1402 replies to this topic

[mcanerin]

Since both crazed canuck and myself are based in Calgary, we are obviously less than impressed with the results.

In the other hand, I've never aimed at "search engine optimisation" as a keyword because none of my customers know what that is. They type in things like internet promotion and website marketing and so forth.

At the moment my site is number one on all my major keyphrases (which is nice), but nowhere to be found for the others that I used to show up on (not so nice).

If I was paranoid, I'd be thinking it's a great time to give google money for an adwords campaign, and that's what G wanted. (BTW, take a look at the adwords spots that show up for search engine optimisation - at least one cloaker and a link farm generator showed up when I did it).

Good thing I'm not paranoid....

Ian

[ajeshnair]

What does this tell me about the Google Update? If you want to rank highly for certain keyword terms then Google expects that you will #1 not use your keyword phrases AT ALL in your site. #2 not use your keyword phrases AT ALL in your links. #3 not use your keyword phrases in your title #4 do not use your keyword phrases in your meta tags.

Leann Pass can u tell me where should i use the keyword?..............Hope u r kidding....

One of my site which was KILLED and BURRIED by Google is using

1) Keywords in Title.
2) Keywords in links.
3) Keywords in Meta Tags.
4) keyword rich content.
5) Page Rank of 5.

In your opinion what should i do MORE to get this site listed again in Top 10.

It is true that Google has a monopoly among SE's. Let us see what Microsift is coming up with. Microsoft is enhancing their new search engine from their development center in Hyderabad, India. Hopefully they will consider Google's carziness. What about Google's searches in PDA's? Are they showing the same result?

It will be great if Jill whalen come up with a new newsletter regarding Google's recent update. I agree with Vijay that Google can't avoid webmasters and programmers.

[Leann_Pass]

ajeshnair,

Of course I was kidding BUT I think we all agree that in some of the results that is how it would appear!

I have no idea what to do ANY site at this particular moment....I think the absolute best thing is to do nothing. With the way things are changing by the minute, I guess it is possible that things could return to something resembling RELEVANT results. I just keep venting and hoping it will get better.

Ian, what do you mean IF you were paranoid?????

I do agree that they are making a mint on the PPC with the results in such a mess.
Just a shame.

[ajeshnair]

Leann_Pass..................When this is going to end??????????

You got #1 for "Optimizing Websites for Success!".

[relaxzoolander]

Of course I know this is bound to get a better set of results! If I was looking for a web designer in Calgary I am certain I would tickled pink to do business with a hockey team.

....maybe what this is telling us is that if you want search results for web design companies in calgary....
.....then you must make your search "calgary hockey team"

[SEOCub]

Hello Paes,

What does this tell me about the Google Update? If you want to rank highly for certain keyword terms then Google expects that you will #1 not use your keyword phrases AT ALL in your site. #2 not use your keyword phrases AT ALL in your links. #3 not use your keyword phrases in your title #4 do not use your keyword phrases in your meta tags.

You have the find of the day.

Weightage given to anchor text in links pointing to a web site is not new. And it definitely is not something that Google threw in with this update. Monster.com is known to be highly ranked for the single keyword jobs based entirely on backlinks.
http://216.239.41.10...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[awall19]

I think this is the most reprehenisble tactic that Google has ever undertaken. AND I think it all has to do with their upcomoming IPO. By putting everything as far as organic placement in flux, right before Christmas, they make everybody start to pay PPC, which drives their profit margin way up (and ours way down) before their upcoming IPO early next year.

Their goal is not just profit margin. Without good results (repeat customers) they would not have a profit margin. People will only find that hockey site so many times before they search elsewhere - not just using the ads.

I think a rotatating algorithm which made optimization hard could improve the functionality of their search engine. after all, the less we know the better off they are. the thing that sucks is that SEO is typically better than spam, and I am not certain that they are not trading vices.

It would be foolish to think that after all this time building customer loyalty that google would want to throw it all away. I still think their results will improve, but there are other ad mediums and modes of distribution. Perhaps if we learn this we will be better off in the long run.

[SEOCub]

That hockey site really makes a very interesting case study.
It's#5 for Calgary
http://www.google.co...UTF-8&q=calgary
#9 for calgary web
http://www.google.co...1&q=calgary web
#1 for calgary web design
http://www.google.co...gary web design

It appears that the Calgary links are what are pulling this site to the top. I am pretty sure that none of the calgary web design sites have as much PR being passed to them on the word Calgary as does CalgaryFlames on Calgary. Calgary web design returns 570K results and is not competitive so a web site that is strong on the word Calgary is making it to the top.

[powerofeyes]

Hello SEOCUB
I dont know which anchor text you are talking about I cant find any anchor text like that. What ever the inbound link they are getting doesnt have any anchor text saying web design I dont know which one you are talking about. Do you mean to say many links are coming from sites which are related to web design,

[powerofeyes]

Hello Aaron,

I think a rotatating algorithm which made optimization hard could improve the functionality of their search engine.

I would like to say without showing sites with phrases they cannot bring relevancy to their results. if they keep showing sites which contain "high" seperately and "ranking" seperately then just imagine how many sites like the "Hockey team sites" will popup.
Google is sending a message to all SEOs dont play with google and in the process they have a whole messed up results because they cannot find the relevancy they thought they will get. Again I would say SEOs are not stupids as they might think, we do have people who think more than the PHDs in google. When this algo is not changed 1 that is the end of google, 2 we will find a better way to rank than the previous technique,
G how ever smart you try to become finally you will end up in no man's land yahoo with say bye to you, AOL "get lost", Netscape "dont come near me", finally we will be switching to fast and ink results, If they want to go IPO nobody will buy their share .
Vijay

[ajeshnair]

Well if over optimization invites penalty then is there any limit to the optimization? I mean number of keywords. How "OVER OPTIMIZATION" can be defined?.

-Ajesh Nair

[ajeshnair]

Some one in other thread was telling Yahoo is already showing inktomi's results. I am not sure. But it is possible.

Google results are totally irrevalent. Users need to make a second search for a particular product or service. This makes the search difficult and this is not good for Google. No one is interested in BURRIED inner pages. It will be great if again home pages are shown in SERPS.

If this is a PLAN to make more revenue then Google will face the fate of other so called super search engines.

I hope Google will bring relevancy to their results again. Which is good for them and us.

- Ajesh Nair

[Dragon]

I think this is the most reprehenisble tactic that Google has ever undertaken. AND I think it all has to do with their upcomoming IPO. By putting everything as far as organic placement in flux, right before Christmas, they make everybody start to pay PPC, which drives their profit margin way up (and ours way down) before their upcoming IPO early next year.

Hmmm...Very, very interesting, I had exactly the same speculation, as strangely enough my firm was contacted by Google to upgrade our adwards just today...as long as we maintain or increase our monthly budget that is...!

...targeting the same (competitive) phrase that we have dropped for....nerve...

Edited by Dragon, 21 November 2003 - 05:24 AM.

[The_Fishy_King]

That hockey site really makes a very interesting case study.

This search in Altavista: < anchor:"web design" link:www.calgaryflames.com >

Returns (among other things):

http://virtual.parkl...tudents/fpizza/

So, the anchor text from only one page makes that web #1 (plus the weight it has for 'Calgary'), unless Google gives weight too to the text surrounding the actual anchor text...

[webconcept]

Hello,

I´m new in this forum. First of all congratulations for your excellent posts and analysis of the currently Google situation.

I´m from Spain so please sorry for my bad english. I want to comment you my personal experience with last Google´s update. I was in top positions (1,2,3) in my main keyword and related. Suddenly my website has drop to bad positions (as happened to many of you). I´m trying to analize why this has happended, let me tell you how optimized was my site before the disaster.

"Factors on the page"

- Main keywords in title.
- Main keywords in text.
- Some H1,H2,H3 headers in main keywords.
- Some alt in images with main keywords.
- Text links navigation menu at the bottom of each page.

"Factors off the page"

- No link from iomportant directories (Google,ODP,Yahoo).
- Few link exchanges.
- 1 PR 8 bought text link (index and all indexed pages).

Before being at top positions my site only had factors on the page and then it was listed in positions 80 - 90. After bought the PR 8 link with the main keywords as anchors my site jumped to TOP 1 and remaining there until last Google´s update. The most curious thing is that I remain at top positions in related keywords and I have been dropped only in the keywords appearing in the anchor text of the PR 8 link. What do you think...?.

I think Google is applying a filter wich searchs outbound links to a site from the same domain. For example the PR 8 site linked to me from all his pages and subpages, for a total of +300. It seems Google is penalyzing text link bought appearing through all site pages. In my opinion this is a good movement of Google, who must stop this market of PR. With old system it was really easy to place a website in TOPS just buying some high PR text links.

In the other hand I think Google has made this change very bad, it looks like they have returned to a previous database while they are changing the algo. If they tryed to stop spammers and PR trading they have only got a corrupt database with results like "internet marketing company".

I don´t know how to move this time, this update has change my current SEO techniques.

My theory of the new filter of outbound links can be certanly considered if you think about this:

- I´m TOP 1 searching allintext my main keyword
- I´m TOP 1 searching allinurl my main keyword
- I´m TOP 1 searching allinanchor my main keyword

but I´m very bad listed searching the main keyword itself! Filter? Penalization?

My site currently has a PR of 7 and it looks that this has not any effect in the my main keyword´s SERPS? my market is not very competitive and the competitors are not SEOs, also their websites don´t have more than PR 5, but they are listed above me.

Please tell me your expert opinion about my situation, hope this info can help you to understand better the new update.