How not to be a "New GOOGLE UPDATE" newb.

I'm sick of PR update threads and I'm making my stand with the below.

1. Never ever start a thread that says "Google Updating" before doing research. This is the bare minimum that must occur before you can post a thread with this title. First, you must see a change in pagerank for one of your sites that increases. Second, you must see an increase in backlinks for one of your sites. It’s not enough to notice that your site is now a PR0 and has 200 less backlinks and think Google is updating. It is very-very-very common for Google to use old data on their datacenters and this is what you are seeing.

1a. There is more than one Google datacenter. Just because your little nifty firefox toolbar is showing a different pagerank than before doesn't mean Google is updating. Please check ALL other datacenters before posting. Many places offer the ability to do this, I recommend http://www.mcdar.net/q-check/datatool.asp .

1c. You may say, "But Mitch, what if the Google update actually lowered my pagerank and backlinks? I need to tell the world that Google is using some horrible algorithm that is making the internet a scarier and worse place to live in." My answer, "Google is currently a $138 billion+ market capital company that only makes money with its SEARCH algorithm. It literally makes no other money by any other means; it will not mess-up. If it doesn't send the user to relevant sites, people will stop using Google. I hate to say it, but if your site isn't doing well, it probably isn't what people look for when they do search for the keywords you want to rank-well in the SERPS."

2. Do not ask when Google will update. Oddly, no one knows except for Google, they don't keep a public list of when they will update next. After saying that, you can go to Matt Cutt's blog and see if he has mentioned Google rolling out a new update anytime soon, since he works for Google http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ and has a history of keeping SEOs informed on such matters. To view the history of pagerank updates before you became the savvy SEO guy you are now today, you can visit this site. http://www.seocompany.ca/pagerank/page-rank-update-list.html

3. There are currently 4 Google update threads showing on the front page of this board and Google isn't even going through an update; you can imagine what the forum looks like to veterans when Google is "actually" updating. If you think Google is updating, please scroll down to see if anyone else agrees with you. If they do, please post with them, and keep the forum clean for the rest of us.

4. I am a SEO NEWB too. I know I forgot to mention many things in the above, and apologize for leaving out links to other very valuable web resources, where you can be better informed. And I leave it to others wiser than I to supply that information as posts below this one.


THE POINT: The whole point of this thread is to get negative reputation from the veterans thinking, "everyone knows this why did you waste our time making us read it, and waste the server bandwidth time to host it." But also to get positive reputation from the newbies saying, "Thanks Mitch, this was great, I feel better informed and I'll never be a GOOGLE IS UPDATING newb." When you get negative reputation from veterans and positive reputation from newbies, that’s the sign of a worthwhile post.

Mitch

 

Gave you some green. Thanks for the essential low-down. And you'll be surprised how little people know those things "everybody knows".

 

Excellent post, Mitch. Should be stickied and required reading before anyone is allowed to post in the Google forum.

One exception:

1. that hasn't been updated since late 2004

2. even when it WAS being updated, it was pretty much useless -- all it does it tell you when the last updates occurred -- the "predictions" were totally pointless

 

Wasn't this essentially another google update thread? (j/k)

 

Thanks Mitch, this was great, I feel better informed and I'll never be a GOOGLE IS UPDATING newb.

 

I'm a newb, but at least now I'll not be a »Google is updating« newb
One down... "some" to go. Thank you Mitch

 

Can I just rely on you, Mitch, to inform us when you think a google update is happening?

 

Good post. Thanks for that. Seriously i dont see the harm if someone posts a thread thinking a PR update is happening coming. This is a forum they have a right to express themselves. Until the admin has said these threads are SPAM they are not illegal and if they piss you off just dont click on them. :/

 

And when you ask, when is next google update?

 

A+ thread.

 

Nice post, but I don't think it will help though. Some people panic when their PR changes, and they won't read this before posting. Even if they have, they may still post

Well, that's one thing I can't really agree on. Google makes a lot of money with adwords, which doesn't really need the search algo I believe. And there a lot of other stuff, google earth (paid version), gmail (adwords), google video, etc.

 

Great post, should be required reading whenever someone enters this forum.

Google may have not messed it up yet, but just because they're big doesn't mean they wont. Microsoft have a bigger market cap than that and they've shot themselves in the foot a few times (Exhibit 1: Windows Me). Regardless of their cap, they *are* just people like you and me and they *do* make mistakes. Maybe they already have but they've just rolled things back quickly enough so that the average Joe Schmo searcher hasn't noticed.

 

I feel like I just got my birthday taken away, and I never even posted such a thread! LOL Nice Post

 

Missing the point: there are about 3 of these threads a week and since many people are actually interested in when REAL updates occur they DO click on them, only to find out it's yet another mumptey who just noticed that his site is #978 instead of #976. THAT is the point: they're annoying but until you get past the title in the index you don't know if it's the real deal or just another mumptey.

 

Google is updating google is updating google is updating!


Nah... Good post... Once people get more involved they will realize it is a waste of time to be checking your PR all the time anyways. It changes a few times a year so you can tell. Why on earth would you check it all the time? So much better way to spend your time. Of course when you first get the bug and start learning you don't know any better and you become a chronic over-checker. It is like looking out the window 30 times a day to see if the sun is still there.

And I agree with Minstrel above. The ONLY time I even consider checking PR now is if I see an actual confirmation that it has happened. I was interested in it the first time it happened, then I realized I wasted a whole bunch of time and energy for nothing. So keep it clean so people do not have to read 10 bogus threads just to get to a real notification.

 

Truth!
So much better way to spend your time.

 

see the thread from expert mitch http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=51628

all you newbe's take this advice, like nothing happens that gets past mitch.

sammie luvs ya all

 

great post. Thanks!

 

I try not to worry about things I have no control over. This is my plan to put off my stress related heart attack till later in life

 

Damn!

I took a two year class on "How To Become A Google Update Newb", and now I can't even put it to use.

I'm always getting ripped off.