Another Google update has begun...

[rlrouse]

Google PageRank and backlinks have updated yet again on datacenter www-ex.google.com and a couple of other datacenters (-in and -cw).

If you want to see if your PR has updated, you can find out how to do it in this thread. (Just substitute the IP address for www-ex.google.com in the hosts file).

I hope this update is a good one for you!

[busy1]

Hi Rlrouse,
Everytime I try and go to address it says page cannot be displayed. I hope our ranks all go up too.
Lynn

[rlrouse]

Hi busy1. Are you referring to this address?

http://www-ex.google.com

Try copying and pasting it into your browser.

[janeth]

How long does it take for this update to show up every where else.

[rlrouse]

The last time it took well over a week.

[busy1]

Hi again Rlrouse,
No, I was trying http://www-gv.google.com and it doesn't work.
Lynn

[rlrouse]

www-gv.google.com is offline right now (along with a handful of the other datacenters). But the update seems to be on www.google.com already. If so, this was a QUICK one.

[Unclefussy]

This is what drives me nuts, ebay in the top 20 many times for the term "Baby Quilts".

listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/category20418/

listings.ebay.com/plistings/endtoday/ all/category20418/?from=R0

and this:

directory.google.com/Top/Shopping/ Crafts/Fiber_Arts/Quilts/

Along with Yahoo Auctions, Amazon Auctions and Target all over the results.

Why?

I was #29 last fall, now can't find it in 300.

"Baby Quilts For Sale" though still #1


Russell

[Garrett]

Hi Folks,

I called some people and will be investigating this throughout the day.

Check this post for what I've found so far.

Garrett

[webspinner]

I have a number of websites, mainly in the accommodation industry and in the same region, all similar in 'search engine' optimisation, and immediatly after the Florida Update, I had 5 of the first 10 rankings for "lakes entrance accommodation" - now those same sites have been totally removed! (not just downgraded)
check:
www.georgebassmotorinn.com
www.coastalwaters.com.au
www.northarmpark.com
Yet websites in Metung, Paynesville and Bairnsdale have some that rank well, others that have been removed completely.
My portal site www.gippslandlakes.com is still well ranked in most of these areas.
Explain this if you can . . . I can't!

[Garrett]

Hi Webspinner,

When were these sites "removed?" Do you mean today?

Also, are you sure you didn't have any spam on the sites?

Garrett

[webspinner]

The sites were dumped a couple of weeks ago. But the interesting part was that immediately after the Florida Update, we had unprecedented first page rankings. We previously ranked well anyway, usually in the first 2 pages. We do have a lot of opposition here with some 300-400 accommodation websites in this region.

When I investigated, I assumed that we had simply been re ranked as a result of the furore over the Florida Update - not the case. The sites have actually been dumped.

As for spamming, I do have layered text that is a two eged sword . . . it is aimed at improving rankings but it is also there for those who turn images off, and displays before (instead of) images. I doubt if this would be considered spamming??

In any case, my portal www.gippslandlakes.com also contains this system and yet it still ranks page one on most of our regional searches.

Any answers would be helpful. I have resubmitted the sites and await the next dance.

[greeneagle]

rlrouse said:
"But the update seems to be on www.google.com already. If so, this was a QUICK one."

The changes became effective some time last night or early this morning for our Site and our clients.

Ken

[webspinner]

I have made further checks, and found another site www.sapphirewatersmotorinn.com.au has also been dumped. Only the main page appears to have been dumped on any of these sites as some still have subpages listing. I mention this site as it has no layer text and therefore is not in the same catagory as those mentioned previously.

I use a programme "WebPro Gold2" to promote my sites, the authors have recently released a newsletter which denies that 'using their programme might cause you to be dumped'. I have also promoted them manually from time to time - especially my current promotion, from which I patiently await the results of the next Google dance.

Seems there is no consistancy in this Dumping.

[ronniethedodger]

Originally Posted by webspinner

Seems there is no consistancy in this Dumping.

The only consistancy I can see is that all of the sites that you are talking about are ganged onto the same IP address with 680 other sites at 216.218.210.207. Numerous sites at this IP address are being hit with the same phenomenon.

You should try moving a couple off of this IP address and onto another Hosting Service with their own IP address that is not shared. Then wait until Google updates their name server database to see if it pulls out of it.

It could be that you may have a "guilt by association" within this IP address....that is what I am thinking it is anyway.

[alienzhavelanded]

Here's what ticks me off, my site was #9 on Google for "New Port Richey web design" , then it dissappeared completely. Yet all the other SEs list me fine. #4 on MSN no less LOL I don't know if it's all this update crap or not, but I'm increasingly dissatisfied with Google's results.

The Martian

[webspinner]

Thanks Rogerthedodger,

I had overlooked the possibility of "guilt by association" and with the hosting arrangements on this server, that seemed quite possible . . . have checked this and find while of my 20 sites with this server, 15 have been dumped, yet 5 survive.
Still no common denominator me thinks? And the most active of all, www.gippslandlakes.com is still doing ok the rankings (improving over the months)

[Luckenbach]

My site traffic has been fluctuating quite a bit more than usual the last two weeks, sometime up and sometimes down. I can't see why, but I think it's because of the recent Google "upgrades".

I really haven't had time to investigate this, but I do get the impression that a few pages were hit hard. These were pages were I had copied some ideas from websites that were lousy websites and yet they got great rankings on Google. Now I think that was a bad idea on my part. They were junk sites yet had "fooled" Google to get top rankings. Since I copied their ideas I also got top rankings on the pages I used their ideas, temporarily, lol. Apparantly the Google guys noticed the trash sites, and when they changed their algorithm to avoid them, my pages that used the same things also got trashed.


I'm so glad I didn't change my entire site! I am just going to be honest and not try to "optimize" for Google or any other search engine. Just put honest "content" on the site, or "useful information" I should say, and let Google do it's thing. If I keep it simple and truly provide useful and true information I think I will do better in the long run.

[alienzhavelanded]

An update to my little story....when looking at a listing of my site on Google...seems the title and description stuff is gone. Only thing there is a link with a URL. Anyone have this happen before? The stuff is still in the code, so I'm a little puzzled.

The Martian

[Mel]

This is a bit strange Martian (how is it you speak our language?) since looking at your listings in google it looks like all your pages have nothing but a URLin the SERPs, which is what Google does when it knows about a link but has not spidered it yet.

Check your stats and see when the last time was that googlebot visited and if there were any significant site outages over the past month. If googlebot is spidering you (and they should be since you have many inbound links) then you should be back in the index and rankings soon.

IF GB is not spidering your site, then I would look start looking for reasons why not.

[alienzhavelanded]

Mel, thanks for shedding some light on this for me. Upon reading your post, I realized it has been a while since Googlebot crawled by. The stats don't really show when the last time it was there, but it's percentage of visits has dropped.

As for site outages I've got a pretty reliable host, so I'm not aware of any serious downtime. Google is spidering me and I was doing well until this stupid update LOL

P.S.: We learned your language monitoring transmissions, and we also have a secret Olympus class OC-48 line connecting the Galactic Web and the WWW here on Earth muhahahah

Happy coding
The Martian

[T2DMan]

Hi Guys. Google dumped many sites in its Florida update mid Nov. There were additional phrases that were dumped subsequent to that date. It had little to do with spam on sites, or site outages that has been mentioned on this thread. Best advice, just bear with it. Google is bust for certain terms. Who knows whether/when it will correct itself. Just make your site broad enough that you rank well for other phrases on your site topic.

Not to say that you shouldn't check for some of the more obvious reasons for why you are no longer listed, but if you were listed top before November, Google obviously thought you were doing things right then.

Some have been able to get back on top dispite being part of "Google bust phrases". Lots of hard work on linking strats. Who knows.

Auckland Restaurants - online booking and search engine optimisation

[webspinner]

On further investigation I have found it is not the Florida Update that has caused our loss of listing (not downgrading in ranking but removal of indexing of the sites - 15 in all. The Dumping occured on or about week 51 last year. We had all 5 sites of one catagory ranked in the first 10 3 days before Christmas, a week after Christmas they had been de indexed. There is no consistancy. The surviving sites are coded similarly, promoted similarly and 3 of those dumped are hosted elsewhere to the main 12.

Go figure . . . many have said just optomise for other search engines, but in Australia where the sites relate, Google and their associates NineMSN, AOL, Netscape etc are the major source of search enquiries - ignore them at your peril.

I am currently querying Google, will let you know the reply . . . if there is one.