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On December 21st, Ben reported a Google Data Refresh - Rankings Fluctuations Before Christmas via a WebmasterWorld thread. Now, I have been tracking that original thread, along with two additional WebmasterWorld threads named part 2 and Is there any point in adding new content?
So what have I got from this? Honestly, not much. One person wants this update to be coined "The Google Xmas Debacle." Sounds cool to me, but too many people are reporting not seeing anything. On the other hand, many people that I know and trust are reporting serious changes.
But what patterns or commonalities do we find with those changes? Again, not much. Some things I pulled out of the thread include:
- Affecting AdSense sites
- Affecting new pages
- Supplemental results increase dramatically
- Less results found in the site operator
- Suggestions of a bad data push
But these are all individual cases. Most of the posts say, I lost 50% of my traffic. Some say, my competitor dropped off from the number one spot and is no where to be found. Some say, everything looks fine and dandy.
So something is going on, but without evidence and actual results to look at, it is hard to reproduce. But I do believe something has happened - to what extent, I honestly do not know. What can be done to reverse it? Again, I do not know.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
