google update 2-2-05

edwin said: "another major google update today. i hear a lot of crying."

Darren said: "People should be crying. This is an ugly one. Lot's of crap pages having their 15 minutes in the Sun."

Heather said: "I saw that there are 20 page threads on this very subject at some other boards. After reading the posts, I have decided to sit tight and fear not. The results look very similar to other updates I've saw in this category. And they aren't that good."

edwin said: "its tough to figure out what happened from posts. its almost like everyone is describing something completely different."

JNKProducts said: "We have a "friend" who in the "past" used prgoram to research all of his listings and rankings. He has a lot of sites and has seen dramatic, documented shifts in all of them. With MSN and google hitting at the same time.... Anyway, some have suggested gogle is using an old index, BUT I do notice a lot of my new pages are being crawled and cached. That beng said this weeks google report overlays a google repory from a couple of months ago almost exactly on over 200 keywords! One thing I have learned with google is if you do not like your ranking, wait a couple of days... It will change. Justin"

Heather said: "[QUOTE=JNKProducts]We have a "friend" who in the "past" used prgoram to research all of his listings and rankings. He has a lot of sites and has seen dramatic, documented shifts in all of them. With MSN and google hitting at the same time.... Anyway, some have suggested gogle is using an old index, BUT I do notice a lot of my new pages are being crawled and cached. That beng said this weeks google report overlays a google repory from a couple of months ago almost exactly on over 200 keywords! One thing I have learned with google is if you do not like your ranking, wait a couple of days... It will change. Justin[/QUOTE] That is very true. I see a lot of straight product pages coming up in one keyword I watch."

edwin said: "now people are saying their sandboxed sites are gone. this has been a very tumultous update."

Darren said: "Two things come to mind immediatedly. 1) Nofollow has had a big impact 2) Google has gotten a lot better at spotting duplicate content Seems like a domino affect has occured."

edwin said: "i see some horrible results! google should be ashamed."

Heather said: "I think that the "no follow" has a lot to do with some websites falling out of favor, but no one seems to be discussing this as a factor anywhere else. It is mostly stuff like "my keyword, my page, my domain, fell out of the serps." and "more complaining" The only real problem is nobody says what keyword they are targetting. (Can't blame them) I'm sure not everyone is seeing the exact same things, because there is so much diversity out there, but that seems like something that would affect the internet as a whole. Sort of like a giant internet tectonic plate shifting and "displacing" lots of very popular websites."

edwin said: "people today have all kinds of theories. i can no longer tell the difference between fantasy and reality."

Darren said: "Well Google has clearly went after duplicate content in an attempt to clean it up. They also appear to have targeted other tactics that may be used by spammers, but they appear to have hurt a lot of older white-hat sites as well. Honestly, at their current pace, I think they'll alienate most webmasters very soon."

Heather said: "I'm not hating on google, but whatever *filter/filters* they have implemented has affected a lot of webmasters out there, and none are too happy. If they systematically anger the webmasters, even if it's just one at a time, eventually they will lose the core people that helped to make them great. Might be a window of opportunity for an agressive MSN try to make some inroads with the webmaster community."

Darksat said: "Ive had some very good results for some of my websites."

Heather said: "[QUOTE=Darksat]Ive had some very good results for some of my websites.[/QUOTE] I'm glad to see you back, Darksat! Good to hear that your SERP's are looking good. I have been watching at a few other WM boads and not many people there are talking that this last update is going so great for them!"

Darksat said: "The people who do well are a lot less likely to complain though."

Heather said: "True enough. I barely ever comment either way. More of a 'lurker' I guess."

Darksat said: "I like to say Stealth Webmaster. ;)"

Heather said: "Great terminology! Some of the long, long posts give me a headache and don't offer much information other than "I have been watching DC 000.000.777.666 and my Serps.. blah blah blah." That time would be better spent making pages or adding links or anything better than watching a frigging datacenter like a coked up nut.."

Darksat said: "Relax, dont get worked up about SEO, just concentrate on natural linking for promotional reasons and expand your site for its existing visitors."

Heather said: "My thoughts exactly, but others don't seem to have that idea in mind.."

Darksat said: "Its hard working in a field that normally has fast results(IT/Webdesign) then have to wait months for results from search engines."

edwin said: "yep. google is now the slowest of the major engines at indexing new sites and changes."

Darksat said: "Actually its just the slowest to get a good ranking in."

Darren said: "Google is undergoing "culture changes" as they become a huge, publicly traded company. They have a profit motive for their latest changes."

Heather said: "MSN is scoring on some greater levels than in the past. Of course, Microsoft is going to try to give these guys a run for their money. What I would call this "update" is a reminder to all of us not to rely purely on Google. They are publicly held corporation and have their own business plan, that is making profits. They can be Indian givers as far as traffic is concerned. I think "no follow" is a part of what is going on, but not all of it.."

Darksat said: "MSN are advertising on UK telly and yahoo has a large billboard campaign, expecially around London. its starting to heat up."

edwin said: "i'd love to see more competition. google is just too close to being a monopoly."

Darksat said: "I think Yahoo & MSN are goint to take larger shares so I estimate a 3 way share of the search market within a year."

Heather said: "We'll see what happens. The feedback that I'm reading around the net on G's latest update is pretty grim across the board. MSN and Yahoo have been more prevelant in the log files I have been watching.."

Darren said: "Almost 30 days of this complete crapola update and no changes. What a bad index."

Darksat said: "Some of my sites are still climbing across the serps. traffic is up to. :D"