14 replies to this topic

[turbocashuk]

I am number 3 under 'open source accounting'
Nowhere to be found under 'open source accounting software' even though I have both phrases in the text.
The obvious reason - 'accounting software' is being targeted. I have also disappeared under 'free accounting software' but am up there on 'free accounting system'.

All sites that come up under 'open source accounting software' have the 4 consecutive words nowhere in their text. They have 'open source accounting' or 'open source software' but nowhere are the 4 consecutive words to be found.

So I am going to do a test. Take out the few instances I have of 'open source accounting software' and replace them with 'open source accounting system' and see what happens.

I used to be number in the top 10 under 'open source accounting software'. All phrases with 'accounting software' in them I have been knocked off the radar.

Funny enough, my traffic is actually higher anyway!

BTW does Jill's nitty-gritty report still apply post-Florida?

[powerofeyes]

Hello Turbo,
I am seeing real good results for both "accounting software" and "free accounting software" what made you think they are irrelavant, Just that the phrase doesnt exist on the page you cant say the results are irrelavant,
This is just part of the new algo in ranking sites by google, compared to some words this result is much much better,

[bwelford]

I don't know whether I'm missing something here but I did a search for
open source accounting software
and number one on the list had the phrase in the Title of the web page. Since the Title is the most important text element for the page, I was not surprised to see this.

[turbocashuk]

That is true that no 1 has 'open source accounting software' in its title tag. But so do I! And I am nowhere to be found under that term, although I am high up on 'open source accounting'. I even have 'open source accounting software' in the copy which the other sites dont have.

So it must have something to do with the term 'software'. I seoed my site for 'free accounting software' and 'accounting software' and it looks like I've been penalised for this.

[SearchRank]

Searching for "open source accounting software" produced a relevant 1st place position whereas the second was not. The third was about Linux - not relevant, the fourth was relevant, the fifth was again Linux, this time RedHat - not relevant, the sixth was relevant, the seventh was not too relevant, the eighth was about open source - not relevant, the ninth was a Open Directory category and the tenth was a repeat of the first but a country specific domain.

Pretty crappy results IMO - 4 relevant out of 10. That's 40%. Google you get a big fat "F".

Funny enough, my traffic is actually higher anyway!

That's what really matter the most so way to go!

[turbocashuk]

Exactly!
It's not like I had 'open source accounting software' ten times on my page! I had it like twice. They're hitting the term 'software'.

I've tweaked my home page. Only one reference to 'accounting software' and that's way down on the page. Let's see if it makes a difference. I have a feeling that if you put 'free accounting system' on your page, google will pick you up under the term 'free accounting software' as long as 'free accounting software' does not appear on your page. THere must be thousands of websites with 'free accounting software' in the copy. A search at google under 'free accounting software' reports only ONE with those terms in the copy (no 1).

[turbocashuk]

Another one - 'fixed asset register' I am no 3 (I also sell fixed asset software)
Under 'fixed asset register software' I am nowhere to be found

Google seems to be penalising on the word 'software'. If anything, I should be higher up on the second than the first - a 4-keyword exact match is better than a 3-keyword match, ceteris paribus.

[qwerty]

Google seems to be penalising on the word 'software'

A site I run (but that isn't strongly optimized) has dropped for both micr check printing and micr check printing software (yes, micr is a word).

According to Scroogle, we would be numbers 1, 2, 7 and 8 for micr check printing and numbers 18 and 19 for micr check printing software. Draw your own conclusions

Interestingly, the number one on G for the four-word phrase is a company that resells one of my client's products.

Also, Google currently lists them at numbers 13, 14, 15, and 16 (!) for positive pay software. That's down from where they used to be, but not terrible.

[turbocashuk]

What's scroogle?

[qwerty]

Oops. Sorry. This is Scroogle. You enter your query there, and it shows you a list of pages that it believes would be in the SERP, but isn't because of a filter (or rather, what it believes is a filter). Basically it's running a keyword -nonsense -nonsense -nonsense query.

[turbocashuk]

Thanks. How made this?
I am suddenly no 9 under 'free accounting software' - under the old google I was no 36!

[OldWelshGuy]

I am suddenly no 9 under 'free accounting software' - under the old google I was no 36!

So how can you say you have been penalised?

If you added your site today you would be as happy as Larry with #9 position. An alteration in the algo is hardly a penalty, it just results in different results.

You say that the four word phrase appears only twice on the page. Well IMO google would look at the possibility of that 4 word phrase cropping up so often in the amount of words you have on your page, if it is higher than expected they might decide you are trying to manipulate rankings. Also they could run a check to see how many times the words appear in singular, pair and trio versions, as there will be a set figure that these combinations would appear naturally as well.

Google is Maths prog, nothing else, it crunches numbers so it should be a piece of cake to find sites where words appear 'out of sync' , and treat them as a special case.

Just my

[razzle]

Hi everyone,


Try searching for the terms fruit baskets on Google. If Google were penalising for the appearance of a phrase on a page that is out of the ordinary - why is the site that is number 2 and 3 for this query where it is? It looks like complete spam to me!

[dragonlady7]

I have an odd one.

My company's site is optimized for "nursing home software" and "long term care software". I decided the first was more important, so I worked harder for it. As a result, I am indeed #1 or #2 (depending on the day) for nursing home software.

I don't show up for Long term care software. Confusing.
Another one I checked was Adult Day Care Software. We used to be #1 for that one, for our Adult Day Care software internal page.
We don't show up anymore. Most of the sites in the SERP were for day care, for children. So I put it in quotes.

Most of the results for the search "Adult Day Care Software", in quotes, were... Porn.
Go figure. But we're not in there.

It's not important, but it's very weird. So I haven't got a clue what's going on.

[turbocashuk]

No, no - i am no 9 under scroogle, not google!