Significant Google Changes: Is It The Over Optimization Filter?

Apr 24, 2012 - 8:57 am 37 by
Filed Under Google Updates

Google Over Optimization Bridge LogoI am seeing a significant uptick in complaints in the forums about downgrades and delistings of rankings in the past 12 hours or so. Most of them coming early this morning in the past hour or so and more and more reports coming in via the Google Webmaster Help forums.

I've spotted several threads, here are just a handful of them, one,two, three, four, five, six and many more.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has an increase in activity from webmasters noticing fluctuations in Google. A senior member said, "having the biggest traffic morning in months. Since the smaller data set seems to be good for me, I wonder what that will bring....good or bad?" This is followed by a bunch of other complaints about increases and decreases in rankings.

This may be a Panda update, it may be a penalty, it may be a bug like last time or it may be the over optimization filter rolling out. I do not know but there is something going on.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Update: Later today, Google has announced this update on the Google Search Blog.

Update: This is now named the Penguin Update.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 16, 2025

Sep 16, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

New (But Old) Google Search Console Achievements

Sep 16, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

What Is Google Question Fringe Score

Sep 16, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Ads

Bing Image Search With Ads Mixed Into The Organic Results

Sep 16, 2025 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Bing Testing Sticky Search Bar Header

Sep 16, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google News

Rolling Stone Publisher (Penske) Sued Google Over AI Overviews

Sep 16, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Getting Rid Of Those Silly Links