Wondering why its so quite here about the new Google update, when WMW has a 500 post thread going on about it and there seems to be much weeping and wailing in some quarters?

Mel,
I've been quiet on the forum for a couple of months, been busy working, although I have popped in from time to time just to see what's going on.

I've lost rank on most of my minor search terms for the wedding site over the weekend, but the major terms are still up at #1. The other sites haven't seen any significant change.

But when all's said and done it's google so what goes around, comes around. I think most people on this forum are mature enough to take it on the chin, sit back and try and work out why directories are again ranking better than sites offering what people are actually searching for and not rush in and change sites needlessly.

To me it looks like things are still in a state of flux so I'm playing a waiting game, but 4 months at #1 for over twenty keyphrases has helped to fill the diary so I'm not unduly worried, although it will probably have an effect on my small, but welcome, adsense income.
Cheers
Ian

Hi Ian glad to hear that you have been so busy.

It appears to me that the update is not finished yet but should be complete soon.

If it's any consolation, I've been weeping and wailing quietly

It seems all you can do with Google at times like these is cross your fingers and hope you're not going to spend the next 6 months trying to climb it's ladder all over again.

Nice to see you back Ian, I was wondering where you got to this morning as it goes.

Only 500 posts at WMW Call that an update?

To be honest, I don't venture out much so I didn't even know about it. Is anything earthshattering happening or is it just another miscellaneous rankings shuffle?

Looks like they've got a few German speakers on there as well

I am not seeing much to either jump for joy or wail about . Checked most terms we hold yesterday and all still seems pretty stable. anyone have any ideas as to what this update encompasses yet?

No Ideas so far, my rankings are about what I expect and clients seem to be going up as they should.

One old client who dropped out of the results at the end of March came back last night stronger than ever with a half dozen top three rankings in Google for some competitive and profitable KW. This is a site that the optimization was limited by the site design which he refused to change and there have been no changes in the past year.

It looks to me like theres nothing special about the updates, though I do notice that there seems to be lots of noise from those who tended to optimize to the latest crazes, like only relevant links, vary your anchor text, etc.

We are so much more refined in this forum. We don't get all hot under the collar over some miscellaneous ranking changes, and we don't get our knickers (sorry - panties) in a twist over various crazes and fashions

or the fact we dont have 99.9% newbies here who see every fluctuation as a major upheavel prolly helps too. People here tend to learn faster, which is a good thing. I personally think that is reflected by the lessor degree of "OhMyGod" posts here than at other places.

Update Bourbon? How can they mess with a classic! Have they learnt nothing from Coke?


I guess nobody has mentioned it because nobody has noticed it. The rankings I keep an eye on are very stable, the odd +/- a couple of places but nothing different from normal so far.

Hey DM just noticed that you have passed 1000 posts - Congratulations!

Who assigns the names anyhow?

dmilford did you make Admiral? Can't tell by your avatar

Not much change in the SERPS for us either. There is no great point moaning about losing rankings though. Better spending energy finding out what changes we need to make if the rankings are badly affected.

And the conclusion again? Get more links with our keyword anchor text to improve.

We also have some quite varied anchor text - too varied IMHO so we are going to reduce the variations where possible.

Me...well...Mostly this week I be trying to convert more visitors to buyers (SEO by Jill).

Have not noticed any significant drops. Just the usual up a place down a place stuff. Pretty stable in this camp.

Simon

Thanks Mel, perhaps my 'title' should be Aimless Member rather Full.


The opposite in fact. The previous avatar was John Fisher who was Admiral of the Fleet when the picture was taken whilst the 'new' avatar is John Jellicoe before he made that rank, I think just a 'normal' full Admiral in the picture.

Actually it's a bit embarressing, I disappeared and then couldn't remember how to rematerialise.

As far as the serps go the results are very similar to what I was seeing in January, with the corporate site out ranking the wedding site for wedding related phrases. It looks like all of the internal pages have dropped from the SERPs, while the home page is doing alright.

One thing for sure, google is not penalising spammy titles at the moment, I suppose I should add IMHO. Here's the title of the site at #1 for one of MY search terms.

<title>***********removed to protect the guilty********Magician and Entertainer, Wedding magician, close up magician, corporate magician, party magician, restaurant magician, Newcastle magician, North Yorkshire magician, Leeds magician, Manchester Magician, Cheshire magician, &quot;table magician&quot;, wedding magic Newcastle, Wedding entertainment, magician, magic, magician wedding, London magician, table-top magician, close magic, close-up magician, close-up magic, cool magician, trendy magician, contemporary magic, contemporary magician, modern magician, modern magic, strolling magician, magician professional magician.</title>.

Probably find that this thread will out rank as well now!

Congrats on hitting the k Darren.

Cheers
Ian

Our main target rankings have dramatically improved today - up around 20 places (now second page in UK). Still trying to work out if this is the algo change or link text kicking in at last. Suspect both and that some minor improvements still to come. Other phrases have also improved.

The allinanchor tool still appears to be valid. Our competitors have top sites which also have very high allinanchor ranks.

All the results I was slightly worrying about yesterday (drops from 1/2 to 3,4,5) have all bounced back today... I hope this means it's over, but I'm never that lucky

No real changes for us either. I have seen a competitor appear from no-where but that happens when they get there SEO sorted. We are dancing around the same places with little fluctuation.

Back link update has happened and our reported back links in G has gone up considerably for all our sites.

Mike.

I seem to be seeing a lot of movement on the data centers tonight. Anyone else notice anything?

I haven't been watching them, but there's definitely some big changes since a few days ago. Jill is up to #2 across them all, and I'm sure she was at #3 a few days ago. I'm back up to the low 30s across them all, which is where I was a couple of months ago, but I suddenly dropped to ~70 all round, and was down there a few days ago.

One of my sites has dropped from top 6 for the past few months, into 40-50

I'm pretty baffled by this, as it's still top 6 for allinanchor, allintitle and allintext.

One of my sites have experienced similar development, but not so drastic drop as your. Mine went from a steady top five to 14-18 place. For pages that don't have so many IBLs I have experienced the opposite.

could that mean that i was right when i said that in this new update google deducts a little the importance of regular IBL's?! if so this is great as i didn't agree to link and have links from any sites to get better ranks

I'd say it's a little too early days to make an assumption like that.

My lingerie site is still in the SB, my Remodeling site is #1. Which it has been since the last update, so no noticeable changes.

Update? Ok..... absolutly no changes here. Maybe that Gorilla Glue I used to keep me in the #1 position is actually working.

http://www.threadwatch.org/node/2685