Another Jan. Update Thread - Garbage sites on top again?

Those are two SERPs that Google probably doesn't give a flying crap about.

And I hope the "edu backlinks" SERP keeps all kinds of trash on page one. People selling EDU links are only one step above people selling profile backlinks when it comes to being the absolute lowest scum of the IM world.

Bottom line is bad results have ALWAYS existed in Google. This is nothing new. Nobody has access to enough data to determine if it is happening more often or less often since Google introduced Panda and Penguin. For some people, in their little IM niche bubble, it may look like it is happening more often, but in the search engine as a whole, there is no way to say definitively if the updates have made things better or worse.

I don't care as long as I'm #1.

Do you think that kind of (usual) replies betwen Yukon and MikeFriedman is useful ?

Sick and tired of it.

Ooooookkkkk, so let's turn this thread completely around and blame it on the niche lol

1st of all, do you see me b*tching about losing any rankings like 99% of people on here with sh*tty 2 page affiliate sites?
2nd of all, buybacklinkscheap.com is my OLD website that haven't been updated in for ever and the only keyword it's rankings for is, well you guessed it - buy backlinks cheap lol.
3rd My company has ACTUAL PHYSICAL OFFICES with in-house team for link building. (No India bs)
4th Since when getting links from dofollow .edu wikis with private registration became "spam"?

And finally ... WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT MY BUSINESS HERE, I'm not trying to promote anything, I just simply pointed out google SERP results in a specific niche.
Since you guys blaming the "niche" let's look at this website in weight loss niche:

howtoloseweightfastwithoutexercise.webs.com/

Oh, and one more thing, QUIT SCREAMING "oMG He SelLS LinKS, he iS SpAM etc." but yet it's ok to push your sh*tty WSO or sh*tty affiliate product that has 0 value.
I don't SELL LINKS, I SELL LABOR!
If you don't have time for creating web 2.0 properties, looking for guest posts, looking for related blogs / forums etc. then your only option is to outsource it.

Not sure if you meant me or not, but I wasn't referring to anything you were selling. Just your mention of the .edu links search result.

To me, .edu links that are not negotiated directly with the University to acquire, are trash.

But anyhow... The second part of my post still stands. From the time that Google came into existence there has always been SERPs that had what looked like low quality results. This is nothing new. Google has been working to improve the quality of the results, but doing everything by an algorithm (And there is no other way they could do it. The internet is far too big.) is always going to produce some results that do not seem in line with Google's stated goals.

Is that happening more often or less often than two years ago?

To many, in their specific niche, it may look like it is happening more often. However, none of us have access to enough data though to really make a determination if the SERPs have gotten worse or better. You would have to search millions of keywords and compare them to the results two years ago to really even try to quantify if they are doing a better job or not overall.

It is in their best interest to improve results. If people are unhappy with the search results, they might actually start using another search engine. If that happens, their precious advertising earnings are going to go down the toilet.

In all honesty, outside of the IM world, I have never once heard anyone complain about Google's search results.

A mouse looked through the crack in the
wall to see the farmer and his wife open
a package. “What food might this
contain?” the mouse wondered. He was
devastated to discover it was a
mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse
proclaimed the warning: “There is a
mousetrap in the house! There is a
mousetrap in the house!”
The chicken clucked and scratched,
raised her head and said “Mr. Mouse, I
can tell this is a grave concern to you,
but it is of no consequence to me. I
cannot be bothered by it.”
The mouse turned to the pig and told
him “There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!” The
pig sympathized, but said “I am so very
sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I
can do about it but pray. Be assured you
are in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow and said
“There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!” The
cow said “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for
you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”
So, the mouse returned to the house,
head down and dejected, to face the
farmer’s mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard
throughout the house – like the sound of
a mousetrap catching its prey. The
farmer’s wife rushed to see what was
caught. In the darkness, she did not see
it was a venomous snake whose tail the
trap had caught. The snake bit the
farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to
the hospital and she returned home with
a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with
fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took
his hatchet to the farmyard for the
soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s
sickness continued, so friends and
neighbors came to sit with her around
the clock. To feed them, the farmer
butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did
not get well; she died. So many! people
came for her funeral, the farmer had the
cow slaughtered to provide enough meat
for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his
crack in the wall with great sadness. So,
the next time you hear someone is facing
a problem and think it doesn’t concern
you, remember: when one of us is
threatened, we are all at risk. We are all
involved in this journey called life. We
must keep an eye out for one another
and make an extra effort to encourage
one another. Each of us is a vital thread
in another person’s tapestry.

@n0tr3v3
I remember reading that a while back and thinking the mouse wasn't really in any danger because he was aware of the mouse trap, but yeah... I get the point... we are all a part of the SEO brotherhood

OP:

I read a thread on the Google forums where people were complaining about the search results. I am sure many of these individuals were IMers but it seems like they may have been a few real complaints from people not associated with IM at all. The thread is a year long but the replies this year I found to be interesting:

Here is the link: http://productforums.google.com/foru...c/jMDFzS4EhoYJ

At least somebody called them out on it:
Another person confirms my statements:

@IM Ash, I'm glad I reminded you. Will different take a look over at that google webmaster thread.

Differently, all this google update has bring a lot of crappy results for a number of keywords but I believe if you have high quality contents for a website, why allow that to detour you from a profitable keyword(s).

If the updates bring those crappy websites to page 1, chances are they won't stay for long.

Personally I use to find a certain high quality information, non ads/affiliate website and now it's no where to be found.

The only good thing that comes from all these updates is less competition.

I'm seeing increasing numbers of sucky results in Google. One thing that's disturbing is that searching for a very popular forum gives you nothing.

Sure, Google can penalise sites for various stuff, but when they start penalising sites USERS LOVE, then the market becomes wide open for a competitor to steal what is effectively their only profitable business.