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Have You Been Slapped by the Google Ranking Adjustment?

February 3, 2011

How has Google's Ranking Algorithm Adjustment Impacted You?

What, you didn't know they changed something? A lot of internet business marketing types get all upset anytime Google changes (or noticeably changes) their ranking algorithms. The truth is Google tweaks their rankings on a regular basis, sometimes they make public some of the changes, other times they do not. Below is an official link detailing some of the changes in this latest update that has a lot of Internet Marketers in a Tizzy:

Google Search and Search Engine Spam

As for me, I'm happy!

Why? Because as I'll show you, a lot of my sites have improved in ranking. The ranking for this blog has suffered in recent months, not because of anything Google has done, but because I've not been posting on a frequent basis like I used to, and that matters in a competitive environment.

So why are some people complaining and reeling while I'm happy? Because I practice what I preach, and I preach what I practice.

Google and other search engines are in the business of dishing up what people are looking for. Give Google garbage to dish up and you'll get slapped. Maybe you will get your garbage ranked well for a while, but eventually you'll get ranked where you should be and that's way back in the pack.

This latest update dealt with garbage and getting it out of the search results.

Recent months have brought the spotlight on Google for some questionable search results in some areas. One person who sold eyeglasses had found if he treated his customers with distain and anger, practically stalking them in some cases, he would get enough bad posts and comments that it kept his rankings high... and kept business pouring in... not exactly what Google set out to create.

Other items that were getting bad press were sites that were automated sites that "scrape" or copy content from other sites. These sites are generally not very human usable and low quality.

There's nothing wrong with copying content - a huge part of the benefit of the Business of the Internet is the ability to do just that. In fact, at the end of each of my blog post is a statement specifically giving you permission to copy and use this content - provided you keep the source, author, and link back intact.

A lot of high quality, very helpful sites copy content from other sites, either in whole or in part. It's all about quality and value to the user.

And that's the secret to maintaining good, consistent rankings: it's all about quality and value to the user. There are a lot of other factors too, but without a quality base you're open to being slapped around a lot.

Sometimes people follow bad advice (either free or paid for) and end up turning what would have been good work into something that gets flagged as spammy by the search engines. For example, if you're worry about keyword density while writing your web or blog content, then you need some better advice: www.pqSEO.com.

Here's one example of a site that is a small site, has unique, quality content... look at the jump in ranking position for Google on 1/27:

Date	Google	Yahoo	Bing
2/3/2011	11	38	185
2/2/2011	11	37	187
2/1/2011	11	37	308
1/31/2011	12	38	313
1/30/2011	13	38	315
1/29/2011	13	30	301
1/28/2011	13	30	169
1/27/2011	13	30	196
1/25/2011	156	31	280
1/23/2011	165	31	181
1/22/2011	163	31	166
1/21/2011	163	31	140
1/20/2011	163	31	157
1/19/2011	165	32	126
1/18/2011	163	32	148
1/17/2011	163	32	142
1/16/2011	176	32	135
1/15/2011	169	32	130
1/14/2011	190	31	123
1/13/2011	185	31	123
1/12/2011	191	31	87
1/11/2011	191	32	88
1/10/2011	195	32	83
1/8/2011	188	31	82
1/7/2011	190	32	82
1/6/2011	189	31	82
1/5/2011	187	32	77
1/4/2011	179	32	81
1/3/2011	187	32	86
1/1/2011	177	32	89

Until next time,
Fred

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Comments: 25, TrackBacks: 0.

Posted by Fred Black on February 3, 2011 | Printer-Friendly

TrackBack: http://www.pqInternet.com/blog/mt-tb.cgi/233

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Assigned Categories: Search Engines: SEO

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Comments and TrackBacks

Comments:

From: Allen Sayer

As time goes by and I start to realize that more legitimate, the more honest and more 'yourself' you are ... the better you will do online ... the more I appreciate these updates.

Starting out I thought it was all about fast results ... and sure enough it is ... but not at the expense of being around for a long time.

I think I'm going to start monitoring my rankings and seeing how these updates affect them.
Posted by Allen Sayer on February 4, 2011 5:58 PM
From: Mike

I love how you apparently ignore your Bing results.

One of my sites recently had a Google Slap problem, all fixed now, it seems that it was just temporary while they were adjusting their algorithms. It's a scary time when it happens though as if you have a first page ranking you stand to loose a lot of business.
Posted by Mike on February 12, 2011 6:20 PM
From: Danny

I too experienced a nice jump for some sites and client sites recently - so I'm quite happy to call this adjustment an "algorithm improvement".
Posted by Danny on February 15, 2011 8:31 AM
From: Pete Lavelle

Hi Fred,

I think SEO specialists are getting increasingly good at blurring the line between spam and genuine content. Looking at the backlinks for a lot of our competitors, I see they're creating blogs and sites specifically for the purpose of linking to themselves. But they're doing this carefully enough that the new site contains content and images that - on first inspection - looks authentic. It's only after seeing several and noticing a few telltale signs that it becomes obvious it's spam. I'm troubled though - could Google pick up on this? The whole point after all is to fool the search engines. It's tough.

Thanks!

Pete @ Pure FX
Posted by Pete Lavelle on February 16, 2011 7:26 AM
From: Shakd

Great Post! I enjoyed reading this as I'm fairly new to the scene. Maybe you have some tips you could show in regards to your traffic back linking strategies if you have any!

Cheers!

Shak
Posted by Shakd on February 16, 2011 7:43 PM
From: Gary Cooper

Great info. This stuff is all a bit overwhelming at the moment.
Posted by Gary Cooper on February 18, 2011 3:16 AM
From: Brian Sisko

Wow that is a big rankings jump. I'm glad to hear someone is happy. All i've heard recently is people complaining. I run 5 blogs and 2 went up a bit, 3 went down a bit and it was my main ones (which I update everyday) that went up. So overall i'm pretty happy too. Some people dont seem to realize that if Google doesnt shake things up every once in while the black seo's will ruin the SERP for everyone with the spammy crap!
Posted by Brian Sisko on February 28, 2011 1:49 PM
From: Alan Frost

Well, I for one also very much welcome the change. The thing I fear is that the algorithm is not implemented properly. On every forum I have seen there seems to be an "innocent victim". Similarly, on some black hat forums I have read people stating that their "crap" has never ranked better.

But the lesson is one that legitimate SEO people have been saying for years... producing quality content is the best way to go.
Posted by Alan Frost on March 4, 2011 12:43 PM
From: Kevin O'Rourke

I realised this too, having spent lots of money on so called SEo experts I got a job in the website selling field to find out it is often all rubbish and an easy way for web designers to confuse people and get all angry about. Create a site in a clean efficient way and Google will always come back to you
Posted by Kevin O'Rourke on March 7, 2011 2:35 PM
From: John Sklero

Nice jump man! :)
Happened to me last week with one of my sites.
Posted by John Sklero on March 10, 2011 2:37 PM
From: Ryan

I heard about this, but all you really need to do is to deliver quality content.

If you do that, then Google will see your website as having good content and you won't experience a dramatic change in ranking like a lot of websites did.
Posted by Ryan on March 16, 2011 5:29 PM
From: Michael B

I am glad you experienced this jump. I also did, not as big, but still a jump from 55th to 15th place on that day.
I believe Google actually is rewarding more and more of the quality of information on internet, and when seeing how much "crap" there is around, I am really welcoming it.
Posted by Michael B on March 26, 2011 6:54 AM
From: Andreas

i haven't really been affected myself, at least not something i have noticed, still have the same number of visitors, but a friend of mine lost 50% of his visitors per month because of this, and if you ask me, his site is high quality compared to much on the internet..
Posted by Andreas on May 2, 2011 2:12 PM
From: Danny

I think the improvement in Google Algo is definitely a blessing. I did notice a positive change in one of my sites.
Posted by Danny on May 2, 2011 2:13 PM
From: Stephen

Great post, thanks for the info. One thing that I always have to remember to do, is remember to add a (UX) value to whatever website I work on.

After building the content, doing the SEO, the most important stage in my view is making a site give something back to its user.

regards
Stephen
Posted by Stephen on May 19, 2011 10:03 AM
From: Fanadiq

I felt it and one of my sites ranked 0 after the last google page rank update (which was in January). I'm still not sure what the reason was. maybe it was exchanging links with other blogs (which I realized later on that it's considered by google as a bad SEO technique).

By the way, I never knew that updating the blog regularly increases pagerank. thanks for the info.
Posted by Fanadiq on May 20, 2011 8:46 AM
From: North East

It's hard to stay genuine when large companies spend a fortune on SEO for competitive phrase - Instead worry less about page rank and more about relevance to the website subject
Posted by North East on June 23, 2011 5:47 AM
From: Homejobstop

Well, I for one also very much welcome the change. The thing I fear is that the algorithm is not implemented properly. On every forum I have seen there seems to be an "innocent victim". Similarly, on some black hat forums I have read people stating that their "crap" has never ranked better.
Posted by Homejobstop on July 26, 2011 2:00 AM
From: omar

i am new to blogging stuff, never noticed a change in rankings .. :p
Posted by omar on August 14, 2011 6:14 AM
From: Wisdom

I got a slap because of always changing the database.
Posted by Wisdom on August 17, 2011 3:20 AM
From: Maxhavelaar

To become number one in the SEARCH ENGINE, it takes special expertise, rather than thinking about it, better hire a SEO expert to do it..... Alternatively, the cheapest way is to submit in social bookmarking, easy and requires no special skills....
Posted by Maxhavelaar on September 26, 2011 3:30 AM
From: Nethawk

It looks like google page ranking takes too long to update. I'm doing seo work on my website since last two months but pagerank on all my pages remain same. However alexa rank is changing quite frequently with huge differences which makes me believe my seo effort is working.
Posted by Nethawk on October 3, 2011 4:59 AM
From: Dr Robert Doebler

Good for you if you got some improvement in the Google ranking. That is how business goes. Sometimes high sometimes low. I am sure with hard work you will get even better results. Keep up the good work of posting good quality content.
Posted by Dr Robert Doebler on October 5, 2011 4:32 AM
From: Ryan @ Dumpster Rental

Good Article. We definitely feel the difference when google changes its rankings. Some time for the good other time for the bad. I do agree with others that it is a matter of having a quality site and good reputation more than anything else.
Posted by Ryan @ Dumpster Rental on July 18, 2012 2:35 PM
From: santa

Great blog.

Posted by santa on August 19, 2012 5:00 AM