Strange Two-Day Hiccup in Google Rankings

[billybw]

In the early morning of Mar 27, traffic sent to my website by Google suddenly took a drastic drop. When I checked the Google search rankings for various keywords and phrases, I found that all of my site's pages were suddenly ranking much worse than before. (They had been steadily improving since last summer). For example, one page's ranking for its main keyword fell from position 4 to position 48. This was a site-wide effect, with all pages affected to about the same degree.

Then two days later, in the early morning of Mar 29, all of the rankings suddenly went back to what they had been, or very close, and traffic returned to its previous level.

My first suspicion was that my hosting servor had an outage for a period of time perhaps a few days before this happened, and the Googlebot couldn't access the site, so dropped the rankings as a result. But I've checked my logs very carefully and don't see any indication of an outage at any time during the past two weeks, so I don't think that was the problem.

My question is- Has something like this ever happened to anyone else, and is there a plausible explanation for it?

[stymiee]

It happens all the time with Google. I wouldn't think twice about it.

[Webnauts]

I agree with Stymiee. Looks like Google is tweaking the algo or something like that. If the problem does not recover soon, then you better check that out.

[incrediblehelp]

Not sure what is so confusing to everyone. The days are gone of stagnant or stable SERPs. I have been saying this for over a year now on WPW.

With search load balancing on close to hundred G datacenters, localization and personalization of search...we will will not see stable results anymore.

As everyone can see it is just getting worse for those of us that run ranking checkers and use it as a metric for personal SEO gauges or for clients.

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Not sure what is so confusing to everyone. The days are gone of stagnant or stable SERPs. I have been saying this for over a year now on WPW.

With search load balancing on close to hundred G datacenters, localization and personalization of search...we will will not see stable results anymore.

As everyone can see it is just getting worse for those of us that run ranking checkers and use it as a metric for personal SEO gauges or for clients.

So what is the alternative Jaan? My pages dont change. I sell jewelry. The same jewelry. How many things can I hang off a nipple? Ok everyone, shut up! LMAO

But seriously, do I change my copy once a week/month/quarter? How do I stay number 1 for my terms when I only sell the same thing? I was never bright enough to get that I guess. How many ways can I say the same thing... that the search engines like?

I have even tried to bring in toys just to change the damn site a bit.

Suggestions are encouraged... (to the question, not the nipples.) :)

Michael

[incrediblehelp]

How do you know your not number 1 on 90 out of the 100 datacenters and you just happen to checking one of the other 10?

Personalization is a just a fact of life we are all going to have to accept. One day their wont be anyone always "being number 1".

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

How do you know your not number 1 on 90 out of the 100 datacenters and you just happen to checking one of the other 10?

I would think that if I were that high on most DC's, the traffic would not drop by 1/3. And, if I drop on 1/3 of the DC's, are the rest not far behind? Its not a glass-half-empty mentality... just realistic.

Ideas?

Thanks

Michael

[incrediblehelp]

Well if your traffic dropped, then your rankings did to. How is your link building to internal pages coming?

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Well if your traffic dropped, then your rankings did to. How is your link building to internal pages coming?

Can I spell horrendous? I cannot get one way links. How does one do that without paying for them? And I have read here that paid inclusion to a lot of these sites is just plain bad.

I am still good on my main two key terms for now. But I do not think people necessarily buy when the search “nipple jewelry.” That is like searching for “cars”.

Not sure next steps. Are some of these sites that do nothing but link building any good? If so which ones?

I do a link:www.nipplecharms.com and one day Gozizzle finds 31, then next day, 9, the next day 32.... go figure.

Thanks Jaan and everyone.

Michael

[incrediblehelp]

MIke are you blogging, conducting SMO or doing anything with link baiting?

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

MIke are you blogging, conducting SMO or doing anything with link baiting?

I blog yes.
SMO? Define that and link baiting? I might as I have no idea what they are?

Michael

[incrediblehelp]

Here are some definitions from WikiP on both:

WikiP: Social Media Optimization

WikiP: Link Bait

Now here are some good posts for both for you to read:

Social Media Optimization:

Introduction to Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization : 13 Rules of SMO

New Rules for Social Media Optimization

5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Link Baiting:

The Two Kinds of LinkBait

Link Baiting & Effective Link Building

Link Bait : SEO Book.com

Linkbaiting or Link Baiting Strategies?

The Art of Linkbaiting

[nipplecharms1]

Jaan, where the hell do you find this $hit! I read the first two you suggested. Thanks!

I guess the answer is yes to one, no to one. I belong to all kinds of adult forums (swingers etc). I post links to our site where appropriate (not to spam) or where it moves along a thread. We do get some sales that way. I do it here I guess with my signature. (one or two sales from the kind folks here!)

So Yes to link baiting. Correct me if I am wrong but it looks from the first set of links that link baiting as a practice is ok.

SMO - No do not have feeds coming off my site. I am hoping one of the links you gave will show how to do that.

Stay tuned.

Thanks

Michael

[incrediblehelp]

Well for link baiting which of these are you doing on your website:

contests
offering tools
controversial topic/news
resources
humorous topics

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Well for link baiting which of these are you doing on your website:

contests
offering tools
controversial topic/news
resources
humorous topics

We do have a monthly contest. And I have just instituted a free gift with a certain purchase amount.

No tools that I know of.
Our blog for news and mostly to show off customers wearing our jewelry (ok, no big spike to our blog from here.. I am watching :) :) :) )
No humorous topics.

I wish I could remember the site but they had like 15 little icons that pointed to del.is.ous (you know the site) and I would love to add that to mine.

Our hosting does not produce an RSS feed.

Helps?

Michael

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

I wish I could remember the site but they had like 15 little icons that pointed to del.is.ous (you know the site) and I would love to add that to mine.

Our hosting does not produce an RSS feed.

For social bookmarking do you mean this? http://www.addthis.com/

And you should create the RSS feeds yourself and submit them to submit feed directories.

[incrediblehelp]

Or you can just copy the social bookmark code from my blog. Those custom buttons will work to.

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

For social bookmarking do you mean this? http://www.addthis.com/

And you should create the RSS feeds yourself and submit them to submit feed directories.

Can I just shoot myself now? My kids will make a fortune! :(

Webnauts, I will look at http://www.addthis.com//. Do I add that to my site or my toolbar? I want people to be able to add us elsewhere.

And I responded to your other message finally!!!! Thanks.

Michael

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Or you can just copy the social bookmark code from my blog. Those custom buttons will work to.

You mean here: Syndicate & Download on your blog?

M

[incrediblehelp]

No, you can use this code for your social bookmarks on your WordPress blog, if that is what you use:

<a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title();?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" target="_blank">
       [img]/images/delicious.gif[/img] in del.icio.us">Del.icio.us</a>|<a href="http://www.digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" target="_blank">
       [img]/images/digman.gif[/img] to digg.com">Digg</a>|<a href="http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?t=<?php the_title(); ?>&u=<?php the_permalink() ?>" target="_blank">
       [img]/images/yahoomyweb.png[/img] to MyYahoo.com">Yahoo</a>|<a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&title=<?php the_title(); ?>" target="_blank">
       [img]/images/reddit.png[/img] to Reddit.com">Reddit</a>|<a href="http://www.newsvine.com/_tools/seed&save?u=<?php the_permalink() ?>&h=<?php the_title(); ?>" target="_blank">
       [img]/images/newsvine.png[/img] to Newsvine.net">Newsvine</a>|Slashdot

[nipplecharms1]

I use blogger. will it still work?

M

[incrediblehelp]

No you would need to customize it by taking out the PHP code and using other blogger specific code to call the titles and URLs.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

Webnauts, I will look at http://www.addthis.com//. Do I add that to my site or my toolbar? I want people to be able to add us elsewhere.

Look at it closer Michael.

[nipplecharms1]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Look at it closer Michael.

Will do.

Jaan, I again hear Charlie Brown's teacher in the background..... :)

Thanks and sorry to hijack yet another tread.

Michael