Google Issues More Than Just a Bug?
Being the biggest fish in the aquarium has its ups and downs. If you are having a "bad scale day," all the viewers will notice it pretty easily. So when Google's search results change dramatically, especially when focused towards a particular niche, someone will be sure to write about it. For example, the recent blog post at PBS (yes that PBS) blog MediaShift discusses that
just after Christmas... a Google bug made a handful of influential sex blogs “disappear” from Google search results.The article links to a good post by Danny Sullivan, circa 2003 and titled Google Dance Case Studies. It also has an excellent interview with him on the current "blip," which Danny theorizes:
In this case, it seems like Google might have been tweaking porn filters somewhat.
So the forum connection to this topic is thanks to WebmasterWorld, where a thread was started to discuss the PBS article. This thread has become much more than a discussion on algorithm tweaks and blips, as WMW administrator Tedster introduces his theory that there is a lot more than just a few minor things going on at Google at the same time to just be coincidence. He cites over a half dozen threads at WMW discussing issues with Google, including:
AdWords disruptionsTedster feels that
AdSense Outages
Webmaster Tools Reporting Issues
Increased "URL-only" Listings
Site Root Pages Disappearing
The 950 Penalty Increases
False PR 0 Reports
URL Removal Tool Troubles (he links to each thread)
We don't see a clear picture yet, but these disruptions to normal operation, all occurring at about the same time, seem like they might be related to a bigger picture of some kind.
Catch up on the sex blog story in the links above and then join the discussion(s) about Google at WebmasterWorld forums.
Like The Story? Vote For It On Yahoo Buzz! Or On Sphinn!
chrisboggs in Google Search Engine at January 12, 2007 9:01 AM
Comments (2)
Sphinn 
• Tweet This! 
• Digg 
• Delicious 
• StumbleUpon 
• Google Co-op 
Comments
Dear Sir,
My site has been hit hard by 950 penalty, out of the 6000 entries i have done over the years almost 80% that were on the first or second page of google for most quieries, are now way down on 20 plus page of results and alot worst. I don't understand, keywords i had top possitons on for years have dropped dramtically in the results. All my content is 100% original, and in no way were the keywords in the paragrapgh over optimized. I'm really depressed, I worked 12 plus hours a day for 2-3 years to build up the site and in one night all that hard work was flushed down the dunny and the most depressing thing is that sites that steal my content and RSS reader site are now above me in google and getting all the traffic from stealing my work. Yes people say that you shouldn't base your business totally around google becasue you never know when something will go wrong. Having said all this I'm pressing on with the site as i have no option the site provides my with my whole income and i can only hope that some time soon it will go back to normal. Could please give me some advice on how i can try to fix my pages for better optimization and try to get out of the 950 penalty.
Posted by Paul at January 24, 2007 04:52