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What a crazy month for webmasters! We had the Penguin update, a Panda refresh, a bug that delisted tons of sites from Google, a huge negative SEO release and some rumors of a possible Google update this past weekend that no one covered.
Update: There was indeed an update on the weekend, Friday night, April 27th. Google confirmed with me there was a Panda refresh.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread continues to discuss all these topics. One thing I did not point out earlier this week, was that this past weekend, many webmasters noticed shuffling in rankings in Google. Even yesterday and today, some SEOs are noticing tests by Google. Senior member, Billy said:
It's almost like Google is testing a new index and the difference between the old and new is quite significant.
In any event, here is a listing of the most important stories in the past month related to Google and SEO by category:
Google Penguin:
- It's Live: Google Over Optimization Algorithm (3% Of Searches Affected)
- Google's Over Optimization Update Named Penguin
- Poll: Were You Impacted By The Google Penguin Update?
- Feeling For Those Hurt By Google's Penguin Update
- Google Penguin Feedback Form
- The Google Penguin Petition
Google Panda:
Google Parked Domain Bug:
Google Random Updates:
Negative SEO:
Link Topics:
Spam Topics:
- Google: Phone Number Spam Is Keyword Stuffing & Against Guidelines
- Next Title Tag Trick: Emoji For Google Mobile Titles
- Google Sends Out 20,000 Weird Redirect Hacked Notifications
Google Webmaster Tools:
- Google Webmaster Tools Query Reports Now Up To 90 Days
- Google Webmaster Tools Drops Features
- Google Fetch As GoogleBot Submission Not Working
- Now Really Test Your Google Rich Snippets
- Google Author Stats Goes Missing From Webmaster Tools
For last month's recap, see the April 2012 Google Webmaster Report.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
Comments:
William Margita
05/02/2012 10:37 pm
First, all you SEO companies trying to advertise on this post that your clients did not suffer are total posers. Unless you work for Amazon, Zappos, Overstock, Sears ect your clients got hit. Google PENGUIN absolutely favors the big e-com and kills the average guy. 1. Amazon now controls all English speaking words Amazon also owns imdb.com according to SEMRush - Amazon ranks #1 for "sex toys" - do the same search in BingIMDB.com ranks #1 for XXX (you can figure out the traffic count for yourself) Amazon and Google were the top speakers at the ChannelAdvisors event days before PEGUIN Amazon, eBay, Sears ect get feeds from 3rd parties like CAAmazon stock jumped $30 a share same day as PENGUIN Google also just funded $5million for lobbyist in DC PENGUIN is all about product PENGUIN is all about $$$$$ It's Google and Amazon after researching over 100 sites and product lines it is clear that this update was about "product" Google uses the excuse that they do not owe anyone a living or a ranking position - but they have made it clear that they are going to put Amazon 1st for all e-com and both are going to make a lot of money doing so.
Brian Whitney
05/02/2012 11:34 pm
I have documented some of the flux (with screenshots) on my site. I've been connecting off and on with this index since Thursday April 26. I've put together 5 samples so you can see the before / after shots. I'm sure google is doing some live testing but I've seen a lot of sites that were hit with the original panda update, re-appearing with high ranks in this index. Check it out here : http://bit.ly/KrjS3M
Babu Karki
05/10/2012 05:21 am
hi panda 3.5 update my site was missing in google search engine so what is the problem with my website because last update everything is missing. please let know http://www.greathimalaya.com