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The curse of the fresh tags

My own fresh tags ruin my rankings!

         

cherryo

6:28 am on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Whenever I get a fresh date my ranking for my two key search terms goes from positions 2 and 3 to pages 4 and 5. I haven’t made any changes to the site and once the date goes away I go right back up. Any advice or do I just have to sit and wait each time I get a fresh date? Is there any way to avoid getting a fresh date? I certainly don't want to discourage the googlebot but I've come to hate seeing the freshbot on my site!

jaski

12:36 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I agree cherryo, this has indeed happened .. in an extreme instance .. a page went from #1 to #82 .. fresh bot boost seems to be applying otherway round these days .. any way I hope this will be OK soon.

Dayo_UK

12:54 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)



Yep 100% agree with this.

Unchanged page moved from 1 to 78 on different fresh crawls - it did move back to 1 again, and now it is back at 78.

This seems to have been going on since a week or so before Esmerelda

customdy

1:12 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



totally agree, seeing same thing here

Wuschelbuschel

1:48 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I agree too! My site was #1 this morning, dropped to #63 and since I started that post it was back on #3 ... yesterday I sweared myself I don't want to look at the listings again, but it seems I can't!

nancyb

3:31 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



If your site drops with a fresh boost, it's because somebody else's site jumped up with their fresh boost. ;) meaning that the other site did change their page when you didn't, they did a better job of changing if you also changed, etc. etc. etc.

Stop watching , it'll drive you nuts.

Dayo_UK

3:34 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)



Nancyb

From 1 to 79 with flux alone - that is a lot of sites for a relativiely uncompetitive keywords I have been looking at.

and dont forget that these page were fresh tagged pages aswell - and then it moves back to number 1 with the next fresh crawl/update.

mipapage

3:35 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Before all of the 'extreme' algo changing business, I noticed too that some spammy sites would pop up the serps temporarily when freshdates appeared, only to disappear shortly thereafter.

I'm seeing similar results to that now when I search main google (the shortly-after-fresh-but-pre-spam-removal results)...



it moves back to number 1 with the next fresh crawl/update.

You mean that it goes up on one fresh, then down on the next?

[edited by: mipapage at 3:36 pm (utc) on June 24, 2003]

mfishy

3:35 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



<<If your site drops with a fresh boost, it's because somebody else's site jumped up with their fresh boost. ;) >>

Unless many of the pages ahead of you have no fresh tag. Then, you simply dropped.

skipfactor

3:35 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I haven’t made any changes to the site and once the date goes away I go right back up.

Make some changes and report back here. :)

mrguy

3:37 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Sorry NancyB

There is more to it than someone changed their page.

How do you account for the sites that did not change their page.

Flux is normal but from #1 to gone is not, especially if your #1 for the anchor text even after you gone.

Dayo_UK

3:42 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)



Mipapage

Exactly - goes up one fresh down the next fresh. (Ok - People can throw everflux at me - but I have not seen anything like that before)

nancyb

4:15 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Yep, mrguy, there is a lot more to it than that, but trying to figure out G's algo based on the results of fresh tags on just a few serps is IMHO an act of futility. There are too many variables.

Just because you didn't see a fresh date for a site doesn't mean it wasn't changed. I've seen the cache for my own site changed but never saw a fresh date. I may have missed it as I don't watch constantly - anymore ;)

My suggestion is that trying to figure out what caused a fresh dated page to move during this new G will only get you spinning in an endless loop :)

Now, if your site is gone during a fresh cycle only to return afterwards, then that might be an indication of bad things to follow and I'd be looking real hard at the site.

g1smd

11:14 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I posted this before in a longer version:

Main site at #1, and a pointer page at #2. Every 10 to 12 days or so, the pointer page moves down to #3 or #4 (once down to #14 or so), whilst the main site moves down to #60 or #64. This has happened about 6 times in the last couple of months. The drop lasts a couple of days, and several times occurred when everything else was fresh tagged up except for the site and pointer page. Both pages are called index.html, with the main site one being full of content, and the pointer page one having one paragraph of text and one link to the main site.

projectphp

5:57 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Whenever I get a fresh date my ranking for my two key search terms goes from positions 2 and 3 to pages 4 and 5.

Wow, really? I had a fresh date last week. She was REALLY fresh. She took me all the way to THIRD BASE! ON THE FIRST DATE! Only problem is, I forgot to check my rankings, so I am not sure If I fell. Just to be safe, I called her up and told her we were finished.

I wont let ANYTHING get in the way of my Google rankings.

;)

needinfo

11:04 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Just noticed today that fresh tags have killed my sites also.

customdy

11:07 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Try doing a search for your keyword via the google toolbar,then try from the google homepage.

Dayo_UK

11:07 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)



Yes, freshbot is slowly going around killing off sites - had a very deep fresh crawl today so I am worried about the next fresh update :(

James_Dale

11:14 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



ok, well beat this:

#1 - #463 every 10 minutes or so
Arghh! I think I'll come back in a week (yeah right)

needinfo

11:18 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Try doing a search for your keyword via the google toolbar,then try from the google homepage.

I can't see any difference customdy.

Arghh! I think I'll come back in a week (yeah right)

Yeah, I'm really gonna show Google that I'm chilled out about this update... I'm gonna set my alarm clock to only wake me up every hour insted of every 1/2 hour!

customdy

11:20 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



ahhhh.. I see what you mean, I am getting different SERPs every few minutes regadless if I use the toolbar or the homepage.. looks like things are in a state of flux. I could of thought of another 4 letter word to use instead of flux.

john22

11:51 am on Jun 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Well I think i'm having a similar problem today too.
My problem is that the fresh-tags are *not* fresh!
For some reason i am gettin old tags from another unrelated website of mine. I accidentaly uploaded this page, for a half a day, over a month ago - however - google did not visit when it was up, but it seems to be using this content now and my fresher tags have dis-appeared!

Also i think i've changed my index.html to index.htm - But assume this doesn't make any difference if the root domain is only indexed.

-Any ideas?

Dayo_UK

7:09 am on Jun 26, 2003 (gmt 0)



Horrrayy - I am back in my Number 1 position :)

From 1 to 78 to 1 again just like that :) (feel like Tommy Cooper then - just like that - lol - happy days)

I feel like Google is playing a game of she loves me, she loves me not :)

decstar

11:11 am on Jun 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



When people refer to "fresh tags" what do they mean?

I only know how recently google has crawled by looking at my logs.

Decstar

g1smd

9:30 pm on Jun 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Look at the bottom line of each entry in the listings:

www.red-widgets-r-us.co.uk/~large/hairy.html - 24k - 25 Jun 2003 - Cached - Similar pages

Fresh tagged! Happens a day after Google visits, and lasts about 36 hours.

pretzelpub

9:34 pm on Jun 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The fresh tag thing is clearly a "bug" they are ironing out in this new index.

jrokesmith

10:27 pm on Jun 26, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Let's try to summarize what we know about the downgraded index page issue. This is what we know from GG about what google intends. Whether this will be sooner or later, we only know this is where Google wants to move toward.

1) Google is moving toward a moving update

2) Freshbot has assumed some (all) of the responsibilities of deepbot

3) Google is implementing new spam filters

4) Many things will take time to sort out

Here's what we seem to have observed from other people and each person's description of their site(s) on this board:

a) The index pages of some sites appear to be downgraded in the results for some keywords

b) Many people who experiece this report that the disappearance occurs just after freshbot crawls the site

c) This appears to happen more on sites that are newer (less than 2 years) or sites with a PR of 5 or less

In terms of what could be happening, people on this board have postulated:

i) glitch in google that has to do with their move to the rolling update

ii) overly zealous spam filters that seem to be implemented after freshbot data and ensnare legitimate, non-spam sites

iii) major algorithim change

iv) Google attempting to stabilize things after a major change / upgrade

customdy

2:24 am on Jun 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



<<Let's try to summarize what we know about the downgraded index page issue. This is what we know from GG about what google intends. Whether this will be sooner or later, we only know this is where Google wants to move toward.
1) Google is moving toward a moving update

2) Freshbot has assumed some (all) of the responsibilities of deepbot

3) Google is implementing new spam filters

4) Many things will take time to sort out

Here's what we seem to have observed from>>

Not sure I agree with all of these... how about

1) Google is broken

rfgdxm1

2:31 am on Jun 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



>1) Google is broken

BINGO! Give the man a cigar. Simple and sufficient answer.

Dayo_UK

7:30 am on Jun 27, 2003 (gmt 0)



Lol rfgdxm1

I am beginning to wonder if Google is still testing the new indexes - and is prepared to use the largest test bed it can get its hands on - everyone.

By the way - back to 78 :(

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