Google Panda and Penguin... Anyone Hurting?
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Has anyone else's website been affected by Google Panda or Penguin Updates to their Algorithm? It hit me like a ton of bricks... I've gone from 2000 hits a day to 200. If this continues I'm out of a job. It seems that these updates focused on two separate ends of what Google declared to be bad web tactics.
Some Pros are saying it's killing off all the little guys.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-updates-results-small-businesses-suffer/47001/comment-page-1/#comment-1434384@unknownuser said:
With the latest update from Google we all watched as online businesses shut down, consultants started advising customers to get a new domain name and start over, and an untold number of websites lost their rankings in the search results. Critics have claimed that the domestic impact of recent Google Updates forcing local businesses into bankruptcy because they are unable to compete with Big Brands such like Amazon and ebay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Panda
@unknownuser said:
Google Panda is a change to the Google's search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011.[1] The change aimed to lower the rank of "low-quality sites" or "thin sites"[2], and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results.[1][3] CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising.[4] This change reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 percent of all search results.[5] Soon after the Panda rollout, many websites, including Google's webmaster forum, became filled with complaints of scrapers/copyright infringers getting better rankings than sites with original content. At one point, Google publicly asked for data points[6] to help detect scrapers better. Google's Panda has received several updates since the original rollout in February 2011, and the effect went global in April 2011. To help affected publishers, Google published an advisory on its blog [7], thus giving some direction for self-evaluation of a website's quality. Google has provided a list of 23 bullet points on its blog answering the question of "What counts as a high-quality site?" that is supposed to help webmasters "step into Google's mindset".[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Penguin
@unknownuser said:
Google Penguin is a code name[1] for a Google algorithm update that was first announced on April 24, 2012.[2] The update is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines [3] by using black-hat SEO techniques, such as keyword stuffing,[4] cloaking,[5] participating in link schemes,[6] deliberate creation of duplicate content,[7] and others.
The worst thing is they don't tell you which thing you've done and those things are open to interpretation. Like for instance I have a deal with America's best house plans to link to me on every page he has. Which is a fantastic deal for me. But Google may see this as link scheming. I see it as myself and this person making a mutual agreement for the betterment of both of our sites and to our visitors. Also one of the other largest links I have comes from here on SCF, I have a link in my signature and it counts for some 7000 links to me. I don't deserve that link? I don't deserve for people to check out my website and my work when I give them advice? I've been struggling to hit each of their points but nothing seems to be working.
Anyone else been affected? If so what have you done to fix it?
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hmm, I guess it's a good justification for being lazy with my website, since it seems the more you "scheme" the worse your rankings...
Really, I can see both sides, especially when you look at all the garbage websites that come up when you search for keywords.
My suggestion (which was the best suggestion from a decent SEO guy) is to have a blog and post content regularly with natural keywording. My blog gets probably 100x better search results than my website for common keywords.
Andy
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Kris - looked at your website - just a thought - could you set up a blog, and blog weekly maybe with a different house plan featured each week? That way you can get a more "natural" looking site for the search engines.
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This guy mentions the impact on his site and shows some changes he made...
I used follow his blog for a few years but it's not as relevant these days but I remember reading about it so thought I'd share his thoughts.
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Thanks guys...
Yes I do need to add a blog. I think I have that functionality... I've been reading around and making some changes.
http://www.aboveallhouseplans.com/cleaning up some lil messes but overall I still don't know what the problem is and still only get around 400 hits a day. very depressing.
got back to work on
Link deletedso I'll take the shotgun effect and see how that works. -
Thanks Rich that was good stuff... I read it back when you posted it and have been taking some of his advice.
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Kri, is that header refresh (set to 0) deliberately on that site?
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which site?
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if you're tlaking about sketchup house plans than I have it set to not cache anything right now because I'm working on it and it makes me dump the cache when I make changes. so it's just easier. but on aboveallhouseplans.com I didn't know if it was set to 0.
and I'm not sure I set it that way or what it actually does. these are both shopping cart installations. not static html like I'm used to.
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The SU Plans. This is all that appears in the source code:
<HTML> <HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0; url=http://198.101.155.38"> </HEAD> </HTML>and it keeps constantly refreshing.
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oh... that site isn't really live. I shouldn't have posted it. That's the domain name forwarding. I'm using a host file hack to point it.
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ok I fixed it... sorry.
Link deleted -
Kris, the same stuff. Why is that refresh code in the header at all?
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It's not me... it's the web-host forwarding the domain until it propagates. which obviously isn't working.
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Such things should not be written into the head section of an html file. It should be set under the DNS settings on the server.
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Yeah it's their thing... I had no idea. Like I said I was using a host hack so I could work on it. I think it may be working now. maybe.
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Yes, it "works" now. But get that thing off very quickly. It's an installation wizard and you do not want anyone to hack your system at this vulnerable stage (in fact, I have deleted the link now so that no-one has any stupid ideas...)
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no actually it's still not working as that installation page is on the old server and it's can't install because the system is incompatible with that host's server. but thanks for lookin out for me.
only this link works. http://sketchup-house-plans.com/ this one is still broken,. http://www.sketchup-house-plans.com/
ok I think I might have it fixed now.
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