One of the key topics I have heard being discussed in the speaker room last week at the SMX East conference was that the Google results were not good. It rarely came up in the sessions, except for Greg Boser on the Crystal Ball panel, but it came up often in the speaker room and in side conversations.
Looking at the Google results, for standard queries, simply did not satisfy many SEOs and SEMs. Obviously, some were upset with queries they monitor and want to rank for, but many showed queries that they have no direct business relationship with. Looking at some of those results myself, showed me they were right. Also, Danny wrote about Reviewing Some Bad Google Search Results With Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, just last week.
A recent WebmasterWorld thread has one webmaster complaining his site no longer ranks well in Google. Let me quote you what he said:
We used to have position 8 in the Google serps. A couple of months ago we dropped to something like position 15, then 21 and yesterday 41. A lot of websites without widgets in front of us. How did they get there Google? Not relevant at all!
Okay, so he is clearly upset. But as Danny Sullivan explained to me last week, who would know better about a specific queries relevancy than a site that has quality content about that specific niche?
This webmaster asked, "Will Google lose the battle because of their penalty policy?" Personally, I think not any time soon or even in the foreseeable future. But I figured I do a poll and ask you guys:
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
