Here's why BIG G is acting up..

[rapidscc]

Hi Y'all

Recently I've read a lot of posts about G's giving them a slap. I thought since Big G is "BIG" is it likely that it will target particular individuals?

If the individual did something that won't go unnoticed, then maybe.

But a few hours ago. I stumbled upon this: Google's Caffeine Ready For "Taste" Test

It turns out Big G is undergoing changes "under the hood". It's actually improving it's search architecture. So some sites may indeed be knocked-out.

Anyone noticed any significant improvement in G's search lately?

Thanks,

Omar

[reubenrock]

I had a review site get the slap and killed my ppc campaign this week. Kind of a bummer, I was doing a few hundred a month on autopilot with that little page.

I also doubled ad spending on another campaign this week, which should have resulted in an awesome sales boost on the product. So far, no luck. It looks like it was a bad week to experiment with my ppc campaigns.

Google giveth, and Google taketh away.

[rapidscc]

Originally Posted by reubenrock

I had a review site get the slap and killed my ppc campaign this week. Kind of a bummer, I was doing a few hundred a month on autopilot with that little page.

I also doubled ad spending on another campaign this week, which should have resulted in an awesome sales boost on the product. So far, no luck. It looks like it was a bad week to experiment with my ppc campaigns.

Google giveth, and Google taketh away.

Youch..That's definitely a bummer. I just hope things stabilize with Big G soon. I guess some of the SEO/Marketing tips we learned from the past would have to be updated.

It seems that most review sites are affected. I wonder what can be a good alternative?

[reubenrock]

I would bet that review-style blogs would fare better. But with the FTC getting fussy about those sites, I'm not touching it.

I'm probably going to try a bing/yahoo ppc campaign and see if that restores the review site to profitability.

[Zeus66]

I'm seeing a lot of movement in the Top 10 for a couple of competitive niches. It's like the typical Google Dance on steroids. Something's definitely afoot there.

"Everything has changed.... Absolutely nothing's changed." -- Pearl Jam

John

[Fernando Veloso]

Omar,

YES i been watching some strange stuff in Google Portugal BUT NOT the best results.

For a major keyword airplane related i see a blogger blog ranking top 5 for a couple months with just ONE POST ripped from Wikipedia and ZERO links.

But this is getting usual over here.

Changes? Yes. But the worst of them.

[CDarklock]

Originally Posted by rapidscc

Anyone noticed any significant improvement in G's search lately?

I can't talk in too much detail about this for obvious reasons, but I worked pretty closely with people building "The Product Later To Be Known As Bing" at Microsoft.

Caffeine looks like one of the intermediate tests of that product. An old one.

So if I were to hazard an educated guess, I'd say the big G is trying to copy Bing. Fast. Like "before people figure it out" fast.

[JohnHuizinga]

I noticed a change but it wasn't an improvement.
I read about Caffeine yesterday and Googled one of the keywords I'm targeting in their sandbox version and my article had dropped from #5 to #9. Today I did the same search on Google (non-sandbox) and got the same results.

[Fernando Veloso]

Using the sandbox i noticed one thing straight away:

Lot's of results from Google Brazil - but i need the results from Portugal, cause i have no intention to buy a car in Brazil.

This is something i see in Alerts too, too many brazilian results yet the portuguese ones... are kept away.

*edit*

This is getting weirder everyday:

Now i have a top 4 result from a IM website, keyword stuffed for low cost flights. Ranking #4 my god... are these guys from Google joking with us or what?

Jesus...

[rapidscc]

Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso

This is getting weirder everyday:

Now i have a top 4 result from a IM website, keyword stuffed for low cost flights. Ranking #4 my god... are these guys from Google joking with us or what?

Jesus...

If that's the case then it will suggest that on-page SEO is once again back in fashion.

Imagine that..a keyword stuffed site getting ranked. Maybe this is why they were asking for user feedback on the search results..

Fernando, have you submitted your test results to Big G?

Omar

[juggernautbitch]

Google is getting ready to launch v2.0 (actually v4.0). You can test out their new results here. I've mostly dropped

httx://www2.sandbox.google.com/

[Fernando Veloso]

Originally Posted by rapidscc

If that's the case then it will suggest that on-page SEO is once again back in fashion.

Imagine that..a keyword stuffed site getting ranked. Maybe this is why they were asking for user feedback on the search results..

Maybe old school tricks are back. Another site i checked a few days ago has bold keywords and old school repititions everywhere:

"This is a site about cowboy boots and you know you need cowboy boots to walk in the desert. If you want to get a cool advice buy some cowboy boots today so you can enjoy our warm country to it's full. cowboy boots are made for man and women."

And no, I didn't submit the results to Google.

BTW, Sandbox is down right now.