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Last month Google reported my backlinks as over 8000. I believe the exact number was 8301. Now after the last update a few days ago, my backlinks has dramatically been reduced to about 1000. There is no way I lost 7000 links in one update cycle. As a matter of fact, I actually obtained some very good links over the last month. I doubt that sites linking to me can hurt me, but something certainly happened this update…
My site is still ranking well for most of the search terms I usually do well on. However, my site used to appear top 10 for 100's of other keywords relating to specific models of widgets. After the last update, my site can not be found anywhere in the top 100 pages for a specific widget model. Sites w/ much lower PR are actually doing a lot better than my site.
I have not made any dramatic changes to my site or layout. I did add some iframes to increase functionality to my site. Also, I do have an affiliate links box on the footer of every page (like many sites). Could the iframes or off-topic affiliate links be hurting my SERP so dramatically after the last update?
My page rank has stayed the same (PR 7), but I now do terrible for many of the keywords that I used to do well on over the last few months. I certainly am not doing anything spammy, or illegal in Google's eyes. I am very confused, and would welcome some ideas.
Did I manage to trigger some sort of penalty or Google filter? Can sites linking to me hurt me in any way? I checked all the sites I link to, and most have a Toolbar PR of 3 or above. So, I am not linking to any penalized sites or bad neighborhoods. Frankly, I have not done much to my site in terms of SEO in the last few months, as I was doing pretty well. Now I am in oblivion, and I am at a loss... How did my site go from doing well w/ Google to doing very poorly when I changed nothing on my site?
Could someone have written a negative email to Google to affect my SERP? One of my competitors? How can I find out if this is the case?
Also, when searching for a specific widget in the past my site would come up as "domain.com/page.html", but now the only listings I see are "subdomain.another-domain.com/page.html". My actual domain name is not found in most of the listings for obscure terms I used to do well for (specific widget names). Rather, I see a link to a subdomain for my hosting company that links back to my site.
To wrap it up, I am not sure what to do from here. I mean If I was penalized, wouldn’t my PR have dropped?
Also, why is my site ranking so poorly for a lot of keywords I used to do really well for? I still do rank good for some 2-3 KW phrases that I have done well with in the past. It’s strange that I do very well on some phrases, but non-existent for some of the very specific KW phrases I used to do well on; there are literally 1000’s of these.
What happened during the last update that affected my site so dramatically, and where do I go from here? Anyone, please help; I am at a loss…
[edited by: Marcia at 6:37 am (utc) on Mar. 22, 2004]
I thought that this is an old Google issue in regards to www alias and have taken care of this problem.
Interesting though, a lot of my pages are still getting fresh tag which lead me to believe that perhaps Google is just updating the backlinks, albeit slowly.
Now I'm stuck between a hard place and a rock, all this seemingly glitches at Google and the obvious manipulation of the serp by Yahoo.
Would MSN come to the rescue or would just add to our misery?
Is there a difference?
Yes. "http://www.example.com" shows text occurences of the URL, which are not necessarily links.
I occasionally credit things on our site by posting the URL, without <a href></a>. It can be copied and pasted by the user, but isn't a backlink.
<edit>www.example.com</edit>
You said G reported over 8,000 backlinks in last update, but do you have any idea of how many actual websites link to you (not by link pages, but by websites)? For ex - You might got a website with 1,000 pages who linked to you on every pages and that had bloated your backlinks in the past by 1,000. Those pages might got rotten by now or had been filtered out by G, therefore what used to work well in the past does not work anymore. It is not surprising that you can lose 7,000 backlinks in one update cycle.
As of the PR - Your PR still remains the same PR7. Don't be so sure about that...In a number of circumstances, G does not report accurate PR. I'm sorry to say this - you may expect to see PR drop in the next one or two update.
I will say that my industry - power equipment - has been overall very hard hit. Not just my site - but my competitors sites also, with only 1 or 2 exceptions. The results returned are worthless - people who are out of business with derelict sites, comments on forums from a year ago, things like this. But Google is presently returning neither informational sites (ie: manufacturers) nor retail sites. Much less sites like my own which is both informational and retail (one definition of an "authority" site).
(flame mode on:)
Google is FUBAR. Period. It has the freshest results of all search engines. Unfortunately - it is fresh junk. And junk is junk is junk .....
IMHO - Google's PHD's thought they were going to take on spammers and such - and got their heads handed back to them. Spam is now ALL Google is serving, at least in my categories .....
So much for the genius who came up with HILLTOP, or whatever else they are trying to implement - and failing miserably at.
Of course - Google is consistent. They added - what was it - 2 BILLION new websites - during Austin? I guess they had to. Since all the good sites are now nowhere to be seen - they had to have a fresh load of junk to serve to their users ..... They could not take the chance that a relevant site might be returned in their results by accident - so they filled the cupboards with junk they had ignored for years .....
I will say that, at this point - I really don't care what Google does. AdWords will bring me the minor traffic Google is now generating. I have seen a mass migration over to Yahoo in terms of sales volume over the last 6 weeks. I guess people are tired of going to Google to find a good deal or information, and being served a steady diet of garbage.
Google *was* big - because of it's customers. Notably YAHOO - and AOL - and Netscape - and Earthlink. The rest are really irrelevant. They lost their #1 customer - Yahoo. AOL - in my opinion - is a follower and not a leader. They will likely follow Yahoo and go to Yahoo / SiteMatch / Overture results when their current contract with Google Expires.
Very good chance Netscape and Earthlink will also. They will want to offer the best results on their site, to increase their stickiness to their customers.
Then where will Google be? Just another has-been search engine like Excite or Alta Vista or Lycos, that is a vague memory, but nobody really uses much anymore.
Alta Vista had an attitude like Google at one point - they thought they were the big doggie. When was the last time *anyone* reading this went to Alta Vista to search for something they were trying to find for themselves (not to check the ranking of the site you are optimizing)? I'll bet 99% of you will agree - it has been a long while ....
Yahoo and MSN will be the big boys. They have the bones to play. And they are not afraid to pay what it takes to take market share. They are both public companies - and can generate cash if necessary. And Google - will simply blow away. Dust in the wind. The winds of change are coming ....
This may take 12 - 24 months - but remember - you heard it here first.
(flame mode off:)
