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Time to call it a wrap!
ummm - Google is reported to be doing double the traffic they were last year. That leads to multiplicably more people who try to game their system. eg: much more aggressive optimization.
Very good point here. I've seen a number of different website logs where the sites in question were doing exceedingly well not only on Google, but just about every other search engine in worth mentioning. Thus I'd tend to expect hits from the various search engines to relect how often they are used. Google, and those using Google SERPs like AOL, Yahoo, etc. are WAY dominant. So dominant I'd question if SEOs really are trying to game the other search engines much? Now if there were 2 other search engines with as many users as Google, then SEOs would need to use strategies aimed at doing well with all of them. With Google being so popular, they have a really big bullseye painted on them SEOs are gunning at. Which should mean spam will be a greater problem at Google than other SEs.
Now if there were 2 other search engines with as many users as Google, then SEOs would need to use strategies aimed at doing well with all of them. With Google being so popular, they have a really big bullseye painted on them SEOs are gunning at. Which should mean spam will be a greater problem at Google than other SEs.
..which is why google needs to reinvent itself at each update. SEOs may have to deal with different googles in the future, the google before an update and the google after. simple measures of self defense of a dominant SE.
Good points, which is why M$N and Y!'s switch to INK is a good thing. If you cant game both engines equally well, but need to be in both because of new user loyality to M$N and Y! and the new traffic patterns they create, then hopefully the serps improve as a byproduct.
BELIEVE ME
Julian Yanover.
BELIEVE ME
I've found that people who scream "trust me" are not usually trustworthy.
What are you sources?
Has anybody noticed - All of the data centres in the google dance tool are offline?
Yes, what's up with that? I know 3 of them were up yesterday but the rest were all down since Austin hit.
Theming, theming, theming
Portal, portal, portal
No one is banned, forget keyword density, forget all tags except the title tag. Do not forget PageRank, it still has a place to play, arguably more important than before.
If you have dropped from the first page to not in the first 200 it is because 200+ better themed sites have bumped you down.
From the point of view of what searchers will think, for one or two word searches the results are actually probably better. For three word + searches they are a complete joke. If Google does not fix that part of the algorithm quickly they will be in big trouble.
[edited by: Marcia at 4:59 am (utc) on Jan. 29, 2004]
[edit reason] See stickymail. [/edit]
-paul
Yep. "Theme" can mean 2 things. One is that if I have a site with 500 different pages about "blue widgets", then the SE will think my site must be an important blue widget resource, and rank me high on that SERP. One well optimized page won't cut the mustard. The other notion with themeing is that links from sites on the same topic are given far more weight. Thus, for my site with 500 different pages about "blue widgets", what I really want to try for is getting links from other sites all about blue widgets.
I didn't write so much because I had to sleep.
The thing is that I researched a lot and found out that none of well (almost perfect) themed sites were dropped.
Google has found the way to penalize artificial links to unrelated sites. I mean, theming is not new, but they are giving it far more weight than before and trusting it to filter "spam" out. I think, although everyone will have to change their sites, the best move they could take. A perfect solution.
I have 2 sites dropped, I checked their themes and they were really poor, so now I'm building them all over again. There you have some of my source.
Other source (a very interesting one): Everyone remembers that Google gets beated by Altavista for "search engine" in their own SE, right? Guess what, if you look in related sites for Altavista 100% are related sites (SEs). Google's got 75% SEs and 25% sites that link to it. So Altavista has a best themed site. I think that's the reason Altavista is #1 for that search.
I will let you all know if I can get my site back doing some "Theme optimization".
Julian Yanover.
Julian Yanover.
The first two mentioned are now # 3 and #5 with so-called authorities and hubs rounding out the rest of the pages of results. Also, the top results now, although the keywords are barely anything more than mentioned if at all are mostly a big list of links for verrrrry general search terms and not even for this location.
Even more amazing is that all of these sites offer the same service in two other geographic areas and everybody uses the same format for the pages in these areas and its like pre-florida.
Just so happens that the money page (the one in question) is the one that is affected. Hope I explained it well enough.
If you like pm me the url and I'll try to take a look at it.
Julian Yanover.
The site is very Theme related to the keyword I'm trying to target "50cent", Before the Austin update and the PR update, the site was ranking #3 for the keyword. Austin comes into play and the website is nowhere to be seen for my main kw, however my inner optimized pages are still ranked good and got uneffected. Anyone here have any idea what could of taken this site out. My guess would be the heavy inner anchor backlinks, however I'm seeing other sites doing the same exact thing for other commercial phrases and they didn't lose their spots, this is really aggrivating me, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to post, much appreciated, thank you
[edited by: Marcia at 6:01 am (utc) on Jan. 29, 2004]
The other notion with themeing is that links from sites on the same topic are given far more weight.
That really fits what just happened to me. I'd been hanging in at #11 with "widgeting" as a single search word. All of a sudden I'm #7. Holding my breath that it will last.
Essentially all the places I've linked to and all the sites that have linked to me are on this topic so that must be helping. They are all related to the same hobby.
It had been gradually creeping up until Dominic and the single word dropped way down. It was kind of discouraging but maybe my work writing to all those people in my field telling them about my site finally payed off.
Actually most of my traffic comes in on 2 and 3 word searches but it's just the challenge of it getting up there on one word.
PS I must confess I haven't read ALL the posts in this thread. :)
Now, only 1 site can distort your site's theme? Yes. Because you only have 5 other links to your site so EVERY link counts a lot, if just 1 is not related, you will be affected.
I'd ask that site's webmaster to remove the link and see what happens and, of course, let us all know how turned out ;-)
Julian Yanover
What he's telling you isn't fact, it's his opinion. One that some might agree with, but others do not. While it's nice to have someone give you an opinion and help you through a tough time, it doesn't always mean it's the right way to go.
just food for thought.
You don't have to link two "KW1 KW2 KW3" with "KW1 KW2 KW3" sites. Themes are smart enough to know the relation between topics. The don't have to be the same, just similar, related.
Julian Yanover.
