So it seems something interesting happened today for a lot of sites- some good, some bad. I personally can't see it sticking, as the results I'm seeing are very similar to that of MSN and Yahoo. Kind of like Google gave some SEOing a free "superbowl ad" in the rankings today by dampening the effects of some negative filtering. However, some people think this is a "filter removal" allowing mass links to boost rankings- if this were the case, smaller sites would be ranking well too, and I've seen too many results where this was not the case.
I see the update as a good thing for Google. It seems to still have some kind of filter on links but is letting through more relevant up-to-date information. I hate seeing pages when I search that are over two years old, often the information is outdated. I like the results.
This "update" sucks! I've been completely dropped out of Google for a bunch of my terms. Even the name of my website dropped from 1&2 to 177. WTF?! I've never seen my rankings this bad before, I sure hope this hiccup doesn't stick!
In fact, Great for me!! (I mean my company websites) Top three rankings for everything. My own site's still nowhere 'cos it's only 20 days old. I don't think it was there long enough before the update for Google to cache the site or the links. Will have to wait for the "Big one" in May now!
Im all for this update- if it sticks. (which it likely will not.) It seems kind of 50/50 with SEOs, which Google probably appreciates, but Im unsure of the relevance. I don't see a "problem" with most cases, but as Summer pointed out, there are some terrible flaws.
I noticed that a site that was causing me ranking problems (look at http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/25638-39-10.htm for the definition) is gone for the most part... And my rankings soared. I am not convinced they lifted filtering, as a competitor I am tracking (and linked on the same page) has not. I hope this does stick. But does it seem odd to others that this comes so soon after the PR/BL update? Lawrence http://www.netmidwest.com/
It's not strange Lawrence, 'cos: 1. A B/L update has to happen before the real PR is updated, 'cos Google needs the new BL info to calculate PR. 2. The PR update that you are talking about was only the toolbar update and not the real PR update. It didn't affect rankings, SERPs etc .... only the visible PR.
I also sustained a devastating blow. While Friday I ranked as top hauncho for very competitive keywords, I've now dropped way below radar. What a load of garbage, it'd better not stick or there'll be a slew of angry designers marching at the Castle Google with torches in hand and pitchforks thrusting.
It doesn't seem to be propogating across the datacenters very fast... and some of my gains from yesterday have reverted. Anyone else seeing the same results? Lawrence NetMidWest http://www.netmidwest.com/
The scary part is that with the number of upset optimizers, it very well could stick. NETMidWest - It is on most of the common and active DCs already, though some seem to be reverting.
Yesterday we had many move up. I haven't seen a green day like that in a while. Today, so far most are unchanged from yesterday or up, just a couple so far went down. This feels like a real update, not just a SE spasm. If it was a spasm we would see a reversal of yesterdays movements. my 2 cents.
64.233.161.105 64.233.161.147 64.233.161.99 64.233.161.104 216.239.57.104 are going back and forth between 2 days ago and current.
It'll be interesting to see if this does hold up - for the majority of terms across numerous sites there is no major change + or -, just the usual fluctuations... but for some terms that were really nowhere there's everything from vast improvements (though not as good as I'd wish) to some good top 10s. Oh well, make hay whilst the sun shines
our sites are all over the place, some good, some bad. The strange thing is, we have one site (the first eoommerce site we ever put up back in 1996) that is now in top 3 positions for certain terms...that it has never ever had on G. I have never optimized it, linked to it or done anything to it, since I optimized it for AV back in the day. I have it in the keyword tracker and it is pretty much all green with numbers like 9999 and 9998 for weekly and monthly position. WTF
LOL, about half as much I suppose we should be eating the hay when the sun aint shining... Seriously though, like chachi, seeing some top rankings for things that have never been there before...