make all on its own then you know where the train is riding to.
-Why knowledge base when there is wikipedia 100% better then googles service?
-why google shop certifkation when there is trusted shops? Much more better then googles service
-why google wallet when there is paypal?
why are there are more then 80% of screen with ads, when saying to webmasters not to place ads abouve the fold? Why are only light differences i background color in regard to organics?

I think google is on the way to become a all inclusive shopping portal like amazon. We are the idiots that give them the needed data.
But all the services google creates are nothing compare to the originals ( like g+ compared to facebook), therefore they have to push them.
But poeple donīt want or need a seecond amazon! They want answers not ads!