Keyword Domain Names

[watto]

Some months back Google said they were moving away from favouring keyword domain names and from experience I can say that I did see this reflected in the serps, however as of about 12 hours ago I have noticed a particular keyword domain name which has again been given back their old #1 ranking (for their keyword domain name). After a lot of research I and left to believe that this is a direct result from an Algorithm tweek.

I am sure things will go back to normal in the coming days, but has anyone else noticed anything similar?

[deepsand]

As has been discussed numerous times here, the days of using URLs for keyword stuffing are gone. SEOmoz statistical findings from early this year confirmed a big drop in the Spearman rank correlation coefficient in this regard, from 0.34 to 0.22, as compared with that of less than a year earlier.

Absent a logical reason for Google to believe that such keyword stuffing has ceased, it is illogical to expect that they would now allow the SERP algorithm to once more to be vulnerable to being so manipulated.

The appearance of correlation does not stand to evidence a causal relationship.

[watto]

I hear what you are saying and was once of the same opinion, but the recent changes as I mention above indicate to me that there is no other explaination for the recent jump. I have analyzed this site extensively and can not draw any other conclusion.....IMO. So I was curious to know if anyone else noticed similar fluctuations in the serps.

[deepsand]

I have analyzed this site extensively and can not draw any other conclusion.

Absent an extensive statistical review of very, very many sites - a sample of one is insignificant to the vanishing point - such conclusion is purely speculative.

[watto]

such conclusion is purely speculative.

Absolutely, hence the reason I said 'IMO' (in my opinion).

[deepsand]

With all due respect, the point is that there is no evidence to support such a conclusion. It's like reaching into a bag containing many balls of different sizes and shapes, pulling out one small black ball, and concluding that the bag contains nothing but small black balls.

[deepsand]

yes, i too noted the same.

Did you go looking for instances where precisely the opposite happened?

[Tubby]

I am sure things will go back to normal in the coming days, but has anyone else noticed anything similar?

I am not sure there is such a thing as 'normal' (serps)

No. I have noticed nothing.

[deepsand]

I am not sure there is such a thing as 'normal' (serps)

There no longer is.

Each and every set of results is in some way differentiated from other results based on, at the least, IP Address, User Location setting, Data Center servicing the query, TLD servicing the query, User Agent, and User Activity History.

[watto]

When I said 'normal' rankings, I am talking about rankings for my keywords. Keywords that have held their positions for years. To me, these are 'normal' rankings. If they change, then their is something not right.