Have Google Lost the Plot?

[RollerBall]

I keep returning here and reading about essentially the same problem over and over again.

'my website was in the top ten and now it's nowhere'

What the heck is going on? People think they have committed some unknown and unintended sin against the all-powerful but they don't know whether they have or not, because nobody really knows what the sin is, and how serious it might be and what the results might be in any case even if they have done.

I read lots of advice about adding more meta key words, having too many (so take em away - yeah? which ones that refer to which items I have on my website), adding key words in your body text (oh yeah, but be careful because if you repeat em too much you'll be guilty of spamming - even if you're not trying to).

And so it goes on and on.

But let's get to the bottom line. Is Google doing the job after all this stuff?

In our case I've looked, listened, asked questions, taken advice and made changes to our site. The result is (and thanks to everyone here who gives so freely of their time, knowledge and experience - people like me are truly indebted to you and we may not always say thanks) we are now not just in the top 10 or 5 but TOP of some of the other major search engines here in the UK for several of our chosen key words and phrases. Above some sponsored links even, something we cannot afford to do.

OK, so what about Google?

Apparently we were cached on 12th Jan. After having been in the top 10 or so and being demoted into the 500s after the December bloodbath (debacle?) we moved up into the 100s. Meanwhile there are STILL zillions of sites above us that have no relevance to the search phrase applied but instead only contain 1 or at most 2 of the words searched on (you need to input phrases for the kind of things we sell).

Result - my clients have to waste time wading through all that stuff before they can find what they are searching for ie someone who can supply the product(s) they want to buy.

Are they interested in how many backlinks our site has and what 'quality' they are? Dream on. Get into the real world. They just want to find what they're searching for quickly and easily. Like the other search engines do. A nice big list of highly relevant sites to browse.

They don't need Mr Google to pre-filter them according to their own (secret) methods and formulae apparently excluding relevant sites that do not conform to criteria that only they know about but including others that are totally irrelevant but do - they are quite capable of doing that for themselves thanks very much.

So, have Google lost the plot? To me something about 'woods' and 'trees' comes to mind a little bit ;-)

[tcampione]

Originally Posted by RollerBall

So, have Google lost the plot?

Yes, I think so. It may not be evidenced across the board for all search terms, but I feel that Google is throwing out the baby, along with the bathwater.

Many old established sites still hold the top positions for many terms. That's fine. But newer, legitimate sites (along with spam sites) are being pushed to page 10 or deeper. At this rate, it will soon be that only the first 4 or 5 sites displayed will have much relevance at all.

The result... Y! and MSN will close the gap, in my view.

[cbp]

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=36131

[virtualtraveller]

This is indeed a recurring theme, which has happened several times in the past (Florida update, sandboxing introduction, Jan PR update shuffle)and seems to be consistent with Google's ongoing battle to stay one step ahead of the SEOs.

Of course, it usually starts out as an experiment to avoid spammers, then google realises that decent sites are getting penalised - no doubt they have their experts reading threads on respectable forums like this and take their cue, eventually they revert to their sensibilities and everything settles down. In the meantime however, some webmasters panic and make all sorts of changes which adversely effect them in the long term.

I think we all (google algo technicians included) need to recognise that SEO isn't going to go away - and as long as you are the best SE out there, everyone is going to try and beat their way to the top by whatever means necessary. The algo just gets more sophisiticated but as long as everyone's intentions are essentially ethical, then common sense will prevail.

My advice from personal experiences is: do nothing, wait and see, things setttle down after a few weeks. SEO'd sites provide the best content usually because they are striving to generate income and this helps them maintain good content. Google wouldn't risk tarnishing their reputation for results by penalising good content because it was SEO'd.