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Google On-Page Ranking Algorithm Change?

April 2, 2009

Has There Been a Google On-Page Ranking Algorithm Change? Look at the recent drop in the RED line!

I made a change to one of my sites a few weeks ago that I'd overlooked. This is an on-page modification that I usually make to my pages; I just forgot to do it on this particular site. Normally, this change would have boosted the ranking in Google, but instead, it moved it from around 15 or 16 to 430+. In other words, something appears to have changed!

In several blog posts I've mentioned a tool that I'm creating to track how a page or site ranks in Google, Yahoo!, and MSN for certain keyword phrases. I use this tool on an almost daily basis to track my sites and certain competitor sites. I hope to finally get it released in a few weeks.

I usually wait a few weeks when I see a change like this occur to make sure the ranking won't just bounce back. It didn't. Today I reversed the change I made. So in a week or so, I'll know if my assumptions are correct. More than that, I also reversed this same factor on a handful of my other sites. If Google did indeed change something, then they should all improve with this change reversed.

I'm not going to say what this change is because right now it's just a theory. However, if it does prove to be true, then I'll update my SEO Brain Dump eBook to include this new information. If you're smart, you're asking yourself, "Just how do I get this eBook?" I'm glad you asked! Right now, the ONLY way to get it is to purchase SEO Secrets Revealed. SEO Secrets Revealed is not a subscription, it's a one time purchase, however I will make updates like from time to time and when I do, I'll email everyone who purchased it and let them know there's an update and exactly what it is and how it affects them.

What about the ranking tracking tool I mentioned in the second paragraph? Without it, I would never have noticed the change in the first place. Sign up for my announcement list using the form at the end of this post, or the form in the top right corner of the blog and you'll know when it's released. In fact, I'll more than likely offer it at a discount to the list before I make it available to the public.

Here's a sample of the data that it shows me for this particular site and keyword combination (the image above is the corresponding graph):

Date	Google	Yahoo	MSN
4/2/2009	464	20	5
4/1/2009	419	20	5
3/31/2009	0	20	5
3/29/2009	432	20	5
3/28/2009	430	20	5
3/27/2009	14	21	5
3/26/2009	438	83	4
3/25/2009	441	244	5
3/24/2009	441	115	5
3/23/2009	424	115	4
3/22/2009	499	113	5
3/21/2009	446	112	5
3/20/2009	450	112	5
3/19/2009	443	111	5
3/18/2009	441	112	5
3/17/2009	435	110	5
3/16/2009	439	87	5
3/15/2009	405	87	5
3/14/2009	454	88	5
3/12/2009	440	88	5
3/11/2009	431	87	5
3/10/2009	431	87	5
3/9/2009	431	88	5
3/5/2009	431	89	5
3/2/2009	16	91	5
3/1/2009	15	91	5
2/28/2009	15	88	4
2/27/2009	14	89	4
2/25/2009	15	230	4
2/23/2009	14	236	4
2/22/2009	15	236	4
2/21/2009	15	235	4
2/20/2009	15	236	5
2/19/2009	15	237	5
2/18/2009	16	237	5
2/17/2009	15	238	5
2/16/2009	11	233	5
2/15/2009	12	233	5
2/14/2009	12	236	5
2/13/2009	12	235	5
2/12/2009	11	233	5
2/11/2009	12	232	4
2/9/2009	12	233	5
2/8/2009	12	232	5
2/7/2009	11	231	5
2/5/2009	12	233	4
2/4/2009	16	235	4
2/3/2009	16	236	4
2/2/2009	15	236	4
2/1/2009	17	238	4

Until next time,
Fred

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Comments: 8, TrackBacks: 0.

Posted by Fred on April 2, 2009 | Printer-Friendly

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Comments:

From: Internet Business With Purpose

Hi Fred,
I will be the first to buy your new site rank tracking tool when it's released.

Your SEO book is excellent also.

Thanks for the valuable information. It really helps those of us who are in the learning stages of SEO and page ranking.

Greg
Posted by Internet Business With Purpose on April 3, 2009 10:13 AM
From: Ian Brodie

Really interesting to see your results in a few weeks Fred. A lot of people have been talking about algorithm changes recently - mainly related to blogroll links. But I've not heard about on-page changes.

Ian
Posted by Ian Brodie on April 3, 2009 6:52 PM
From: swasa

It is one of the important factor in seo that google changes its algorithm every now and then.Thanks for providing the very useful information.
Posted by swasa on April 4, 2009 5:32 AM
From: Nicolas Prudhon

Hi Fred,

There seems indeed to be a lot of recent changes in the Google algorithms and small changes on our pages sometimes do get us up or down in the SERPs for 400 or so places. Luckily, I found that most of those problems can be reverted within a week or so of canceling that change or making a positive one.

Since I think it's a good post, I made a trackback to your post too.
Posted by Nicolas Prudhon on April 6, 2009 8:59 PM
From: Keyword Research Services

Hi Fred. I just found your blog. This post was an interesting read. I'll definitely be back. Your ranking checking tool would be quite useful. I currently use SEO Elite's ranking checker, but it has a annoying habit of clearing ranking history when you update the software.
Posted by Keyword Research Services on April 11, 2009 3:23 AM
From: Meeting rooms

It would be interesting to read the eBook, I am trying to figure out what could be the on page element which could have caused such a drop in Google SE. I had a similar problem last week which saw most of my keywords drop from 1st page to 6th. My drops was as a result of my page title/heading changes.

Thanks Fred for sharing.
Posted by Meeting rooms on April 14, 2009 4:59 AM
From: Top Exercise Videos

Actually Google has mentioned that using tools to track rankings isn't recommended... some people have suggested that this might harm rankings although I think it's not really that big a problem. Google changes its algorithm very often, its a pain. :)
Posted by Top Exercise Videos on September 25, 2009 12:23 AM
From Fred...

Sure they say that! No, it cannot harm rankings unless you track it with really lame online tools that share everything with everyone.

Yes, Google tweaks their algorithms a lot, but they don't make major changes very often. If you use valid methods to getting good rankings, like I teach in www.pqSEO.com then you don't really have to worry about it... you won't get "slapped".
Posted by Fred Black on September 25, 2009 9:44 AM