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Finding A Common Theme Among Pages Hit Yesterday

by JoshN
44 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I know the wound is still fresh but I figure lets try to get something constructive out of this most recent Algorithm change.

Maybe if enough people who got hit post their on page and off page SEO techniques for those pages, we can find some similarities and truly know what to avoid.

I am using UAW with spun articles btw directly to my money sites, basically exactly what you're not supposed to do and my sites all went up. I don't do much on page SEO though. I dont try to go for 2-4% kw density or bold and italic everything and internal link everything. SO maybe theres an over optimization penalty going on
#common #finding #hit #pages #theme #yesterday
  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Well, imagine I divided 300 sites in small clusters with "similar" set ups. Then I analyzed what happened to each and every one of these sites, pages, rankings, etc etc. This would allow me to understand (at least a bit) of what happened and why, right?

    Wrong.

    We have been doing it since last summer and it makes no sense at all. Example: 10 sites with heavy use of networks got crushed - other 10 sites NOT using any network got crushed too. Everything very similar - except the use of networks.

    So yep, right now it seems Google is just crushing everything left and right, and no pattern is emerging.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post

      Example: 10 sites with heavy use of networks got crushed - other 10 sites NOT using any network got crushed too. Everything very similar - except the use of networks.

      So yep, right now it seems Google is just crushing everything left and right, and no pattern is emerging.
      Are those sites related in any way?

      Via say, Webmaster tools or GA? Or something else that Google could detect?

      All of my sites have been hit and I dont do anything black cat at all.
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      • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
        Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

        Are those sites related in any way?

        Via say, Webmaster tools or GA? Or something else that Google could detect?

        All of my sites have been hit and I dont do anything black cat at all.
        Hi John,

        It was an example, and you know I don't use WMT, Analytics etc etc, since last summer. In fact I warned you guys about the dangers of using it for some time now...

        Anyway, this says it all from my point of view:

        Google is messing it REALLY HARD on purpose, so you get penalized for doing it, for NOT doing it, and for just being alive.

        Want traffic? Buy Adwords.

        Fact: the only sites I see with no fluctuation AT ALL are one type of sites I can't disclose publicly, but they don't move down after all these updates. And they are small/medium sites - not brand powerhouses.
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        • Profile picture of the author OneManSEO
          Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post

          Hi John,

          It was an example, and you know I don't use WMT, Analytics etc etc, since last summer. In fact I warned you guys about the dangers of using it for some time now...

          Anyway, this says it all from my point of view:

          Google is messing it REALLY HARD on purpose, so you get penalized for doing it, for NOT doing it, and for just being alive.

          Want traffic? Buy Adwords.

          Fact: the only sites I see with no fluctuation AT ALL are one type of sites I can't disclose publicly, but they don't move down after all these updates. And they are small/medium sites - not brand powerhouses.
          Our client websites almost all have GA and their rankings barely got hit. I suspect GA with craptastic content might be a bad combo here.
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          • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
            Originally Posted by OneManSEO View Post

            Our client websites almost all have GA and their rankings barely got hit. I suspect GA with craptastic content might be a bad combo here.
            Not true.

            I have a site here that got slammed.

            35% bounce rate
            4:30 avg time onsite
            150 uniques a day
            3.1 avg page views
            Natural FB likes, G+1's, tweets etc
            Never used BMR, Linkvana etc

            All high quality content.

            Eg.

            The SEO Process - How to Use my SEO Business Kit - The Documents in Action

            Now tell me.

            If that's not high quality, well written engaging content, then WHAT IS????
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            • Profile picture of the author origin
              Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

              Now tell me. If that's not high quality, well written engaging content, then WHAT IS????
              Hi John!

              I am with you. Several USEFUL and professionaly written websites GONE from the serps, some 5 years + old.

              There seems to be no rhyme or reason at this stage. There is not much we can do until someone starts testing again and starts reporting as to what is working now. Still too early to say, we will have to give a month or so and see.

              Damned if you have content, damned if you have links. These were the 2 things we HAD to have according to Google before. Now the rules have changed and we must adapt or die. If you are small one man operation and can weather the storm, maybe you can manouvre quickly enough to the "new rules" (if and when we know and understand what they are) and make it work again.

              But my honest opinion, Google wants to push their Adwords program, force all to go that way. Adapt or die...

              For me, I will delete the domains that do not work after a month anymore and just load them on fresh ones and see how it goes. Drop ONE or TWO high PR relevant backlinks and LEAVE It and see what happens...

              As fast as Google can drop me, I can register new domains and just load the content on there.

              There seems no rhyme or reason at the moment, will just have to wait and see and start with why the current sites are ranking.

              As for GA and other Google services, they are out for me now, rather safe than sorry, I managed well enough before them and without them. The less G knows about my website the better.

              Having G tools did not save me in any way.

              The only observation that I can make at this point is that it seems the only website I did NOT build links to in any way is the only one still standing. So for the past 10 years "links were in" and now it is out again. Adapt or die....
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            • Profile picture of the author OneManSEO
              Originally Posted by John Romaine View Post

              Not true.

              I have a site here that got slammed.

              35% bounce rate
              4:30 avg time onsite
              150 uniques a day
              3.1 avg page views
              Natural FB likes, G+1's, tweets etc
              Never used BMR, Linkvana etc

              All high quality content.

              Eg.

              The SEO Process - How to Use my SEO Business Kit - The Documents in Action

              Now tell me.

              If that's not high quality, well written engaging content, then WHAT IS????
              What kind of backlinks where you building? My comment was in the context of light backlinking spread across lots of keywords - not spun content, profile links, blog comments, ect...just unique content spread daily over a steady period of time.
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    • Profile picture of the author aygabtu
      One of my sites was not impacted at all. But the one I was doing manual link building and some fiverr gigs, mostly to write articles for keywords and spin the content, was hit.

      Weird thing is not all the keywords were hit and some much harder than others, yet I was doing the same thing with the keywords across the board. How is google being so selective?

      Also whether some of my link building was questionable, the site is a quality web 2.0 site with functionality that is better than the top sites in its niche. These aren't blog or review sites. These are tools people use and we gave them a better interface, better and more detailed calculations, etc. Yet our site is the one slammed.
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    • Profile picture of the author retsek
      Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post

      Well, imagine I divided 300 sites in small clusters with "similar" set ups. Then I analyzed what happened to each and every one of these sites, pages, rankings, etc etc. This would allow me to understand (at least a bit) of what happened and why, right?

      Wrong.

      We have been doing it since last summer and it makes no sense at all. Example: 10 sites with heavy use of networks got crushed - other 10 sites NOT using any network got crushed too. Everything very similar - except the use of networks.

      So yep, right now it seems Google is just crushing everything left and right, and no pattern is emerging.
      Then the only common thing must be the content and how you post it, and how you optimize it on page.

      I'd bet that if someone were to build 300 sites, they'd start to optimize them similarly.

      It's like the manufacturing process, just makes sense to make everything "alike". Better efficiency, faster production, more profit right? The only problem is Google feels "webmastering" shouldn't be like car manufacturing.
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  • Profile picture of the author lniskasaari
    Google is messing up something and people who have good relevant content without "bad links" have been hit as well as spammy sites and highly optimized sites...

    ...still some people have reported about sites that have been bombed with spammy links have raised in rankings.

    I don`t know if we can find a common theme in this...Maybe this all has happened because latest google update has totally failed.

    All I can say things are not looking good right now. Not for Google and not for us.

    -Lauri-
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    • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
      A coomon theme I'm seeing now is..

      The sites that have replaced those that dropped..

      Don't have ads blocking the content above the fold.

      Don't have links from blog networks..

      So far that's all I can see.

      But I also see *worryingly* they are very thin sites that have replaced the good ones.
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      • Profile picture of the author Legit SEO
        My sites that I recently hit with spun blog posts are the only ones that actually went up in rankings. Google will always tell you one thing and then do the opposite.
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        • Profile picture of the author JoshN
          Originally Posted by Legit SEO View Post

          My sites that I recently hit with spun blog posts are the only ones that actually went up in rankings. Google will always tell you one thing and then do the opposite.
          This is why I created this thread, because I don't believe the algo changed as google stated in their press release and how people think it changed.
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          • Profile picture of the author Letsurf
            Originally Posted by JoshN View Post

            This is why I created this thread, because I don't believe the algo changed as google stated in their press release and how people think it changed.
            The algo changed... I have a PR 2 site that has ranked well for 3-4 years and today it just dropped out. I have not done any SEO on it for a few months and the last thing I did was some forum profiling manually. Here are a few facts about my site:

            1. There has never been spun content used for backlinks
            2. I have no ads on my site period (we sell our own product)
            3. I have never used AMR, senukex, or any software to blast low quality links.
            4. All the content on my site is 100% unique and hand written by native English speakers.
            5. All my pages were hit but some more severely (home page wasn't hit as hard).

            Here is a screen shot of my rankings:

            Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

            About 4 years ago (before I was in the SEO game) I had a company doing seo on my site. I went back and looked at the backlinks they built and it appears they were posting the same article to multiple sites using different author names. When I saw this it made me uneasy because this is neither spun or syndicated content.

            Something else I noticed was that there were a lot of links coming from "unrelated" sites.

            Please go through your off page links and if you were hit list your thoughts. If enough of us give some input here we can probably figure out what the problem is.
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  • Profile picture of the author shayman
    I have crummy authorstream and slideshare PDF's ranking page 1 that were extinct before this update and decent sites that have just evaporated for the same keywords and phrases. I'm not sure if there is a theme to this. I have many very similar style blogs some of which have moved upwards and others that have disappeared? I can't see any patterns but those PDF sites are a mystery???
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  • Profile picture of the author mosthost
    One thing everyone has in common: they 'optimized' websites for specific search terms.

    It's time to turn down the dial to find out where the proper level is.

    If you have H1, title, and anchor text matches, you're probably over the limit.

    Of course this all IMHO, only Google knows for sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
      Originally Posted by mosthost View Post

      One thing everyone has in common: they 'optimized' websites for specific search terms.

      It's time to turn down the dial to find out where the proper level is.

      If you have H1, title, and anchor text matches, you're probably over the limit.

      Of course this all IMHO, only Google knows for sure.
      But then again, people need to optimize their sites for THEIR market. No point in doing it differently.

      This is just a huge mess.

      My cellphone is on a nonstop with people asking me how it this possible. Many of them never (well, not in OUR standards) made any SEO beside the usual on page stuff. Their sites tanked hard. They don't understand WHY their whitehat sites got nuked this way. Some of them don't have a clue about what a backlink is, for ****ing sake.

      Honestly, this is the biggest mess Google made since I am a full time marketer. People are stunned how are they labeled "spammers" when they never made anything wrong.

      Just goes to show something wicked happened at Google and this is not a SLAP directed at spammers - far and wider from it.
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      • Profile picture of the author plsearch
        Guys, the update is rolling out. They didn't crawl every page on the web in one day, give it some time to percolate.
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
          Originally Posted by plsearch View Post

          Guys, the update is rolling out. They didn't crawl every page on the web in one day, give it some time to percolate.
          Agreed. OP meant well but this thread will just be filled with conjecture and complaining because there is absolutely no way in 24 hours or even 48 hours anyone can say what exactly is what.
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          • Profile picture of the author dfs_dean
            Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

            Agreed. OP meant well but this thread will just be filled with conjecture and complaining because there is absolutely no way in 24 hours or even 48 hours anyone can say what exactly is what.
            I agree. The picture will probably be clearer once the dust settles. And when it does, wouldn't it be better to look at the sites that moved up and see what they do rather than study those that dropped? For each site that fell off the 1st page another had to move up. Why did it move up? What does it do that Google likes? I'd rather have an idea of some things to do rather than only have an idea of some things not to do.

            Peace
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            Find something to enjoy about reality. It's not going to go away.
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            • Profile picture of the author Letsurf
              Originally Posted by dfs_dean View Post

              I agree. The picture will probably be clearer once the dust settles. And when it does, wouldn't it be better to look at the sites that moved up and see what they do rather than study those that dropped? For each site that fell off the 1st page another had to move up. Why did it move up? What does it do that Google likes? I'd rather have an idea of some things to do rather than only have an idea of some things not to do.

              Peace
              Many of my keywords went from #2-4 to being ranked in the 60's or dropped completely. In that case 50+ sites moved up so it's hard to tell why. On the other hand finding the problem with the ones that dropped would tell us a lot about why other sites are ranking higher or didn't get dropped.
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            • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
              Originally Posted by dfs_dean View Post

              I agree. The picture will probably be clearer once the dust settles. And when it does, wouldn't it be better to look at the sites that moved up and see what they do rather than study those that dropped? For each site that fell off the 1st page another had to move up. Why did it move up? What does it do that Google likes? I'd rather have an idea of some things to do rather than only have an idea of some things not to do.

              Peace
              I kinda agree with the idea.

              But this update is flawed from the very beggining.

              If you optimize it - you'll get nuked.
              If you don't - you'll be nowhere.

              If you backlink it - you're a spammer. You'll get nuked.
              If you don't - you'll be nowhere.


              I mean, how ****ed up is this?

              Really.

              Free traffic is over - Google will push more of this evil agenda to sell traffic - adwords.

              Thats my best guess. And funny enough all the data is pointing this way since last year...
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      • Profile picture of the author origin
        Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post


        This is just a huge mess.

        Honestly, this is the biggest mess Google made since I am a full time marketer. People are stunned how are they labeled "spammers" when they never made anything wrong.
        Very true. Have been reading all forums where panda is being discussed. There is no rhyme or reson yet to this update and EVERYTHING seems to be speculation at this point.

        Some say "THIS IS THE REASON" and some say "THAT", but from reading the forums it all seems just one huge mess.

        Some guys claim for instance that "Exact Match Domains are HEAVILY affected" (negatively) and others claim "Exact Match Domains Are Winning".

        Only one conclusion so far, sit tight and wait a month or so for the dust to settle. Even if you did want to "DO SOMETHING" , what is the right thing to do?

        - You cant built links because Matt Cuts says people who find your content excellent and engaging must do it for you.

        - You cant work on your onpage SEO, because what is "over optimisation" ? If I start to "de optimise" my site, then I am OPTIMISING it!!! How do I write a page on what my page is NOT about????

        From reading as far and wide as I can, there are no definite answers yet as to what to do next. We just have to wait and see what seems to be 'working' for real.

        If the answer is "Adwords" then we have to adapt or die.

        For me, now it is "what next?" and there is no clear "what next" at the moment. Keep adding "good quality content"? And for those sites that had it and got tanked anyway? Nice real GOOD authorative websites gone! So this is also NOT the answer.

        Hope all of our businesses can wheather the storm in the mean time....
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  • Profile picture of the author mosthost
    Repeat after me.

    Google is not our friend.

    Google hates us.

    We love free traffic.

    Google loves paid traffic.

    Google and Us are getting divorced very soon. LOL
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    • Profile picture of the author JoshN
      Originally Posted by mosthost View Post

      Repeat after me.

      Google is not our friend.

      Google hates us.

      We love free traffic.

      Google loves paid traffic.

      Google and Us are getting divorced very soon. LOL
      I've gotten paranoid about google.

      If I run a business and big part of my business requires using google to gain traffic. I use google for traffic and absolutely nothing else. Get rid of analytics, get rid of adsense, and Download Do not Track plus.

      Google is already getting its hand slapped by the FTC for being a little too invasive in their tracking of people, even when they are logged out of Google+
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    • Profile picture of the author kimseo
      Originally Posted by mosthost View Post

      Repeat after me.

      Google is not our friend.

      Google hates us.

      We love free traffic.

      Google loves paid traffic.

      Google and Us are getting divorced very soon. LOL
      I second it
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      Article Rank : A premium article directory.
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  • Profile picture of the author Letsurf
    IMO this isn't an over optimization issue. My site has quality content and no spammy keyword stuffing or cloaked text. All internal links are relevant to content... Google encourages white hat SEO and optimizing sites for specific keywords so this may be more of a backlink profile issue. I have GWT and analytics on my site. Is there anyone who has been hit hard that doesn't have gwt or analytics?
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  • Profile picture of the author shayman
    Here's my prediction ( I hope)
    In about a weeks time we will all look back on today and wonder what all the fuss was about. There are clearly some very good websites that have been hit, and there are clearly some crappy ones that have been hit too. I'll hold my hands up to both.

    I'm hoping that this is one hell of a Google Dance. Like the biggest internet prom night ever! Maybe all these sites that have backlinks are just finding their feet again in this latest update and will gradually return...and let's be optimistic, maybe come back even higher up the SERP's.

    Perhaps I'm being glass half full but I find it hard to believe that decent sites are just going to be Google history!

    Shayman
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  • Profile picture of the author Theeban
    For my gifts sites, I have almost 90% links from web 2.0 blogs and sites, today, I found clicks from the keywords that I do not target, like "admin gifts for men", sentimental gifts for dad 'uk' and etc.... I am sure the current system will be rolled out sooner may be in few days time.... hopefully
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    • Profile picture of the author origin
      One thing that I "can add" at this stage is that on page SEO is definitely affected.

      I did a search for some of my keywords and some of the keywords seems to be "ignored" as the keywords that I searched for (broad search) do not even apear on the results.

      Not in the <title>, not in the <description> and not in the <body>.

      Did a search for "forex training courses" for instance. The word "training" is substituted by "trading" by Google serps, where as in the past the words "forex + training + courses" would EACH have been bolded in the results, the serp results show mostly "forex trading courses" results and the word "trading" is bolded as if it was the keyword I was ACTUALY searching for. So in its wisdom Google decided that the keywords I did a search for was not "forex TRAINING courses" but "forex TRADING courses" and treating the word "training" as if it was "trading".

      Check some of your search results if google is "replacing" what you search with what they think is right? Even going to the extend of "bolding" it as if it was the word you entered in the search button.

      Some of the websites ranking now have NONE of the keywords that are being typed into Google and handle the search as if GOOGLE knows best. Almost as if it is giving us "related" results first BEFORE the real results.

      A search for "web designer" for instance brings up a whole bunch of "web design" websites. This is not what is being asked, the search is being done for "web designer" and google throws out "web design" results as if it was REALY what you were searching for.

      "You poor idiot, we KNOW you were not meaning to search for web+designer but for web+design actualy. This is the same thing, did you not know? Thank You For Your Patronage, the Google Team"
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      • Profile picture of the author JoshN
        Originally Posted by origin View Post

        One thing that I "can add" at this stage is that on page SEO is definitely affected.

        I did a search for some of my keywords and some of the keywords seems to be "ignored" as the keywords that I searched for (broad search) do not even apear on the results.

        Not in the <title>, not in the <description> and not in the <body>.

        Did a search for "forex training courses" for instance. The word "training" is substituted by "trading" by Google serps, where as in the past the words "forex + training + courses" would EACH have been bolded in the results, the serp results show mostly "forex trading courses" results and the word "trading" is bolded as if it was the keyword I was ACTUALY searching for. So in its wisdom Google decided that the keywords I did a search for was not "forex TRAINING courses" but "forex TRADING courses" and treating the word "training" as if it was "trading".

        Check some of your search results if google is "replacing" what you search with what they think is right? Even going to the extend of "bolding" it as if it was the word you entered in the search button.

        Some of the websites ranking now have NONE of the keywords that are being typed into Google and handle the search as if GOOGLE knows best. Almost as if it is giving us "related" results first BEFORE the real results.

        A search for "web designer" for instance brings up a whole bunch of "web design" websites. This is not what is being asked, the search is being done for "web designer" and google throws out "web design" results as if it was REALY what you were searching for.

        "You poor idiot, we KNOW you were not meaning to search for web+designer but for web+design actualy. This is the same thing, did you not know? Thank You For Your Patronage, the Google Team"
        This is what they've always done, but I think they are really just expanding this.
        Google even annonced that they are building basically a synonym directory. Where they find related keywords to try and figure out what people are really searching for and add in pages they think the individual is looking for rather than pages that match that exact keyword "word for word"


        Funny thing is google hates spinning but they are basically spinning your search query to fit what a computer program thinks fits best.
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        • Profile picture of the author origin
          Originally Posted by JoshN View Post

          This is what they've always done, but I think they are really just expanding this.
          Google even annonced that they are building basically a synonym directory. Where they find related keywords to try and figure out what people are really searching for and add in pages they think the individual is looking for rather than pages that match that exact keyword "word for word"


          Funny thing is google hates spinning but they are basically spinning your search query to fit what a computer program thinks fits best.
          Yes, agree, to a degree they have always done this, but it now seems more extreme in so far that they even bold the words that you DID NOT search for as if you did. (note here, I am not talking about spelling mistakes that they correct, they replace the SERP with keywords that the choose) Seems like they are favouring the related results more than the actual results.
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        • Profile picture of the author markowe
          Originally Posted by JoshN View Post

          This is what they've always done, but I think they are really just expanding this.
          Google even annonced that they are building basically a synonym directory. Where they find related keywords to try and figure out what people are really searching for and add in pages they think the individual is looking for rather than pages that match that exact keyword "word for word"


          Funny thing is google hates spinning but they are basically spinning your search query to fit what a computer program thinks fits best.
          Google does this sort of synonym testing all the time. It often happens with certain keywords. My take is they are testing bounce rates to see if users agree with the synonym, i.e. whether they found what they expected. Those changes are always temporary in my experience.

          Some of those other weird results like the "make money online" one have already been flushed out. We should definitely hang on a few more days before jumping to any conclusions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Heron
    If Google is serious about this algorithm change, then Bing is going to be the new search engine of choice. They shot themselves in the foot with a system that wasn't anywhere near as broken as it is now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Builder154
    I'm sure most people will agree that the bottom line is that randomness is frustrating for everyone. And Google seems to be ranking things almost randomly at this point. I can't find any rhyme or reason to anything. Everyone who went up in rank thinks they have the answer, but then 5 other people did the same as them and went down. It just makes no sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author josephseeley
    I have reverse engineered the algorithm :p
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  • Profile picture of the author greatestmj
    Only one of all my sites got hit and they were having really high quality content. I spent weeks writing all that high quality content myself. But they were ONpage SEOed. Something tells me that a lot of this update targetted sites that did onpage SEO than link building. All the other sites that had less Onpage SEO focussed are intact and getting me same traffic.

    Did this update had a lot to do with Onpage factors?
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    • Profile picture of the author origin
      Originally Posted by greatestmj View Post

      Only one of all my sites got hit and they were having really high quality content. I spent weeks writing all that high quality content myself. But they were ONpage SEOed. Something tells me that a lot of this update targetted sites that did onpage SEO than link building. All the other sites that had less Onpage SEO focussed are intact and getting me same traffic.

      Did this update had a lot to do with Onpage factors?
      see? no rhyme or reason... some think it is links, some think it is content, no one realy knows for sure.

      If you do not optimise your page so google can see what it is about then how are they going to know? what do they mean with "over optimise" ? I always just write naturaly with focus on the topic with headings and sub headings. no more h1 and h2?

      maybe from now on google will change the serps weekly / monthy and scramble them regulary, then we all have to do adwords.

      no rhyme or reason yet, hope to see patterns emerge as people start testing and back engneering the current rankings.
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  • Profile picture of the author looking4adsense
    It's not that the quality sites got slammed, it's because the sites on top are often high quality sites that IMers spent a lot of money to build links for. Once these sites get penalized, then the low quality(and not much backlink) sites float to the top.
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    • Profile picture of the author aygabtu
      I'd have to say link building. My sites have similar on-site SEO, but I was only doing heavy link building for the one that got hit. Although what is weird is it wasn't an across the board drop. Some keywords didn't drop, even though I used the same SEO techniques for them all. Unfortunately 95% of them did and that is the part that hurts.
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  • Profile picture of the author Derek Blandford
    The problem is people are trying to read into all of this TOO EARLY...

    Until the update completely finishes and the dust settles, we won't know exactly what sites were hit. Your site may be hit right now, but as the update finishes and Google fine tunes you might see your site come roaring back and it could even go up in ranking.

    Bottom line: nobody really knows ANYTHING right now. It's too early.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mantasmo
    Nothing is flawed. The update is still rolling out. Stop with your whining and go do something productive. How can you analyse this stuff? It's not even finished yet!
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  • Profile picture of the author AndyBlackSEO
    Matt Cutts will probably pop up shortly and say "Jusssst kiddin' guys!!", flick a switch and all our rankings will come back :-)

    But... I'm guessing he's not the prankster type SO everyone who has been affected will just have to wait a while and monitor their rankings.

    I've just been hit also... Only just realised today. Lots of no.1 and no.2 spots dissappeared. Some sites that have held solidly for a long time. Lots of different scenarios... lots of different sites... and some that haven't been affected at all.

    We'll just have to wait and see. If Google don't sort themselves out we could all demonstrate outside Google headquarters :-) Anyone??
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