July Update?

[Heywood_J]

Is it me or does it look like a significant update is going on at google. I am noticing a number of SERP changes for a few of my sites and they've been fluctuating for the past few days.

Anyone else noticing any major changes?

[Marcia]

There are no more updates. Once in a while they'll update the PR that's shown on the toolbar and the backlinks that are shown, but it's all already taken place.

[UK_Web_Guy]

As someone else commented, there are a couple of DC's that are out of line with the others - how much will probably vary on the terms you are looking at.

The DC talked of yesterday has now come into line with the rest - differences can now be seen on [216.239.57.98...]

Whether this is really relevant or means anything is unclear - it isn't an update, as people say those days are gone.

However, there will be update style changes still from time to time as algo changes are made - this may be a tweak of one that we are starting to see - it may be nothing.

Austin and Brandy were both algo changes - have we had third this year?

[willybfriendly]

Well, we may not have updates like the old days, but i am seeing significant changes in my niche today. Seems like a lot more than the day to day reshuffling to me. And it is clearly not simply the shuffling in of new sites, since I am seeing changes among older, well established sites. (There are a few "new" sites)

Frankly, the results I am seeing are of less quality than just a few days ago. Seeing an increase in AdSense spam pages, among other things.

WBF

[decaff]

There's also the idea that with different data centers showing different sets at the same time and then rotating those sets into the main index Google can do some quick and dirty click thru usability testing on different sets of results..and then settle on one for a bit....

[stevenmusumeche]

Has GoogleGuy ever confirmed that Google alters SERPS based on usability testing?

[steveb]

Several of the datacenters are similar, several are different, and those that are different are different from each other. The one linked a few messages above isn't special, but it does have some of the weakest results.

This is the new serp dance, such as it is.

[webhound]

Hey everyone I am relatively new to WW, and the one thing I'd like to ask, is why doesn't anyone every mention what category they are looking at when making a post? I think it would be really helpfull to know what area everyone is referring to in their posts, no?

As in this post's case, people are talking about seeing changes while others say they aren't. Be nice to know what cat's are being effected. :-)

PS. I have ADD and can't read through the charter or tos so please forgive me if this is stated as a no no there. Although if it is, perhaps this should be changed? :-)

[pmac]

>I have ADD and can't read through the charter or tos<

Focus [webmasterworld.com]

:)

[my3cents]

I have to say that I am amazed....

I see some more fluctuation and the only thing that is logical is the fact that msn and yahoo traffic keeps rising while G traffic falls. I am #1 for the best key phrase in my industry on G, but the rest of the results have deteriorated.

I made reference a few days ago about how irrelevant the results are in my sector and referred to searching for tires and finding hub caps.... now I check and it's worse.... similar to searching for "tires" and finding sites about lug nuts, jacks, valve stems and headlights...

sure, they are all part of a car, and I have to admit that my google conversion ratio is much higher due to my website being one of the few that pertain to the search terms.....

... but this bothers me...

I guess they sold out just in time... if the results stay this poor, people WILL go elsewhere. I am at the top on EVERY engine right now for the "money terms" so I am not worried, but I have also been a HUGE fan of google. Google has been my personal search engine of choice for a few years now and I really don't want to switch, but even searching for my own interests I am mostly unhappy.

I'm finding much fresher sites than anywhere else, but I keep seeing more and more results that are barely on topic.

Since I am #1 right now and benefiting greatly I shouldn't complain, but to tell you the truth, I would rather not see Y or B.G. step in and take market share away from my beloved G, but that's seems to be what's happening.

As a webmaster I guess I should be happy and shut up, as a "Joe Surfer" I am confused as to why they would do this? Half of what I search for returns 70%+ garbage results. On the other hand, I saw something similar last year in May and it was "fixed" within a few weeks. At that time, I took a big hit, made no changes, and returned to the top.

I'm glad I didn't buy stock...

[soapystar]

in common with others such a steveb i see a change for the worse imho. Yes a lot of changes seem to be positive for older sites that got hit with the recent filter changes and who relied on spammed links heavy with anchor text. Yes i see the re-emregence of previuosly culled sub-domains. Again on page content not being enough to overcome sites with no content of a subject at all but with the right link/anchor campaign. Very strange. Oh yes and do not see new sites being responsible for th chnages. Seems mostly older sites over 3 years that have some sort of bonus either just for age or for their links. Maybe the age of an inbound effects its effect?