Google's Secret Updates Leave Small Sites Scrambling

[mrengine]

Whether you're a start-up, family-owned, or publicly traded, there's danger in letting your business rely too heavily on Google search for site traffic.

While the updates are targeted at bad actors, for people like Stradley, who aren't trying to game the system, they can be devastating. At 72, Stradley works at least eight hours a day and relies on the income from her website and its more than 3,000 pages. In trying to rebuild her position on Google, she's working with a software consulting firm to migrate her ancient program to WordPress and improve her search engine optimization (SEO). She says the costs will be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

[cnbc.com...]

[MikeNoLastName]

And yet G's own words keep echoing in my head "DESIGN WEBSITES FOR YOUR
AUDIENCE, NOT GOOGLE...". As well as my own ongoing response to this mantra "...And never get seen by either." I used to (in 1994) optimistically believe the internet would be the "great equalizer" to level the playing field between huge, rich, visible, profit-minded companies and service minded mom n pops, and it WAS for a few years, but then along came G and made it again all about who could afford to invest more in SEO and online advertising, etc. "Do no evil" indeed.

[zarathustra2011]

Since the last Panda update, my website and all my original material was given credit again, and I started to rank where I once did. However I noticed traffic started to diminish about two days ago, and when I check google for images and my original text, all the scrapers are back above me! I'd really like to know what's going on, and why google have started penalising my site again.

[bhartzer]

Down 44 pct doesn't seem right. For the sites I know that have been hit by panda, traffic is not down 44 pct. it is more like 80 or 90 pct.

[EditorialGuy]

Down 44 pct doesn't seem right. For the sites I know that have been hit by panda, traffic is not down 44 pct. it is more like 80 or 90 pct.

Isn't Panda 4.0 supposed to be a kinder and gentler Panda?

[tangor]

Isn't Panda 4.0 supposed to be a kinder and gentler Panda?

Thanks goodness I was not drinking coffee when I read that, else I'd have to send you a bill for a new spewed monitor! :)

(great one liner!)

[supercyberbob]

haha.

Isn't bloodletting supposed to cure headaches and fevers?

Yup. Just don't try it at home.

[netmeg]

Panda 4 restored my *only* Panda'd site to better than it was when it got hit (October 2012) so it was kinder and gentler to me.

[EditorialGuy]

Panda 4.0 treated me pretty well, too (Google traffic has nearly tripled since the update). I know other owners of information sites on my sector who have had similar experiences.

[Strider in tx]

I know for the past 16 years or so if g came out with a new engine there would be people that went up, people that went down and some just went round and round... and after about 2-3 months it would settle down and usually you would be back where you were unless you just had bad bad things going on .... and if you tried to match your site to what the new engine wanted, it would take even longer it seemed.... yeah sometimes they weight things a little differently, but good content bubbles back to the top...
and as far as what the other company is charging... more than 3000 hard coded pages... strip and put in a database... I am going to charge a minimum of $5.00 a page, let's see 3000 * 5 = 15,000... and her pages look hard coded... and not very responsive, but they work... yeah there are some newer sites up with 33% of the screen used as a header with better graphics and her non-cooking pages are very confusing to say the least... but that is just personal taste... but you all know as well as I do when they put the new site up it is going to tank for a few months... anyway... with how to cook a prime rib she was #5 in the list... above about and wow and ask, thank goodness

[denisl]

One of my sites was hit by around 30% om May 20, which I assue was Panda4. If anything it has slid down a little more since then.

It was bound to hit differrent people by different degrees.

There is no way you can say that it only hit by x%.

[tangor]

Looking back over the years as the barnyard googles have hit me, I've done pretty fair, so no worries in that regard. I do hope they get out of the barnyard into something more "tech" in the future like "nuklear devastation", "climatchangology" and "kissmygrits". You know, the ones that fix our ranking and et al. :)

[earlpearl]

Back upthread, commentator Sahm referenced she met the publisher, had a similar site, was previously hit by Panda. Now...those are specifics.

I happen to search for recipes at various times. My methods are to print in a specific recipe, click on a number of sites w/ that recipe and look thru variations.

So I end up visiting interior pages of any number of recipe sites, never admittedly following one or another.

Depending on the recipe I might go deep into the serps possibly 30,40, or 50 variations on a recipe.

Whether that is at all typical or not of other searchers, I wouldn't know. Its certainly different from any other type of search I do.

Anyway, the thing I find disconcerting is that Google inflicts the penalty, probably as a result of an algo wide effort...and there is no form of communication w/ google, no directions on how to fix penalties, etc.

Google has all the power. Therein is a huge problem.

[denisl]

You really can't expect Google to give too much detail on where you cross the line for a penalty - that would enable everyone to run too close to that line.

[iammeiamfree]

They do in football. Everyone gets a preety good idea which line was crossed, when and by how much. With google you could be offside, tripped over the oponents foot, crossed the goal line or booted the ball out of the stadium in any combination without even knowing it and then there is still the chance that the referee has gone bonkers and got all the teams mixed up. Trying to work out what makes google tick is like climate forecasting... on mars. It could be hydrogen but then again if hydrogen plus zenon interact there could be an upswell of crypton and this could throw things out on the photon spectrum gama. Personally I do get better results reading tea leaves.

Come to think of it, could this give rise to a mental disorder in webmasters that might one day be diagnosed? It could be called bamgoozilitis. I think I have a severe case although to be fair, it beats working down a coal mine (by quite a bit).

[Planet13]

I wonder if this could give rise to a mental disorder in webmasters" that might one day be diagnosed. It could be called bamgoozilitis."

Well, there are many people who think that webmasters ALREADY have a mental illness in the fact that they try and profit from a system in which they have little or no control - a system that is purposefully made difficult to comprehend.

I am reminded of another thread from a while back saying that depending on google was a bad idea since the Florida update circa 2003.

I would NOT expect ranking in google to become more predictable in the future, either.

[denisl]

The problem Google has is that they connot put a ref in every game. The only way they can economically try to stop people gaming the system is to keep you guessing where the line lies. Then expect the majority of webmasters to steer well clear of where they believe the line to be.

I don't expect that to change.

[iammeiamfree]

Well, there are many people who think that webmasters ALREADY have a mental illness in the fact that they try and profit from a system in which they have little or no control - a system that is purposefully made difficult to comprehend.

I suppose so but that being the case preety much everyone is crazy. There is no more security in working at the store and a whole lot less chance of making it big. Personally I have a lot to thank google for. I have lived in atleast 6 different countries and most of my financial concerns are down to doing research and learning things i.e. not working so at the end of the day it sucks but it is a hell of a lot better than approaching some employer with cap in hand begging for a postion. There is no way back now only forward.