Interesting change on Transactional vs Informational results

[Aussie_Al]

Divided emphasis on Transactional vs Informational results Google SEO News and Discussion forum at WebmasterWorld


I found this today: Makes interesting reading for those of us who run -ecommerce stores

Another follow up. I compiled a list of Google keywords I ranked well for using my log files and painstakingly went through them one by one and found HUNDREDS of examples of transactional vs informational changes.

Example:

Burgundy Widgets - Old rank = #1
Burgundy Widgets - New rank = #188
Burgundy Widgets History - Old Rank = #1
Burgundy Widgets History - New Rank = #1 <-- unchanged

or

Popular Widgets - Old rank = #1
Popular Widgets - New rank = #57
How Popular Widgets - Old Rank = #1
How Popular Widgets - New Rank = #1 <-- unchanged

In fact it doesn't matter what is added in many instances. The exact match transactional term with the letter A in front of it, ie: A Burgundy Widget, is enough to make it informational apparently. Only exact match transactional (item, product or service based) terms are affected according to my logs.

Without the word history the term is being considered transactional and ebay is #1 now. With the word history added the search becomes informational, my rankings are unchanged which tells me my site has been labeled informational (and not a store brand in site of the top 20 now!).

I have literally hundred upon hundreds of examples of this, it's staggering how many similar changes I found, and all of it occured roughly 48 hours ago. It's like my site had the "transactional" switch turned off leaving the rest unaffected.

[Johnny Optimo]

wow... that's pretty insane.

I'm happy that I tend to make a lot of content that starts with "how to" (and my 'how to' articles are some of the best converters too)

[Aussie_Al]

Originally Posted by Johnny Optimo

wow... that's pretty insane.

I'm happy that I tend to make a lot of content that starts with "how to" (and my 'how to' articles are some of the best converters too)

smart move - I know what I am going to have to do over the next few days...

[Fraggler]

Could it be to do with trust? Find out what the sites that still perform well are doing different to yours.