This is really really getting on my man boobs now. What the hell is going on with Google. I'm getting great rankings on most datacentres, but one or two are showing old posiitons. I wouldn't mind - but it's been happening for almost a month!!! Which results are real? What's going on. A month is ridiculous! It's happening across all the results, not just one or two sites/keywords. It's like it can't decide which damn results to serve and I always get stuck on this datacentre with old data. I'm in the UK. Anyone know?
I think google throws a little chaos into the mix on purpose to shake up the SERPs. But I also think google is totally confused sometimes too.
Call me a fantasist but I almost wondered whether they were serving two completly different sets of results, to monitor click throughs etc etc and see which sites/results yieled the best stats. ............I'll get my coat.
It's a holiday weekend basically and no one is home. They are probably attempting some update or fix. Must suck to work for google this July 4th!
Serps are all over the place right now, I'd personally wait it out for a few weeks to see if things stabilise. Personally speaking I've seen nothing but positive SERPS increases.....
We are talking about MORE than a month. Google has been a mess ever since Big Daddy. Wade through the other half dozen threads on the problem if you want to learn the extent of it.
I don't see any relationship between this and Big Daddy which is why I don't deem it relavant. SERPS were ok for a while after big daddy. My stats and graphs were stable. There was movement about a 3-4 weeks ago, and for me, that's when the trouble started.
Big Daddy wasn't a one or two day update. It was a major upheaval which has been burping and farting steadily ever since, as Google tries to patch things which are obviously not working and in so doing creates (or reveals) additional problems. It is still ongoing. All it means is that the initial wave didn't get you but one of the secondary waves did.
No offense intended but I'm getting pissed off at the number of threads in this Google forum about why is Google doing this and that - we don't know, the only people who do know are Google (you would hope!) I know I don't have to read the threads but I do My best advice would be not to rely on ANY search engine and make sure you have a sound marketing plan which includes all forms of marketing, then if Google f's up you still have traffic from other sources.
Sounds good. But it means nothing. First, it is wise not to put all your hopes on Google and try and do well in all the major search engines. But the fact remains that in many areas Google is still #1, at least for now - the one people go to to find you. Recently, some of your compatriots in the UK were observing that over there search and Google are synonyms. I'd like to know how you do business on the net by ignoring search engines. What good is a good site and a good product if no one can find you?
While I agree with Darren's overall point, we should still expect "consistent" results from a search engine. This has been happening with google since March for me and thousands of others. I think what most webmasters would really like from google now is to see it settle down. If they've made changes to their algo then so be it, we'll adapt. We always do. But right now everything about google is a rollercoaster ride.
It seems google may be becoming synonymous with spam? If they can't fix the SERPs, will that label stick? I talk to people on the street, google's bread and butter you would think, they don't google. So maybe it's been overrated and breaking it brings this to the forefront? I don't have the answers, but my observations don't induce confidence at this time.
Whilst my website is "the business tool" I don't market my business just on the internet - yes, traffic from Google, etc is great, but if I lost that traffic, I have other more traditional ways of bring traffic to the website. All I was saying in a roundabout way is that 'dont put all your eggs in the Google basket' and make sure that you have other traffic avenues, but that might not be the case for everyone if the business is operated in it's entirity on the internet.
minstrel - I think he is referring to other form of advertising like e-mail/ezines/advertising on other site...etc
Well, sort of - they are other ways to market your business on the internet. My business isn't an internet business. The internet is one of many tools to promote the business (does that make sense? ) I suppose I was referring to magazines, newspapers, and other mediums.
don't panic, Google hasn't even indexed my pages and the site has been online for 3 years. You can't rely on Google for traffic, which is why advertising exists. You have to always plan for the fact that you could be delisted at any time. James.
About a week ago Google just dropped my pages and the reason was that they had my paths all screwed up. They had pages in subdirectories to subdirectories that doesn't even exists and from there on it just went down. Most of my pages went intot supplemental hell so now I have to convince Google that the pages really exist and shouldn't be supplemental at all. What a f*ing mess
This is dependant on a) your business b) your industry. You can't generalise in that way. Advertising via offline mediums like traditional trade and industry press, magazines and exhibitions no longer returns a decent ROI. These days, if people want something - they'll search for it. It's the only area of marketing for my business which is a) effective and b) provides attractive ROI. I take your point, but you can't apply to every business.
If the results on the left side of the page are always in flux, and the results on the right side of the page are always more stable.......wink