Like several others I was hit hard by the (supposedly non-existant) Google change a few days ago. I've noticed from some of the other threads I've read other sites that were affected by this seem to have a few things in common as mine. I'd like to compare vital stats to see if we can determine what exactly changed and then hopefully we can change our site accordingly. Here's what I consider to be my relevant stats. If you're interested in helping out, please post your relevant info and whether or not you were positively or negatively affected by this change. Type of Site: credit cards Age: 2.5 years Inbound Links: - 50% from syndicating articles - 20% bought - 10% from link directories - 20% "natural" Outbound Links: Only one, but ROS exchange with an Australian credit card site Has outbound affiliate links: Yes Does url re-writing: Yes Sub-Domains: One for a forum Rank before: 1-5 for primary keywords Rank after: 18 - not found for primary keywords
Sorry can't help you much. I don't chase updates around and have never had a negative change in rankings before, during or after an update. Updates either add new factors, discredit old ones, give old factors more credit or all three. So if you are careful only to work on factors that have consistently stayed high as a factor and don't dabble too much in recip/directory links you don't have to worry about a faulty foundation which your rankings are sitting on.
Well that's what I thought too, but as you can see from my post only 10% (if that) of my links are directories, and I only have 1 recip link so I don't think it's likely that's the cause. I don't normally chase down every little update either, but when it's one that completely destroys ALL of my rankings (and several other peoples) I think it's worth spending some time looking into.
I have written here before about my theory that Google does updates/changes in terms of of site themes/content area/keywords and this time it might have been the credit card theme that has been hit. Not sure about this since nobody else posted here..... Google is trying to get rid of spam sites and most spamsites are targeted to high paying adsense ads and then other clean sites also gets hit. I have seen this happen to my site(s), a lot of spam sites show up, then google clean up the mess, my site(s) disappear, and then after a while, my site(s) come back and the spam sites are gone....
No it isn't because I have known the cause for all the updates and know what all future ones will be too. Its the quality of the link and the quality of the position relative to other outgoing links and the importance of the site. As google brings out new updates links from unrelated sites keep getting de-valued, link exchanges/links page/directory etc links get discredited greatly. That has always been the reason. As google finds a potential spam problem they update factors and as they do sites fluctuate. But you don't have to
The 50% of articles is what I think the cause most likely is. I would definitely consider that a white hat technique though. I really wish some other people would post their stats so we could find the common thread. It could be that a lot of the sites syndicating my articles are spammy, they got devalued which devalued my incoming links from those sites. Second hand spam I guess. Just making guessing without more data though.
I'm also using Google adsense and analytics. Analytics seems to be another common thread. Perhaps if they see the only traffic you're getting is from Google the determine you're not worthy.
Has outbound affiliate links: Yes 20% bought These are the two things I think stand out, what's your url?
If that's the case then why do most of the sites return with better rankings than before when the dust settles? You have just been lucky IMO.
Maybe google is starting to see credit card sites as spammy since credit card companies are starting to leave our mailboxes and move to the net.
the sites always return which suggest lunacy is more at stake than any great theme. Or the morons at google get bored or even more idiotic.
That would be stupid. I get 90% of my traffic from Google and never had a problem. Ohh is that what that is.... I like luck Maybe credit sites are starting to be spammy not seem spammy or would that be both?
It's not just credit card sites that were hit. If Google sees them as spammy in general then all of the credit card sites would have been devalued the same and it wouldn't have changed the rankings. When my site moved down, it was a bunch of other credit card sites like mine that moved up. I must be doing something different than the rest.
i think you're all looking too deeply i reckon there is zero thought in the changes this year. spammy sites have got worse on google not better.
There is some credence to the spam affect and I look at spammers like the open source community (linux) vs. Windows/MS. They out number MS employees by 100's or even 1000's to one ratio. While off topic a bit its not as Google is trying to clean up spam thus taking out your white-hat site but spammers just get a new domain on a new IP and try again and again until something sticks. Multiply this by the many thousands of spammers and it's a tough battle. So your site getting hit, you just have to keep doing the right techniques and hope Google filters properly where you perculate (sic?) back to the top!
I really don't get it. It's obvious Google has changed some factor of their algorithm. I see messages from dozens of webmasters complaining that they have lost all of their traffic because of it. But not one person so far has been willing to even compare notes in effort to determine what changed so we can take steps to correct it.
My rankings dropped like a rock today, but I'm not sure which of my stats could help you figure out what happen. The biggest change to my site was changing the title and moving my side bar from left to right.
My experience with over a dozen sites is that even if you did or did not do anything, the rankings are affected. In other words, it is what Google is doing that is affecting us rather than what we did. The dust has not settled yet so the best thing to do is to wait and find out if it was just a data refresh and/or an algo change. Right now things are chaotic and there is no pattern.