Panda 3.4 update yesterday..

PoshTiger · Mar 24, 2012

Yet another panda update...

Those that 'mix it up' with the SEO may see a ranking change.

https://twitter.com/#!/google/status/183312403100995584

Keyword diversity is a biggie with this one apparently - I've dropped a couple of spots for one of my sites.

cc976a · Mar 24, 2012

All week one of my sites has been bouncing around between positions 3 and 5 for the main keyword it's targeting and main keyword in it's niche. It's position was changing almost daily or twice a day....

....wonder if this is the reason why??

viceroy · Mar 24, 2012

Mine continue to bounce all over the place... so not too much change there

MASSEY · Mar 25, 2012

I am loving the updates. I will be on page one for payday loans in no time at all at this rate.

paullopez · Mar 26, 2012

It seems like Google is moving further towards penalizing those websites which view as an over SEOd. I think those people who are running their businesses only depending on the SEO marketing formula and ignoring to build marketing strategy for their actual users, visitors, or customers will lost a significant portion of their income.

Admin · Mar 26, 2012

Aren't they effectively putting SEO companies out of business by doing this? My advise to anyone now would be spend money writing new unique content, not on an SEO firm.

Admin

peter_w · Mar 26, 2012

admin said:
Aren't they effectively putting SEO companies out of business by doing this?

Only if they don't know how to answer clients concerns appropriately.

roydovaston · Mar 26, 2012

After a quick check my sites have only improved on positions apart from 1 keyword which has dropped back to page 2.

I think as long as you're doing everything above board and not trying to con your wayt o the top then keep doing what you're doing. It's working for me at the moment.

Aegean · Mar 26, 2012

admin said:
Aren't they effectively putting SEO companies out of business by doing this?

They probably are, but since Google have never recognised the validity of SEO companies in the first place, it doesn't surprise me. They have always said your site content should be written for humans, not search engines, therefore on page SEO takes second place defacto.

My advise to anyone now would be spend money writing new unique content, not on an SEO firm.

Absolutely.

MASSEY · Mar 26, 2012

If i was an SEO i would be scared about my future income, the future is very much PPC. Glad i am not an internet marketer for a living.

Or a domainer, if the arse falls out of exact match a lot of peoples domains will become pretty much worthless.

Blossom · Mar 26, 2012

I think they are putting bad SEO companies/SEOs out of business with this, which can only be a good thing. I still don't think SEO has quite reached its peak.

cc976a · Mar 26, 2012

MASSEY said:
If i was an SEO i would be scared about my future income, the future is very much PPC. Glad i am not an internet marketer for a living.

Or a domainer, if the arse falls out of exact match a lot of peoples domains will become pretty much worthless.

I think for me I'd be embracing this. SEO is not about link flooding or keyword rich gateway/doorway pages. I'd actually be thinking it helps get the cowboys out of the way.

SEO should be the practise of when search engine bots visit they are able to cache and add your site, including all pages; updates; content etc... in a logical fashion with well written non duplicated content.

SEO as a practise should also be about advising clients how to further reach your Market with social media, RSS, blogs, widgets, free content, competitions, exclusive discounts etc... things that customers would want. Also how to explore and gain exposure from vertical or horizontal markets.

Although I continue to add relevant and good quality articles to my sites (with thanks to Jamie101 - hey two plugs out of me so far

) I have done away with false pages and ridiculous link building tactics in to tons of crappy directories. I'm staying so organic i'm healthy!

I don't try and link build with anyone unless I think I can get paying customers from them - and if I pay for that exposure I therefore believe this would be classed as good old fashioned advertising

I have just reached 3rd spot of a very nice keyword in the niche I'm operating whereas other sites in the Top 5 have lots more PR, incoming links and, some thousands more pages - but I've stayed compact and tried to build for both customer and search engines without anything false.

I can see SEO companies rebranding to become all round marketers helping give both customers and search engines what they want. It will help keep both coming back for more

May have given me an idea for a new business venture!

MASSEY · Mar 27, 2012

cc976a said:
I think for me I'd be embracing this. SEO is not about link flooding or keyword rich gateway/doorway pages. I'd actually be thinking it helps get the cowboys out of the way.

The update has been good for this, it will level the playing field, for a short while at least. I don't think it will take too long for the big corporations to clock they need to diversify their link profiles.

I'm less bothered about their updates for organic algorithms if i am honest, i am more intrigued by their plans for serp layouts to increase PPC clicks. This is something that will affect me more.

SEO should be the practise of when search engine bots visit they are able to cache and add your site, including all pages; updates; content etc... in a logical fashion with well written non duplicated content.

This is googles view on SEO. It's the link builders they hate with a passion.

Although I continue to add relevant and good quality articles to my sites (with thanks to Jamie101 - hey two plugs out of me so far ) I have done away with false pages and ridiculous link building tactics in to tons of crappy directories. I'm staying so organic i'm healthy!

I don't try and link build with anyone unless I think I can get paying customers from them - and if I pay for that exposure I therefore believe this would be classed as good old fashioned advertising

I have just reached 3rd spot of a very nice keyword in the niche I'm operating whereas other sites in the Top 5 have lots more PR, incoming links and, some thousands more pages - but I've stayed compact and tried to build for both customer and search engines without anything false.

I can see SEO companies rebranding to become all round marketers helping give both customers and search engines what they want. It will help keep both coming back for more

May have given me an idea for a new business venture!

There are already many optimisers that class themselves as all round marketers over being a plain seo. For a consumer to get a decent return on their money they definitely need to use an all rounder and avoid the people who sell SEO for 99$ a month.

chippyb · Mar 27, 2012

Dont know if this was part of the update as well,

But for one of my keywords im sitting 1st in google, well was until google now has decided to put 8 google places in front of my listing, so really now after that and the adwords im still in 12th on the page!

Fantastic there goes all that traffic

cc976a · Mar 27, 2012

chippyb said:
Dont know if this was part of the update as well,

But for one of my keywords im sitting 1st in google, well was until google now has decided to put 8 google places in front of my listing, so really now after that and the adwords im still in 12th on the page!

Fantastic there goes all that traffic

This is where any geo service domains will suffer - and where any optimiser will struggle (as only cash then secures these positions)

That said I've spoke to a few people that use G in an average way (without knowing all this behind it) and they say they generally skip past the 'annoying' map and go to the listings.....interesting to see if this is a skewed view or people's sites are really struggling (i.e. drop of 20% or more from those keywords) because of

Although G I'm sure will be around in years to come, the very fact that the deepest pockets will get the traffic means it's not impartial - and people will become accustomed to the fact. Results not as accurate and G loses traction on the Market. Only needs a good startup and bad press to see an change in habits (there's already enough website content owners and bloggers ready to join forces to bring down Goliath)

Getting good results past 2005 was never easy, but there was at least a level playing field. Not anymore.

chippyb · Mar 27, 2012

Well for me so far today, still earlyish but that keyword as now only have 2 visits today, which is about 20% of normal for this part of the day.

so 80% drop in traffic for ranking in top stop of google or organic,

I think i have been bent over backwards lol

PoshTiger · Mar 27, 2012

What's your link profile like for that domain?

A lot of the large private blog networks have been de-indexed recently.. could be something to do with that.

Adem · Mar 27, 2012

My main earner was hit by Panda back in October and since then I've tried to be clean and organic with my sites. It was a good lesson to learn and now I always focus on quality content and don't really care too much about backlinks as I've found that I can rank just as well by making useful websites.

I guess that's the way it should always be but the fact is that it was easy to 'cheat' but Google are fixing that which is great for me and most of my sites.

This doesn't mean I agree with all they're doing as one of my amazon affiliate sites was ranking at #2 and then got knocked down to #250! Hundreds of the sites above have absolutely no relevancy to the keywords I'm going for but get there by virtue of being a big brand.

It's annoying that Google keep changing the rules but I guess it's getting rid of a lot of spammy sites.

lethal0r · Mar 28, 2012

cc976a said:
All week one of my sites has been bouncing around between positions 3 and 5 for the main keyword it's targeting and main keyword in it's niche. It's position was changing almost daily or twice a day....

....wonder if this is the reason why??

two of mine have done this as well. changing one or two positions, at least daily, for a few days now.

Oceanic · Mar 28, 2012

admin said:
Aren't they effectively putting SEO companies out of business by doing this? My advise to anyone now would be spend money writing new unique content, not on an SEO firm.

Admin

Not at all.

The new changes are for sites that have been "over optimised". I think this refers to sites that have had poor SEO work on them.

Yes content is a good idea if it is unique, rich and does not overlap other content, but Google needs to be able to find this content in the first place.

There are a ton of other reasons why SEO will live on, the good SEOs will always be in demand after this update, the bad ones will be scratching their heads.