23 replies to this topic

[BusinessWebDesigns]

These last 2 updates have brought the worst search up for years.

[chrishirst]

Must be just me then, because I really don't have any problem with the quality, relevance or accuracy of ANY searches that I do.


But then of course I don't do any searching at all just to see if "my pages" happen to be there. So in that respect I AM one of Google's customers!

[piskie]

I don't do any searching at all just to see if "my pages" happen to be there

I don't believe in polls, but I can't help wondering what would be revealed amongst Members on SEO Forums if a Poll asked:
"What percentage of your Google searches are made to check the position of your pages ??"

[Jill]

I don't believe in polls, but I can't help wondering what would be revealed amongst Members on SEO Forums if a Poll asked:
"What percentage of your Google searches are made to check the position of your pages ??"

Which is a big reason why keyword tool search numbers are way higher than the resulting clicks one would expect.

[chrishirst]

I don't believe in polls, but I can't help wondering what would be revealed amongst Members on SEO Forums if a Poll asked:
"What percentage of your Google searches are made to check the position of your pages ??"

Probably a remarkably unsurprising very high percentage (especially if those polls were held at forums that the 'Warrior' class hang out and other such Dismal Places.

[TristaJ]

I'm very very very new to this whole thing. I have a site that is for my direct sales business, meaning that my competion is 50,000 other consultants. I was ranking #2 for my main keyword and on the first page for most of the others that I cared to rank for. After this last update, I was thrown back to the 4th page. Now, I'm trying to figure out why. I created and maintain my own wordpress site. I am self taught. Read A LOT of books about SEO, thought I had a pretty good understanding of it, finally after 2 1/2 years of trying, I made it to the top.. only to be hit this hard a month later. Then I look at the other sites that are on the first page now.. and I can't believe that they're there. It doesn't make sense. They have keyword stuffing, bad content and their landing page just reverts the users to another site altogether. I'm at a loss.

[chrishirst]

They have keyword stuffing, bad content

In your opinion of course, which may or may not be what the Google system determines is "keyword stuffing" and "bad" content.

[Jill]

TristaJ, here's the problem from Google's perspective. How do they determine how to order the search results for 50,000 websites all selling the same thing? For a long time it was whichever sites got there first and were decent enough. And then there were those who learned about what they thought SEO was, and they put SEO in all the right places.

Yet as the internet grows exponentially and every area that may have once been a niche is now flooded with websites that are pretty much offering the same things. Sure, there may be some differences in the way the sites look or the exact working on the pages, but for the most part, they're the same.

What's Google to do about this?

Basically they created Panda. It took away the aging factor that so many older sites had rested their laurels on. And it took away the leverage that having a decent knowledge of SEO used to give people. What they're trying to do through Panda is find which sites really are the best in that they're the most comprehensive. They're looking for those that go above and beyond what everyone else is doing. It doesn't do Google any good to show 10 results that are basically the same, so they try to mix them up. They'll often try to show one page that's a top-level category of what the person was searching for, and then perhaps another of the listings will be an individual product page from a site. Another in the top 10 may be a directory page that lists other sites that offer whatever it is. And then you may see a site that has reviews of the offering. Then there may be one with a video embedded that shows how to use the product.

For business owners it means they need to have all of those things on their site, or at least some of them...especially those that their competitors aren't already doing. If you're just going to offer the same old products as everyone else and maybe add a paragraph of words explaining what those products are, it's just not gonna cut it anymore.

[Michael Martinez]

Focusing on "primary keywords" is playing King of the Mountain and it's really NOT optimizing for search.

There is only one keyword that any business absolutely MUST rank for: it's name.

If you have trademarks, you should rank for those as well (such as service names, product names, etc.).

Everything else is up in the air. There's no reason why a random stranger should expect to find any one particular site for "a great keyword" than any other particular site. So the more competition you have for what you deem to be high-value (non-brand/trademark) keywords the more likely you'll swap places with other sites (or they'll swap out among themselves while you sit and watch from deeper SERPs).