Matt Cutts: Google multi-week rollout going on now

[SEOPanda]

Matt Cutts: [twitter.com...]

Multi-week rollout going on now, from next week all all the way to the week after July 4th.

Seeing a bunch of junk results... looks like many big keywords are returning results that aren't ideal.

Anyone seeing their rankings moving and being replaced by strange sites?
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[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:57 am (utc) on Jun 26, 2013]
[edit reason] added quote [/edit]

[SEOPanda]

I'm seeing a lot of results that have blogpost and wordpress spam.

For example (not an actual site), but:

wqgwedgqwg.blogpost.com
12eg41q3w.wordpress.com
3g5hqw23y.blogspot.com

randomness like this, ranking for blog posts on various product keywords, and taking up 3-4 results on page 1, and tons on subsequent pages.

[brianp]

I'm seeing a lot of results that have blogpost and wordpress spam.

This is what I'm seeing a ton of too. A lot of it looks like randomly generated content with links in it with specific anchor text.

I don't recall results looking this bad for a very long time.

[CainIV]

I see a massive re-ordering now in one major vertical I watch, an ecommerce vertical.

I haven't created any correlation - yet - to factors. However, I do see:

1. A majority of websites with keywords in domain fell from top 10 (might not necessarily be keyword causation, just an observation)

2. Brands have certainly moved into those spots. Not a 1-3 position move; in some cases a 10-15 position jump.

3. Initial signals analysis on top 5 in this niche show respected and well-known brands now, with active social signals and brand-heavy inbound link profiles. Again, too much (still) to analyze

Essentially, resellers have taken a tumble, and only the highest authority information-based websites have held ground to brands.

[chrisv1963]

Google are stepping the danger zone as many people are now using bing and yahoo -

Don't forget DuckDuckGo.
Until 14 days ago I got a maximum of 1 visitor per day referred by DuckDuckGo. Right now that is up to 27 per day. I know that this isn't a lot of visitors, but the increase in percentage is huge!

[reseller]

I think the current Google algo update is rolling out in stages. Those stages could be sectors/niches and languages. That might explain why some folks feeling the impact of the update while other feel it as business-as-usual.

I guess we are all waiting for a weather report from Matt Cutts. Stay tuned ;-)

[robster124]

I agree reseller, thats what the moz report suggests also. I'm seeing no movement whatsoever in my niche (UK leisure). Given recent talk of payday loan serp focus we definitely know that G are prepared to hone in on specific niches and searches for an update not just their whole dataset. That ties into the "multi week" talk as well - a few niches perhaps per week then moving onto a different sector the week after. I await my fate...

[besnette]

I guess content really doesn't matter any more...

My niche got hit pretty hard last night, with a big shake-up. I am seeing almost nothing but branded sites at the top,

Content does not matter, apparently - this algo update, from what I am seeing is definitely hitting sites with keywords in the domain, and my site was affected - I have an 8 year old, high authority site...

I have more +1's than anyone in my niche (all legit), I do my own youtube videos, interviews, articles, I get a steady stream of subscribers, my site is a pr6, 71/100 moz score...but apparently, since I have a keyword in my domain name, that was enough to basically kill off much of that.

T'he sites above me by and large have simply reproduced the same content, nothing original.

This may be game over. I don't have it in me to try any more. Google has made it clear that they favor brands, or sites that appear to be brands, regardless of what they put on a page.

Content is no longer king.

[littlecubpanda]

I'd like to see a Bing ad campaign that focuses on not just the difference between Google and Bing, but how BAD some of Google's results can be. That could be very funny.

[ColourOfSpring]

Content does not matter, apparently - this algo update, from what I am seeing is definitely hitting sites with keywords in the domain, and my site was affected - I have an 8 year old, high authority site...

I have more +1's than anyone in my niche (all legit), I do my own youtube videos, interviews, articles, I get a steady stream of subscribers, my site is a pr6, 71/100 moz score...but apparently, since I have a keyword in my domain name, that was enough to basically kill off much of that.

T'he sites above me by and large have simply reproduced the same content, nothing original.

besnette, sorry to hear that. Your story is a (sadly) familiar one these days. So now your site is (or is becoming) part of the growing invisible web :(

[besnette]

ColourOfSpring - thanks for the words...it helps...

I just went through the sites in my niche who are now "winning" - the first one, a huge referral pop up automatically loads covering most of the page...then, followed by reproduced info, nothing original.

The next several sites, same story - no authority, no google+, next-to-nothing original, but since they don't have keywords in their domain, and they 'appear' to be branded sites, even though in many cases they are not..

It sucks, when I have taken my camera, lighting equipment and time to experts or business owners in my niche to interview them, and put that video interview which has thousands of views on my site, that page is bumped down in favor of a site that put zero time into their page...they just scraped or bought the info and plopped it out there.

Thanks though, I appreciate your thought. May be over for me though, and for many others.

[aristotle]

Why does Google have to continually make major changes in their search results? What was good yesterday is suddenly bad today? What's good today will be bad next week? A good ranking system wouldn't continually be re-defining what's good and what's bad. In a good system, the search results would be relatively stable with only slow gradual shifts and movements. Something is basicaaly wrong.

[Saffron]

I'm sorry to hear that besnette. It's so unfair isn't it? I think for many of us, it's more than a business, it really is a love of the given topic. I get so much satisfaction from writing a really useful and informative article that I know my readers will benefit from. So it's frustrating when you basically see all your hard work replaced by absolute rubbish and there's not a thing you can do to fix it.

I continue to live in hope. I do think eventually G will see that these changes are NOT improving the web, and the pendulum will swing back the other way. I think right now, in their effort to wipe out "web spam", they have gone way too far and broken the net. The search results I see for my topic are all over the place. Favouring either brands (such as Discovery), or thin content (ehow/wikihow). But I live in hope that once they've calmed down, they will realise that all these changes did was actually make the situation worse and the good sites will come back on top. I just hope that happens sooner, because many will seriously be put out of business.

[mrengine]

I think right now, in their effort to wipe out "web spam", they have gone way too far and broken the net.

Maybe they have broken their search engine, but not the net. People are starting to use different search engines and sources to find what they are looking for. A lack of diversity will cause this to happen, and I hope Google drives more nails into their own coffin so that even more people quit using their search engine.

[Awarn]

Oh I think they know it is broken. I continually see 3 sets of search results. One is terrible and 2 are a little closer to normal. They seem to last a week or so at a time. The terrible set appeared again just the other day. That set always seems to be screwed up. I think that set is the future that Google is trying to implement but its so off base they revert back to one of the other 2 sets. I am guessing they are going to try harder this time to see if they can make it work for them. It probably is their knowledge base that has the IQ of an idiot. A long time ago they said a program is only as smart as the person programming it.

[seoskunk]

I do not understand Google's strategy, brands do not spend on advertising in the same proportion as small business does. This is not a war on spam anymore its a war on diversity.

[chrisv1963]

Why does Google have to continually make major changes in their search results? What was good yesterday is suddenly bad today? What's good today will be bad next week? A good ranking system wouldn't continually be re-defining what's good and what's bad. In a good system, the search results would be relatively stable with only slow gradual shifts and movements. Something is basicaaly wrong.

Simply because Google is no longer a good search engine. They might have lost control over the index and are now continually trying to get grip on it.

- Why is good original content still ranking on other search engines?
- Why don't we see the same junk on the first pages of other search engines?
- Why is bounce rate much lower for visitors coming through other search engines?

[Awarn]

Why? because Google is trying this whole knowledge base search engine and it is not ready for prime time. So they try, it doesn't work so they revert to an older set of data and then they try again a few weeks later. In the meantime, the traditional search results are ignored and so things gradually decline. Notice how the shallow sites seem to do well. The knowledge engine can handle a page or two. Give it a thousand pages and it goes DUH? Go look at your site results and you will see interesting things. I know we have thousands of different products and I was amazed when I saw Google was putting the title as Details | Widget(general term). Details was just the anchor text - like click "Details" for more specifics. Google is trying to outsmart the BH spammers and losing while killing everyone else in their quest.

[besnette]

If the "bad" dataset that Awarn talks about sticks, or anything close to it - 8 years of honest, hard work will be gone....for me, and I am sure a lot of honest, good sites.

Best of luck to everyone out there.

[Garya]

Don't know what google did last night but the results are terrible. All no content sites move to the first page, all local sites are gone. Its all a mess.

[EditorialGuy]

Maybe the Web has just become too big for spidered search engines in their current form. Even if the Web weren't a "cesspool" (Eric Schmidt's term) flooded by spam and autogenerated garbage, it would be a lot bigger than it was when Google got started 15 years ago.

Let's say I search on "red widgets." Am I looking for editorial information, a manufacturer's specifications and promo material, or a dealer? Even if Google knows my intent (e.g., editorial information), how can it possibly serve the best result on the first page of its search results? Google can try to keep me happy through personalization ("This guy clicked Wikipedia for his last 10 informational searches, so let's give him a Wikipedia result in the no. 1 spot"), but beyond that, "best" is hard for an algorithm--or a human librarian, for that matter--to determine with any degree of objectivity.

[reseller]

Folks

Its too early to issue final conclusions about the impact of current algo update over your sites. Please don't give up. The rollout has just started, and as any other previous algo updates, things change during different stages of the rollout. Wish you luck.

Btw.. I understand from one of Matt Cutts tweets today that he would probably be asking for feedback regarding current algo update when more rollout progress. Hopefully people would be able to report collateral damages of the current algo update too.

[JesterMagic]

So far this rollout has not been good for me.

[Awarn]

If Cutts cares why doesn't he just name a place and say I will be here at such and such a date and I will have members of my team available. You would be amazed how many people would fly in to voice their opinion. I would definitely be there if they in fact are willing to assist for a change.

[taberstruths]

I agree reseller. The pattern for panda updates has been the garbage coming to the top and then it is skimmed off. We will just have to ride out this storm.

[Garya]

Looks like they rolled back whatever they did last night.

[besnette]

Garya..seeing the same thing. Really bad.

[TyMax]

The new updates do not seem to be consistent in providing quality results. Some products still look good or better, others search terms seem to have redundant domain listing.

Where they do not see as consistent is on key word or phrases that seem to bring highest campaign costs. Not sure if that is due to paid click or sheer volume of people trying to adjust to the new changes.

I seem to get better results for items I look for outside of Google. There does not seem to be any real logic as to what is happening to the ranking.

I liked Google from the first day I read about it from Danny and started to use it. Not so sure Google is providing the best results any longer.

[Garya]

I do see more of my local websites have started to use adwords as many large sites have been hit. Everyone on on adwords, I guess that is what google wanted. Logically if you move all the national site up to the top since they advertise anyway and demote all the good sites that will bring in more bucks.

If you want content in your search yahoo seems to work best

[besnette]

reseller, I hope you are right. I am not sharing your positivity. I wish I could. It's hard to see so many branded sites -who own many subsites that also rank well now, so really they dominate a lot of the top spots, under different domain names. They've bought much of their information, and just reorganized it slightly. Nothing original. Other sites that have actual industry contributors, a strong social presence, unique content...all of that does not matter any more I guess. I am guessing two weeks from now we'll be seeing much of the same thing. I think it's clear which direction google wants to go.

Garya, I think you are right...almighty dollar.

[johnhh]

Logically if you move all the national site up to the top since they advertise anyway

Um it's a little more simplier than that, I had a contact in what is, and was, a big brand who told me that after you spend $x million on Adwords you get an invite to go over to the 'plex. Then they 'hint' on what you need to do to get higher positions in the natural SERPS. Mind you they probably add you to the whitelist as well.

The big brand got so big in Europe it was purchased by a even bigger American corporation. Oddly all the original founders are no longer in executive control.