So, now that the Epass fiasco is somewhat fading away, thanks to the folks at St Kitts, I wanted to see if anyone else is seeing some very weird results in the serps at google?
I watch the serps fairly closely and try to keep up with SEO. Starting September 30th and still going on today, I'm amazed at what I'm seeing.
Search for "Lesbian Sex" and a youtube video is in the top ten of two teenage girls (fully clothed and obviously just some normal girls cutting up at home) dancing and jumping on a bed like it is a trampoline. I'm sure if the girls parents found out that their home video was in the top 10 on google for a term like Lesbian Sex they'd be outraged...they might even try to sue google.
Another thing I'm seeing is a site in the first 10 results and then when you click on the 2nd 10 results that site is there too, not a subdomain, or directory, or even a different page...same everything. Either the results are changing fast or google is having problems.
Youtube videos are prevalent for a lot of adult terms, like one for "blowjobs" about a guy making a joke about blowjobs on an airline. Youtube videos showing up for adult terms is very weird considering youtube doesn't allow porn.
I'm also seeing sites that have not done well in about 4 years having their category pages jumping back up in the serps. Alot of these pages are mostly text.
Lastly, I've noticed a prevalence of sites where the keyword phrase is in the domain name showing up in the top 10, even though those sites are not really about the term searched, don't have alot of backlinks, have bad time on site and bounce rate. An example: blowjobs.com showing up in the top 10 and it's not about blowjobs. Take a look, you'll see what I'm talking about.
Weird.
Anyone else noticing weird stuff that they'd care to share?
Any thoughts as to what is going on with google from some of you SEO folks?
Google Algo Update starting Sept 30, 2010
Moderators: vrocks, drocd, jdoughs
Google Algo Update starting Sept 30, 2010
Icq: 84478801
Re: Google Algo Update starting Sept 30, 2010
I'm seeing much the same.
It's reminiscent of successive Google updates following the Florida update back in 2002 (or it may have been 2003). Florida saw a big change in the SERPs and it was a real bastard for a lot of sites. Updates that followed sometimes seemed to last for no more than a few days. It was almost as though the SERPs were being tested on Google's production platform, rather than before they went live. You'd see sites boosted by forum and trackback spam and the like dominating the first few pages of results; then a few days later the update would be rolled back and the SERPs would be back to pretty much the same as before. IIRC Google claimed the weird changes were due to fine tuning of its algorithm. Whatever the cause, it was a rollercoaster ride for webmasters.
Mayday earlier this year was on a similar scale to Florida. I'm wondering whether we're seeing "fine tuning" on a similar scale now; but I'm not worrying about it too much, just trying to find decent sources of click traffic as well as link trades.
It's reminiscent of successive Google updates following the Florida update back in 2002 (or it may have been 2003). Florida saw a big change in the SERPs and it was a real bastard for a lot of sites. Updates that followed sometimes seemed to last for no more than a few days. It was almost as though the SERPs were being tested on Google's production platform, rather than before they went live. You'd see sites boosted by forum and trackback spam and the like dominating the first few pages of results; then a few days later the update would be rolled back and the SERPs would be back to pretty much the same as before. IIRC Google claimed the weird changes were due to fine tuning of its algorithm. Whatever the cause, it was a rollercoaster ride for webmasters.
Mayday earlier this year was on a similar scale to Florida. I'm wondering whether we're seeing "fine tuning" on a similar scale now; but I'm not worrying about it too much, just trying to find decent sources of click traffic as well as link trades.
Re: Google Algo Update starting Sept 30, 2010
Google's hunger for advertising money is really big these days. Sooner or latter we're gone see only sponsored links, Google Maps, Youtube videos, Google Images among some shitty websites on first page of Google searches. So the users (borred by those irrelevant results) will end up clicking on paid spots.
That's why I don't give a shit on Google. I know they are still BIG when it comes to traffic, but Yahoo and Bing are playing more fair.
That's why I don't give a shit on Google. I know they are still BIG when it comes to traffic, but Yahoo and Bing are playing more fair.