Google has changed how it handles navigational queries

[mad4]

Previously when you searched for www.domain.com on google it would bring up one result and then ask if you wanted to view more pages from this site, pages that link to the site, pages that contain "www.domain.com" and similar pages.

Now when you search for www.domain.com it just returns all the results containing the term www.domain.com, the equivalent of searching for "www.domain.com".

This appears to have happened in the last few days.

Test here.

[Rasputin]

Yes

I think this is what was being described in this (badly named) thread yesterday:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=133564

[mad4]

You are right, I did look to see if anybody else had posted about it but didn't think it would be classed as a back link update!

[Cheap SEO Services]

Yep...Google has made a huge change somewhere that affects us all. Hopefully they will fix it up soon. I can't afford such a huge drop. Considering I have worked very very hard on SEO and doing everything by the book. It's unexplainable. I have never seen such a dramatic drop in traffic like this before. My sites are not sandboxed. There is still traffic coming in. But so little compared to even last week!

Col

[mad4]

This thread has nothing to do with rankings, its a fundamental change in the way google handles navigational queries.

When you searched for www.domain.com you used to get 1 result. Now you get thousands.

[RedCardinal]

Farily large impications.

It means competitor analysis will become more difficult, certianly WRT Google.

Funny that Yahoo makes improvements to their operators while Google decide to limit their use.

I have to wonder if the outcome of this will be to curtail the SEO of sites for Google? It's certainly going to make life somewhat more difficult.

[mad4]

It means that you could stick a competitors url in your site title tag and rank next to them for navigational queries. Something that has NEVER been possible before.

[NetMidWest]

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=133749 too...

You can get the old stuff with info:www domain.com.

[deadmoon]

This is quite interesting news.

[Jobs.com.sg]

No wonder I have been getting strange results !

[deadmoon]

strange results as in when you've been searching? or hits to your site from googles "new results"?

[Double_Spyder]

It means that you could stick a competitors url in your site title tag and rank next to them for navigational queries. Something that has NEVER been possible before.

That is soo evil. If only navigational queries yielded quality traffic...

[dcristo]

Previously, it was very easy to determine if a page was in Google's cache, just by entering the specific URL in the search bar. If it was cached the URL would show in the SERP's. Not so anymore though. Has anyone else experienced this? You now have to use a normal cache: query to determine if the page really is cached in the index.

[tflight]

I noticed it as well. I didn't know if it was a temporary glitch or something more significant.

[ascensions]

It's because those google employees smoke to much mota out behind the server racks when they should be pressing the big red button.

[CrankyDave]

Originally Posted by dcristo

Previously, it was very easy to determine if a page was in Google's cache, just by entering the specific URL in the search bar. If it was cached the URL would show in the SERP's. Not so anymore though. Has anyone else experienced this? You now have to use a normal cache: query to determine if the page really is cached in the index.

Yes I noticed it...

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=134757

Whether or not this is temporary or not is anyone's guess right now.

The results you get now are the same as you would have got (and still get) by searching the domain in quotes prior to the change.

You can also use the site: operator to determine if a site is in the index.

Dave

[NetMidWest]

info:www.yourdomain.tld

will give you the old results, with links for cache, similar, links, site, term.

[CrankyDave]

Originally Posted by NetMidWest

info:www.yourdomain.tld

will give you the old results, with links for cache, similar, links, site, term.

Thank you!

Dave

[Dr Googler]

thanks for the info, mate

[camp185]

There is definitely something strange going on with that. I have one domain, that when searched for in toolbar, brings you directly to the site as the result. When searching for it from Google's home page it gives me all of the results. Then I have another domain, that when searched for in the toolbar gives you all of its results.