Does Google level the playing field?

FlashDriveDT · 01-18-2010, 05:09 PM

Ok, this is driving me nuts...I have a page set up that is ranking pretty high for several keywords. And it keeps disappearing and reappearing in Google's SERPs! When it disappears it always remains in the index. Whats going on?

There's neither new backlinks nor did I change the page in any way so what is google trying to figure out? At first I thought it was something I had done with my site in general, as I was probably a bit in the duplicate content and gray hat area but I took care of that. And as soon as I did my page had reappeared in the SERPs rankings last week, with no loss (Is this black hat? I think I got google-slapped...). But now its gone again. I dont get it...

Anyone here ever experience something like this? Is this normal? I even read a couple of times that Google does this on purpose to level out the playing field. Is there any validity to that? It would be kinda fair I guess, at least in a very competitive niche...I would really like some input and clarity on that before I rack my brains and bite off my fingernails. Thanks!

FlashDriveDT · 01-18-2010, 05:22 PM

PS: Could this be one of the changes by Caffeine? From what I know there are a lot of parameters that decide a site's or page's rank now...like visitors, bounce rate, speed etc. I should be pretty ok there though and it fails to explain the back & forth...

Daniel Brock · 01-18-2010, 05:36 PM

It sounds like to me that you could be logged into your google account which bumps recently/frequently visited sites up in the listing.

If you log out, it will appear as if your site has disappeared from the ranking, when in reality it was never there in the first place.

Regards,
Daniel

jkovats · 01-18-2010, 05:42 PM

I am seeing similar things, same search term, different results depending on location, I get x million, my neighbour gets x - 20 million. I am #4 or #15, or today, #7, or #17. Likewise, one of my competitiors who was #2 forever, is now showing #11...that part I don't mind.

FlashDriveDT · 01-18-2010, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel Brock

It sounds like to me that you could be logged into your google account which bumps recently/frequently visited sites up in the listing.

If you log out, it will appear as if your site has disappeared from the ranking, when in reality it was never there in the first place.

Regards,
Daniel

That can't be it. I've been logged out of Google for many weeks. And besides, I also been noticing the drop in traffic...ever since Christmas, when the SERP has been messing around with that page.

SurviveUnemployment · 01-18-2010, 06:32 PM

Google is "definitely" (as much as one can say that word in reference to the almighty algo) weighing factors like time on site and stickiness now. I've been observing this for months -- my "stickier" sites get a lot more search love than do the ones with the higher bounce rates.

FlashDriveDT · 01-22-2010, 03:44 PM

Well, my bounce rate is pretty good though. Anyway, it seems that the problem really is duplicate content related. Because as it turned out Google has indexed a lot of weird urls from my blog that shouldn't even exist and are plain duplicates. Thanks to the fact that I had done most of my internal links with the url structure "../" instead of the full address my blog gave Google some really messed up directions when it went down category and subcategory pages.

How is one to know this? Ah well, that's how you learn....needless to say I have replaced all my internal links with full urls and installed a page specific meta tag plugin telling google where to index and where to follow. Plus I finally have a robots.txt and sitemap.xml. I guess I should have done this right from the beginning but since many sources say how google friendly wordpress is and how smart google is in figuring out a wordpress blog I didnt worry much.

01-18-2010, 05:09 PM	#1
FlashDriveDT HyperActive Warrior Join Date: May 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 254 Thanks: 4 Thanked 10 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	Does Google level the playing field? Ok, this is driving me nuts...I have a page set up that is ranking pretty high for several keywords. And it keeps disappearing and reappearing in Google's SERPs! When it disappears it always remains in the index. Whats going on? There's neither new backlinks nor did I change the page in any way so what is google trying to figure out? At first I thought it was something I had done with my site in general, as I was probably a bit in the duplicate content and gray hat area but I took care of that. And as soon as I did my page had reappeared in the SERPs rankings last week, with no loss (Is this black hat? I think I got google-slapped...). But now its gone again. I dont get it... Anyone here ever experience something like this? Is this normal? I even read a couple of times that Google does this on purpose to level out the playing field. Is there any validity to that? It would be kinda fair I guess, at least in a very competitive niche...I would really like some input and clarity on that before I rack my brains and bite off my fingernails. Thanks!
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01-18-2010, 05:22 PM	#2
FlashDriveDT HyperActive Warrior Join Date: May 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 254 Thanks: 4 Thanked 10 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google level the playing field? PS: Could this be one of the changes by Caffeine? From what I know there are a lot of parameters that decide a site's or page's rank now...like visitors, bounce rate, speed etc. I should be pretty ok there though and it fails to explain the back & forth...
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01-18-2010, 05:36 PM	#3
Daniel Brock Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 1,698 Thanks: 169 Thanked 948 Times in 259 Posts Contact Info	Re: Does Google level the playing field? It sounds like to me that you could be logged into your google account which bumps recently/frequently visited sites up in the listing. If you log out, it will appear as if your site has disappeared from the ranking, when in reality it was never there in the first place. Regards, Daniel
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01-18-2010, 05:42 PM	#4
jkovats TheBenefitGuy Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Guelph, ON Posts: 40 Thanks: 2 Thanked 3 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Does Google level the playing field? I am seeing similar things, same search term, different results depending on location, I get x million, my neighbour gets x - 20 million. I am #4 or #15, or today, #7, or #17. Likewise, one of my competitiors who was #2 forever, is now showing #11...that part I don't mind.
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01-18-2010, 06:32 PM	#6
SurviveUnemployment Glad I Got Canned Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: NY Posts: 681 Thanks: 329 Thanked 61 Times in 57 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google level the playing field? Google is "definitely" (as much as one can say that word in reference to the almighty algo) weighing factors like time on site and stickiness now. I've been observing this for months -- my "stickier" sites get a lot more search love than do the ones with the higher bounce rates.
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01-22-2010, 03:44 PM	#7
FlashDriveDT HyperActive Warrior Join Date: May 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 254 Thanks: 4 Thanked 10 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	Re: Does Google level the playing field? Well, my bounce rate is pretty good though. Anyway, it seems that the problem really is duplicate content related. Because as it turned out Google has indexed a lot of weird urls from my blog that shouldn't even exist and are plain duplicates. Thanks to the fact that I had done most of my internal links with the url structure "../" instead of the full address my blog gave Google some really messed up directions when it went down category and subcategory pages. How is one to know this? Ah well, that's how you learn....needless to say I have replaced all my internal links with full urls and installed a page specific meta tag plugin telling google where to index and where to follow. Plus I finally have a robots.txt and sitemap.xml. I guess I should have done this right from the beginning but since many sources say how google friendly wordpress is and how smart google is in figuring out a wordpress blog I didnt worry much.
	USB Flash Drives