Has anyone else noticed Google relegating their site rankings?

[fred67]

Hi all, I'm just wondering how many of you have noticed your website Google ranking disappearing lately. A couple of my own have gone down to '0' lately and I notice other sites I regularly visit have lost theirs too.

It would be interesting to know if this is some Google trend filtering through as it has been gradual over the last month.

Cheers, Pete.

[affilorama-portal]

Google is being more strict in relation to content quality, as evidenced by their crackdown on the so-called content farms. While our sites may not be content farms, I would assume that they are applying the same content quality standards to all sites.

So it behooves us to make sure that our content is really high quality in all aspects.

In any case, such changes in ranking are to be expected whenever google changes its algorithm. Good quality sites will climb back up the SERPs again after a little bit of time. I have found this to be historically true.

[felixalbutra]

I also noticed that my friend. I found out that Squidoo's Page rank also goes down to PR7 from PR8.

But my blog got a good shot since it was rank to PR 1. I noticed that Google is more strict in terms of ranking websites because last year, I was my previous blog rank PR3 in an instant after they made their PR updates.

Anyway, we can't blame them because they are just making their feature better. And besides, content and linking farming is everywhere since Niche Blogging became phenomenon this past few days.

- Felix

[Andyhenry]

I found the opposite. I've got sites that only ranked position one for 20 keywords now ranking for over 50 keywords.

[M Thompson]

There was a new algo rolled out on jan 26th, I've not seen any drops and my top ranking sites are still there.

Haven't checked the one that are in the "fermentation" stage.

[fred67]

Originally Posted by felixalbutra

I also noticed that my friend. I found out that Squidoo's Page rank also goes down to PR7 from PR8.



Anyway, we can't blame them because they are just making their feature better. And besides, content and linking farming is everywhere since Niche Blogging became phenomenon this past few days.

Agreed - Link farming has probably had an undesired effect. My blog comments on the better ranking blogs I have shot through the roof, and most of them are not genuine comments - just spam :-(

I'm not into link-exchange as such, but the very nature of my main website means that it 'does' link out to many sites without reciprocal links so maybe that has had a baring on recent low quality score. (Perhaps Google thinks I'm a link-farm <{:-)

Oh Well - there ya go :-)

[mandark]

I'm not sure how the new algorithms work, but I like them so far - they have actually brought my ranking UP! (for my keywords, not my PR, which stayed the same)

[vinman]

Doing the basics is what always needed in SEO. The most important things like good contents and quality back links should not be ignored. If you doing the basics, don't worry about the SERP. The site will climb up even though it goes down due to algorithm changes.

[Allen Graves]

We haven't seen the "content farm" algorithm change yet...only the "scraper" change. I wish they would hurry and get it over with. Roll the dang thing out so we can decide what we have to do - if anything at all.

Cheers!
Allen Graves

[Sam90]

One of my blogs that has several writers, new content daily, and quality backlinks, has went from a PR 3 to 0. Another financial blog of mine that I haven't updated in 6 months remains at a PR3. I'm still puzzled??

[Sarah Bosen]

I haven't noticed...
But honestly, I'm terrible at this sort of thing :>

[paulgl]

PR does not have to rise. It can stay the same, or go down.

My PR has all stayed the same.

My traffic has dropped ever so slightly. But the targeted visitors have
seen what I think is a huge jump.

Paul

[FredJones]

What's being discussed? PR or SERP?

I have not checked any of my PRs of late. It would become obvious with the Google toolbar, but this laptop of mine refuses to install it.

As of SERP, I have noticed absolutely no change apart from my regular gradual upward movements. Well, maybe a few of my new pages jumped up but not sure whether it was because of ongoing SEO efforts or whether it was because of Google changes. I would suspect the former than the latter.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by fred67

Agreed - Link farming has probably had an undesired effect. My blog comments on the better ranking blogs I have shot through the roof, and most of them are not genuine comments - just spam :-(

I'm not into link-exchange as such, but the very nature of my main website means that it 'does' link out to many sites without reciprocal links so maybe that has had a baring on recent low quality score. (Perhaps Google thinks I'm a link-farm <{:-)

Oh Well - there ya go :-)

Yea, but you can't blame Google for anything related to comment link spam on your site.

I'm sure they expect you to control the spam on your own site 100%, after all your the webmaster.

If you don't keep the spam under control (mod. comments or disallow), then your putting yourself & your site in the same category of a spammer.

If that spam points to a bad site (virus etc...) you helped make it possible.

Not trying to be harsh here, just making a point, we all have 100% control of any link on our own sites. Maybe it's time for some housekeeping.

Myself, most sites I remove the entire comment form from my sites theme (problem solved). I do have a couple blogs I allow comments on, but they get moderated by me & never go live without me reading them first.

[fred67]

Originally Posted by yukon

Myself, most sites I remove the entire comment form from my sites theme (problem solved). I do have a couple blogs I allow comments on, but they get moderated by me & never go live without me reading them first.

Yep! I've been doing that on some of mine the last couple of weeks and it seems to be working. I've included a contact form instead which keeps the little bleeders at bay

Cheers .... Pete.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by yukon

Yea, but you can't blame Google for anything related to comment link spam on your site.

I'm sure they expect you to control the spam on your own site 100%, after all your the webmaster.

If you don't keep the spam under control (mod. comments or disallow), then your putting yourself & your site in the same category of a spammer.

If that spam points to a bad site (virus etc...) you helped make it possible.

Not trying to be harsh here, just making a point, we all have 100% control of any link on our own sites. Maybe it's time for some housekeeping.

Myself, most sites I remove the entire comment form from my sites theme (problem solved). I do have a couple blogs I allow comments on, but they get moderated by me & never go live without me reading them first.

You wanna know how many comments I've approved in the past year on the handful
I allow comments? None. My wordpress I allow none. Blogspot I allow all, because
google seems adept at killing spam. Occasionally 1 gets by. And it's spam. Deleted.

Not having comments has not been detrimental to traffic, and that's all I care about.

Paul

[TZ]

Sheesh.....must we go through this again?

The PR bar is measurement of RELATIVITY, meaning that if your site is in a highly competitive niche you might see your "little green bar" go down as thousands and thousand of more domains go live tageting the same niche.

If your niche is very much unique then you will see increases in PR if no other competition has lit up a domain, or added content on your niche.

I've seen our blogs drop or increase in PR, yet the traffic is the same, or more if more content has been added recently.

[Aaron J Curtis]

Your better off getting rid of or taking little notice of the google PR thingy in you're toolbar, matt cutts himself has said that the PR thingy(my words) everyone loves so much doesn't reflect a sites overall ranking in google.

Look, I've had webpages come up on the 1st page of google with 0 PR in that little visual thingy, I've actually hidden that PR thingy from view in the toolbar and I suggest you do the same.

Unless you work for the big G, they'll never let you know the full story about how they're page ranking works, so don't waste another minute fixated on it.