Is your favorite SEO 'expert' moaning about the latest change?

by 70 replies
90
If they are or they're making changes based on the latest update - FIRE THEM.

I've seen so many people on this forum the past two days crying about this update, many of them with SEO sites/services in their signatures. I'm far from an SEO expert yet I know that every single time there is a major update, the SERPs take 2-4 weeks to settle down. If I know this, shouldn't your SEO expert?

If you're on your own doing SEO, do not react to this update yet. Let things settle before you make any decisions or you will just shoot your toe off.
#search engine optimization #change #expert #favorite #latest #moaning #seo
  • How do you know?
  • What if we are extremely happy that google finally hit linkspam? Cuz I am lovin it.
  • I think changes could be in order.

    1) Google announced they were going after 'webspam.'
    2) Your website has been demoted.

    Based on that bit of logic, attempts to de-optimize or reduce your 'spamminess profile' would make a lot of sense.
    • [1] reply
    • History.

      What logic? Historically, it takes up to a month to have the SERPs settle to see the actual results of a change. Why on earth would you react before that happens?

      That's rather like the doctor ordering several tests to figure out what's wrong with you and then ordering surgery before the results are in.
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  • Isn't it an SEO's duty to always adapt to new changes?
    • [3] replies
    • Of course, but any real expert knows not to react immediately. It always takes a bit of time to have everything shake down before you can see true results. Then it's time to adapt if necessary.
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    • Banned
      Even if this update won't stick it shows what Google's plans are. Thats why it's wise to alter the services based on that. Thing is that I had a few slightly doubtfull links in my packages that worked awesomely well. Now I replaced them with even better stuff.

      So I think it's pretty bogus to say that an seo providers is not an expert when he adapts. The SEO providers who aren't changing a thing are the ones you should be afraid of. Especially on this forum.

    • Yes, it is the SEO's duty to adapt, but not to over-react.

      Real SEO professionals will be following the same strategy that Tina is endorsing.

      Why?

      It is simple. It is the SEO's duty to be able to rank you in Google, in relation to the realities that are on the ground now.

      But in order to be able to help you to improve your rankings, they must UNDERSTAND what is going on and how to game it.

      A smart SEO person will spend the next 3-4 days, perhaps even the next 2 weeks, analyzing what has changed, trying to understand what has happened and what has changed.

      Once the SEO professional believes that they understand the change, it becomes their job to theorize about "how to adapt", then to "test" their hypothesis.

      Real professionals try to apply their trade much as a research scientist investigates how chemical changes can affect the human body -- theorize, test the theory, measure results, then implement across the board.

      Right now, real SEO professionals are not whining in forums about the most recent changes. Instead, they are analyzing what is and what was, trying to grasp what is now.

      Once they believe they understand what happened, they will hypothesize a solution, then run a number of tests to see if they have hypothesized it correctly.

      Based on the results of the tests that they have run, then they will adjust their activities to match "how to game Google in the now."

      Ah... But many of you will ask "what makes me think I am so damned smart..." LOL

      I worked as a Professional SEO from 2005 to 2009. I got out of the industry when Google implemented "personalized search".

      I figured that if my clients could not replicate on their computers what I was able to see on my computer, then staying in the industry would be very frustrating.

      I got out on my own terms.

      While I was working in the industry, my clients paid me anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000 per month to optimize their sites.

      Maybe I should not be speaking about others in this industry, but what I have laid out above is exactly how I would be handling the current situation, if I was still in that industry.
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  • I dont know Tina, I kinda agree with mosthost on this one. Google told us they were going to do this a month ago. This algo targeted links, just like they said it would.

    Historically, it doesnt take a month, maybe a couple of weeks...maybe. In most of the niches that I watch, all fluctuations have stopped. There will be tweaks and roll outs, but if a site has linkspam backlinks, that site WAS the target of this algo update.
    • [3] replies
    • I think you should always be avoiding spammy links and other spamalicious tactics - no argument there. And I said 2 to 4 weeks for the 'dance' to see the full effects. My point is that spam links have always been something Google didn't like. If that was the target of the latest change, good for them.

      My post wasn't aimed at those who knew they were using spammy tactics. I'm talking to the people who tried to do everything right but found their rankings tanked this week.

      The same thing happened when Panda first rolled out. People with decent sites saw their rankings bottom out and they panicked, making changes willy-nilly. Some of them never recovered because they overcompensated before the shakedown settled.

      All I'm saying is that if you've been doing everything to the best of your ability to try to provide users with an optimal experience and have not been trying to do anything spammy, then wait to see how it settles before over-reacting.
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    • Rex no doubt alot of marketers sites are not coming back. Some things are obvious and as Tina pointed out were known long ago. If you are sitting around waiting for spammy links to once again rule then you are in for a rude awakening. However claiming to know everything you need to know at this point and how sites will be ranked is just premature and certainly as Tina indicated all the whining is just baseless.

      The silliest thing is all these people saying how Google messed up because this or that site is ranking for the time being. Can't know that until at least 4-5 days not 48 hours.
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    • How do you define linkspam backlinks..
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  • Great title to this thread and yes I get an email once a week saying this has changed and this has changed and we need to go down this route now, very funny how it seems to change so quickly in the SEO world. Be careful who you pick!
  • Post-Panda, it took my main site 25 days to bounce back.

    Tina's logic seems sound to me.
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  • all my site still there and improved in the serp because i don't put adsense in my sites
  • Banned
    If you're site dropped hard it means that most of the links are crawled already so not very much chance you'll get back.
  • I wonder how Google is handling links from deindexed websites. Are they still 'holding it against you' even though the site is gone from their index?
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    • Very good point, Tina. If you haven't made any changes to a particular site in a while, and all of a sudden you start making a bunch of changes right after the lastest G update started, then that is a HUGE red flag to Google right there that you are trying to game their system. If you do that then IMO you are begging to have your site permanently de-indexed.

      Google is not dumb... they know that their search results don't make any sense right now, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are doing this strictly for the reason I mentioned above.

      My advice for anyone who's site/s got hit would be to not make ANY out-of-the-ordinary changes to your site for at least a month. If it hasn't bounced back by then, then start making small changes to it spread out over time.
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  • Actually, I would go a step farther. I wouldn't wait to see if they are making changes. If your site got hammered by this latest change and you have been working with just one SEO, I would probably fire them.

    Most people on this forum do not hire real SEO's though, so this really doesn't apply here. Most just hire low quality backlink providers.
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  • Im sorry but theres far too much common sense and not enough irrational panic in this thread.

    2 stars.
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    • Haha, John hit the nail on the head here.

      This is by far the most solid post I have seen in days. So many people freak at the slightest change and think the sky is falling. Google isn't perfect - and just like any change over the next few weeks they will do their best to restore a little bit of sanity to the latest changes.

      edit:

      Google is officially calling the latest update "Penguin"

  • They shouldn't be moaning anyway because they would know this isn't the update.
  • Amen Tina, its a bit disgusting at how many people are proclaimed experts, but the slightest algorithm update or "Panda refresh" and all hell has frozen over.

    No SEO is not dying.
    No this algorithm update isn't done "refreshing".

    Don't cry, call it quits, 301 your domain, quit your services, or cry to Mommy because of a sudden drop in your rankings. Life will go on, and there's a good chance you'll see things bounce back to normal soon.
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  • Just want to side with the "it's not complete yet" side. I have one site that I haven't backlinked yet, been up for 3 months. It was at #30 for it's keyword. Currently it seems to bounce between #3 and off the charts (my software only checks to #200), and is literally changing every hour.

    A number of other sites are bouncing like crazy, whilst others have stayed the same with small boosts or falls and aren't changing much.

    Obviously simply building quality content at this time is the best bet (ok, not obvious, I am far from an SEO expert) - just keep building, let Google see you're putting good stuff up and ride out the changes.

    I'm not going to sit down and take stock of where this change has left me for a couple of weeks yet
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    • I agree you need to wait a little. My site traffic dropped off the map yesterday and today it is back. Not all the way but most of the way. I think there is still some shaking out that is happening. Because if a site with 1 back link and no social signals can rank for Dallas architects on the first page that is a pretty crappy result.

      I also have pages that are ranking for Kw they have no business ranking for. One example is I have a search results page from my site that is for 4 bedroom house plans and it is ranking for 3 bedroom house plans. That is not a good result if you ask me from a users perspective.
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  • The next time Google says they're planning on updating, it's time to grab your ankles
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    • I'll be grabbing something else next time, my ankles have already worn out with this one
  • These kinds of sites are sitting ducks for negative SEO.
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    • How about if I have an 11 year old site that has never had any linking done to it? Will that be affected by Neg SEO?
  • Google confirmed the update is fully rolled out. You can probably stop waiting for "things to settle down" now.
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  • Tina your so right mrs lady...there is no need to panic and go jumping off a building over this. We should be use to this by now since its been going on forever. We all know its coming so lets just sit back and cross our fingers.

    "Black Seo Guy "Signing Off"


  • Tina, It would be cool if this WAS a seo problem... which is NOT. This is way bigger then that. It's a new move towards "Go PPC or go home".

    But I'll wait for people to figure it out in a couple months, or maybe a year - the exact time some Warriors will take to understand backlinks can really hurt Google rankings (since many of you are still in denial).

    April what? 26th? 2012... Ok, see ya guys in a year to bring this one back alive. Bet in a year MOST people in this forum will be discussing anti-trust laws and "how google is killing the internet"...
  • Playing Google's game is lame, who wants to wait weeks, every day that goes by is money that could be lost because of Google's NON-SENSE. They need to be removed from their monopoly and other avenues take over. Bing facebook, whatever let them climb, google sucks.
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    • Banned
      The problem is Bing & Facebook suck more than Google.

      Bing is ghost town.

      Facebook will be belly up in less than 10 years unless they build something 1K times better than the crap they dish out now.
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    • You are completely wrong and Tina has a pretty good idea ofw hat she is talking about. If you do some research you will see there are a TON of crap sites ranking right now for some reason, but anybody that has studied any type of SEO at all knows this won't last and in about a month we will see what Google was really trying to do.

      Brilliant!!

      Me too....this seems about normal.

      Adsense has very little to do with your ranking.

      This is a false statement too!

      Just made me laugh John!

      I agree....google has never been my main source of traffic and I have never tried to rank super high with them. I rank, however, with many sites and pages, but not because that is my main goal.

      Benjamin
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  • People who are moaning about the changes ain't SEO experts. They will never be
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  • So I see 2 camps in general from reading this thread!
    1) Hang tight, we haven't seen the end of this. It takes a few days for things to settle
    2) Get moving and do something NOW. Fix your links and recover as quickly as possible!
    Well, I think that both sides have valid points. Here is why:
    Only you know what you did for your sites as far as back linking goes. If you did it the "clean" way (we can have a whole different conversation about this) and there is no reason that your sites should have been annihilated by G then you should hang tight! After all, G was pretty specific as to what they were targeting. If you are sure that you do not fall into this category then wait a week or two.
    On the other hand, if you know that you paid for 2500 forum links, a 5000 Xrummer gig, and submitted a 300 word spun article to 2000 article directories, all for $2.99 well, chances are you were hit by the algo for good reason! maybe you should start acting right now!
    The problem is if you fall in the grey area between these 2 extremes. Lets say you paid a fiver Gig for (insert your back link strategy here) and they used some automated garbage, or a few years back you submitted your spun articles to 200 directories. Lets also say that in general you have done things the right way, guest blogging etc then how can you be sure?
    In this grey area, I advocate for a wait and see approach. I also think that most of us fall in this category.
    Anyhow, I subscribe to the OP on this one. We're in the SEO business right? A long term business. What does it hurt to wait 2 or 3 weeks?
  • My penalised sites came back to rankings this week, but most likely because the penalties sort of expired or something... Not quite ranking as high as before I got hit (in February!), but back up to 100-150 uniques/day from Google (used to be 200+/day).

    That being said, I have completely changed my whole SEO strategy over the last few months. No more penalties for me (unless a competitor nukes me).
  • Another way we know this update isn't done yet is that many sites aren't cached. I am seeing no cache even for sites that were always cached up to the minute by Google. So the monster is still munching through the data. Also, one of those white-hat authority sites of mine has had its traffic slashed by half: the reason? Half its pages aren't even indexed currently. Anyone heard of sites being half-de indexed?

    I am just going to carry on what I was doing, in fact I rolled put a new, more "authoritative" theme on that one site yesterday, quite independently of this new update. You really think the algo its having a top-level meeting with itself, saying, oo look, he made some changes during the update, he must be a Web spammer?!

    I just don't sweat these updates, and I think many that do are just showing they are one-trick ponies.
  • Good Thread.

    Good call.

    Moreover.

    How many threads have been all over the IM forums linking to that ONE example in the serps "how to make money online"

  • What ever the updates is from Google is to refine search to best quality. Don't go against the basic of SEO. Try to stick to the guidelines of Google then there is nothing to fear.
  • Interesting thread.

    I am seeing a lot of profile links and twitter.com/yourkeywordhere and other spam techniques ranking VERY well, and a lot of good sites have tanked and taken over by spam.

    It's clear Google have not found a middle ground yet, or if they have, then the above example I just gave makes no sense.

    I dunno, I'm off to get drunk, anyone in?
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  • 90

    Is your favorite SEO 'expert' moaning about the latest change?

    If they are or they're making changes based on the latest update - FIRE THEM. I've seen so many people on this forum the past two days crying about this update, many of them with SEO sites/services in their signatures. I'm far from an SEO expert yet I know that every single time there is a major update, the SERPs take 2-4 weeks to settle down. If I know this, shouldn't your SEO expert?