Hello, friends. I have seen that we are through a major update after the serps of my keywords have been dancing some tribal dance around pages 2 - 6. I have no doubts that is it so, but for some reason no EXACT changes of the algorithm are specified anywhere. Suggest me make a decent thread and gather all we know at one place...
All I know is I'm not happy at all what Google is doing right now, they don't know how much they are messing with people's incomes. My adsense earnings has dropped like 60% From what I noticed, where some of my major sites were in SERPS, they have been replaced by the big boys... Youtube, etc... If this is permanent, I'm really disappointed with them. My one site which was making me a good amount of money has pretty much dropped off of the face of the earth. The hits are no where near what they were. I really think the major sites/corporations are just going to take over permanently! Makes me wonder if this is going to be the last year of good revenue for me.
I don't care how much you dominate your keywords, eventually you will not be able to keep up with the big boys. The corporations are paying big bucks to have the best webmasters on their side. Give it time, your sites will prolly drop too I never had my sites drop off this bad ever, I think it's a sign of what's to come.
Google is definitely changing something, and adding more and more local input searches to SERPs, which are probably going to begin to effect everyone.
Universal search = You Tube vids, Local results, google maps, etc. It's been a year since they announced it: Google Begins Move to Universal Search Google Introduces New Search Features and Unveils New Homepage Design MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (May 16, 2007) – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced its critical first steps toward a universal search model that will offer users a more integrated and comprehensive way to search for and view information online. The company also introduced an updated homepage design and several new navigation features that make it faster and easier for users to find the information they are looking for. "Our focus has always been making our users' search experience as simple and straightforward as possible," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. "The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to go, today's announcements are a big step in that direction." Google's vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience. For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information related to the character and the actor – not just web pages that mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones – all ranked in order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several different Google search properties to find such a wide array of information on the topic. The Power of Google Technology Google is also in the process of deploying a new technical infrastructure that will enable the search engine to handle the computationally intensive tasks required to produce universal search results. The company is also releasing the first stage of an upgraded ranking mechanism that automatically and objectively compares different types of information. As always, Google™ search results are ranked automatically by algorithms to deliver the best results to users anywhere in the world. "Google has continued to concentrate on improving the quality of search," said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google. "The level and speed of search innovation at Google has increased. Most of this innovation addresses basic ranking algorithms and is often not obvious to users. Users just see more accurate results, more often, in more languages, which is our primary goal." New Navigation Features New dynamically generated navigation links have been added above the search results to suggest additional information that is relevant to a user's query. For example, a search for "python" will now generate links to Google Blog Search™, Google Book Search™, Google Groups™, and Google Code™, to let the user know there is additional information on his or her query in each of those areas. As a result, users can find a wider array of information on their topic, including data types they might not have initially considered. Google's homepage and a number of applications have also been updated with a new navigation bar to provide easier access to popular Google products. Now, instead of having links above the Google.com homepage search box, users will see a navigation bar on the top left side of the page with various Google search properties and popular products including Gmail™, Google Calendar™, Google Docs & Spreadsheets™, and Picasa Web Albums™. Experience the Experiments Google also announced today a new experimental version of its popular search service called Google Experimental™, available on Google Labs™. This new test site provides users an opportunity to try out some of the latest search experiments and innovations and provide Google with feedback. One of the first experiments to be featured on the site enables users to view their search results on a map or timeline. For instance, when someone searches for "Albert Einstein" on Google Experimental, they can choose to view the search results on a map that shows locations mentioned within web pages about Albert Einstein or on a timeline that illustrates the history of Albert Einstein's life. More information on Google Experimental search is available at Google Labs at http://labs.google.com.
I have seen two different issues: I'm talking about my 5 better keywords. 1) US search and market. Results are not settled below 3rd position.(on top three there are the "big guys" and there isn't much I can do). The graph of my traffic looks like a roller coaster, as I can be in 4 different slots in the same day. I am jumping from 4th to 19th and back. I also spotted some low quality sites ranking better than me. I also see that long tail is much different than usual with some weird keyword referred. 2) Results in other countries. Here is a total mess. Saturday I lost all my ranking for AU and UK going down to 4th page. Sunday i was on page 2 in AU, still nowhere in UK. Checking other countries, I'm in top three in almost all european countries. Not bad but pretty much useless since my site is English only. Monday I got some ranking back for UK, and looks normal in AU, but still not where i should be. Today traffic from UK is gone again. I talked to some UK based webmasters and they are experiencing strange serps as well. So far, I would not start to pull my hair, and just keep doing usual SEO: fresh content and link building.
I have a uk blog that is hosted in the uk. All of my blog posts in April has been delisted by Google.
I know its hard but you have to get your visitors from multiple sources. Imagine being a Business making furniture. If you sell to just one company and they find another supplier your stuffed. Look to other search engines and optimise for them, not just google. Also try other traffic sources, digg, stumble. Have you considered finding people who use Google Custom Search and getting your site added to their list?
i have noticed fluctuation back-and-forth in the SERPs for some of the keywords I compete in over the last couple of weeks. Most of these terms are localized and most of the fluctuation has been an improvement. It does not seem to be static though, because the results seem to magically change; the same pages seem to be reshuffling ranks.
As I monitor my site's activity, there's some changes in rankings too.. Some Keywords went up, some dropped their previous spots.. luckily, there's no major turn-down of rankings
just like someone else said before me a lot of the "big guys" have really jumped in SERPs. Sites like Apple, youtube, and wiki now out rank me for some keywords that i was always ahead of them before.