Whats going on with Google?

[felicity1127]

I have a cleaning service website that's been ranked number 4 or 5 with Google for about 8 months. Now I can't even find the website. Also the other cleaning services that were ranked high are also gone. When I put in my keywords things that are'nt even relavent to house cleaning show up. Patti
www.felicitywebdesign.com

[rlrouse]

This Google update has wreaked havoc with lots of sites. Usually these things work themselves out with the next update, so instead of making drastic changes, I would check the site and make sure that everything is above board and well-optimized. Then sit tight and see what happens.

Lots of folks get all hyper and start changing everything in an attempt to fix things that aren't broken. Don't do it... IMO of course...

[felicity1127]

Hi rlrouse. I did take a look at the meta tags and made some changes there. But that needed to be done anyway. I hope things get better before Christmas. Patti www.felicitywebdesign.com

[amberstar702]

Hi Felicity:
I, too, have had a big drop in positioning on Google with two of my keywords. I read the following in one of my newsletters about Google:

"This is far more than a Google Dance.
It's a wholesale zapping of commercial web sites, probably
using the dictionary system that you mentioned.
When I search for the phrases that used to find my clients, I
now only find big company sites, .gov's, .org's, .ac's,
directories and shopping sites.
I have clients' sites that were sitting nicely at the top
of Google a week ago, and now they're nowhere to be seen.
Google has missed the odd word from its dictionary (I won't say
which because they will just zap my clients' sites for those words
also).
My clients are already talking of laying off staff. About half a
dozen of their sites have been taken off Google (and they are all
for different subjects, not mirrors of each other). How can a company
survive when its main route for traffic is suddenly cut off.
This all happened without notice. And they won't answer my emails.

I urge everyone affected to complain most strongly to Google.
if they keep to their new policy, they will be a shadow of themselves
in a year's time, but we'll all be out of business by then."

This was sent in by Rob. Apparently this change in Google will affect all of us :-(

[ramorse]

I've done a number of local real estate web sites over the years and all the ones I maintain have had consistently good rankings in Google...except one, which had been climbing, but with this last adjustment has dropped out of sight.

I don't think I did anything radically different with this site, to cause this. The one thing I did which may have caused a problem was I wrapped my <h1> tag around an image and the text so they would appear lined up in the table cell the way the client wanted. Do you think this could have triggered the penalty?

If anyone has any thoughts it's
http://coldwelllbankersellersrealty.com

[minstrel]

I don't think I did anything radically different with this site, to cause this. The one thing I did which may have caused a problem was I wrapped my <h1> tag around an image and the text so they would appear lined up in the table cell the way the client wanted. Do you think this could have triggered the penalty?
See rlrouse's comments above.

Folks, from what I see, things are still bubbling and settling at Google - I realize that the implications of a lost ranking are not trivial but it's not going to help anyone to react to a problem that may not really be a problem. It is far too soon to assume that you have been penalized, let alone to speculate on the reasons for a penalty which may not even exist. There's also nothing anyone can do about it at the moment, so take a deep breath, let the dust settle a bit, and, unless you know you have been doing something against the posted Google rules, so NOT make any drastic changes to your website until you know what to change - otherwise, you have at least as good a chance of making your situation worse rather than better.

Rule #1: Never react until you can identify what you need to react to.
Rule #2: When you have identified what you need to react to, go back to rule #1 and make sure you have't made a mistake based on rumour, hearsay, or hysteria.

[ramorse]

Actually, that's what I thought I was doing. Neither making radical changes nor reacting in a hysterical manner. Instead, I was asking for suggestions of anything I might have overlooked that would might have made this particular site subject to demotion.

Basically, what you have said, I have said to my client. I just thought I'd see if there were other possible thoughts on the matter.

[minstrel]

Actually, that's what I thought I was doing. Neither making radical changes nor reacting in a hysterical manner.
My apologies - I didn't mean to imply that you were hysterical. My comments were intended more as a general caution to a number of posts here and elsewhere.

If you look through this forum or various other forums, newsletters, and media reports, what you'll see are repeated statements along the lines of "Google has banned my site", "Google has penalized my site", "Google has ruined my business", "Google is punishing all the rest of us to promote people who buy AdWords", and all manner of other rumors and doomsday conclusions.

What I was trying to say, echoing what others like rlrouse, Janeth, cbp, etc., have said, is essentially, "Let's not jump the gun here. No need to redo all your tags, change your content, or get a new domain name just yet - let's wait and see how it all settles out first. In all likelihood, in the end, you won't see a huge difference for legitimate sites who haven't been trying to manipulate the system unfairly."

[janeth]

Hi Minstrel,
I agree 100%

quote
"Google has banned my site", "Google has penalized my site", "Google has ruined my business", "Google is punishing all the rest of us to promote people who buy AdWords"

I think you may be on to something.

[cbp]

I have been out of circulation for a few days (..Disneyland was great :-). Now I resurface and see that Google is still the number one search engine :-(

On the changes at Google - found these two goodies:

Google Cracks Down on the SEO Industry (http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/archive/google-update-florida.html)

Making sense of Update Florida (http://www.searchengineblog.com/columns/update_florida.htm)

I will have to read them myself in detail later ... off to Las Vegas

CBP

[janeth]

Hi cbp,
It most be nice to be rich.

[cbp]

Janeth ... unfortunatly not rich ... off to conference and won't be going anywhere near a casino :-(

CBP

[amberstar702]

To Cbp:
I hope you have a great time in Vegas. We have lived here for over a year and LOVE it. Try the buffets - you certainly get your money's worth there. If you want to do a little gambling, you can play on nickel slots or nickel video poker machines, have a little fun and not lose your shirt. Just set a limit beforehand and stick to it.

Janeth - vacations here are not at all expensive and are very affordable. I guess I sound like a member of the Chamber of Commerce :-)
Regards,

[macker]

I am new to this forum. Having been a jockey for 15 years, this is all new to me. I cannot understand what google has done this for i watch my site like a hawk and was doing really well got it ranked in 7 weeks, only 4 but its a start. I need to know what else i can do to get it into the search term airport parking i was on the 21st page of this search but now i have disapeared. Its so annoying any tips would be helpful please..Email me at mackeruk@aol.com unfortunetely i don't get chance to come here often..Thanks Martin

[richkoi]

My sites were ranking on the first page for relavant keywords, but now they are all impossible to find. I think from looking around the boards that this is not an uncommon problem.

I was about to get "hysterical", but then I read the posts and realized that I have no choice but to wait this Google Burp out.

Thanks everyone,

Rich

[minstrel]

I was about to get "hysterical", but then I read the posts and realized that I have no choice but to wait this Google Burp out.
I really wish I could think of a less inflammatory synonym for that word - I'd go back and edit my post.

I do want to reassure everyone that I'm not minimizing the impact of Google's adjustments on those people whose rankings are significantly affected - this isn't about irrelevant numbers like the college football rankings - this is about real money/income.

But as I keep saying, I'm not convinced that we're at the end of the story yet... it's hard to be patient when you see your income dropping wildly before your eyes (it's akin to a stock market crash or a sudden adjustment in international currencies) but there's not a lot else you can do at this point, and my caution was primarily about not rushing to make changes to titles and keywords, etc., that you might wish you had left alone in another week or two.

[richkoi]

minstrel, I was just using "hysterical" in a joking manner, no insult intended. Damn the loss of translation from emotion to text. :)

Rich

[mm99]

I use redirects a lot in my work, and one thing that has happened is the redir itself has lost rank and desc in their listings. The pages that they pointed to are all still listed, if they were before, but in some cases the redir out ranked the root pages in the listing, so I lost presence and ranking.

In some cases the redir is listed with "similar pages" below it, leading to other pages that have nothing to do with my site. Other cases the redir was dropped altogether. I make it a practice to put the redir url on all root page titles so visitors and a search can find them. A practice which, in this case, paid off.

peace...Paul

[minstrel]

minstrel, I was just using "hysterical" in a joking manner, no insult intended. Damn the loss of translation from emotion to text.
Oh... well then don't worry - I wasn't insulted - I thought perhaps you were :-)