Changing SERPS

[jacobwissler]

Half of my sites and clients sites have dropped in SERPS, several positions. Position #5 is still acceptable, but we had taken #1 for granted.

[brian.mark]

We dropped from #1 to #4 for our favorite term. Guess what: we're paying more for our ads. Those get more clicks now, although our organic listing still gets plenty of clicks. The sites above us are fairly unusable or incomplete, so we still get the business. But not all industries have such a luxury.

Brian.

[MathsIsFun]

Are those drops in relation to pre-Bourbon, or have they just happened? In other words, are there more big changes occuring?

[DMC_34]

I just noticed a shift in the serps for one of our words. "Holiday cards" went from #5 to #2 on 10 DC's today. This is the only change I have noticed since the supossed conclusion of the bourbon update

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by MathsIsFun

Are those drops in relation to pre-Bourbon, or have they just happened? In other words, are there more big changes occuring?

In our case, it was due to a site re-structuring and using 301's. I need some links to the new pages and we should be fine.

Brian.

[greeneagle]

Hello Jacob,

I also lost PageRanking on many Sites and subsequent Pages. In fact we went from 2s and 3s to 0's accross the board on a local rural water company Site that never has been promoted publicly on the Internet.

Promotion is off-line in conjunction with the water company accompanying billing, for both their Site and ours.

Since the marketing for this Site is an anomoly, ie.. absolute no need for SEM, SEO... captured local market, no competition... Here are some lab rat, lab notebook entries:

#1 - Although we have never made application for either the ODP or YAHOO Directories (or any other directory) in their behalf, YAHOO thinks it is a great Site for "drinking water", "water conservation" and "water quality", and has always beat GOOGLE hands down in the SERPs. In fact we have never made a single request for an IBL of any kind, because it just wouldn't help capture any more business or make the Site any easier to find for the fast growing rural community it serves.

#2 - Site does well in GOOGLE Image Searches, further expressing general public interest in these topics, yet they don't seem to have a strong connecting alg between image popularity and the textural search engine, reinforcing that public interest and relevancy.

#3 - The entire community, including many new residents in a top 10 fastest growing US county, find the Site very useful. It constantly gets rave reviews, is saved as a favorite and continually builds viewership over time. Yet GOOGLE has dropped to PageRank "GOOSE EGGS" across the board. Even though it has dropped in PR across the board, GOOGLE referrals are doing better this month than ever.

I beleive being able to use this customer's Site as a SE "lab rat" without making any detrimental impact on their business has greatly improved our insight into differing algs between GOOGLE and YAHOO.

In review we cover a vast variety of topics on the Site that supports the community. GOOGLE seems to have difficulty getting it's alg arms around Sites that require broader based information in order to adequately support targeted customer base.

IMHO - They have become myopic or extremely "tunnel visioned" compared to YAHOO. Their algs have swung way too far toward specicivity and no longer service the Sites that have general appeal requirements, well.

By the way I reviewed your latest changes to some of your primary Sites in which you maintained great PR and SERPs through BOURBON:

Websites Houston
SEO Houston
Jacob Wissler

All the changes and additions, from color to text, to marketing appeal look very nice.

It also appears that your continual honing of your business model is paying off. I particularly took notice of introduction of discounted web development prices for web development/design companies.

I guess you noticed I recently resigned as WPW Moderator, buckling under load. With the engineering consulting I am doing + 5 new Sites around the corner, we need to visit in the next couple weeks.

Ken

[jacobwissler]

Thank you for the kind words.

[jacobwissler]

I fell in SERPS because in the SEO business, our competition is working each day, improving their page each day, to take that #1 spot away from us. They did. I am now at #4, but I too will work each day to move back up.

[greeneagle]

LOL,

You dealt your own hand there!
No one else understands real competition better than experienced SEOs going head-to-head!

Ken