Google at it again!
 

Google Alters Search Algorithm to Avoid Promoting 'Low-Quality' Sites

Anyone notice anything different lately?

Yep. Lost 1/3 of traffic on two sites yesterday. :(

Real sites and blogs will grow.

My Google traffic went down 50% for one day and then returned again...Phew!

i hope it helps :)

Cool. The only people that have to worry are the ones with bullshit sites. Guys that actually work on their sites will prosper. Just like we always have anyway.

you would think but i got some of my original content sites taken out by the latest algo changes. the google algo isn't perfect.

It only makes sense. If you don't peddle bullshit, then you shouldn't have to worry.

I think there is more going on in the way of algorithm changes than they are disclosing. I've seen evidence that there have also been some changes to how they are counting certain back links. The changes seem to make sense but the problem is they aren't perfect and some people will get caught in the middle of them without actually doing anything questionable.

yeah some of my sites were collateral damage as nothing was shady about them. google will never give as response why either and bing/yahoo traffic is a joke. bah ...

same here :(

shit.... one of my money sites had a 25% drop in traffic yesterday

one of the terms it was #1 for i now see it on page 9. hope it will dance back :(

One of the sites I can see why it may have been hit, it has some duplicate content issues I'm working on fixing. But the other, it's all original, hand written descriptions, I just added a load more content to it, I've also been quite careful with backlinks. Maybe I've over optimised or something.

Fuck, this was my concern as well. I mean if we have original text content that is based upon existing images that expands to the detailed desires of today's sophisticated consumer so that he can understand the referred product, is that considered a content farm?

FTW

Did any of you have LS link trades on the sites that dropped?

Google has a human element, they log in.

some up some down, seen similar fluctuations in the past so i just don't worry over such things anymore.

the only thing i found out is google webmaster forum is fucking useless.

basically if you have an affiliate link up you deserve a google ban according to the jokers that post there.

what you described could be called a "thin affiliate site" according to their guidelines.

yes and it crossed my mind, although i love the service.

I love it too but nigs be spyin.

I think that's nonsense and scaremongering, it's not against Google guidelines to ask another webmaster for a link on his site to yours.

Mmm. I have a lot of bog standard sites with a lot of RSS feeds and dupe content.

Not seeing a drop in traffic yet, but I'll be keeping my eyes open.

I expected it to happen one day :)

yes it is. it's called "engaging in link schemes" and against quality guidelines.

google just manually penalized overstock.com for trading discounts for .edu backlinks.

Shoot the moon, I think g is skurred that the rise in trading could negate their monopoly. Shit moves fast in the toilet that is web.

Asking another webmaster for a link to your site is "engaging in link schemes"?

I've got 50 or so sites on LS - 20+ of them are heavily traded there. I just ran my SERP rank checking software and the only movement in serps that I've had is UP. Lots of top 10 rankings for low to medium density KW's.

with an attempt to manipulate google, yes.

Yep, they are targeting link farms. Cross linking is a science and multiple class c's is the last thing that will help.

Yes but you only have to apply a little thought and common sense to see that if everyone stopped linking to anyone else for fear of being seen to be manipulating the search engines, the whole fucking web would fall apart. So you should just link to, and seek links from, sites that you think fit in with what your surfer is looking for, and LS is as good a tool for that as any other.

It's really hard for a robot to decide which site is low quality. Human reviews of sites are the best.

Now having fatfoo's bot post that is what we call "Irony" :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh