Google Search May Be Updating...

Google Search May Be Updating...
There is a lot of new chatter in the Webmaster World forums, along with random threads at other forums including Google Webmaster Help about Google's search results shifting around and some webmasters claiming huge declines in referrals from Google starting around 8pm EDT last night.
Some are hoping it was just an Analytics issue but looking at the reports throughout the day and this morning, it seems like it wasn't.

One webmaster said:

Another 50% drop from what has left till yesterday. That is now 25% left from pre-panda/penguin. Serps itself look quiet spammy like normal.

Last time we reported a shift without Google confirmation was on June 5th and there are still many sites who have seen huge drops on that date, despite Google not confirming anything.

Mozcast just updated and it is not showing major changes.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Webmaster: "Good Content Has Never Been Hit So Hard" By Google

Webmaster: "Good Content Has Never Been Hit So Hard" By Google
A featured WebmasterWorld thread has an emotional but powerful post from a Webmaster who has been creating web sites for over 15 years. In fact, he joined Webmaster World as a member back on March 4, 2003, so he has been around a long time.

In short, he said when talking about Google's latest algorithms, "good content has never been hit so hard." He doesn't blame Google, in fact, he believes Google has user's best interests at heart. He just thinks there is way too much collateral damage with the algorithms - especially Panda.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Matt Cutts: Stock Images Currently Don't Impact Rankings But We'll Look Into It

Matt Cutts: Stock Images Currently Don't Impact Rankings But We'll Look Into It
Google's Matt Cutts latest video answers a quick question, "does using stock photos on your pages have a negative effect on rankings?" The answer is currently no.
The images you use on a page have no ranking impact, either positive or negative, on that web page ranking well or not. At least directly.

Matt doesn't get into the possibility of nicer, more unique, images having more of an appeal to readers, bloggers and reporters. Which then can encourage more shares and links to the story. But looking at stock images as a ranking factor is currently something not done.

Matt Cutts said they will look into maybe looking at using the unique value of an image as being part of the ranking algorithm or a signal in the ranking algorithm. But I am not sure if he meant that. :)

Anyway, stock images, like the one I used here, should have no impact on this story not ranking.

Author: Barry Schwartz 

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Search Spammers Admit Defeat After Spam Algorithm But Vow To Return

Search Spammers Admit Defeat After Spam Algorithm But Vow To Return
Last Wednesday Google released the spam algorithm to target very spammy niches and "illegal" link building and spamming techniques. Did it work?
For the most part, it seems it did. Despite some black hats mocking Matt Cutts, it seems most of the black hatters in that niche are complaining and admitting defeat.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Matt Cutts: Google Panda Updated Monthly But Slowly Rolled Out

Matt Cutts: Google Panda Updated Monthly But Slowly Rolled Out
Back in March, Google said they will stop confirming Panda updates because they are now more baked into the index and algorithm.
Well, at SMX Advanced, Matt Cutts of Google announced it is still roughly updated monthly (although it has been 6 weeks because they are trying to soften Panda - note, next Panda update sites should be released) but these updates are rolled out gradually over a 10 day period. (How is that for a run on sentence?)
So, Panda might be pushed out on the 1st of the month but take ten full days to fully roll out everywhere. Then it will happen again roughly a month later. So 1/3rd of the month, Panda is rolling out. I called this at Search Engine Land, the Panda Dance.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Example URLs Now In Google Webmaster Tools Notifications

Example URLs Now In Google Webmaster Tools Notifications
Last night at SMX Advanced, Matt Cutts announced that now most Google Webmaster Tools notifications will contain example URLs with specific examples of what is wrong with your site.

For example, if you had an unnatural link manual penalty, Google will share a few examples of the links that Google found to be unnatural. Or if you have a user generated content spam penalty, Google will show you example pages with where that content is.

The point is, Google is taking this to the next step to be even more transparent.
They aren't going to share ALL the URLs of the problems, but they will show you one, two or three examples,

Matt Cutts said.
Google actually started doing this on a limited basis over a year ago with example inorganic links but it wasn't consistently for all manual spam notifications. It seems like going forward, almost all of these notifications will include examples.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Matt Cutts: Google Webmaster Penalty Emails to Include Examples of Bad Links

Matt Cutts: Google Webmaster Penalty Emails to Include Examples of Bad Links
Matt Cutts said that Google Webmaster Penalty emails will start to Include Examples of Bad Links in them.  Cutts stated “One thing that’s new is we’re testing the inclusion of example URLs — when we send a manual action notification, we’ll include one or two or three sample URLs to show what’s wrong.”

This got the audience’s attention tonight as people started jumping up and down.  This is big news in the search marketing world.

Author: John Rampton

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Google's Matt Cutts On Disavow Tool Mistakes

Google's Matt Cutts On Disavow Tool Mistakes
Google's Matt Cutts posted a video the other day explaining the top six or so mistakes that SEOs and webmasters make when using the disavow tool.
By far, the most common mistake is uploading anything but text (TXT) files. Many upload Word documents or Excel files, they should not - you should only upload TXT files.

(1) File you upload should be a regular text file only. No syntax, etc. People often upload word docs, excel spreadsheets, etc. Just upload a text file.
(2) Typically, the first attempt by users are to be very specific and fine tuned with their individual urls. Instead use a domain: command and disavow the whole site. That is often better.
(3) Wrong syntax is another common issue, use the right syntax.
(4) Do not write the story on why you are disavowing in the disavow text file. Do that instead in the reconsideration request, not in the text file.
(5) With that, when you do that, they use comment out tags. So don't add lots or any comments, it will increase the chance of errors on Google's parser.
(6) The disavow is not the be all and end all. It will not cure all your URLs. Clean up your links outside of the disavow tool as well, don't just go this route.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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