I've disappeared from Google!!!

[petehols]

Hi Craig

Yip google has done it again and it has sent everyone into a spin. I read an interesting article about whether or not google has just gone too far with the sandbox, the listings etc and how msn are starting to creep up on their popularity. Supposedly msn has now got 22% of the market share compared to 12% 6 months ago. The reason they gave is that with the google sandbox that means that the internet user is not getting the most up-to-date information whereas with msn they are providing newer up-to-date information.

At the end of the day though these updates are here to make sure that the spammers don't get the upper hand but how do you level that out with getting rid of spammers and getting the most up-to-date information on the internet?

A good pause for thought I think.

Petehols

[alexia s.]

"Many sites fell completely out of [Google's] SERPs (Search Engine Result Placement) over night, seemingly unexplainably. Some have recovered but many haven't, others have improved traffic. "

This sounds like the situation last year (pre-Chrtistmas) described in the FT article that I cited previously. It's frightening to see how a busines could lose control of its market visibility overnight.

[alexia s.]

"Many sites fell completely out of [Google's] SERPs (Search Engine Result Placement) over night, seemingly unexplainably. Some have recovered but many haven't, others have improved traffic. "

This sounds like the situation last year (pre-Chrtistmas) described in the FT article that I cited previously. It's frightening to see how a busines could lose control of its market visibility overnight.

[ashtondav]

Yes, its been a confusing few months! At the same time the update came along I started a site redesign so I have some problems with chicken and egg syndrome.

However I think the algorithm change has made google returns better, even if they have disadvantaged my business. For example I get a page 1 top 5 ranking on the search for "Frigiliana Apartment", but am in the lower 300's for "Frigiliana", "Frigiliana holiday", "Apartment rental Frigiliana". Since my site is called frigiliana-apartment.com I suppose from the searcher's perspective its better. Still annoying that other rental home sites in the village show up on page 1 for the other search words. I think this may have something to do with the re-emergence of PR as a criterion....

By the way, in doing this i came across this site which shows you where you are on Google for any search word. Useful for assessing the placement skills of your paid sites as well.

http://request.acerhosting.net/tool.aspx

Cheers

Tudor

[mvus]

MSN seem to be re-indexing sites a lot faster than google when changes are made and I'm quite impressed with their results. They must be throwing a lot of money in trying to catch up wth google

[petehols]

Hi pja

your quite right msn are definately indexing a lot quicker than google. I also read an article that they are in talks with AOL trying to prise them away from google which would be a major coup for them as that would straight away give them more than 90 million users be interesting to see how that goes.

Pete

[ashtondav]

Hi

Well i hope they do catch up! My visitors has gone down by 50% (minimal number of googles now) - all i get now is msn and yahoo searches. Pretty dismal!

Cheers

Tudor
www.frigiliana-apartment.com

[petehols]

Hi Tudor

What keywords is it you are targeting? Do you have a lot of competition in these keyphrases or are you just going for local area searches in google?

Cheers

Pete

[ashtondav]

Hi pete

My place is in a little village. Looking at rental sites I guess there are 15 properties actively marketed there. So not much competition - it's certainly not a major destination.

I took a look at Overture to identify the most popular search words used on google. They were; "Frigiliana", "Apartment rental Frigiliana" and "Frigiliana apartment".

Before end September I was in the top ten on the first page for all three searches and received about 10 hits a day. After September I went down to page 40 and below for the first 2 keywords! I must admit I then panicked and re-designed my site as a result of which google caches my old secondary pages and hasn't yet indexed my new secondary pages.

What is most peculiar is that of the sites that remain on page 1, one of them is another, similar, small apartment rental. Also, 2 or 3 of the top ranked sites show no back links when i test in google and, one is an incomplete site. Oh well, at least I have added at least 300% more useful content than the others so maybe its just a matter of waiting and grinding my teeth maliciously...

[petehols]

Hi Tudor

I have pm'd you .

I took a look at Overture to identify the most popular search words used on google

Overture is a yahoo company and only shows the searches made from their network there is no specific ways of telling exactly how many people type in what in google unless you go by the adwords figures but they are generally off. Wordtracker is a great program if you are looking for keywords to promote your site on.

What is most peculiar is that of the sites that remain on page 1, one of them is another, similar, small apartment rental. Also, 2 or 3 of the top ranked sites show no back links when i test in google

Google never shows all the links that a site has try doing the link search on yahoo and msn as well and that will give you a better idea of what sites are linking to what other sites.

Hope this helps

Pete

[ashtondav]

Weird, very weird....

Just got back from crimble hols and i'm back to page 1, position 3 for googling Frigiliana and just 2 weeks ago i was still on page 40!!!!!

Thanks for all the advice and input - i'm now getting visits from people other than LMH...

Cheers

Tudor
www.frigiliana-apartment.com

[mpprh]

Hi

these google reshuffles seem to take a lot of time.

Firstly, the reordering seems to be finished (assuming you are checking in English).

Then, if you check the date of the cache , it is changing several times per day.

Then, if you check the keyword in different languages, google are still doing the reordering in other languages.

Then, they merge all the languages together to produce the ultimate "all language" positions.

I think the latest reshuffle is just about finished. I have good results for most of my keywords. And some, which were too good to be true, have vanished.

Peter

[mvus]

Makes you wonder how many years the current search engine method will continue with thousands of sites added each day. Most people don't look past the first 2 page of google so will companies continue to rely on being found on the internet for their marketing in the future

[Alan Knighting]

Makes you wonder how many years the current search engine method will continue with thousands of sites added each day. Most people don't look past the first 2 page of google so will companies continue to rely on being found on the internet for their marketing in the future

That's a good question.

If your scenario is accurate then Internet marketing is a waste of time for the majority.

If you’re not in the top twenty you’re nowhere.

Selling on the Internet is trendy but is it effective?

Is dumping unwanted junk on e-bay an answer?

Should people re-visit well-tried, effective and traditional methods of marketing?

What’s the answer? Is there an answer?

Alan

[marcus]

pja

you start by assuming that companies are currently relying on the internet for marketing. Few of us are. Those of us who are small 'buy into' the success of HR, FC etc who can stay at the top of the lists, and also do our best to get picked up by search engines for our own small niches.

It is of no importance if all of us start on-line property listing companies or anything else - exactly as if we all opened newsagents in Basildon or any other 'real world' venture. We won't succeed without either lots of money to get established or a defined niche product. Exactly the same as the real world, except start up costs are negligible so we all think we can try. And rightly so. Nothing ventured etc

I only advertise our properties on the internet, and internet marketing works for us. If I had started the same business 20 years ago with press advertising I would have spent way, way more on advertising than I currently do, so it is making a more 'perfect market' for us advertisers by reducing costs.

What more could you ask than cheaper and more efficient marketing. I wouldn't dream, ever, of paying for a press ad now.

All I hope is that google and others keep working on their algorithms so it really is the most appropriate sites that move to the top of the enormous lists, and not people who are just very clever with search words, since that is the last obstacle to a truly ideal perfect market on the internet. I have complete faith in them...