Forum Moderators: open
Kackle - can you explain the "dictionary" for me? And how I might benefit from it - Im reading your posts hard but dont see where youre coming from.
Sure. But you have to act quickly. Google will fix this one just like they fixed the hyphen.
1. Google is depreciating pages/sites that are over-optimized for certain keywords or keyword combinations. It does this by looking up search terms in a dictionary of target keywords or keyword pairs that it has compiled. This dictionary is Top Secret, because if you knew what was in the dictionary, you could avoid these words in your optimization efforts.
2. If the search term or terms hit on a dictionary entry, the search results for that user's search are flagged. This means that before the results are delivered, the order of the links, or even the inclusion of links, are adjusted so as to penalize pages that have overoptimizated for those terms. Most likely the title, headlines, links and anchor text are examined. It's possible that external anchor text pointing to that page has also been pre-collected and is available for scanning, but this is much less likely. (Besides, external links are not something within your immediate control, so don't worry about it right now.)
3. You want to find out which keywords that are relevant to your site are in Google's dictionary. Compile as many relevant keywords you can think of that searchers might use to find your site. Now take these words singly and in pairs, according to how users might search. Run two searches for each combination and compare the results.
4. If the results are strikingly different for the pre-filter and the post-filter search on a particular term or combination of terms, it means that some variation of those terms has been flagged because something was found in Google's dictionary.
5. Do lots of searches and you can come up with a list of "sensitive" words that you'll want to avoid when you re-optimize your pages.
It's a nice weekend project.
deanril, your comments makes me think of the words Churchill spoke during the darkest days of WW2
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning"
Please note that I am not associating Google with Nazi Fascist Tyranny and abuse of power in any way :)
This is the way the index will stay? Who?
Wheres your proof?
I have proof that this is not the way the index will stay. Look at the last 4 major updates(1.5 year+).
Everyone needs to chill.....These searches suck, they are not the final index.
As for "Money Words" you will notice that with most of the bad searches(sites missing) there is a Google/Dmoz category at the top of the first page. Most of the unchanged still ranking good pages have no Google/Dmoz category on top.
These pages are commonly updated, where as the pages with out a Google/Dmoz are not commonly updated(once a month typically). As far as I can tell Adwords has nothing to do with it, the page without the Google/Dmoz listing that are uneffective have plenty of Adwords aswell.
Our site was one that wasn't affected... it stayed the same, #1 on our important kw's and actually improved on certain more competitive ones. I've been watching googlebot closely in the logs through this. During the "update", while normally we have about 15-25% of our ~150 pages hit by googlebot per day, it dropped to only the index and 1 - 3 pages. Yesterday it kicked back up... we had about 40 pages taken by the bot. Freshtags are appearing on our main pages updated daily, Nov 23 right now.
Maybe they'll fine-tune things, as they always do on an irregular schedule post dom/esm, but we're likely back to the rolling update now. The big tweak is over.
Shouldn't the Internet be free? Even for commercial sites? I think so. It started out that way and it should have stayed that way. Everyone knows that the Government is actively trying to tax emails. How would that affect people sending emails?
An ironic statement considering the the purpose the majority in this forum have for getting to the top of the Google rankings is so that they can make money. The internet ceased being about anything but money a long time ago.
Regarding the taxing of Emails, it's an urban myth, but I think it would be a good idea because it would get rid of all the spam. If someone doesn't want to pay 5 cents to reach me, I don't wan't to read his Email.
How can the "big tweak" be over.
I have no idea if it's only "commercial" words being filtered, but if Google wanted a list of commercial words and phrases, the obvious source for that list is the Adwords database. Just add up all the money being bid for a particular word or phrase, and then you know how commercial it is. I don't see why Google would program some complicated algorithm that might now work in all circumstances when a very simple query on the Adwords database could figure it out with perfect accuracy.
Some of us feel this in their gut, but few say it. Google will never admit to it. There are possible legal implications if Google were to admit this. There will be people lining up to denounce you, and you'll never know if they are "sent men."
Think of it this way: by saying it's a dictionary of commercial terms and that Google is cleaning up over-optimized spam in the organic listings, Google remains "cool." As the kiddies say, "Google rocks."
By saying that Google is surreptitiously forcing e-comnmerce to pay for listings, you are accusing Google of having already become the next Microsoft.
We are past the "buggy update" stage. Unless the entire Googleplex has been getting fat on gourmet lunches and working it off on the golf course, for the entire last week, this thing would have been turned off by now. The "hyphen fix" that they pulled off within a few days of its discovery means that they could also turn off this entire filter just as quickly -- if they wanted to. It has to be deliberate. GoogleGuy speaks volumes by his absence.
If you concede that it's deliberate, and you still want to believe that Google is merely fighting spam, then consider:
Even if the dictionary was compiled entirely separately from the list of top Adword terms, what sort of overlap would you expect? 80 percent? 90 percent?
Does it matter to Google which list they use? Yes, in front of a judge or jury the question of motivation may matter a lot. Does it matter outside of a courtroom? No, apart from the need to keep unthinking journalists from asking too many questions, it doesn't matter much at all.
In the end, the consequences of using either list are approximately the same.
I think you just hit the nail on the head.
I just experimented and found that it works, I lost my index page after being number 1 for a few months. I will now remove my keywords from titles and h tags and concentrate on the content.
Looks like google is looking more at content than anything else.
Across the board, it seems to be Dot Gov and also Dot Org sites. Information related sites that searchers are NOT looking for (they want to BUY the insurance related products that the business oriented sites are actually SELLING).
We've been gone for about 5, maybe 6 days now. I'm beginning to think this "new and improved" algorhythym thing is a major disaster.
Maybe we should start a Dot Org site?
Anyone else seeing same or similar results?
Anyone have any hope that google will come to its senses?
If I didn't know better, I'd swear google was trying to "force" business related sites to cough it up and start paying to play! ArG!
You are ignoring the fact that the Internet is now used by millions of people to buy things - as well as to find information.
If I type in, for example, 'cepheid variable stars' - then I expect, and should receive an informational site about astrophysics.
But if I type in - I don't know - 'U bend for toilet', I expect to see plumbing sites that specialise in this. Not a pdf. for a tribute site to a band called 'U bend', followed by 2 pages of sites about camper vans that feature a toilet.
Pretty poor hypothetical examples, I admit - but to deliberately favour 'de-optimisation' is so illogical and so crazy, that if Google has done this, it has finally lost it.
Unfortunately, despite being initially unconvinced, I now think this is what Google has done. The addition of a nonsense -anyolddrivel$ to a search term, which then shows up sensible results is potent evidence of this.
This discovery is an indication of the quality of the minds on this forum, and I am sure Google will have been surprised, even shocked that this has been noticed.
What we are seeing is a commercial filter. But only commercial sites are likely to spam, so it can easily be explained away as a spam filter. But the damage caused could be immense. My business is certainly in danger of folding.
