Over that past couple of weeks I have noticed some pretty serious changes in the index. One of the search terms I watch, showed nearly a million results in the index just a few weeks ago. This week the same keyword phrase return less than 200,000 results. I am also seeing this in several other keyword phrases. At first I thought perhaps it was a fluke, but I am seeing this happen more and more. Is anyone else seeing this?
i can assure you i had nothing to do with it,...i was nowhere near the area at the time the incident occurred ..honest (seriously though i have noticed sudden progress with almost all of my keywords though - but that could be due to many many different reason - i have not noticed anything like you describe - but i have not really been looking..) i think you could well be right about index restrucuring - perhaps google is about to introduce a more thorough TSPR and local rank system - and this (or another factor of googles algo) is weeding out what it considers to be spam/irrelevant sites from its SERPS
I remember what happened the last time G made major changes. Don't be so keen to see it happen until it's somehow quantified. I for one like the notion of improved relevance - but just remember, the bigger the bottle, the longer the drink. Second chances will be far and few between. All I've seen so far is what looks like an index rebuild (which might be indicative of a requirement for extended data - a logical precursor to algo modifications). I can't say I've seen new behaviours emerge though.. (though others might have). Who knows
Damn! Thanks for pointing this out. key words I am watching went from 2.7 million to just under 300,000! Which is good foe me. less competition.