I just spoke with Daniel Brandt, founder of Google-Watch.org, who told me there was an update this past Saturday the 20th.

According to Daniel the changes weren't all that dramatic, but he did say that there were people who were happy to see that their results were "back to normal" for certain terms.

Incidentally, when I was at the Search Engine Strategies conference Bruce Clay, owner of a marketing firm and sponsor of the conference predicted there would be an update on the 19th.

Have you noticed any changes in your Google rank?

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I have not seen any changes personally. All the same across the board.

But I have to point out that I did not get hit all that bad to start with....except in one area, which was never really up in the results any way. No big loss.

Bottom line is right now I am a little better off than when it all began. I really do not pay too much attention or sweat over a lot of where I am placing in SE results, it is a waste of time and energy.

The results that really matter right now is that my traffic is up and has been climbing since the beginning of November. SE referral phrases are varied and mixed and more than just two words. The referrals are more on target for what the user is actually looking for. Translation -- the conversion rate of sales per visit is slightly higher.

Two other website owners that I correspond with are reporting pretty much the same. They both are saying that their terms have returned to page one, albeit in lower positions than the start of this whole ordeal. I have been watching their reportings to me, and sure enough...there they are again.

And again, they had what you would call a number one lock on a two-word keyphrase before November...only to see it go away and not be found. Both have had this two-word keyphrase come back.....and both have been showing (as they have reported) a steady climb in traffic through all of the changes. Their bottom line has improved.

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None of my sites (4) have been effected. All my standings ... I'm happy ... (top 4 or better), been that way for 3-4 years now. I don't fully understand what all the fuss is about. I just follow the RULES as stated by every search engine to the letter.

I really, really, really, don't see why people have to have Conventions to figure this out !! :}

My only complaint, as stated in some posts, is constantly having to protect our interests because our competition is hiring SEOs , who in turn are stealing from us .... Trademark, Patent, and Copyright, to gain search engine standings, thus gain traffic, and charge for those services.

Interesting - I am seeing some "normalisation" in some industry sectors, but not others... Travel in particular seems to be still messed up.

That's been the case from the beginning - Google has evidently been targeting keywords and categories where the abuses were the most flagrant.

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I wouldn't call it an "update" but there was a shift. Google says it is not targeting "industries" but it does appear the algo is skewed to be more ruthless (if aimed at cleaning up SPAM, it doesn't succeed IMO) under certain terms and within certain industries.

I will agree with the part about not cleaning out the spam. In my sector, it has not...they are still there and after things had settled down a bit, nothing has really changed.

This is just what I am seeing though. In my area...while rocky at the beginning, it is back to business as usual.

Whether or not they are targetting certain sectors or not...I cannot say. In my case, they are not now and possibly were doing it at the onset of November.

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I pulled #1 for "laptop car mount" through froogle, which was related to my recent use of Mr. Grabber a service from i-offer, which pulls my eBay Auctions over to a their site.

Froogle pulled in my I-offer listings. Very nice!

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Well we were hit badly being in the Travel/Accommodation Industry.
No problems before - always ranked in the top 1-6 places with search words "Cairns bed breakfast accommodation" Now not to be found. However, with "cairns bed breakfast" we have returned. Strange. Obviously "Accommodation" is the problem - not sure how to fix this.
http://www.nutmeggrove.com.au

Hi nutmegrrove,

It may be a good thing to have a look for unnatural repeatition of the phrase and key word in question.

Particularly in your title and meta tags. You have a good information rich web site and it will most likely position just as well if you relax your optimisation a little.

Hope that helps.

Thankyou for your reply. Will make some modifications and remove several "accommodation" keywords. Hope that will work.
Cheers from hot tropical Cairns.
http://www.nutmeggrove.com.au

My site which is also involved in the travel/accommodation was badly affected by Google shifts earlier this year. I haven't seen any improvements in the 20December shifts.
Iwasn't aware until now that the travel/accommodation sector was particularly affected by the changes.
Some serious reevaluation to be done it seems.

It is possible that the travel/accom industry lends itself to a particlar style of presentation that Google's algo has caught and thinks it likes at the moment...I am not finding much relevancy or diversification in the offerings, that is for sure.

The odd individual website is slipping back in, but it isn't much to write home about.

What area has remained that stagnant that you can stay 3-4 for 3 years on a search engine? Surely at some stage you dropped a few or went up a few?

I have 90 keyword phrases on the front page of Google and they go up and down... right now it's 21 at 1 spot but could be 26 or 17 next week...

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