Again, do not look for a single cause or issue - there is more than one. In my case, there is no duplicate content, except in Google's cache. I did a site redesign in late 2005 which continued with a subdomain redesign in early 2006. This involved renaming some pages, deleting some, and moving others into a different folder/subdomain with appropriate 301 redirects. All was proceeding fine until Big Daddy, at which time year old pages which no longer existed began to show up in the index and the actual existing (newer) pages disappeared. That is not duplicate content. That is Google using old and incorrect data. That is Google screwing up.
Well I had another kind of experience. I had a site 2 or 3 years ago on one of my doamins. Then I took it off and put it in the parking and it is getting nice $$$'s from some days. I think this is the reason for that extra traffic.
This is how I see it, Minstrel: Google has old data and new data for all the sites. The data is basically the same, but in different URLs (in the case of 301). The problem is Google somehow cannot realize it, believe there is a duplication and penalize the new set of data. In the other example I gave, it is a real duplicated content case (affiliates) and I can accept the penalty. Regarding what MikeSwede said, I have dynamic sites with parameters in the URL with no problems at all.
I was, once again, doing a site: search but now on one of the subdomains that google seem to like right now and the "funny" thing is that if I check the cache for a particular page it says it was cached in August last year BUT the problem with that is that I know for SURE that the page and the subdomain did NOT exist last year! So now what? Is the date they are showing us wrong? Are they mixing new and old data and can't keep track of the dates?It seems like they are just adding to an old cache but doesn't overwrite the old stuff with new stuff with the same URL..... My first question every morning when I wake up is "What now? What Have Google done last night when I was sleeping? What did they screw up now?" Maybe I should get a day job and a life
That's what I seem to be seeing. Google has cached pages from last year which is duplicated by currently existing pages with a different URL. They are assuming -- incorrectly -- that the cached pages are the correct data. Therefore, they list those and do not list the newer but actually correct and existing URLs. The error is so basic and so dumb that I find it hard to believe that Google is doing it but they certainly do seem to be doing just that.
But the worst thing is, at least in my case, they sent the new URL to the last place in the SERPs, even after scrappers of my own original content.
Why don't some webmasters form a online union and declare all out war on Google?. The war should start by linking to spammy Google serps on your own sites and writing about Google BD crapola on Digg and Threadwatch.
what would we do? throw aol discs at them until they fix the problem? Maybe they should just wipe everything they have and start over.
If i wasn't so lazy i'd organise a widescale adsense strike for one day, if nothing else it would make it to the mainstream media. Think of the loss of revenue for google and the bad PR if only 10,000 webmasters disabled adsense for 24 hours
Think of the loss to all those webmasters who're earning 7 figures per month who shut down their AS for one day. ;p
Come on, how many publishers do you think would honestly join a strike for one day? Anybody who is earning decent money isn't going to give up one day's worth of revenues just for a strike and it would take thousands of low revenue publishers to even make Google notice something was up.
It's an issue that'll prevent itself from ever happening - those who're earning any decent amount from AS won't disable AS, and those who're willing to disable it are probably not earning enough to even make a dent in the first place.
How about instead of not using adsense for 1 day you get everybody to switch over to YPN. I earn more with them than I did with adsense and I even have a higher CTR.
It doesn't matter that much if they're high earners or not, do you not think that if 10K publishers (only 30% of DPs total members) strike that it would make mainstream sites like bbc,cnn and reuters, the type of sites that investors read? I agree your not going to get x,xxx a day publishers rushing to sign up, but its more a numbers game, the same way most protests work.
Absolutely that would make the news. Realistically speaking though you'd be lucky to get 200. While there are 30k+ members on this board, there are only 13k+ active. Of those, you'll find a large number come and post a few times and don't come back. Then you have to factor in how many are actual AdSense members, a number which is probably much smaller than you're thinking. From that number you have to factor out how many are too busy or just don't care. It can be done, and there might be more effective ways than just focusing on the members on this forum, but it couldn't be done easily. There'd definitely be a time involvement with it. -Michael
The % of DP members I stated was meant to show that its possible just with our members, not including WMW,threadwatch,highrankings,sitepoint,digg etc. I agree it wouldn't be easy to organise, but i'd be willing to go without AS revenue for a day, and i'm a mid xxx a day publisher. Should take some more of those motivation tablets
This is probably the best way to get Google's attention and it would be much more effective than a one day shutdown. If they start losing publishers in droves, they will have to do something to retain the publishers they have.
It would still have to be some sort of mass exodus that is well organized. Google would be much more affected by its investors reading a story like that in all the headlines that it would be by the actual loss of revenue, imo. -Michael