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Official: Google Penguin 1.1 Now Live

Fetched: May 27th, 2012, 7:36am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

For the past few weeks, we have been reporting on speculation in the forums that Google released a Panda refresh. The Penguin 1.1 update is now officially live.

All of those speculative posts were down right wrong, according to Google. But Google's Matt Cutts has tweeted that a Penguin update is now live - the moment many of you have been waiting for.

Minor weather report: We pushed 1st Penguin algo data refresh an hour ago. Affects
Personally, I think all those times we reported on Penguin updates - I think those were live tests of what we see now. I think Google was testing this and some webmasters picked up that their sites either recovered or newly hit. Of course, there are many who were under the false understanding that they were hit by Penguin. But for the most part, I believe these were live tests. I can easily be wrong.
Those updates were on or about May 13th, May 15th and last night on May 24th.
So now we have it - I hope those who were hit by the original Penguin update on April 24th has recovered.
Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.
Co-authors by Barry Schwartz and Ben Pfeiffer

New Google Penguin Update Rumors: Penguin 1.1

Fetched: May 25th, 2012, 11:04pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Tedster, the administrator at WebmasterWorld, started a thread at WebmasterWorld asking if others feel that Google pushed out or is pushing out an update to the Penguin algorithm.

He believes they are due to the increase in discussion in the various forum threads of people claiming recoveries and also new people claiming they were hit. That is the same metric we use to detect and report on possible Google updates - but this time, I am citing Tedster.

We thought we saw Penguin updates before, once around May 13th and then again around May 15th but Google said no, it wasn't Penguin, Panda or anything else.

Is this the real Penguin update? Is this version 1.1 of Penguin?

I do not know - did you recover?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Update Brewing? What Is Going On?

Fetched: May 17th, 2012, 12:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As of yesterday, the WebmasterWorld thread and some other forums starting lighting up again with discussion and SEO chatter around Google's search results starting the shuffle and fluctuate.

These are typically signs of an update happening in Google. Maybe a Panda or Penguin refresh? Maybe a new Google bug? Maybe a new penalty or an old one being run again? Maybe Google is testing an algorithm or update? Or maybe it is something completely different or people are on crack?

I do not know but earlier this week, when I saw similar discussion around this, I asked Google if there was a Penguin refresh and they said no. It wasn't Penguin, Panda or anything else.

So do I go back to Google and bother asking about yesterday's increase in SEO chatter?

Did you notice ranking and traffic changes between Monday and today?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: I asked Google about this also and they said there was no Panda or Penguin update.

Image credit to ShutterStock for brewing pot - I added Google logo

Google Penguin 1.1 Update Underway? Google Says No.

Fetched: May 15th, 2012, 2:41am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There are some reports of major shuffling going on in the Google search results as of yesterday. I believe from the reports that it may be a Penguin update - but I do not have confirmation from Google on this yet.

Update: A Google spokesperson told me there was no Penguin refresh or update yet. Google said it was not a Panda refresh either and there is no update as far as they are concerned. Interesting... continuing story below...

There are Webmaster World threads and if you scan the Google Webmaster Help forums you will see tons of threads about ranking changes in the past 24 hours or so.

One of the WebmasterWorld threads has one guy claiming he recovered from being hit by Penguin. He said yesterday, "I had around 30 sites hit by Penguin on the 24/4, yesterday the first one resurfaced back to number 2 for it's keywords which is encouraging."

He even explained what he did to "recover":

What did I do - the site was just 15 pages, the inner pages were all thin content boiler plate stuff, so I deleted them all to see what would happen and left the home page which is 500 words of original content.
Links - did i touch incoming links, no I am going to try anchor text dilution on some other sites where I suspect this problem but did not create any more links on the recovered site.

Now, you have to be careful with this recovery reports because who knows if the site was truly hit by Penguin or a weird penalty. They did say his traffic dropped on the 24th which is a good sign of it being Penguin.

But there is a huge increase in reports of traffic and ranking drops yesterday on the discussion forums. The question is, is this related to Mother's Day or an algorithm change?

I will email Google for a statement on this.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and Google Webmaster Help.

Update: A Google spokesperson told me there was no Penguin refresh or update yet. Google said it was not a Panda refresh either and there is no update as far as they are concerned. Interesting...

Image credit to ShutterStock for shuffling penguin

Google Announced 50+ Search Updates, Which Are Penguin Related?

Fetched: May 10th, 2012, 2:40pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

In Google fashion, late on Friday, Google released their now monthly update on the changes they made to Google search over the past month. It is really great that Google does this and this time they shared 53 changes in April. Here is last months update.

Below I grouped and listed out the more important changes, at least the ones I find to me most important.

But let's try to see which items in this list are Penguin related. Can we even figure that out?

Penguin Related?

Anchors bug fix
Keyword stuffing classifier improvement
More authoritative results
Improvement in a freshness signal
No freshness boost for low-quality content
Improvements to how search terms are scored in ranking

If I had to guess, these and maybe more, are all related to the Penguin update.

Here are some more that I find important but wouldn't specifically related to Penguin, Panda or others:

Ranking Changes:

Improvement in a freshness signal. [launch codename "citron", project codename "Freshness"] This change is a minor improvement to one of the freshness signals which helps to better identify fresh documents.
No freshness boost for low-quality content. [launch codename "NoRot", project codename "Freshness"] We have modified a classifier we use to promote fresh content to exclude fresh content identified as particularly low-quality.
Smoother ranking changes for fresh results. [launch codename "sep", project codename "Freshness"] We want to help you find the freshest results, particularly for searches with important new web content, such as breaking news topics. We try to promote content that appears to be fresh. This change applies a more granular classifier, leading to more nuanced changes in ranking based on freshness.
Improvements to how search terms are scored in ranking. [launch codename "Bi02sw41"] One of the most fundamental signals used in search is whether and how your search terms appear on the pages you're searching. This change improves the way those terms are scored.
Backend improvements in serving. [launch codename "Hedges", project codename "Benson"] We've rolled out some improvements to our serving systems making them less computationally expensive and massively simplifying code.
Keyword stuffing classifier improvement. [project codename "Spam"] We have classifiers designed to detect when a website is keyword stuffing. This change made the keyword stuffing classifier better.
More authoritative results. We've tweaked a signal we use to surface more authoritative content.

Link Analysis Changes:

Anchors bug fix. [launch codename "Organochloride", project codename "Anchors"] This change fixed a bug related to our handling of anchors.

Index Updates:

Increase base index size by 15%. [project codename "Indexing"] The base search index is our main index for serving search results and every query that comes into Google is matched against this index. This change increases the number of documents served by that index by 15%. *Note: We're constantly tuning the size of our different indexes and changes may not always appear in these blog posts.
New index tier. [launch codename "cantina", project codename "Indexing"] We keep our index in "tiers" where different documents are indexed at different rates depending on how relevant they are likely to be to users. This month we introduced an additional indexing tier to support continued comprehensiveness in search results.

Search Listings:

More domain diversity. [launch codename "Horde", project codename "Domain Crowding"] Sometimes search returns too many results from the same domain. This change helps surface content from a more diverse set of domains.
Categorize paginated documents. [launch codename "Xirtam3", project codename "CategorizePaginatedDocuments"] Sometimes, search results can be dominated by documents from a paginated series. This change helps surface more diverse results in such cases.
Country identification for webpages. [launch codename "sudoku"] Location is an important signal we use to surface content more relevant to a particular country. For a while we've had systems designed to detect when a website, subdomain, or directory is relevant to a set of countries. This change extends the granularity of those systems to the page level for sites that host user generated content, meaning that some pages on a particular site can be considered relevant to France, while others might be considered relevant to Spain.
Disable salience in snippets. [launch codename "DSS", project codename "Snippets"] This change updates our system for generating snippets to keep it consistent with other infrastructure improvements. It also simplifies and increases consistency in the snippet generation process.
More text from the beginning of the page in snippets. [launch codename "solar", project codename "Snippets"] This change makes it more likely we'll show text from the beginning of a page in snippets when that text is particularly relevant.
Tweak to trigger behavior for Instant Previews. This change narrows the trigger area for Instant Previews so that you won't see a preview until you hover and pause over the icon to the right of each search result. In the past the feature would trigger if you moused into a larger button area.
Better query interpretation. This launch helps us better interpret the likely intention of your search query as suggested by your last few searches.
News universal results serving improvements. [launch codename "inhale"] This change streamlines the serving of news results on Google by shifting to a more unified system architecture.
More efficient generation of alternative titles. [launch codename "HalfMarathon"] We use a variety of signals to generate titles in search results. This change makes the process more efficient, saving tremendous CPU resources without degrading quality.
More concise and/or informative titles. [launch codename "kebmo"] We look at a number of factors when deciding what to show for the title of a search result. This change means you'll find more informative titles and/or more concise titles with the same information.
"Sub-sitelinks" in expanded sitelinks. [launch codename "thanksgiving"] This improvement digs deeper into megasitelinks by showing sub-sitelinks instead of the normal snippet.
Better ranking of expanded sitelinks. [project codename "Megasitelinks"] This change improves the ranking of megasitelinks by providing a minimum score for the sitelink based on a score for the same URL used in general ranking.
Sitelinks data refresh. [launch codename "Saralee-76"] Sitelinks (the links that appear beneath some search results and link deeper into the site) are generated in part by an offline process that analyzes site structure and other data to determine the most relevant links to show users. We've recently updated the data through our offline process. These updates happen frequently (on the order of weeks).
Less snippet duplication in expanded sitelinks. [project codename "Megasitelinks"] We've adopted a new technique to reduce duplication in the snippets of expanded sitelinks.

Local Changes:

More local sites from organizations. [project codename "ImpOrgMap2"] This change makes it more likely you'll find an organization website from your country (e.g. mexico.cnn.com for Mexico rather than cnn.com).
Improvements to local navigational searches. [launch codename "onebar-l"] For searches that include location terms, e.g. [dunston mint seattle] or [Vaso Azzurro Restaurant 94043], we are more likely to rank the local navigational homepages in the top position, even in cases where the navigational page does not mention the location.
More comprehensive predictions for local queries. [project codename "Autocomplete"] This change improves the comprehensiveness of autocomplete predictions by expanding coverage for long-tail U.S. local search queries such as addresses or small businesses.

Images & Videos:

Improvements to SafeSearch for videos and images. [project codename "SafeSearch"] We've made improvements to our SafeSearch signals in videos and images mode, making it less likely you'll see adult content when you aren't looking for it.
Improved SafeSearch models. [launch codename "Squeezie", project codename "SafeSearch"] This change improves our classifier used to categorize pages for SafeSearch in 40+ languages.

Forum discussion at Google+, HighRankings Forum, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google PageRank Update: May 2012

Fetched: May 4th, 2012, 3:14pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Hold on to your seats - there is a Google PageRank Toolbar update happening right now!

Twitter is going wild about it and we have some threads at DigitalPoint Forums on the topic - of course.

The last PageRank Toolbar update we had was about 3 months ago in February. Before that was three months before February in November. See a pattern here?

In any event, ranking changes have no direct correlation to a new toolbar PageRank update. Google's PageRank numbers are constantly being updated internally and Google gives us a sampling of it from one point in time every few months or so, just to keep their *PR* wheels moving.

That being said, PageRank is a pride for many web sites and I do hope your PageRank increased so you can wear that badge with honor.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

You Missed The Google Panda 3.6 Update

Fetched: May 4th, 2012, 3:14pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A week ago tonight, Google pushed out a small, almost unnoticeable Panda refresh. Most SEOs didn't notice but we did notice something and reported the flux in our May 2012 Google report.

Yesterday, I received confirmation from Google on the update telling me this was a very minor Google Panda refresh. Google said:

We're continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users. This most recent update is one of the over 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year.

That is a lot for a couple weeks. We had negative SEO debates, a parked domain bug, Panda 3.5 refresh and Penguin slap us all in a very short time span and then 8 days after the Panda 3.5, we had a Panda 3.6 refresh.

Why so soon? Why only 8 days between 3.5 and 3.6 when we typically see 6 weeks or more between Panda refreshes? Google has not told me why. Maybe there was an issue? Maybe Google often does these minor updates and no one really notices or asks Google? Who knows but there was a Panda refresh about a week ago on April 27th and I wanted to document it.

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.6 on April 27th
Panda 3.5 on April 19th
Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at Google+ and WebmasterWorld.

Feeling For Those Hurt By Google's Penguin Update

Fetched: May 1st, 2012, 8:50am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

With every Google update there are winners and losers but what you often don't see is the serious impact the losers take. Google wants the best search results, searchers are most often happy before and after these updates but webmasters are the ones that feel the real sting when an update impacts them negatively.

Reading the forums, and the forums are literally on fire with new posts, there are many many webmasters impacted by Google Penguin update. Although it isn't always easy to gauge how many are impacted by forum post volume, I would venture there are not as many as Panda complaints but still a huge number of complaints.

I've spoken to webmasters who are planning on immediately firing staff and cutting costs. Then they will work up a plan on rebuild, figure out what needs to be done and hopefully staff up again if they can get out of the Penguin update. But the immediate affect is lost income, lost sales, lost jobs and who knows what can lead from there.

Of course, Google can't be concerned about that - they have no choice but to focus on quality. If some sites truly should not have been hit and have, that is part of collateral damage and Google is willing to live with some. Some were meant to be hit, despite what the site owners feel. Of course, there is a feedback form for Penguin complaints.

I can't share all the stories I've been told over phone or email. Nor do I have time to share all the forum posts. But here is one in the Google Webmaster Help forums that says he won't be able to pay his daughters tuition, pay his car payment, pay his mortgage, might lose his home, not be able to feed his family and so on. It is heart breaking.

I am now scrambling to figure out how I am going to: pay my daughters tuition pay my car payment pay my health insurance pay my car insurance pay rent and all the utilities that go along with renting a house not to mention putting food on the table.
I followed your good webmasters guidelines and done nothing spammy at all about my businesses and websites and I get shut down and put out like that.
SHAME ON YOU GOOGLE! SHAME ON YOU MATT CUTTS!
As if it weren't hard enough to find a regular type job, even with my education and background, now this.
All this and in a time of bad economy, how could you do this to YOUR America? Instead of trying to help build the economy your making it worse.

Very sad and my heart goes out to all those who should not have been hit by Penguin and was.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock for Penguin

Google's Over Optimization Update Named Penguin

Fetched: April 28th, 2012, 12:57pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

The Google update that Matt Cutts first called the over optimization filter and then called webspam algorithm was actually called the Penguin Update internally at Google.

The folks at Search Engine Land were about to name it the Titanic and then Google got back to us telling us the internal code named was Penguin - or maybe Google just didn't want us to name it the Titanic and made up Penguin?

I am not sure if Penguin is named after anyone, like the Panda update but Pandas and Penguins do look somewhat similar.

I guess this name works for me - although I don't think it makes much of a difference for those hit by this algorithm.

Forum discussion at Google+ and Google Webmaster Help.

Google Mocks Me For Missing Panda 3.5

Fetched: April 27th, 2012, 2:29pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Between the hype around the over optimization rumors, a bug delisting sites in Google and the true roll out of the webspam algorithm - over optimization - and having a baby, with a stomach bug and getting fever a few days later (I am currently home sick which is rare for me) - I missed a Panda update!

I apologize and Matt Cutts made sure everyone knew I missed it. He tweeted there was a Panda refresh on April 19, 2012, this was version 3.5:

@dannysullivan yup, believe a Panda data refresh on 4/19. I don't think @rustybrick asked us about it; we sometimes wait for him to ask. :)
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) April 26, 2012

It is all in good humor, it shows that I normally do catch these things and when I miss something, Google takes notice. But why didn't Google tell me this when I kept reporting fluctuations, which I clearly said could be a bug, the over optimization or even a Panda refresh, yes I did say that.

So for documentation purposes, there was a small Panda refresh, version 3.5 on April 19th, all during the pushing out of this over optimization and the huge parked domain bug.

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.5 on April 19th
Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Now I will go back to sleep.

Forum discussion at Twitter, Google+ and WebmasterWorld.

It's Live: Google Over Optimization Algorithm (3% Of Searches Affected)

Fetched: April 27th, 2012, 2:29pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As expected the over optimization algorithm Google's Matt Cutts pre-announced a few weeks ago is now live according to the Google Search Blog.

Well, Google said it is rolling out now, but trust me, based on the volume of posts in the forums and complaints, it is indeed being rolled out and seen by webmasters.

Google is calling the update the "webspam algorithm update" according to Danny Sullivan Google told Danny:

I think 'over-optimization' wasn't the best description, because it blurred the distinction between white hat SEO and webspam. This change is targeted at webspam, not SEO, and we tried to make that fact more clear in the blog post.

Either way, Cutts explains somewhat of what this algorithm update targets. It seems to go after content spam, spun articles and keyword stuffing. Here are screen shot examples given by Cutts:

Of course, content out there just for link spam:

Google said it might not be able to see which types of sites would be affected by it by just glancing at the site. Google said to detect these sites it would require "deep analysis or expertise."

3% Of Queries Affected

While Panda impacted about 12% of search queries, this impacts about 3%. Cutts wrote:

For context, the initial Panda change affected about 12% of queries to a significant degree; this algorithm affects about 3.1% of queries in English to a degree that a regular user might notice. The change affects roughly 3% of queries in languages such as German, Chinese, and Arabic, but the impact is higher in more heavily-spammed languages. For example, 5% of Polish queries change to a degree that a regular user might notice.

There are tons of complaints in the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread and Google Webmaster Help forums of course.

Forum discussion at Google+, WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, Cre8asite Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

Update: This is now named the Penguin Update.

Significant Google Changes: Is It The Over Optimization Filter?

Fetched: April 25th, 2012, 6:37am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

I am seeing a significant uptick in complaints in the forums about downgrades and delistings of rankings in the past 12 hours or so. Most of them coming early this morning in the past hour or so and more and more reports coming in via the Google Webmaster Help forums.

I've spotted several threads, here are just a handful of them, one,two, three, four, five, six and many more.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has an increase in activity from webmasters noticing fluctuations in Google. A senior member said, "having the biggest traffic morning in months. Since the smaller data set seems to be good for me, I wonder what that will bring....good or bad?" This is followed by a bunch of other complaints about increases and decreases in rankings.

This may be a Panda update, it may be a penalty, it may be a bug like last time or it may be the over optimization filter rolling out. I do not know but there is something going on.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Later today, Google has announced this update on the Google Search Blog.

Updated: Google Update April 2012? Over SEO Penalty?

Fetched: April 19th, 2012, 9:24am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

In the past 20 hours or so, I have seen a huge uptick in the number of complaints in the Google Webmaster Help forums with people complaining that their sites no longer rank in Google.

Update: This is not the "over optimization" penalty as we thought. Matt Cutts posted on Google+ it is related to a "classifier for parked domains" which went haywire. Google fixed the issue, Matt said:

I saw a recent post where several sites were asking about their search rankings. The short explanation is that it turns out that our classifier for parked domains was reading from a couple files which mistakenly were empty. As a result, we classified some sites as parked when they weren't.
I apologize for this; it looks like the issue is fixed now, and we'll look into how to prevent this from happening again.

So I guess we are still on a holding pattern for the over optimization penalty.

Here is the rest of the post as it was...

I captured 11 different complaint threads before stopping, I suspect there are about 25 or more complaint threads and many many more webmasters suffering from a possible Google update. Here are some of those 11 threads; #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11 and many more.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has taken notice of this as well. One said:

Our niche has been heavy shaked up. Most of the upcoming ecom sites are low quality - > I think it has somthing to do with the "overoptimzed" and "level" efforts, cause this shops only have little ranges and will not hit the SEO overoptimized barrier.

Google has not officially announced something yet, but this can very well likely be the overly SEO penalty Matt Cutts pre-announced. Keep in mind, we had a Panda update a few weeks ago, Panda 3.4.

Did you notice major changes in the search results?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Update April 2012? Over SEO Penalty?

Fetched: April 18th, 2012, 7:17am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

In the past 20 hours or so, I have seen a huge uptick in the number of complaints in the Google Webmaster Help forums with people complaining that their sites no longer rank in Google.

I captured 11 different complaint threads before stopping, I suspect there are about 25 or more complaint threads and many many more webmasters suffering from a possible Google update. Here are some of those 11 threads; #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11 and many more.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has taken notice of this as well. One said:

Our niche has been heavy shaked up. Most of the upcoming ecom sites are low quality - > I think it has somthing to do with the "overoptimzed" and "level" efforts, cause this shops only have little ranges and will not hit the SEO overoptimized barrier.

Google has not officially announced something yet, but this can very well likely be the overly SEO penalty Matt Cutts pre-announced. Keep in mind, we had a Panda update a few weeks ago, Panda 3.4.

Did you notice major changes in the search results?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Easter April 2012 Search Update?

Fetched: April 11th, 2012, 12:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has dozens of posts from SEOs and webmasters claiming Google has made a significant update to the search results over the Easter weekend.

Webmasters noticed changes late Friday and throughout the Easter weekend, some as significant as over 40% changes in referrals from Google.

What can cause such huge changes?

(1) Less people online searching over Easter (and Passover) holidays this weekend?

(2) Individuals sites hit by penalties?

(3) Google released a major search update that might have impacted a nice number of sites. Maybe the over optimization filter was released over the weekend and Google didn't tell anyone? Or maybe not?

Have you noticed major traffic changes over this weekend? If so, what do you think it is?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

50 Google Search Quality Updates

Fetched: April 6th, 2012, 4:21am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Last night, Google announced a 50 changes they made to search over the past month or so. Prior to this, 40 changes in February, then 17 changes in January of this year.

Matt McGee summarized the most important changes, as he sees fit, which include anchor text changes, image search changes, indexing symbols, navigation query changes and more.

One thing that I think really stands out is this one:

Improvements to processing for detection of site quality. [launch codename "Curlup"] Weâve made some improvements to a longstanding system we have to detect site quality. This improvement allows us to get greater confidence in our classifications.

Here is the full list for the most recent updates:

Autocomplete with math symbols.
Improvements to handling of symbols for indexing.
Better scoring of news groupings.
Sitelinks data refresh.
Improvements to autocomplete backends, coverage.
Better handling of password changes.
Better indexing of profile pages.
UI refresh for News Universal.
Improvements to results for navigational queries.
High-quality sites algorithm data update and freshness improvements.
Live results for UEFA Champions League and KHL.
Tennis search feature.
More relevant image search results.
Fresher image predictions in all languages.
SafeSearch algorithm tuning.
Tweaks to handling of anchor text.
Simplification to Images Universal codebase.
Better application ranking and UI on mobile.
Improvements to freshness in Video Universal.
Fewer undesired synonyms.
Better handling of queries with both navigational and local intent.
Improvements to freshness.
Improvements to processing for detection of site quality.
Better interpretation and use of anchor text.
Better local results and sources in Google News.
Deprecating signal related to ranking in a news cluster.
Fewer "sibling" synonyms.
Better synonym accuracy and performance.
Retrieval system tuning.
Less aggressive synonyms.
Update to systems relying on geographic data.
Improvements to name detection.
Updates to personalization signals.
Improvements to Image Search relevance.
Remove deprecated signal from site relevance signals.
More precise detection of old pages.
Tweaks to language detection in autocomplete.
Improvements in date detection for blog/forum pages.
More predictions in autocomplete by live rewriting of query prefixes.
Expanded sitelinks on mobile.
More accurate short answers.
Migration of video advanced search backends.
+1 button in search for more countries and domains.
Local result UI refresh on tablet.

I count 44 updates here...

There are several places this is being discussed such as at Google on Google+, Matt Cutts on Google+, HackerNews and WebmasterWorld.

Lots of things here, some of them we covered previous in our April Google Webmaster report.

Forum discussion at Google on Google+, Matt Cutts on Google+, HackerNews and WebmasterWorld.

Google Panda 3.4 Rollout

Fetched: March 26th, 2012, 5:19pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google rolled out a Panda update late on Friday. Google announced the update on twitter saying:

Panda refresh rolling out now. Only ~1.6% of queries noticeably affected.

Looking into the wording on this tweet, we can learn a few things:

(1) 1.6% of the search queries were effected, which is small but large for those hit.

(2) This is specifically a "refresh" and thus it seems like no new signals or algorithm changes were made to this Panda update. In short, they simply reran the algorithm on their index.

Panda refresh rolling out now. Only ~1.6% of queries noticeably affected. Background on Panda: goo.gl/mTKCH
â" A Googler (@google) March 23, 2012

There was speculation that this update was being rolled out earlier but I am not sure if it was specific Panda related or not.

The previous Panda update was 3.3 taking place on February 26th or so. Here is the timeline:

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.4 on March 23rd
Panda 3.3 on about February 26th
Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

There is a lot of discussion around this announcement.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

Cutts: Google To Target Overly SEO'ed Sites Within Weeks

Fetched: March 16th, 2012, 11:22pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced as a side note during his panel at SXSW that Google is releasing an algorithm update specifically to target sites over doing their SEO.

Matt Cutts said this is Google's attempt to "level the playing field" between webmasters that build quality content versus webmasters who are just really aggressive SEOs.

I just heard this by listening to the audio recording from the panel he was on at SXSW a week or so ago.

He said, and I quote:

What about the people optimizing really hard and doing a lot of SEO. We don't normally pre-announce changes but there is something we are working in the last few months and hope to release it in the next months or few weeks. We are trying to level the playing field a bit. All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over optimization or overly SEO - versus those making great content and great site. We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect. We have several engineers on my team working on this right now.

I am amazed I didn't hear this earlier but I guess people missed it?

We did see a lot of complaints of ranking changes this week. But Google denied any updates of any sort. I doubt this is directly related or maybe Google is testing it?

Brace yourself SEOs - here comes something big!

Here is the audio again, it is about 1/3rd way in:

Forum discussion continued at Google+.

Image credit to ShutterStock for SEO hand.

Updated: New Panda Refresh? Google Update Happening...

Fetched: March 16th, 2012, 11:22pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There is a lot of chatter in the forums including WebmasterWorld and random Google Webmaster Help threads starting yesterday and this morning about significant changes to the Google search results.

I am seeing a lot of individual complaints that sites that showed up yesterday no longer show up. The folks at WebmasterWorld are claiming that the search results landscape has changed for the SERPs they track.

One webmaster said:

Seeing a fairly big change in the SERPS in the last 24 hours, however even though positions are down for us traffic is up 30%.

Have you seen changes? I am not sure if this would be considered a Panda refresh or just a general update or nothing at all. I am going to ping Google to see if they can give me more information.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and random Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Google told me there is no Panda update happening right now. Nor is there a data refresh. I am not sure why so many people are seeing changes to the search results, when Google told me it is not Panda, nor is it anything else on their end.

Confirmed: Google Panda 3.3

Fetched: February 28th, 2012, 2:31pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google is currently running a Panda update, I believe it started sometime late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

A WebmasterWorld thread spotted it early and had some members talking about it early yesterday morning. Google later yesterday posted a note about a Panda update in their 20 search quality changes post. Google said:

This launch refreshes data in the Panda system, making it more accurate and more sensitive to recent changes on the web.

A senior member said yesterday:

Seeing a huge change yesterday (Sunday 26th) - organic referrals up across the board. Almost 300% increase compared to previous Sunday. Still shooting 50% less than pre-Panda (April 2011), but I removed a lot of content so would expect it to be.

Other webmasters at the forums also took notice but it seems like it is still rolling out. Google said, "a handful [of these updates] are actually rolling out today and tomorrow."

This update is just a "data refresh," like the Panda 3.2 update on January 15th. A data refresh means there were no changes to the Panda algorithm, it means they only ran the algorithm again. So some sites were hit hard and some sites were freed and seeing a boost in traffic. Of course, a data refresh can be serious for sites, if they are on either side of the coin.

Like our one year Panda anniversary poll said, 87% are still suffering from Panda. So I hope many of you benefited from it.

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.2 on about January 15th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums & Google Webmaster Help.

A Google Search Results Shuffle Happening

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread where webmasters keep track of every little move at Google is noticing some significant shifts in the Google search results over the past few days.

There are webmasters claiming huge traffic swings, up and down 40% at different times of the day and on different days.

The reports started coming in on February 6th or so and more and more webmasters are complaining of those shifts as of yesterday.

A couple of people even said their rankings are the same but their traffic dropped 40%.

Here are some quotes:

I'm ranking the same and my traffic was cut by 35-40%

I lost about 30% of my traffic over the weekend.

According to GA two of our sites are 35% UP yet sales are near ZERO!

Are you noticing major changes in the Google search results over the past few days?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for shuffle dancer image.

Google PageRank Update: February 2012

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There are some early reports that a Google PageRank update is underway.

We have some threads at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and some other forums of people reporting a PageRank update. I haven't checked my sites, but honestly, I wouldn't know if it went up or down.

The previous PageRank update was in November, yea - three months ago. And before that, in August - so Google tries to stick to a 3 month PageRank update cycle, when they remember to push out the update.

As I said then, "Google keeps telling them not to worry about PageRank but SEOs don't hear or listen. They think SEO is all about PageRank, when you and I know it has very little to do with PageRank. Especially Toolbar PageRank which is a fictional character used by Google's marketing department."

Anyway, I hope your PageRank in the Toolbar went up or remained the same. Although it has no immediate impact on rankings and is way out of date, many webmasters and SEOs take pride in their Toolbar PageRank.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

February 17: Latest Google Search Quality Updates

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As I said yesterday in our Panda pipelines post, Google announced 17 search quality changes they made in the month of January.

Here is the full list that they announced:

Fresher results. [launch codename ânftcâ] We made several adjustments to the freshness algorithm that we released in November. These are minor updates to make sure we continue to give you the freshest, most relevant results.
Faster autocomplete. [launch codename âSnappy Suggestâ, project codename âSuggestâ] We made improvements to our autocomplete system to deliver your predicted queries much faster.
Autocomplete spelling corrections. [launch codename âTrivialâ, project codename âSuggestâ] This is an improvement to the spelling corrections used in autocomplete, making those corrections more consistent with the spelling corrections used in search. This launch targets corrections where the spelling change is very small.
Better spelling full-page replacement. [launch codenames âOooniâ, âsgapâ, project codename âFull-Page Replacementâ] When weâre confident in a spelling correction we automatically show results for the corrected query and let you know weâre âShowing results for [cheetah]â (rather than, say, âcheettahâ). We made a couple of changes to improve the accuracy of this feature.
Better spelling corrections for rare queries. This change improves one of the models that we use to make spelling corrections. The result is more accurate spell corrections for a number of rare queries.
Improve detection of recurrent event pages. [launch codename ânesedaâ] We made several improvements to how we determine the date of a document. As a result, youâll see fresher, more timely results, particularly for pages discussing recurring events.
High-quality sites algorithm improvements. [launch codenames âPPtlâ and âStitchâ, project codename âPandaâ] In 2011, we launched the Panda algorithm change, targeted at finding more high-quality sites. We improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems, making it more integrated into our pipelines. We also released a minor update to refresh the data for Panda.
Cross-language refinements. [launch codename Xiangfan] Previously, we only generated related searches based on the display language. With this change, we also attempt to auto-detect the language of the original query to generate related search queries. Now, a user typing a query in French might see French query refinements, even if her language is set to English.
English on Google Saudi Arabia. Users in Saudi Arabia can now more easily choose an English interface to search on google.com.sa.
Improved scrolling for Image Search. Previously when you scrolled in Image Search, only the image results would move while the top and side menus were pinned in place. We changed the scrolling behavior to make it consistent with our main search results and the other search modes, where scrolling moves the entire page.
Improved image search quality. [launch codename âendearoâ, project codename âImage Searchâ] This is a small improvement to our image search ranking algorithm. In particular, this change helps images with high-quality landing pages rank higher in our image search results.
More relevant related searches. Sometimes at the bottom of the screen youâll see a section called âSearches related toâ with other queries you may want to try. With this change, weâve updated the model for generating related searches, resulting in more useful query refinements.
Blending of news results. [launch codename âfinal-destinationâ, project codename âUniversal Searchâ] We improved our algorithm that decides which queries should show news results, making it more responsive to realtime trends. We also made an adjustment to how we blend news results in Universal Search. Both of these changes help news articles appear in your search results when they are relevant.
Automatically disable Google Instant based on computer speed. [project codename âPsychic Searchâ] Google Instant has long had the ability to automatically turn itself off if youâre on a slow internet connection. Now Instant can also turn itself off if your computer is slow. If Instant gets automatically disabled, we continue to check your computer speed and will re-enable Instant if your performance improves. Weâve also tweaked search preferences so you can always have Instant on or off, or have it change automatically.

A WebmasterWorld thread is chewing up all of these to learn more. But most of them are not so much about rankings as they are about search results tweaks - which can indirectly impact rankings.

In any event, feel free to discuss.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

February 2012 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: February 3rd, 2012, 1:55am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

In January, we had Google release a major update to their personalized results with Search Plus Your World. We had a new Panda release, Panda 3.2. We had Google release an algorithm that penalizes sites based on ad layout. So it was a busy month.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has discussion mostly about Panda but some recent chatter about three things:

Google stopped sending traffic at 11am on February 1st to some publishers
"Duplicate Keyword Sites" In search results.
Results on page two and forward are not matching the keyword searched on.

The first might be an issue with some sites and Google Analytics, I am digging deeper.

Overall, here are the most important topics we covered on Google SEO in the past 30 days:

For the January 2012 Google SEO report, click here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Confirmed: Google Panda 3.2 Update

Fetched: January 26th, 2012, 1:35pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

It has been over 9 weeks since we had an official Google Panda update. Now I am seeing some chatter in the forums of a possible sign that Google had updated the Panda algorithm and pushed a new one out - this would be version 3.2 or higher.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some uptick in discussion around ranking changes, indexing changes and so on - specifically on Panda suffering web sites. One webmaster said:

Yeah, some movement on one of my pandalized subdomains. Not for sure until the stats settle, but it looks like on the 19th of January Google "accidentally" gave back the traffic they took on February 24th, 2011. An increase in traffic of about 80%!

Others recently responded saying:

40% traffic increase for me today, not sure if it is thanks to hundreds of small changes made on my website or some one big lucky change in algo.

There is always a bunch of Panda rumors floating around, but it seems like there was an uptick recently in that discussion. Of course, this doesn't mean it was a Panda update - but in this case, I am thinking it might be.

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

There was a rumored Panda 3.2 update during the holiday season but Google never confirmed it.

Matt Cutts is in India now, so I am not sure if we will see a confirmation or not from him until much later.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Google sent me a statement confirming there was an update in the past week or so. It was a minor update, with no new ranking signals, but rather just a data refresh of the Panda update. Google added:

We're continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users. This most recent update is one of the over 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year.

Google Panda 3.2 Update Happening Now?

Fetched: January 25th, 2012, 5:13pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

It has been over 9 weeks since we had an official Google Panda update. Now I am seeing some chatter in the forums of a possible sign that Google had updated the Panda algorithm and pushed a new one out - this would be version 3.2 or higher.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some uptick in discussion around ranking changes, indexing changes and so on - specifically on Panda suffering web sites. One webmaster said:

Yeah, some movement on one of my pandalized subdomains. Not for sure until the stats settle, but it looks like on the 19th of January Google "accidentally" gave back the traffic they took on February 24th, 2011. An increase in traffic of about 80%!

Others recently responded saying:

40% traffic increase for me today, not sure if it is thanks to hundreds of small changes made on my website or some one big lucky change in algo.

There is always a bunch of Panda rumors floating around, but it seems like there was an uptick recently in that discussion. Of course, this doesn't mean it was a Panda update - but in this case, I am thinking it might be.

Past Panda Updates:

Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

There was a rumored Panda 3.2 update during the holiday season but Google never confirmed it.

Matt Cutts is in India now, so I am not sure if we will see a confirmation or not from him until much later.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Page Layout Algorithm & Penalty

Fetched: January 20th, 2012, 7:40pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google announced a new algorithm change that looks at your page layout and if the ads above the fold are excessive, your site can be penalized and downgraded in the search results.

This comes with no surprise to me and others, because 10 weeks ago, Matt Cutts announced that this is something Google is working towards.

Google wrote:

We've heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it's difficult to find the actual content, they aren't happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don't have much content "above-the-fold" can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn't have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the siteâs initial screen real estate to ads, thatâs not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

Google released a special tool at browsersize.googlelabs.com to help you visualize if your site may or was impacted by this. Here is how this site looks (click on it for a larger view):

We seem to be okay, but what about Google's own search results. Well, Google won't let you plug in their own URLs into the tool, so it is hard to tell but I doubt they would pass the test.

Danny Sullivan, as well as many others, go through the hypocrisy with this new penalty and how Google is doing the exact opposite. Not only that, they recommend to their AdSense customers to place ads top heavy so users click on them. Here is their ad map:

That being said, the algorithm is out, if you were hit, you would probably know by now. To fix it, remove some of those ads, and wait and wait until Google pushes out an update. It can takes weeks.

If you decide to update your page layout, the page layout algorithm will automatically reflect the changes as we re-crawl and process enough pages from your site to assess the changes. How long that takes will depend on several factors, including the number of pages on your site and how efficiently Googlebot can crawl the content. On a typical website, it can take several weeks for Googlebot to crawl and process enough pages to reflect layout changes on the site.

Who is affected? Google said 1 in every 100 searches are.

If you read the forums, almost every thread talks about how Google is doing one thing and saying the other.

Forum discussion at Google+, HighRankings Forum, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google's 30 Most Recent Search Quality Changes

Fetched: January 7th, 2012, 10:58am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google provided an update with the 30 or so most recent search quality updates.

They also added in the code names, when applicable, used internally at Google for each of these updates. They include words like concepts, leaf, simple, greencr, Megasitelinks, foby, baschi and many many more.

I tried to categorize the updates for you below:

Rankings:

Image Search landing page quality signals. [launch codename âsimpleâ] This is an improvement that analyzes various landing page signals for Image Search. We want to make sure that not only are we showing you the most relevant images, but we are also linking to the highest quality source pages.
Better spam detection in Image Search. [launch codename âleafâ] This change improves our spam detection in Image Search by extending algorithms we already use for our main search results.

Search Results:

More relevant sitelinks. [launch codename âconceptsâ, project codename âMegasitelinksâ] We improved our algorithm for picking sitelinks. The result is more relevant sitelinks; for example, we may show sitelinks specific to your metropolitan region, which you can control with your location setting.
More accurate country-restricted searches. [launch codename âgreencrâ] On domains other than .com, users have the option to see only results from their particular country. This is a new algorithm that uses several signals to better determine where web documents are from, improving the accuracy of this feature.
More rich snippets. We improved our process for detecting sites that qualify for shopping, recipe and review rich snippets. As a result, you should start seeing more sites with rich snippets in search results.
More accurate byline dates. [launch codename âfobyâ] We made a few improvements to how we determine what date to associate with a document. As a result, youâll see more accurate dates annotating search results.
Google Instant enhancements for Japanese. For languages that use non-Latin characters, many users use a special IME (Input Method Editor) to enter queries. This change works with browsers that are IME-aware to better handle Japanese queries in Google Instant.
Related query improvements. [launch codename âlyndsyâ] Sometimes we fetch results for queries that are related to the original query but have fewer words. We made several changes to our algorithms to make them more conservative and less likely to introduce results without query words.
Tweak to +1 button on results page. As part of our continued effort to deliver a beautifully simple user experience across Google products, weâve made a subtle tweak to how the +1 button appears on the results page. Now the +1 button will only appear when you hover over a result or when the result has already been +1âd.
Better spell correction in Vietnamese. [project codename âPho Vietâ] We launched a new Vietnamese spelling model. This will help give more accurate spelling predictions for Vietnamese queries.
Improvements to image size signal. [launch codename âmatterâ] This is an improvement to how we use the size of images as a ranking signal in Image Search. With this change, youâll tend to see images with larger full-size versions.
Improved Hebrew synonyms. [launch codename âSweatNovemberâ, project codename âSynonymsâ] This update refines how we handle Hebrew synonyms across multiple languages. Context matters a lot for translation, so this change prevents us from using translated synonyms that are not actually relevant to the query context.
Encrypted search available on new regional domains. Google now offers encrypted search by default on google.com for signed-in users, but itâs not the default on our other regional domains (eg: google.fr for France). Now users in the UK, Germany and France can opt in to encrypted search by navigating directly to an SSL version of Google Search on their respective regional domains: https://www.google.co.uk, https://www.google.de andhttps://www.google.fr.
Faster mobile browsing. [launch codename âold possumâ, project codename âSkip Redirectâ] Many websites redirect smartphone users to another page that is optimized for smartphone browsers. This change uses the final smartphone destination url in our mobile search results, so you can bypass all the redirects and load the target page faster.

Webmaster:

Soft 404 Detection. Web servers generally return the 404 status code when someone requests a page that doesnât exist. However, some sites are configured to return other status codes, even though the page content might explain that the page was not found. We call these soft 404s (or âcryptoâ 404s) and they can be problematic for search engines because we arenât sure if we should ignore the pages. This change is an improvement to how we detect soft 404s, especially in Russian, German and Spanish. For all you webmasters out there, the best practice is still to always use the correct response code.

Backend:

Better infrastructure for autocomplete. This is an infrastructure change to improve how our autocomplete algorithm handles spelling corrections for query prefixes (the beginning part of a search).
Improved dataset for related queries. We are now using an improved dataset on term relationships to find related queries. We sometimes include results for queries that are related to your original search, and this improvement leads to results from more relevant related queries.
Safer searching. [launch codename âHoenggâ, project codename "SafeSearch"] We updated our SafeSearch tool to provide better filtering for certain queries when strict SafeSearch is enabled.

Answers:

Live results for NFL and college football. [project codename âLive Resultsâ] Weâve added new live results for NFL.com and ESPNâs NCAA Football results. These results now provide the latest scores, schedules and standings for your favorite football teams.
Better lyrics results. [launch codename âbaschiâ, project codename âContraâ] This change improves our result quality for lyrics searches.
Upcoming events at venues. We've improved the recently released places panel for event venues. For major venues, we now show up to three upcoming events on the right of the page. Try it for [staples center los angeles] or [paradise rock club boston].

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums.

Google Panda Update During Holidays? Panda 3.2

Fetched: December 23rd, 2011, 10:21am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There is discussion and chatter at WebmasterWorld around a possible Panda update that started on December 19th.

There is discussion around shifting of the search results and a top SEO at WebmasterWorld said "I wonder whether there has been a "Minor Panda update" since Dec 19, 2011." Many agree with him.

Why an emphasis on "minor"? Google said last week there would be no major Panda updates until the new year.

Search weather report: no major Panda updates until the new year. Context: goo.gl/XqLuN
â" A Googler (@google) December 14, 2011

Like I said, several SEOs at WebmasterWorld strongly believe there was an update on December 19th. If that is the case, I believe we are up to version 3.2 of the Panda updates.

Panda Updates:

Panda 3.2 on December 19th
Panda 3.1 on November 18th
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th
Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th
Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th
Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit to ShutterStock for holiday panda.

Update: Matt Cutts replied to questions on this on Twitter, without confirming or denying an update. He did make sure to repeat that there would be no "large" or "major" Panda updates. Here is the tweet:

@IncrediBILL correct. No large Panda updates on the horizon through the end of the year. cc @rustybrick
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) December 22, 2011

December Google Search Results Update?

Fetched: December 9th, 2011, 11:39am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

I made a mention of this in our December 2011 Google Webmaster report but there is ongoing discussion around this topic.

Some SEOs and Webmasters are noticing shuffles in the Google rankings. We are not sure if they are Panda related or just normal Google flux.

A WebmasterWorld thread and Cre8asite Forums thread has discussion around these "shuffles."

EGOL, a Cre8asite moderator, said:

I watch a limited number of SERPs but the ones that I am watching show a very large amount of flux - compared to what I normally see.
For moderately competitive keywords sites ranking at positions 3 through 10 are jumping up and down the rankings like crazy... and sites that I have never noticed before are flashing in and out of positions 5 through 10.

EGOL rarely talks about Google changes like this, so for him to notice, it might be something.

Some are saying this might be a Panda update but at this point, it is hard to tell.

No word from Google with anything official.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.

December 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: December 5th, 2011, 7:04pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

November was a busy month for Google. From the the Panda 3.1 update on the 18th to them announcing two shifts of algorithm udpates and changing their black bar to ads impacting rankings - we had a ton to discuss.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has SEOs and webmasters tracking every hiccup at Google web search. The thread is discussing possible small tweaks to the Panda algorithm with webmasters noticing changes in rankings and GoogleBot activity in early December. Most of the discussion is around the Panda in the new thread.

In any event, to read last month's Google webmaster report, click here.

Here are the more important Google webmaster related stories we covered this past month:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google: Fresher Images & Blog Results, Better Long Tail & Original Content Indexing

Fetched: December 3rd, 2011, 11:33am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google announced, what seems to now be, a monthly update on improvements and changes made to their search algorithms, indexing and query refinements.

They did this about 15 days ago, announcing ten updates during the month and now they have another ten to share with us.

The key changes include a new ranking signal for determining original content, indexing content deeper to find more long tail content, indexing images faster (which we noticed a week ago) and indexing blog posts faster.

Here are the updates categorized by new signals and classifiers, indexing improvements and general search results improvements:

New Signals & Classifiers:

Original content: We added new signals to help us make better predictions about which of two similar web pages is the original one.
New "parked domain" classifier: This is a new algorithm for automatically detecting parked domains. Parked domains are placeholder sites that are seldom useful and often filled with ads. They typically donât have valuable content for our users, so in most cases we prefer not to show them.
Image result freshness: We made a change to how we determine image freshness for news queries. This will help us find the freshest images more often.

Indexing Improvements:

More comprehensive indexing: This change makes more long-tail documents available in our index, so they are more likely to rank for relevant queries.
Fresher and more complete blog search results: We made a change to our blog search index to get coverage that is both fresher and more comprehensive.

Search Results Improvements:

Related query results refinements: Sometimes we fetch results for queries that are similar to the actual search you type. This change makes it less likely that these results will rank highly if the original query had a rare word that was dropped in the alternate query. For example, if you are searching for [rare red widgets], you might not be as interested in a page that only mentions "red widgets."
Top result selection code rewrite: This code handles extra processing on the top set of results. For example, it ensures that we donât show too many results from one site ("host crowding"). We rewrote the code to make it easier to understand, simpler to maintain and more flexible for future extensions.
More autocomplete predictions: With autocomplete, we try to strike a balance between coming up with flexible predictions and remaining true to your intentions. This change makes our prediction algorithm a little more flexible for certain queries, without losing your original intention.
Live results for Major League Soccer and the Canadian Football League: This change displays the latest scores & schedules from these leagues along with quick access to game recaps and box scores.
Layout on tablets: We made some minor color and layout changes to improve usability on tablet devices.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Panda 3.1 Update : 11/18

Fetched: November 22nd, 2011, 6:22am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Friday afternoon, sometime after 4pm I believe, Google tweeted that they pushed out a "minor" Panda update effecting less than one-percent of all searches.

The tweet reads:

Tiny weather report: Minor Panda algorithm data refresh (affects
The last time Google said a Panda update was minor, it turned out to be pretty significant.
That being said, we should have named it 3.0 - in fact, I spoke to someone at Google who felt the same. So I am going to name this one 3.1, although it does make it easier to reference these updates by dates.
Panda Updates:
Panda 2.5.3 on October 19/20th

Panda 2.5.2 on October 13th

Panda 2.5.1 on October 9th

Panda 2.5 on September 28th

Panda 2.4 in August

Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.

Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.

Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.

Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.

Panda 1.0 on February 24th
For more on Panda, see our Google Panda category.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

November 2011 Google PageRank Update

Fetched: November 9th, 2011, 7:02am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

It has been about three months since our last Google Toolbar PageRank update - and Google has pushed out a new one yesterday.

There are several forums reporting the update, including WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Cre8asite Forums.

Typically with Toolbar PageRank updates, they cause a lot of discussion but that is all.

I never get all that excited for the update - but it is required posting here, tradition almost.

I hope you have more green Google pixels!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and Cre8asite Forums.

November 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: November 8th, 2011, 3:16am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Here is the monthly Google webmaster report, the November 2011 edition. For last month's see the October 2011 Google report.

As always, this report is based on the coverage we posted here over the past month and the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread. First, let's start with the new discussion topics in the thread.

Two different indexes being seen popping in and out of the search results
Suspecting a new index to be released shortly
High spidering activity by GoogleBot
East coast snow storms and power outages had major impact on traffic and sales

The theme for Google in October included the new algorithm that up-plays freshness, the few Panda tweaks over the month, the new default SSL search and how it impacts referrer data and some of the other minor changes Google made over the month.

Below is a listing of the more important Google related topics we covered this month:

I hope this saves you time in recapping on the past month in terms of Google stuff as it related to webmasters and SEO.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Updates Search Algorithm: Impact More Like 17.5% Of Searches

Fetched: November 5th, 2011, 7:46am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google announced they have made a significant change to their search algorithm to help improve relevancy of the search results by showing fresher results more often.

When I reported this at Search Engine Land, I said this changed the search results by about 35% from what it was before. While the Panda update had an impact of 12%, Google said this impacted about 35% of searches.

Danny spoke to Google later and they said overall, 35% of searches will be impacted by this algorithm but already 17.5% were impacted prior. They doubled it, so the change from yesterday to today is more like a 17.5% change, which is still very significant.

Here is what has changed:

Recent events or hot topics. For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately. Now when you search for current events like [occupy oakland protest], or for the latest news about the [nba lockout], youâll see more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old.
Regularly recurring events. Some events take place on a regularly recurring basis, such as annual conferences like [ICALP] or an event like the [presidential election]. Without specifying with your keywords, it's implied that you expect to see the most recent event, and not one from 50 years ago. There are also things that recur more frequently, so now when you're searching for the latest [NFL scores], [dancing with the stars] results or [exxon earnings], you'll see the latest information.
Frequent updates. There are also searches for information that changes often, but isnât really a hot topic or a recurring event. For example, if you're researching the [best slr cameras], or youâre in the market for a new car and want [subaru impreza reviews], you probably want the most up to date information.

Google said this with the caffeine index makes for a much more relevant set of search results.

There is a lot of discussion on this, webmasters and SEOs are concerned. Right now, it is too early to tell, but I'll be tracking the forums and let you know what I find.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums and HackerNews.

Minor Google Panda Update On 20th: Panda 2.5.3

Fetched: October 25th, 2011, 12:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has some SEOs suggesting there was another minor update to the Panda update on the 19th or 20th of October.

The first post was on October 20th at 2:30pm EDT, where the webmaster said:

At noon Pacific time I have already received more traffic from Google than I did all day on any given day last week. It would seem my previous Panda slap has been reversed although I hesitate to say that for sure since the day is only half over.

Several other SEOs and Webmasters confirmed the update but no word from Googlers on this update.

We do know to expect several minor tweaks to Panda throughout the next few weeks, so this would not surprise me.

September 28th we had Panda 2.5, then a minor update on October 9th Panda 2.5.1 and then on October 13th, Panda 2.5.2. Of course, not everyone likes when you label these by numbers, but it helps me keep track of these reports.

Did you see an update?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Makes Minor Panda Update October 13th: Panda 2.5.2

Fetched: October 18th, 2011, 5:08am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Google has done at least two minor updates to the Panda 2.5 update that I know of.

The first was around October 9th or so and now one, confirmed by Google's Matt Cutts, the night of October 13th.

Matt Cutts tweeted a confirmation:

There has been a lot of chatter and discussion in the SEO community over the weekend on this minor Panda update. We have threads at WebmasterWorld, Digital Point Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

Here are some posts from the forums on this update:

My pandalized site got hit even worse with the minor update since the changes I made after the last one have not had time to fully filter through google results yet.

I noticed that my competitor had a slight recovery last night, I did not know it was because of this minor update then though.

Same here. was hit on sept27th, recovered fully on october 4th, had a spike of traffic on october 13th and was hit around 11m uk time on the 14th. 80% drop. Thanks google.
This is ridiculous.

Did you get hit or improve since the 13th?

For more on our Panda coverage, see our Google Panda category.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Digital Point Forums and Google Webmaster Help.

Google Panda 2.5 Reversed Or Updated

Fetched: October 13th, 2011, 3:43am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

So the Panda 2.5 update was pushed out by Google on September 28th and then on October 4/5th, Google promised tweaks and some site's hit, confirmed being back and recovered fully.

SearchMetrics reports that 10 of the 30 sites they reported being hit, saw a 80-90% of their visibility improve. But they also said that other sites did not see an improvement.

I spoke with one of those sites (can't disclose, I am sorry) and they said they saw a recovery on October 7th. They even proved it to me, that they fully recovered. So it makes it hard for me to believe the SearchMetrics reports, even if the results are positive or negative.

Yes, Matt Cutts tweeted on October 5th:

So we know we are expecting updates to Panda 2.5. I doubt this is a "roll back" of it, but tweaks. I have not seen mass reports of recoveries, although I have seen reports of recoveries.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

October 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: October 11th, 2011, 5:17pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Are you ready for the October 2011 Google Webmaster report? If not, too bad - here it is. If you missed last months, check out the September report.

The report is based off of the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs track every little Google change and our ongoing coverage of Google webmaster and SEO topics.

The key things in the thread include more discussions around Panda, and we know there was a Panda 2.5 update, typical flux talks, more links being reported in Webmaster Tools, more related searches on Google's search results and more indexed pages for sites as a site command search. That is the bulk of the discussion in the thread.

In terms of topics covered here related to Google webmaster and SEO stuff, here they are:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Toolbar PageRank Works But Not On 3rd Party Tools

Fetched: October 6th, 2011, 4:37pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There are tons of complaints in the forums that the Google PageRank went missing in action and is no longer working.

The issue is not with Toolbar PageRank, but rather how 3rd party tools lookup the PR values. Google did make a change, they changed the lookup URL for the PageRank value.

There are dozens of complaints at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

The issue, as explained well by David Naylor is that they changed the lookup URL.

Old URL:

http://toolbarqueries.google.com/search?client=navclient-auto&features=Rank&ch=8f3b58e04&q=info:[URLHERE]

New URL:

http://toolbarqueries.google.com/tbr?client=navclient-auto&features=Rank&ch=8f3b58e04&q=info:[URLHERE]

So if you really want to check your toolbar PageRank, use Internet Explorer and it should work.

For the rest of us, back to work.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums, WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

Google: More Tweaks Coming To Panda 2.5 Update

Fetched: October 6th, 2011, 5:03am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Middle of last week, Google pushed out an update to Panda, the Panda 2.5 update.

DaniWeb, one of the loudest and most vocal sites hit by Panda early on, which recovered, got hit by Panda 2.5. So she got vocal again and yesterday they recovered. Dani said in all caps yesterday afternoon, "WE HAVE JUST RECOVERED."

She later on explained, "No, today is our busiest time of the year. Traffic literally went down by 50% on Wednesday and went back up by 50% today."

Danny Sullivan has been pressuring Google behind the scenes to give us more on what is going on with Panda. I think, not certain, it lead to Google's Matt Cutts to tweet a "weather report" (Yahoo first named search updates weather reports back in the day), on Panda:

So, I am not sure if DaniWeb was the first tweak to Panda 2.5 or if it was something else. But do expect more tweaks in the upcoming weeks.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld and Google Webmaster Help.

Google Panda 2.5 Update

Fetched: October 3rd, 2011, 6:04pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Earlier last week, Google pushed out an update to the Google Panda algorithm.

I didn't see it before going offline for the holiday but Google confirmed the update based on a WebProNews story featuring DaniWeb getting hit again by the update.

In fact, Dani from DaniWeb posted in the Google Webmaster Help forums complaining:

However, we were hit again on Wednesday, September 28th, once again losing more than half of our traffic. I think this might even be a bigger hit than last time. I am still investigating whether or not this was another iteration of Panda that just went out or something different?

Wow, lost half their traffic again, after all that work to get back in!

SearchMetrics released their stats on who was hit the hardest by this update and Danny has a good summary of that at Search Engine Land.

Google said this update hit sometime on Tuesday and people started to take notice on Wednesday. Google confirmed it on Thursday.

Here is the update history:

Panda 2.5 on September 28th
Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

For more on the Google Panda update, see our Google Panda category.

Forum discussion at Cre8asite Forums, WebmasterWorld, Sphinn, and Google Webmaster Help.

Google Panda 2.5 Hits? Nope!

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There are some rumors shuffling around the SEO industry that there is a new Google Panda update taking place right now.

Update: Google said there is no update taking place right now.

Tedster started a thread at WebmasterWorld asking, "I'm hearing some reports of site-wide ranking demotions over the weekend that have a similar pattern to what we saw with Panda. That is, lots of keywords affected, but the demotions are not at all uniform the way we often see in a site-wide penalty."

One full time member confirmed some major changes, saying:

Sustained dip on sites with a local relevance, beginning on the 17th, maintained through today.
Sustained 40-50% increase on niche-info type sites, started on the 13th, maintained through today. (on sites I watch, this generic site action/reaction is typical within 4-10 days after a large googlebot crawl)

Plus, in ongoing Google Webmaster Help thread we have new reports of new sites being hit by Panda.

We do have some recoveries being reported but at the same time, some new sites were hit.

The big question is, can I get Google to confirm or deny this and if so, did you guys notice a new Panda update?

For more on Panda, see our Panda category and here are some of the major updates to Panda:

Panda 2.4 in August
Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Google told me, "There was no update in the past couple days. The most recent update was in August, when we rolled out the algorithm change internationally to most languages."

September 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: September 10th, 2011, 12:53pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Sorry for the delay in our monthly Google webmaster report, but I was looking for a day where I wasn't too rushed to get it out and it was also Labor Day.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread tracking changes at Google is fairly slow. The key points from the thread include:

More Panda discussion and trying to figure out what is going on
A lot around how using subdomains may help with the Panda situation
Some questions about a new Panda hit, or something else, but likely something unrelated to Panda
Discussion around scrapers ranking well again

Outside of these points, the key topics we covered related to Google SEO topics since our August 2011 report include:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Tabke Predicts Major Google Algorithm Update By Years End

Fetched: September 10th, 2011, 12:53pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has a short but to the point prediction by Brett Tabke, the founder of WebmasterWorld. Brett feels that Google will be pushing out a major algorithm update, the size of Florida from 2003, by the end of the year.

Brett said:

Larry Page has been at the helm coming up on six months. According to various reports, LP has put alot of faith back in the algo nerds. I look for a Florida like update on the organic side before the end of the year.

Brett has been following Google updates since before Google was even doing real updates, so he knows his stuff.

But do you expect something as significant as Florida to hit by the end of the year, given we just had Panda in February?

Look at the Google update history outline:

Fritz (Summer 2003)
Florida (November 2003)
Austin Update (Jan 2004)
The Sandbox (April 2004)
Bourbon (May 2005)
Big Daddy (October 2005)
Supplemental (Jan 2007)
Paid Links (October 2007)
Dewey Update (Mar 2008)
Vince / Brand (March 2009)
May Day (May 2010)
Caffeine (June 2010)
Scraper Filter (Jan. 2011)
Panda (February 2011)

Major, major updates, rarely ever happen twice a year but I guess anything is possible.

We know Google is looking to improve their scraper detection but would that be the size of Florida? I doubt it.

Anyway, what do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Infographic: Google's War On Spam (or Updates)

Fetched: August 18th, 2011, 7:25pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Recently, there have been several folks coming out with infographics and timelines on Google's update history. They all have their advantages.

Most recently, SEO.com released their Google Wages War on Spam Infographic. It is really a fun one to look at. Here is the low resolution version, but grab the high one from SEO.com.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Update History Documented

Fetched: August 11th, 2011, 9:21pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

SEOmoz put together a nice living document on Google's history of updates, algorithm changes and major user interface changes.

Personally, I find it very useful to see what Google has done in the past because it might help people understand where they are going in the future. In fact, I put together a huge presentation on the history of Google's updates, mostly pulled from WebmasterWorld and my Google Updates category for that presentation.

In any event, here is the SEOmoz list followed by my more concise list:

SEOmoz Google Update List:

Google Toolbar - December 2000
Boston - February 2003
Cassandra - April 2003
Dominic - May 2003
Esmerelda - June 2003
Fritz - July 2003
Florida - November 2003
Austin - January 2004
Brandy - February 2004
Google IPO - August 2004
Nofollow - January 2005
Allegra - February 2005
Bourbon - May 2005
XML Sitemaps - June 2005
Personalized Search - June 2005
Gilligan - September 2005
Google Local/Maps - October 2005
Jagger - October 2005
Big Daddy - December 2005
Supplemental Index - November 2006
Universal Search - May 2007
Buffy - June 2007
Dewey - April 2008
Google Suggest - August 2008
Vince - February 2009
Rel-canonical Tag - February 2009
Caffeine - August 2009
Real-time Search - December 2009
Google Places - April 2010
May Day - May 2010
Brand Update - August 2010
Google Instant - September 2010
Instant Previews - November 2010
Social Signals - December 2010
Overstock.com Penalty - January 2011
Panda/Farmer - February 23, 2011
The +1 Button - March 30, 2011
Panda 2.0 - April 11, 2011
Panda 2.1 - May 9, 2011
Schema.org - June 2, 2011
Panda 2.2 - June 21, 2011
Google+ - June 28, 2011
Panda 2.3 - July 23, 2011

My Google Update List:

Fritz (Summer 2003)
Florida (November 2003)
Austin Update (Jan 2004)
The Sandbox (April 2004)
Bourbon (May 2005)
Big Daddy (October 2005)
Supplemental (Jan 2007)
Paid Links (October 2007)
Dewey Update (Mar 2008)
Vince / Brand (March 2009)
May Day (May 2010)
Caffeine (June 2010)
Scraper Filter (Jan. 2011)
Panda (February 2011)

What do you think? Useful or not?

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Panda 2.4 Hit? Is It Rolling? No

Fetched: August 11th, 2011, 10:03am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has some early reports that Google has done yet another Panda update.

Google Panda 2.4 would be the next update. We already had a 2.3 update just about July 22nd.

Some are suspecting this is a rolling update.

A senior member said:

I'm quite sure since two sites have completely recovered. One last week on Friday and the second one today which means +400% for each site.

Another person also noticed changes, but did you?

Is Google now rolling the Panda update? I am not sure, but I will try to find out if (1) there was a true update and (2) if it is rolling now.

Past Google Panda Updates:

Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Google has told me there is no update taking place for the Panda algorithm currently.

Google Panda 2.4 Hit? Is It Rolling

Fetched: August 10th, 2011, 5:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has some early reports that Google has done yet another Panda update.

Google Panda 2.4 would be the next update. We already had a 2.3 update just about July 22nd.

Some are suspecting this is a rolling update.

A senior member said:

I'm quite sure since two sites have completely recovered. One last week on Friday and the second one today which means +400% for each site.

Another person also noticed changes, but did you?

Is Google now rolling the Panda update? I am not sure, but I will try to find out if (1) there was a true update and (2) if it is rolling now.

Past Google Panda Updates:

Panda 2.3 on around July 22nd.
Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Updates PageRank Yet Again!

Fetched: August 6th, 2011, 2:21am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

It is not even a month since the last Google toolbar PageRank update which took place July 18th in reaction to a bug with the PageRank update on June 27th or so.

Google, yesterday, has pushed out yet another PageRank update in the toolbar.

What is weird, that it was done so soon. Before the June 27th update, Google didn't do an update for around 6 months. So why are they pushing out updates more rapidly now?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Digital Point Forums.

August 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: August 5th, 2011, 2:07am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Here is a recap of the past month's Google webmaster related news.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread talks more about Panda. But webmasters are also complaining about international traffic that appears to be "fake." Finally, people recently have talked about traffic fluctuations in both the US and UK results.

Outside of that, there was a ton of changes and posts we had this month related to Google and webmasters. To see last month's update, see the July Google webmaster report.

Out Top Google webmaster related posts over past 30 days:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Webmasters Claiming Recoveries With Google Panda 2.3 Update

Fetched: July 28th, 2011, 11:51pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Panda 2.3 was rolled out on July 22nd and since then I have been hearing a nice number of reports from webmasters that they have recovered.

Of course, we are still getting reports that sites are still not doing better and then new reports of sites that just hit by this update. But for the first time, I am seeing a significant number of reports from people saying they recovered.

WebProNews has an article with DaniWeb about her full recovery. She shared Google Analytics data that can be confirmed with Quantcast data.

As you can see, it seems like they truly recovered.

Despite all the early reports where most did not recover from Panda and the lies about recoveries. There were some reports of recoveries with the 2.2 Panda update but not as many as with this update.

For more on the Panda update click here.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and Google Webmaster Help.

Panda 2.3 Confirmed Out: July 22nd

Fetched: July 28th, 2011, 11:51pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

We have been reporting discussions around a possible rolling update for Panda. Last night I received confirmation from Google at Search Engine Land that Google indeed update the Panda filter.

The update was manually pushed and is still not running as a rolling update - so I was wrong on that front.

Webmasters believe this update began on July 22nd, which goes along with Google's statement of it being pushed out "late last week."

Google said:

This update incorporates some new signals that help differentiate between higher - and lower-quality sites. As a result, some sites are ranking higher after this most recent update.

Past Google Panda Updates:

Panda 2.2 on June 18th or so.
Panda 2.1 on May 9th or so.
Panda 2.0 on April 11th or so.
Panda 1.0 on February 24th

For more on Panda see our Panda category.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums & WebmasterWorld.

Google's Panda Algorithm Now A Rolling Update?

Fetched: July 26th, 2011, 11:01am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Ever since Google released the Panda update in February, it has been known that Google carefully and manually pushed out updates to it on cycles that were often months apart.

Back in May, Matt Cutts said that is how they did it for now. Much like the Google bomb algorithm.

I am starting to believe that over the past couple weeks that Google has begun to either push the Panda updates out more aggressively on a manual basis or has set it to roam free on it's own - in the wild.

Yes, I think that Panda is now a rolling update. I can be totally wrong, but based on reading the various threads in multiple forums, it seems like Panda is updating almost daily. Maybe it isn't Panda related but it is hard to tell.

Skim towards the last 30 or so posts in this WebmasterWorld thread.

Anyway, I do not have confirmation from Google on this, nor do I think I would get one. But no one would be surprised if Google did eventually make the Panda algorithm a rolling update of some sorts.

For more of our stories on Panda, see our Google Panda category.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: So this is not a rolling update yet but Google did do a small Panda update as of late last week. I have official confirmation at Search Engine Land but here is the statement a Google spokesperson sent us:

We're continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users. This most recent update is one of the roughly 500 changes we make to our ranking algorithms each year.

Google's Latest PageRank Update Breaks, Google.com Back To PR 10

Fetched: July 19th, 2011, 11:00pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Three weeks ago, Google conducted a toolbar PageRank update that caught the eyes of most webmasters and SEOs more so than a normal toolbar PR update.

Why? Well, because Google's own PageRank on Google.com was lowered to PR9. Well, today, Google pushed out a PageRank update to fix the problem and Google is back at a PR 10.

The thing is, this update was not related to Google's own PR dropping a point. At least I do not think it is. Because if it was, Google would have pushed out the update the day of this PR update back in June.

So why the urgent update? Was it because webmasters and SEOs were losing trust in PageRank, which I published this morning? Nah - Google doesn't take my stories here that seriously.

Instead it was because, I believe, Twitter's PR was a PR 0 and Google didn't want people to think that Google downgraded Twitter's PageRank manually because of contract deals breaking between the two. Of course, that is my interpretation, maybe a bit exaggerated.

Google sent me a statement minutes ago explaining why Twitter.com's PR was a 0 this morning:

Recently Twitter has been making various changes to its robots.txt file and HTTP status codes. These changes temporarily resulted in unusual url canonicalization for Twitter by our algorithms. The canonical urls have started to settle down, and we've pushed a refresh of the toolbar PageRank data that reflects that. Twitter continues to have high PageRank in Google's index, and this variation was not a penalty.

So Twitter is back at a PR 9:

That is also why I have been getting hundreds of comments, emails, tweets about there being a PageRank after 8am (EDT) today.

Several threads at Google Webmaster Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld are discussing the recent update.

So yes, this is an usual update from Google - to update the PageRank values of sites weeks after pushing out a toolbar update. Again, no need to look deeper into it, in my opinion.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

July 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: July 6th, 2011, 6:19pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Here is this month's recap of everything you need to know about in terms of Google that related to search and SEO.

As always, this post is based on an ongoing WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs and webmasters obsess over every little change they see at Google. Plus, I include the most important and related posts we have on this site over the past month since our last report, which in this case was the June Google Webmaster report.

The main items being discussed in the thread include a possible update happening right now. Some are suspecting an update to Panda, maybe Panda 2.3 or maybe just normal Google shuffling. Right now it is a bit too early to tell if it is Panda or something else. There is also so early chatter about normal shuffles you'd see being talked about in a thread like that. Some webmasters are saying Google is assigning too much weight to title tags. Finally, there is an unusual level of talk about people switching from Google to Bing in this thread.

So maybe Panda 2.3 is underway or maybe not? More on that as I monitor the levels of chatter within the industry.

Out Top Google webmaster related posts over past 30 days:

Google SEO:

Google User Interface:

Google Webmaster Tools & Analytics:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Now A PageRank 9

Fetched: June 28th, 2011, 5:25pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As many of you know, Google updated their PageRank scores within the Google Toolbar yesterday.

Some noticed that Google.com has lowered their PageRank from a 10 to a PageRank of 9. Honestly, I am not sure if Google was a 10 or a 9 prior to this update but people are saying it was a 10 and is now a 9 after the update.

Does it matter? No. But it is interesting, nevertheless.

Forum discussion at BlackHat World Forums.

Obligatory Google PageRank Update Notification

Fetched: June 27th, 2011, 7:12pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of obsessing over Google's PageRank score as shown in the Google Toolbar.

But whenever there is a Google PageRank update in the toolbar, I feel obligated to report it. Why? Well, as per our purpose, we cover what SEOs and SEMs are discussing in the discussion forums. Whenever there is a PageRank update, SEOs really spend a lot of time and energy discussing it.

So after almost 6 months, Google has finally updated the toolbar PageRank values. At least that is what everyone is reporting in the forums. Personally, I did not look - but based on all the threads and posts, it seems like a global PageRank update was indeed pushed out.

The last one was about 6 months ago, and this comes about a month since Google's Matt Cutts said a PageRank update is coming soon.

So maybe Google will start updating the PageRank values twice a year instead of quarterly and before that, monthly. Google, I hope, will continue to downplay PageRank.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Panda 2.2 Results In Casualties & Some Recoveries

Fetched: June 20th, 2011, 6:43pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Panda 2.2, I believe, it 100% underway as of late last week. We had some early reports earlier this month, which may not have been a Panda update or maybe some small tests. But last week, June 16th, we reported the 2.2 rollout and I honestly think this is the 2.2 roll out. I wasn't 100% sure back then but I am really confident 2.2 has been rolled out.

The results?

Mostly more people complaining about being hurt by Panda. In fact, I have several webmasters sharing stats with me privately, let me share one of a very large site but I promised I wouldn't disclose the site's name:

SITENAME got hit in stages, about 10% Tuesday, and then another 30% at 7PM EDT on Friday. The hit is across the subdomain, across all categories, geographic locations, etc.

But there are also public reports of more sites hit. Some in the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread, some in new Google Webmaster Help threads and some in the ongoing old Google Webmaster Help thread.

But the good news is that some are actually reporting recoveries.

Two Webmaster World threads have reports from some webmasters of recoveries. One said on June 19th:

I've recovered as of 36 hours ago.
Day1 of recovery, traffic doubled, adsense tripled Day2 of recovered, 4 hours in, traffic has doubled again, back to my best levels of 18 months ago.
Seems my fixes have not only got me back from Panda, but also from something else.
I rewrote poor content. By poor, it was either too short, badly phrased, spelling errors, partial or exact copies from other sites. Articles are now varied in length, and high quality. Not all articles fixed, but a large proportion, and the worst ones done first.
I stopped google indexing thin pages. Detail pages with little detail are now gone.
I did not speed my pages up and they are not real fast.
I did not remove any adsense and i have 2 blocks above the fold, one at the bottom of the page.

Another webmaster said, "on our primary site (that was pandalized on Feb. 24), I can see significant ranking changes on google.com and google.co.uk. in our case, the changes are positive."

But like I said, I believe most of the reports are negative where more sites are falling to the Panda update after this update.

Again, Google has not confirmed Panda 2.2 being released but we do know to expect it around this time.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and Google Webmaster Help.

Update: We now have official confirmation from Google that they have pushed out a Panda 2.2 update. I have more details on this at Search Engine Land.

SEOs Report Changes At Google UK

Fetched: June 17th, 2011, 2:18pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has reports from SEOs targeting Google UK saying that there are some significant ups and downs in the rankings for certain sites over the past week or so.

The first report came on June 9th, last Thursday but it has then went silent for a few days. The SEO said:

Hi, a lot of my sites jumped back up on Tuesday, sites that were buried down a dozen or so pages appeared back on the first page, my other sites that were ranking on page 1 or 2 have not moved up any further, just the low ranking sites have moved up.

Then over the last day or two, many other UK SEOs have been talking about ranking fluctuations in the UK search results. Sites are losing their number one page listings and then getting them back and losing them again.

One SEO added:

Google has been erratic over the last 7 days, we are seeing lots of foreign traffic (again)which is the tell tale sign. We also see a lack of Google shopping results for lots of terms that used to rank well.

I am not sure if there is an update brewing specifically in Google UK or if something weird and buggy is going on.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Panda Update Underway & Are There Recoveries?

Fetched: June 17th, 2011, 2:18pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

We are expecting Google to release the Panda 2.2 update any day now, in fact - we asked if Google already released it.

There is more speculation surfacing now in two Webmaster World threads that it is indeed rolling out and not only rolling out but there are signs of recoveries.

Now, I do not have official confirmation from Google on if it is rolling out now and also if it did roll out, if it was designed to fix the false positives (those that got hit by Panda and should not have).

I hope by the time this post goes live - yes, I pre-wrote it as I am on a plane most the day - that Google will confirm or deny it on the Google Webmaster Blog.

If true, then if people recovered we can then truly analyze what helped them recover and relay that information over time. As you know, to date, I do not think there were any Panda recoveries yet - I hope 2.2 changes that.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Matt Cutts On Google Panda 2.2 Update

Fetched: June 11th, 2011, 4:39pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Before I went offline for two days, I wrote about a possible Google Panda 2.2 update - officially the update was not released yet, but Matt Cutts said it is coming soon.

This came out of SMX with "You & A" keynote with Google's Matt Cutts. Search Engine Land and Outspoken Media are the two main blogs being cited, but Matt McGee has a summary of it all as well.

The main thing I have been pushing for a couple months now is that no one has recovered from Panda and that question was indeed addressed.

DS: You guys made this post with 22 questions, but it sounds like youâre saying even if youâve done that, it wouldnât have helped yet?
MC: It could help as we recompute data. Matt goes on to say that Panda 2.2 has been approved but hasnât rolled out yet.

Has the algorithm changed enough where some people have actually recovered from Panda?
If you go back to Florida (the update, not the state), it launched and had a big impact, and then they pulled that back. They push stuff out and then they find additional signals to help differentiate on that spectrum. He hears the pain from people in search, but he also hears complaints about things polluting the search results. They havenât done any official changes (though they did a few tweaks) to pull things back but they continue to look at ways to differentiate there. Theyâre still looking for ways to find more of the low quality sites

DS: Has it changed enough that some people have recovered? Or is it too soon?
MC: The general rule is to push stuff out and then find additional signals to help differentiate on the spectrum. We havenât done any pushes that would directly pull things back. We have recomputed data that might have impacted some sites. Thereâs one change that might affect sites and pull things back.

Yes, this is a manually run algorithm and with only 2 updates to the update, no recoveries have been marked. Will 2.2 reverse that, I am not sure but time will tell.

So in short, 2.2 is not out yet - I am not sure what that hiccup was. When it comes out, it might address more of the scraper sites out there but no idea if it will reverse some of the false positives.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Webmaster Help.

Google Panda 2.2 Update Underway?

Fetched: June 7th, 2011, 5:18pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

As I noted in the June 2011 Google report, there is some early indication that Google is doing a new Panda release now.

A WebmasterWorld thread has people taking notice of the ranking changes as of last night after 6pm EDT.

Here are some of the comments:

I'm not sure if anyone is seeing it but everyone of my 15-20 websites has moved up or down today. Some of these sites were hit by Panda and some were not. I am definitely seeing a larger than normal reshuffle of the SERPs.

Today (7-June-2011) i am seeing up-Down in Ranking...it seems its going panda update for June month

Two of my sites that had been slapped are back in the SERPs today. They were fairly new sites, only a couple of months old, and they both dropped about 800 places to the bottom of their respective SERPs in mid April. Here they both are this morning with good positions for their targeted keywords.
My old main pandalised site is still dead in the water though.

Some history on Panda. Panda was released in February then Panda 2.0, the international rollout, hit in April and then Panda 2.1 was rolled out in May. So June is a nice time for Panda 2.2 or 3.0 - did you notice any changes? Will this result in sites finally recovering from Panda?

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

June 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: June 7th, 2011, 5:18pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Here is your monthly Google Webmaster report - the June 2011 version.

We base these reports off of two things. The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread and the stories we covered in the past 30 days here. For last month's report see the May 2011 Google report.

First, the WebmasterWorld thread has recent rumbling of yet another Panda update, maybe a 2.2 update or maybe the 3.0 update? I am not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Matt Cutts announces something at SMX Advanced today on it. I'll try to have more on this in a new post later today.

For the past month's top Google stories, see below:

Panda Related:

Google SEO:

Google Other:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

No One Has Fully Recovered From Google Panda

Fetched: June 1st, 2011, 10:40pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

WebProNews posted a video interview named DaniWeb Speaks out on Recovering from Google Panda.

Truth is, her website, daniweb.com did not recover from the Google Panda update. She did discuss the changes she made, which she said stopped the decline in her traffic drop and maybe had a slight increase in Google traffic, but she is far from a recovery case on Panda.

In fact, I have yet to see any substantial proof of a site recovering from the Google Panda update. Anyone who has sent me data that has said they recovered it always turned out to be something else. I look at the numbers and the numbers show it was not Panda but rather other SEO issues. In our current poll, which I want you to take below, if you haven't yet, 70% plus have said they have not recovered.

Why have there been no recoveries? Maybe because of how Google is currently manually pushing out this algorithm. They do it in stages and the first update was in February, the second was in April and then the third was sooner but in May. I have not seen reports of a new iteration since the May 2.1 Panda update.

Let's be far, some have reported incremental returns, like after losing 50% of your Google traffic, an uptick from there of maybe 10% or so. Still way off from being a full recovery.

Anyway, take my poll and I'll publish the full results next week.

Did You Recover From Panda?

The big question to me is why have we not seen FULL recoveries in these updates? Do you think we will see one on the next update? There have to be false-positives in the update and we should see some full recoveries - don't you think?

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Cutts: Google PageRank Update Coming Soon

Fetched: May 26th, 2011, 8:45pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

During the live Q&A with Matt yesterday, one of the questions bound to come up is when is Google updating Toolbar PageRank.

The last Toolbar PageRank update was in January and it has now been 5 months with no PageRank update.

Matt actually answered the question saying expect a PageRank update in the Toolbar really soon. He said likely within days or weeks.

I was a bit sad to hear this, I was hoping Google would continue to downplay PageRank going forward.

In any event, we get this question here at least a few times a day - so I figured I'd just cover it.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Google Finally Downplays PageRank In New Google Toolbar

Fetched: April 30th, 2011, 2:48am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A couple weeks ago, Google announced the release of a new Google Toolbar. It appears that with this release it is harder to see the PageRank indicator and even make it part of the standard bar options.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one searcher explaining that the only way to see the PageRank indicator is to click on the "more" link in the toolbar.

Furthermore, he said the indicator "cannot be dragged onto the main display." I am not sure if that is true or just user error or a bug - but still, hiding it under "more" it a nice step.

Wow! I didn't try this myself but if this is true then wow!

We know that Google's Matt Cutts has always wanted PageRank removed from the toolbar. Adam, back then "mini-Matt" asked for feedback on the removal of PageRank from the toolbar. Plus we know, many SEOs want it gone from the toolbar. There were rumors in 2008 that Google was removing it and it 2009 they removed the data from Webmaster Tools.

So as you can see, this is a major change to the toolbar at least from a public relations and SEO history perspective.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Update Underway? Farmer/Panda Hits Again?

Fetched: April 11th, 2011, 9:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There is a WebmasterWorld thread with reports from some webmasters that they are seeing massive changes to the Google search results.

Typically posts like this mean that some are seeing test or early results on one of the many Google data centers. Sometimes that means that it is an early sign of a Google update.

Some are wondering if it means that this is the much anticipated update to the Farmer / Panda update that has plagued so many webmasters in the past month or so. The thing is, I do not see any updates from those impacted, in those original threads, discussing being released, so maybe this is just hot air? I am not sure but time will tell.

Here are some quotes from the thread:

I noticed today a big change in the sites listed for keywords (some are junk sites) and my organic clicks from google has dropped about 80-90%. I am no longer appearing from many terms. It appears that this hit sometime today.

A site of mine took a huge hit yesterday (April 6) too. It had the #3 position for [best widget] at the beginning of the day. Sometime before the day was over, traffic fell off a cliff, and I discovered that that the site dropped to page 13 for [best widget].

I have noticed very recently last few days sites that have been in top three for money terms for a few years getting pushed way down.
They said they are going to be "fine tuning" Panda so this could be what I am seeing, this could be your issue as well.

Like I said, I haven't seen mass reports of sites being released but now I am seeing mass reports of webmasters complaining that their sites were hit hard by Google a day or so ago.

Is this an Farmer/Panda update? If so, I don't think this is what most webmasters expected.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Update Underway? Farmer/Panda Hits Again?

Fetched: April 11th, 2011, 9:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

There is a WebmasterWorld thread with reports from some webmasters that they are seeing massive changes to the Google search results.

Typically posts like this mean that some are seeing test or early results on one of the many Google data centers. Sometimes that means that it is an early sign of a Google update.

Some are wondering if it means that this is the much anticipated update to the Farmer / Panda update that has plagued so many webmasters in the past month or so. The thing is, I do not see any updates from those impacted, in those original threads, discussing being released, so maybe this is just hot air? I am not sure but time will tell.

Here are some quotes from the thread:

I noticed today a big change in the sites listed for keywords (some are junk sites) and my organic clicks from google has dropped about 80-90%. I am no longer appearing from many terms. It appears that this hit sometime today.

A site of mine took a huge hit yesterday (April 6) too. It had the #3 position for [best widget] at the beginning of the day. Sometime before the day was over, traffic fell off a cliff, and I discovered that that the site dropped to page 13 for [best widget].

I have noticed very recently last few days sites that have been in top three for money terms for a few years getting pushed way down.
They said they are going to be "fine tuning" Panda so this could be what I am seeing, this could be your issue as well.

Like I said, I haven't seen mass reports of sites being released but now I am seeing mass reports of webmasters complaining that their sites were hit hard by Google a day or so ago.

Is this an Farmer/Panda update? If so, I don't think this is what most webmasters expected.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

April 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: April 6th, 2011, 4:17am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

It is a new month and I wanted to update our monthly Google Webmaster report for you all. To see our last report, check the March Google Webmaster report.

I normally base this off an ongoing WebmasterWorld thread, but this thread is currently talking about thing I do not personally feel are the main issues and news in the past month at Google. If you must know, it is about Google's did you mean not updating fast and the DMCA form breaking over the weekend (it is not fixed).

That being said, in the past month, the main topics were:

Google Farmer / Panda
New Features/Interfaces
SEO/Webmaster Related

Farmer is still a huge topic, as most those impacted are still sitting not knowing what to do. Google launched the +1 button and also a block sites feature, shaping the way for future quality metrics and personalized search. Plus we learned Google does have whitelists and some other tidbits. I also have links to some user interface changes, news changes and logos and April Fools jokes. Because those jokes come up throughout the year and people thinking they are real, when they are not.

Farmer/Panda Topics:

New Features/Interfaces:

SEO/Webmaster Related:

Google News:

Google Logos:

April Fools:

April Fools Day Search Pranks

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Possible Google Toolbar Update: March 2011

Fetched: March 24th, 2011, 4:49pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Seems like some people are reporting fluctuations in the PageRank indicator within the Google Toolbar.

We have threads at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums with some webmasters claiming the PageRank values have changed for some of their sites.

Now, I am not sure if this is just a minor update or the start of a larger Toolbar PageRank update. Either way, I wouldn't worry.

The last update we saw was in January 2011 and as I repeated then, "Google keeps telling them not to worry about PageRank but SEOs don't hear or listen. They think SEO is all about PageRank, when you and I know it has very little to do with PageRank. Especially Toolbar PageRank which is a fictional character used by Google's marketing department."

So do not worry but if your PR went up, congrats! If not, who cares!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Shocking: Google To Tweak Content Farm Algorithm

Fetched: March 4th, 2011, 3:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Wired reports Google's Amit Singhal as saying they will be tweaking and fine tuning the Google Farmer Update to make it as close to a 100% accurate as possible.

I am not sure why anyone is surprised by this. Google does their best to release updates they think impact only sites they want to impact. But nothing is perfect and Google knows that. Whenever Google does an update, Google tweaks the update after collecting data where the algorithms potentially went wrong and this is no different.

Amit said:

"We deeply care about the people who are generating high-quality content sites, which are the key to a healthy web ecosystem," Singhal said.
"Therefore any time a good site gets a lower ranking or falsely gets caught by our algorithm - and that does happen once in a while even though all of our testing shows this change was very accurate - we make a note of it and go back the next day to work harder to bring it closer to 100 percent."
"That's exactly what we are going to do, and our engineers are working as we speak building a new layer on top of this algorithm to make it even more accurate than it is," Singhal said.

As I said originally, "I suspect Google will continue to refine it based on feedback they get. Collateral damage is always part of this game."

So if you were hit by this, I'd suggest you let Google know by posting in the Google Webmaster Help forums. Google will use that data, amongst other examples, to tweak this content farm algorithm. Not only will it give Google more examples, it will give you some emotional support. As of right now, we have just under 200 responses to our were you impacted by the farmer update poll - so take the poll, so we can get more data.

Forum discussion at Sphinn & WebmasterWorld.

Google Farmer Update Support Groups

Fetched: March 1st, 2011, 1:14pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Were you hit by that large Google Content Farm algorithm update that went live Thursday afternoon? Do you feel you were mistreated? Do you feel on the verge of a break down? Is your business hanging by a thread now?

You are not alone and I mean that.

Many many webmasters have been hit by this update. Some deservingly and many, like you, without warrant. Google update, with no question, have the potential of hurting sites that are not a literal fit of an update. Many are saying that their sites were lumped into the category of being a content farm, when in reality, they are not.

I see the pain in the words typed by these site owners and they feel horrible.

The best thing you can do is join others that were hit by the same update. Not only does it feel good to be with others that have the same troubles but maybe you can learn from it. If you can learn from others, maybe you can change your site or learn from others how they can get themselves out of the Content Farm algorithm?

There have been some excellent reports over the weekend on who was hit by this update. Sistrix compiled some serious data and Danny Sullivan mashed up that data as well. Here is the Sistrix data:

I am not going to talk more about who was hit and who wasn't. You can get that from Danny's piece, he linked to many sources.

If you were hit, you are going to want to find out who else you can talk to in the same boat and even more importantly, what they are doing to get out of such a mess.

Below is a listing of forum threads with conversations with sites hit by this and webmasters trying to help.

Forum discussion at Sphinn 1, Sphinn 2, Google Blogoscoped Forums, WebmasterWorld 1, WebmasterWorld 2, WebmasterWorld 3, WebmasterWorld 4, DigitalPoint 1, DigitalPoint 2, DigitalPont 3 and Google Webmaster Help 1, Google Webmaster Help 2, Google Webmaster Help 3, Google Webmaster Help 4, Google Webmaster Help 5, Google Webmaster Help 6, Google Webmaster Help MORE.

Google's Farmer Update Live: 12% Of Google's Results Forever Changed

Fetched: February 28th, 2011, 10:06am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

SEOs and webmasters have been eagerly anticipating, both in fear and excitement, the release of Google's content farm algorithm. Google announced that is has been rolled out yesterday. This is the second of two released, the first being aimed at scraper sites.

Google's Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts wrote:

In the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking - a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries - and we wanted to let people know what's going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sitessites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.

Google also made a point to say that the overlap between those reporting sites using the new Chrome Blocklist extension and the 12% of the results that were changed, had an 84% overlap. They took that to mean, overall, most of the results Google removed were vouched by searchers.

Danny Sullivan has a lot more details, interviewing Google about this specific update. Danny named it the Farmer Update. I should note this was only released in the U.S. as of now and Google will roll it out elsewhere soon.

I should note that the ehow's of the worlds are not all bad. I am not sure if this algorithm targets specific domains or targets page by page level content - but I do hope it targets page by page. I, personally, do find value in many of the articles that some of you may call "content farms." I have seen a shift in results for how to articles, often articles I send people to for answering quick questions related to iPhone troubleshooting. But honestly, I can still get good answers with the results today, so I guess no harm to the searcher?

In any event, many are saying Mahalo was hit hard by this, whereas ehow.com was not hit as hard. I do see some ehow.com results lower than they were previously and heck, I even see some very good ranking mahalo.com results. Some are saying it has to do with the AdSense, either number of ads or placement (but I doubt that). Maybe the rollout isn't complete on my side? I guess we will find out over the course of the week based on the forums.

If you are concerned and want to dig deeper, I strongly recommend you check out the forums. Some of them are talking about specific examples and some are talking more in generalities.

Forum discussion at Sphinn, Google Webmaster Help, Search Engine Watch Forums, DigitalPoint Forums, Webmaster World, Cre8asite Forums and HighRanking Forums.

Confirmed: Google's Content Farm Algorithm Live! Sites Are Dropping!

Fetched: January 29th, 2011, 4:17am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A WebmasterWorld thread has a bunch of SEOs and Webmasters complaining about a recent and significant drop in traffic from Google. These reports all come from webmasters who have had stable rankings in Google and stable traffic from Google for years.

Update: Matt Cutts of Google confirmed this in a blog post at his personal blog.

There is some speculation that Google's new content spam detection and prevention techniques have kicked in impacting these particular web sites from ranking well in Google.

A senior member at WebmasterWorld said:

Something really BIG changed yesterday about midday. We are still in triage mode here covering our basics. We saw a huge 10-20 drop in almost all positions for our biggest and oldest site.

Another person said everything was doing great and then January 26th came "at exactly 3:30pm CST. It's as if the switch was turned off again, " he said. And another webmaster said the same thing, "We have lost 40-60% traffic in several sites, all same time yesterday. Very frustrating and to see server idle now."

They mostly all claim they have unique and useful content on their site, but as you know, with any Google change, there are always examples of collateral damage.

Did you notice maybe changes in Google in the past couple days? If so, do you think it is the beginning of the content spam prevention Google mentioned earlier?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: Matt Cutts of Google confirmed this in a blog post at his personal blog.

That change was approved at our weekly quality launch meeting last Thursday and launched earlier this week.
This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site's content.

More stories on this will be complied at Techmeme.

January 2011 Google Webmaster Report

Fetched: January 5th, 2011, 10:23am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

It is that time of the month again, this is our monthly recap of what SEOs and Webmasters are talking about when it comes to ranking and SEO changes at Google. This is based off a WebmasterWorld thread where webmasters watch Google like a hawk.

The key points in this new thread include:

Google 'throttling' results theory back?
Google friendly in search results to SEOs now?
Fresher results due to Caffeine

Outside of that, here are the most important threads we covered on Google in the past 30 days.

For last month's Google webmaster report, see the December 2010 Google Webmaster Report.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's Site Performance Shows For Some Blocked Pages

Fetched: January 3rd, 2011, 6:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

A Google Webmaster Help thread has one webmaster asking why Google's Site Performance reports in Google Webmaster Tools are showing pages he blocked using the robots.txt.

The reason is pretty simple. A GoogleBot is not used to calculate the speed of a page.

Instead, Google uses Toolbar data from real users surfing and accessing your web pages with the Google Toolbar installed. Blocking GoogleBot will not block ordinary users with the Google Toolbar installed from accessing your site.

So if you are trying to hide your slow pages from Google, I'd recommend other methods, such as hiding your slow pages from your users.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Image Search Updating Index Within Days

Fetched: December 11th, 2010, 12:49pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Last month we reported a November Google Image Search update. The thing is, many of those who watch the Google Image Search index are reporting a more real time indexing.

The WebmasterWorld thread I covered has updates. One update is from an image search hawk codenamed mssfldt. He said that Google is recently picking up his new added images within days. mssfldt said:

just as information: it seems that Google is now indexing new images fluently. Since Nov. 15 I see every day new images of my galleries in Google image search, with a delay of 3-4 days.

This is not as "fluent" or quick as the normal web index, which updates in minutes when the new Caffeine index launched, but it is much better than the monthly updates.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: On Friday, December 10th, I heard back from Google. They confirmed a change where they have begun updating their image search index at a more rapid pace. I posted the confirmation at Search Engine Land. Here is the confirmation from Google:

We recently made some changes to increase the rate at which we update images in our index to improve the experience for our users and provide them with fresher images in both web and image search.

Google Now Degrading Rankings Of Some Merchants With Poor Service

Posted: December 2nd, 2010, 2:11pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google PageRank Algorithm Updates

Last night, Google announced something which had two major impacts on their search algorithm.

(1) Google Ranking Based on Merchant Service Quality: The first one is obvious, that they have added into their ranking algorithm a way to detect, on some level, merchants that offer "an extremely poor user experience" and adjust their ranking in the Google Search results accordingly. Google explained:

Instead, in the last few days we developed an algorithmic solution which detects the merchant from the Times article along with hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide an extremely poor user experience. The algorithm we incorporated into our search rankings represents an initial solution to this issue, and Google users are now getting a better experience as a result.

Google also added that they "have not found an effective way to significantly improve search using sentiment analysis." Finally, Google may decide to add merchant rankings right into the search results, and Danny goes deeper on that over here.

(2) Google Changes Algorithm Based On News Story:

The second is not as obvious, but major to me. Google saw the story on the New York Times about the new SEO strategy of treating your customers poorly to get higher rankings in Google. And within days Google adjusted their algorithm to attack the problem.

Of course, Google is constantly looking at feedback from the web, blogs, forums and so on to improve their algorithms. But this is a major update and it seems like Google dropped a lot of things to make sure to address this issue immediately, which is amazing to me.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for it. But just seems pretty major to me that they did this.

Forum discussion at WebmastetWorld and Google Blogoscoped Forums.

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