Update Florida - Nov 2003 Google Update Part 2

[GoogleGuy]

Continued from part 1: [webmasterworld.com...]

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I stopped by several times yesterday, but it seemed like people were into the analysis stage already. caveman, this update didn't add any penalties for hyphenated domains, so that's not a factor. Just a reminder that people with specific feedback (good or bad) can send it to webmaster [at] google.com with the keyword "floridaupdate" somewhere in the email. I've mentioned that a few times, but as more than one person has pointed out, it can take 2-3 hours to read the whole thread from beginning to end. :)

[dazzlindonna]

has a major serps update ever coincided with a backlinks/PR update at the same time before? i thought traditionally, they happened separately.

edit: maybe i'm remembering it wrong - maybe it was the deepcrawl at one time, and then serps/pr changes at another. it sucks to get old - the memory goes so fast.

[edited by: dazzlindonna at 4:16 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]

[deanril]

First 20 in the spot I used to rank #1 for goes like this.

5 adsense sites

2 sites with my links (making the sites rank good for that keyword, site doesent sell these widgets)

6 sites which actually sell these things(2 of which dont have on page text at all , the one in #1 only has a description with this search term)

2 directory type sites
(with me in their links of places to buy these widgets)

5 that dont sell anything only make you click to another site that does.

So good luck to my customers..........hopefully they use some other search engine.

[customdy]

{2 sites with my links (making the sites rank good for that keyword, site doesent sell these widgets) }

I see alot of this too in the "new" top SERPs for our #1 keyword, maybe people can find us through these link pages that don't sell our widgets! Good luck.

[dazzlindonna]

My index page has returned to number 1 on google.de! Oh please let this be a good sign!

[catdad]

I am seeing absolutely no penalty for anchor text-link for my keywords...keyword-driven anchor links still seem to be the key to top placement. The #1 SERP for my keywords is a big LinkParnter user... SERP #2 has thousands of hidden-text anchor links on outside affiliate web sites...the others are big recip link swappers.

I’m focusing on building a BIG site (87 pages so far) with quality content and fresh content added daily. I’m just barely in the top 10 (#10). After examing my comp’s backlinks on Google/AllTheWeb I’m going to have to spend 1 hour + each day contacting cheezy hair-replacement and off-shore pharmacies sites for recip links.

[jim_w]

rfgdxm1

>>Perhaps the happy members have just learned not to post in threads like this about their success, and sit back and smile. ;)<<

It could also be the some webmasters, like me, don’t pay any attention to the various databases and where they rank. Why? Because there isn’t anything we can do about it that we haven’t already done, so why waste the effort to post or watch it. Besides, 99% of the people that visit my site via G only use one database, and that is the one I watch.

[rfgdxm1]

Some of the backlink results are whacked:

[www-in.google.com...]

Umm...where is [dmoz.org...] on that SERP?

[FillDeCube]

I have 6 sites climb from PR5 to PR6 in this update but all of it RANK no where... :( :(

I spent almost a year to get good ranking from nothing to #2,3,4 .. now all gone ..

[northweb]

Man, took a few days off what a surprise! Reading through the posts trying to find out which data center is being updated. Someone posted -zu and another -in, can you help please.

[m2c1r]

Hi,

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents on this florida update.

Actually, all my keywords and pages stayed, including two main site index pages. The only page that disappeared, unfortunately, was my main site money maker- widget.com/index.html

But, it only disappeared for the most specific (and relevant) 3 kw search: widget industry segment. For the 2 kw search, widget industry, the index page is still ranked right where it always was. And for widget-industry-segment, the pre-update position is back.

I sure hope another day or two sees this all sorted out- that's what I want for Christmas, but I'd it early please :)

Matt

[dazzlindonna]

northweb, i see changes on -va and -zu only (backlinks i mean).

[LateNight]

"See our Rankings from November 13. We've just set up code to block our own site from the engines, so over the next few weeks our site will be "stealth" to the engines."

- posted on the contact page of a major SEO firm specializing in Google.....this thread is better than the X-Files

[synergy]

- posted on the contact page of a major SEO firm specializing in Google....

That's not all they have posted around their site ;)

I called foul on this one, but a few have said doubtful.

[crobb305]

northweb, i see changes on -va and -zu only (backlinks i mean).

There is a different set of backlinks on -mc

[cabbie]

>>>I wouldn't be surprised that Google has just thrown in the towel when it comes to adult sites. Trying to keep up with the spam in that area is something that they may consider to be economically unfeasible.

I think google needs to make the effort with adult as i think the industry is one of the most searched for on searchengines and if googles takes their eye of the ball as far as quality goes then surfers are going to abandon it and its reputation overall will suffer.

I have sites in adult that have content and subdomain cloaked sites with no content.
My content sites have dropped but my subdomains are powering.
In adult you need to cover all bases.

My non adult sites have not suffered at all.

[canuck]

synergy:

- posted on the contact page of a major SEO firm specializing in Google....

That's not all they have posted around their site
I called foul on this one, but a few have said doubtful.

I believe said SEO person you are referring to is a member here... why not sticky him! ;)

Too many conspiracy theories... headache inevitable...

[crobb305]

I am noticing a lot of sites (not in my industry) are ranking high on keywords contained in the anchor text of the link to my site. I have noticed this has also caused some porn sites to come up on otherwise "clean" searches because of the anchor text.

[edited by: crobb305 at 5:07 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]

[plumsauce]

so right after the ipo,
Google funds a subsidiary as sole vc,

specialising in .... (drum roll)

SEO!

that oughta push the earnings up a bit!

vertical integration and synergy in mba-speak

anyone seen that fedex commercial?
makes me laugh everytime!

[edited by: plumsauce at 5:11 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]

[annej]

>Im seeing a lot more Yahoo! and Dmoz directory pages show >up in the serps for many results that are real estate >related. Not sure why I need to search Google to find >yahoo and dmoz pages...

I was looking for info on an item I want to buy for my house and got really tired of landing on sites that are supposed to find it for me. Somehow these 'find everything' sites are rating high on Google. It was interesting noticing it from the a consumer's point of view.

[Kratzy]

Well, if www-in is showing what the update should be like, I'm happy.

With the previous update my home page went from number 1 down to like number 30. whilst one of my other pages stayed at number 2.

www-in is now showing that my home page is now back at number 1 with my other page at number 2 just below it.

Good stuff google... now if Google would just start following my 301 redirects and start indexing the rest of the site I'd be really really happy... been waiting 4 months for the site to be indexed so far.

[prodigyfx]

>>Agreed, ewanfisher. Setting toolbarqueries to -va in HOSTS file now showing updated PR consistently.

How can i do this? i can not see my new PR?

can anyone say me whats the new PR of www.kusadasi.biz ?

[ewanfisher]

I'm seeing a PageRank 5 for <snip>
If you edit the file "hosts" in:
"C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\" and add the line:
"216.239.37.100 toolbarqueries.google.com". Close all IE windows then reopen the toolbar you should get the new PageRank.

[edited by: Marcia at 8:17 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]
[edit reason] no url's pls. [/edit]

[prodigyfx]

Thank you so much <<< "ewanfisher" >>> for your friendly help...

[edited by: prodigyfx at 5:41 am (utc) on Nov. 18, 2003]

[ewanfisher]

No problem! :)

[mosley700]

This is a theory. Just a theory, based on nothing more than a hunch.

If the anchor text, page title, and H1 tags all match up too perfectly, then Google seems to be dropping the page. A tad more complicated than that, but something along those lines.

Because of this, I've changed the page title and of my index page to "Blue Duct Tape at Wholesale Prices". It's about as far off topic as I can imagine, but it might just work.

[Tiffany]

I think we should just wait it out and see what happens before people go into a virtual panic. This situation is widespread which makes me think that it will be resolved and the serps are changing in favor as we speak.

I am seeing a danse macabre play backwards. There are international sites that have an OLD listing from about.com and I am number one. That happened right as my site was indexed number one. This whole thing is playing out backwards, Google has a ton of material to sort through to give the best results and alot of the current results are very mixed.
Why in the world would Google go from great to horrible? That logic alone will allow me some sleep this evening =) Beyond us, Google is out to impress the end user, which at this point would be extremely dissatisified.
I have not personally been using Google for my searches, just because the content is so screwy the last few days....

I just think we should all give it time and let Google impress us in the end, as it usually does.

[rfgdxm1]

>I just think we should all give it time and let Google impress us in the end, as it usually does.

Don't remember Dominic? Google may depress more than impress around here.

[steveb]

I'm curious if all the people having problems are selling widgets one way or another. On informational searches, what I see looks like an improvement most of the time -- not counting obvious fresh spam or extreme/dedicated spam that was there already.

The increase in Yahoo/Dmoz/Google directory pages in the results seems to me to be a total positive when it comes to information. The "value authority sites" knob seems to have been turned (amongst others maybe) and that is a very, very good thing... and about time too.

[shopgal]

Hi everyone. Just checked my keywords and they seem fine at the moment. Which data centers are google updating?

[markus007]

SteveB i disagree, in many of the serps i follow, they are now dominated by sites that use links manager. There are serveral sites that have exchanged hundreds of links with other members in the network, mostly viagra etc spam sites. Since they use links manager, every link to thier site is a one way link, and over night they get 500-600 links, add to that a dmoz link and they blow most of the real "authority" sites away.