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With post florida in late November, I have moved between positions 13 - 76 and obliviun, for my money keywords. The longest I have stayed in one placement is 3 or 4 days.
I am waiting for things to stabilize before I do anything, and I have been waiting almost 2 months now.
My theory is that google is intentionally changing its ranking algothitm every few days, just to add variability, and to try to prevent the testing of any SEO techniques.
Comments?
is there any pattern that you can see? When you fluctuate do the sites that link to you also go through the mill?
Comments?
Yeah. I'm surprised no one has done this yet. :) It's been far too long.
The one and only potential downfall I can see I actually ran into this morning: my mother did a search on google yesterday, and found something she wanted to show me. She emailed me this morning with the link to the Google SERP (instead of the site she wanted me to see). It wasn't there.
I know some users will bookmark SERPs instead of sites to go back to, but I'd be willing to bet that behavior isn't generally popular.
Other than that, I see no reason they haven't randomized the listings yet, at least in a controlled fashion.
Yup, this keyword was turned upside down like all the rest after the Florida update.
I doubt Google would randomize their results.. that's like saying they come up with a random algo every day with no direction or reason.
Hey just my opinion though :)
Randomization runs counter to the very basis of a search engine. As a searcher I want the best results an engine can create, not freaking randomized ones. I'd never use a search engine that wasn't deliberately showing the best results it could every time.
I'd never use a search engine that wasn't deliberately showing the best results it could every time.
If that was true, then google would revert to pre-florida.
I think that google is adjusting the spam filter every few days (without much success), and this is causing the variable results.
I think that google needs industry specific spam filters. By using a highly selected filter on a highly competitive industry, they are turning our
low competitive industry SERP results into mush.
Post Florida my site slowly came back in the listings (not to where it was previously but still on page 1 for searches). Made no changes what-so-ever and over Christmas it vanished again. Back again about 4 days later (same position for major keywords) then 2 days ago vanished again for my major keywords to about #200+.
I've given up on looking so closely now. It's just too depressing.
All in all, what I watch is pretty stable though, and some of what I watch is in competitive areas.
I find google news now on keywords, that were not newsworthy before.
What proof do you have the average searcher thinks post-Florida results are worse? I personally don't see this as being the case.
Stability hasn't changed between pre and post florida. Sites move around, fresh ones get boosts, then settle down, etc etc. Nothing has changed in that way. As usual, if people get their heads out of their own sites they would see a bigger picture.
It just depends which datacentre that you are accessing at the time. Each datacentre has different results on it, and accessing the main www URL does cause the results to vary from day to day.
Search using each individual datacentre in turn to see the variance in results that different searchers might be seeing.
While there are many theories about why, I'm starting to think that the dampening factor might have more to do with it than we think.
For instance, since Florida, the consensus seems to be that obvious SEO tricks are more like to harm than help, and that paying more attention to content and user friendliness is more important than ever (for SEO objectives).
What better way for Google to gauge which sites users find relevant and useful for their search terms than the dampening factor? And if this factor is so important to them, they will need to serve differing results in order to get dampening factors on the many sites that rank comparably -- and then equilibrate them.
I have, in one manufacturing area I follow, seen results that support this theory. Results were wildly variable during Florida and until about last week. The SERPs are now somewhat stable, and I must say, good (even though the site I optimize isn't up there :)). Google finally is serving the "best" brands in this space.
