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In the past month, Google has pushed out a softer Panda update, quietly updated their link schemes guidelines and issued warnings to manipulative browser actions.
With that, a lot of SEOs became worried about press releases and article marketing - especially with "optimized keyword rich anchor text" in them. The jury is still in on how this will play out, but a typical slow summer was not that slow.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread had a bit more chatter earlier around August 1st and 2nd but the weekend was pretty quiet in terms of that chatter. Meaning, not much ranking changes over the weekend.
For last' month's recap, see the July report. Here is the monthly recap as we saw it:
Google Updates:
- Confirmed: Google Panda Update: The "Softer" Panda Algorithm
- Was There A Weekend Google Update?
- Google May Be Updating Search Algorithm
- Google Updates Link Schemes Examples With Mentions Of Guest Posting, Advertorials & Press Releases
- Google: Links In Press Releases Are Unnatural Links & Should Be Nofollowed
- Google To Penalize Sites Manipulating Browser Back Button & Faking Search Results
- What SEOs Are Focusing On With Enge's Interview With Google's Matt Cutts
- Can You Redirect A Google Penalty? Probably.
- Google's Cutts: Be Careful Linking Many Sites Together
- Google's Matt Cutts On Using ccTLDs
- Google's Matt Cutts: You Can Hide Content Only When...
- Google's Cutts Says Don't Worry About Duplicate Content But SEOs Don't Trust
- Google's Matt Cutts On What If My Site Goes Down? Are My Rankings Doomed?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
lez bennet
08/05/2013 02:57 pm
To summarize: The world is starting to turn on Google. Slowly, but surely. I give Google another 2 years tops.
ethalon
08/05/2013 04:22 pm
What are you giving a summary to? "I give Google another 2 years tops." Care to expound a bit on that?
Ted
08/06/2013 02:53 am
How is that not clear enough already?
Haneeth Ujwal
08/06/2013 06:27 am
I think there has been another update my site has gone down a lot in search from few hours please confirm this ....
jitendra vaswani
08/06/2013 10:00 am
I dont know what Google wants from webmasters.
KKK
08/06/2013 10:57 am
Ha this type comment always appears after a google update. No, unfortunately they are going nowhere, we've just got to get smarter. In my opinion it was a penguin refresh that also included press releases this time. If you're stupid enough to still be building links using the traditional backlinking sources such as article directories, press releases and the lkes, combined with a high keyword rich anchor text density, then this is what you can expect.
guy
08/06/2013 12:23 pm
google want webmasters die and give all their money to google adwords.
ethalon
08/06/2013 12:24 pm
How? Because it makes two very bold statements and supplies not a single reason for those assertions. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the statement, there is nothing to agree or disagree with. My question to you, Ted, is how is that is clear enough already? Is it clear to you because you support the assumption?
maxhalz
08/06/2013 02:22 pm
I also give Google a few years, more high you are more down you will go, its a principle of the universe.
Mi
08/06/2013 03:07 pm
Same happend to me
Haneeth Ujwal
08/06/2013 04:32 pm
Whats ur site url ??
pandector
08/06/2013 08:54 pm
Google will surely go, eventually. Two years might not be enough for the negative sentiment to gain real momentum though. A few bitter Internet entrepreneurs won't bother Google, no matter how bitter or how right they are. Google is so powerful that it is hard for them to see past their own noses. They are in money-grab mode because it appears to them that they can get away with taking the little guy's money. Fortunately the Net belongs to the collective little guy - who will eventually vote with his feet. Go little guy!
Swapan Kumar
08/10/2013 05:10 pm
Lots of updates have been observed in last few weeks from Google. Really difficult for the webmasters to cope up with the drastic changes in the optimization strategies. SEO strategies using ethical techniques is the only solution left for Long Term success and also to beat the algorithms updates.
Oliver
08/10/2013 11:52 pm
After a great jump in mobile seo traffic during july we lost almost all of our seo traffic on august 9th. The site is 6 month old and has no off-page seo done, just great content with lots of shares.
rankyacomau
08/18/2013 12:03 am
We also seen fluctuations in mobile traffic in July. Also, "SEO strategies using ethical techniques is the only solution left for Long Term success" I know you have been naughty, have ya?
Trisha Agarwal
09/04/2013 09:49 am
What an insightful article Glenn! There are many businesses that still don't fully understand the threats when dealing with Google's latest algorithm updates. In a SEO perspective and depending on the severity and extent of a website's unnatural linking efforts I have recommended to clients that's it's sometimes better for the business owner to 'bite the bullet' and start afresh than to try and fix something that may take a long time to rectify. I know this can't always be the case with larger companies, but certainly it would be the easy option for smaller to medium-sized businesses. Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks again for sharing a well written article. I'll certainly be sharing it with my readers. http://resultplanet.in