Google Algorithm, PR update June/July 2008

[google consultant]

Has anyone noticed that google is well underway with a new SERP's algorithm update??

I have been hunting all day and not seen too many articles that can tell me what is going on.....

I work for a large Directory company in the UK and we look after over 16000 customer websites. I have noticed that as of friday morning when I arrived at work our clients sites are starting to have huge fluctuations in the SERP's of Google. I have also noticed that the PR (google visual pagerank) is in the process of being updated too.

Having worked all day today on what the changes might be I decided to read some articles on what might be happening and did not find a great deal that was of any use with regard changes. One article that I would ltake a snippet from that I think will be most helpful is this one I found:

Don’t Panic - many site owners and Webmasters feel that they can control the situation. The fact is you cannot. You’re better served to ride out the storm and deal with the pieces that are left once the storm passes. More often than not, as time passes you, the sites that are relevant and useful re-surface in the index and in the rankings where they are supposed to be. (That is unless they have been penalized by the search engines due to some blackhat techniques, such as artificially inflated link inventories etc.)


Be Patient - Similar to point number one, you really need to be patient when a major search algorithm update has a negative impact on your site. Prepare for updates, you know they are coming, so sticking to the basics and ensuring that you have well optimized, fresh content on your site, that you are continuing to build your link inventory and have a technically sound site will help you when dealing with algorithm updates. Be aware of your major competitors. If they were not affected by the algorithm update, determine why? After an algorithm update, it can take days or weeks for the dust to settle. Do not worry about being reactive immediately. If changes are required, wait until all of the algorithm changes have been deployed. There is nothing worse than overreacting to an algorithm change, making site-wide changes and then have the algorithm change to be temporary or revert back to previous indexing standards. You can do more damage by overreacting to an algorithm change than by simply doing nothing at all.

snippet taken from: Ask Enquiro | Online Marketing Articles Focusing on the B2B Space

Im too curious to wait for it to settle down and would be very interesting in finding out what you have discovered yourselves on your site(s), Im just too curious.

Some things I have noticed after lots of testing and research is that google.co.uk (UK search) does now geo-locate to more .co.uk domain and the .com have fallen a little down the rankings, this makes total sense and as geo-location is the next phase of the SEO game for the the end user/reader/buyer of our sites.

Several tests that I have already done are:

age of domain:
does not seem to have any influence on all the ranking fluctuations.

Trust Rank of specific servers:
I have looked at many servers which we use and there is no pattern forming with regard to the website fluctuations. Saying that I have not done a check with the Google servers yet to see what they see in comparison to other Google data centres.

Quality of the content:
Many of the sites I looked at have been updated in the last 3 weeks with quality content.

Last version of the cached page with relation to what google says it see's:
One thing I have noticed is that Googles cached page date is up too date but the page that i attached to the date is not up too date. MMM something strange is going on here. Any ideas anyone?

So a few things I would like to know about are:

• PageRank
• Backlinks
• NoFollow
• What tests you have done
• What results you have seen

I would really appreciate it if you could add to this thread as it would be great to learn al you now and not have to hunt for new insights all over the net. I look forward to reading your comments and insights.

[Webnauts]

On our sites I can only see dramatic improvements with our rankings and traffic. The updates you are asking about are not necessarily happening now. It is just obvious that Google does not update all sites of their entire index within some days, weeks or even months.

The latest major update I am am aware of, is the "Dewey" update. Maybe it was your customers turn now.

Anyway, if you could post which site you are talking about, we would be able to tell more what might have went wrong.

[innominds]

Personally I didn't observe any sort of update in my sites. To my curiosity when was the last update?

[hmgameiro]

I was googling for pagerank update and i found this post.

Yes I noticed something too.

I have 3 websites that have daily changes and that i submit sitemaps every day.

95% of the times I submit sitemaps google downloads them in the next 10/15 minuts the rest of the times it can take up to a couple of hours.

The ones i submited last night are still pending.

As for trafic coming from google I believe is the same as usual and keeps on rising lets hope it stays that way.

From what i could find in the web the updates have been:
* April 27, 2007
* January 25, 2007
* January 10, 2007
* September 28, 2006
* July 13, 2006
* April 4, 2006
* February 18, 2006
* December 19, 2005
* October 19, 2005
* July 14, 2005

So i was expecting it to be around July 15 but maybe it will be soon.

I lost some pagerank on the last update April 27 and did some link building work to hope and at least go back to where it was.

So I'm anxious to find out what is going to happen.

If anyone knows more, pleasseeeeee, post.

[google consultant]

I have sussed what it is, its all our directories are closely linked to all the sites that we sell and now we have added a nofollow link to all external links. Saying that the small sites will have a little reaction and not get influence from the directories but the directories should do beter as they dont look like a link seller. ooking into the issues I have been having, it looks as though we were missd by the dewey update but have now been associated with link selling. If anyone has seen any other interesting things happening I would appreciate an update on this thread. Its always good to share what we know, some info is useful some isnt but it all helps.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by google consultant

... and now we have added a nofollow link to all external links.

Are you serious? All external links have nofollow now? Or did I miss something again?

[sofomor]

Has anyone noticed that google is well underway with a new SERP's algorithm update??

I posted a similar thread named "Google Update in Progress?" on my personal blog 2 weeks ago. I also posted a thread on this forum which was criticized by many. Yes to my experience and knowledge, Google has updated its index. I have some credible sources mentioning similar updates.

Don’t Panic - many site owners and Webmasters feel that they can control the situation. The fact is you cannot. You’re better served to ride out the storm and deal with the pieces that are left once the storm passes.

Yes exactly, the results were back with minor changes.

Thank you

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by sofomor

I posted a similar thread named "Google Update in Progress?" on my personal blog 2 weeks ago. I also posted a thread on this forum which was criticized by many. Yes to my experience and knowledge, Google has updated its index. I have some credible sources mentioning similar updates.

Thank you

First you could post your opinion here and you do not need to drop links here and spam the forums just because you want to draw attention or you need traffic. Second in the other thread no one criticized you. And about your knowledge and experience I am afraid you miss a lot. Read the post of our member AVC in the other thread .

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Are you serious? All external links have nofollow now? Or did I miss something again?

Nope you didnt miss anything, LOL

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Nope you didnt miss anything, LOL

Ups?

[sofomor]

by google consultant: So a few things I would like to know about are:

• PageRank
• Backlinks
• NoFollow
• What tests you have done
• What results you have seen

There is no change in PR. The fluctuations made my client's site completely disappear from top results to way way deep down to some where... although it was still indexed. When the dust settled it was back to its normal position but with "Stumble Upon" tags next to it. That was my experience. Many of my fellow forum members did experience some changes in their results but very little or no effect on PR.

Thank you

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by sofomor

[/list]There is no change in PR. The fluctuations made my client's site completely disappear from top results to way way deep down to some where... although it was still indexed. When the dust settled it was back to its normal position but with "Stumble Upon" tags next to it. That was my experience. Many of my fellow forum members did experience some changes in their results but very little or no effect on PR.

Thank you

What you say here is a novice in SEO statement. When the PR is exported in the toolbar, it is already 2-3 months old. How can you tell that there was no change in PR internally? Does Google share with you their internal up-to-date values?

[lbutton]

Sad but true / can not change the way Google indexes - try updating Google site map - this is of some small help - just wait - #1 position is worth $150k #2 is worth $30k just have to wait try and get subpges ranked

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by lbutton

Sad but true / can not change the way Google indexes - try updating Google site map - this is of some small help - just wait - #1 position is worth $150k #2 is worth $30k just have to wait try and get subpges ranked

Are you serious about all that? Or are you kidding? Just curious.

[kevsta]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Are you serious about all that? Or are you kidding? Just curious.

yea, am quite curious about what kw #1 is worth $150k myself

[pixma85]

How much of a % of the site should change daily to keep fresh rankings?

[inertia]

This thread has gone to crap! Number one being worth $150k! Fresh content?! The OP was relating to observations of an index up date. Now were talkin about how often you should add fresh content... start a new thread people...

Google Consultant - being located just down the road i feel im in a good spot to tell you my observations. I havent seen tool bar PR change on any of the 20 or so sites im managing, however that means very little. I have however seen the huge fluctuations in rankings ease off a bit, which is great! Apart from that things are carrying on as usual...

[infrascape]

One of our site Page Rank is Down. i think there might be Updating.

[google consultant]

Originally Posted by inertia

This thread has gone to crap! Number one being worth $150k! Fresh content?! The OP was relating to observations of an index up date. Now were talkin about how often you should add fresh content... start a new thread people...

Google Consultant - being located just down the road i feel im in a good spot to tell you my observations. I havent seen tool bar PR change on any of the 20 or so sites im managing, however that means very little. I have however seen the huge fluctuations in rankings ease off a bit, which is great! Apart from that things are carrying on as usual...

Now then Inertia,
we look over 30.000 sites and track them all so we notice things very quickly. It seems that it is a yo-yo affect at the mo with many sites. We have also noticed that Google is cracking down on automated request queries. This has not stopped the tool we use to check our rankings with, it has just made us built it stronger and more resilient. We have also noticed that the big G is looking more into content than it ever as so we have now got a team of content writers re writing content and its having a very positive effect.

Will update when i know more.

[kgun]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Read the post of our member AVC in the other thread .

Did you mean this Google Update in Progress? ?

Originally Posted by activeco

According to Google ranking updates are a continuous thing now.

I find no comment by AVC in that thread or are we talking about different threads, John?

Originally Posted by pixma85

How much of a % of the site should change daily to keep fresh rankings?

How long is a thread and how long will this be