Where did my rankings go???

Now, I mentioned in our ‘Ask the Experts’ post that I really can’t open the flood gates to answering specific situational questions – but for the sake of understanding, I will sort of field this one;

Johnny R asks;

“Good afternoon Gang less than 2 days ago I was on the 6 page in Google for a keyword, page 3, 2, 4, 5 for others and now I don’t know what happened I got kicked all the way the back on page 50s and up. Can anyone explain to me what went wrong? Please help me or it is just Google changing it’s algorithm?Can someone please help?”

Dear John, (sorry, always wanted to say that) it can be nearly impossible to answer such questions because there are so many potential factors relating why a ranking change is happening in a given situation. From what you have done on the site, others have done or even algorithmic/manual adjustments in a query space by a search engineer.

While there are many in the SEO community that spit out, ‘a penalty for this’ and ‘a penalty for that’ it is not nearly that simple with the variety of potential factors that can come into play. It is impossible for me to tell with limited information and irresponsible to try.

To begin with we have the world of ever-flux which I touched on the other day… beyond that Michael Martinez explained some common factors in an (ahem) eloquent post on SEO testing today.He summarized well with;

Not so elementary my dear Watson

So my fine peeps, as you can see it is not as simple as telling one exactly what might, or might not be, going on with a given site when there is movement in the SERPs. From ever-flux and the myriad of potential factors affecting it, a great deal of detective work is ultimately involved.

I even read a case today of a webmaster that has seemingly been nailed for paid links well after he had stopped participating in the practice; on Dave Naylor’s Blog

Sorry that I can’t really answer your question there Johnny, but it there is much to consider and we’re a little light on supporting data. I would ensure you have a grounding in the fundamental do’s and don’ts of search optimization and then look at what recent changes you’ve made (on the site or link building) to see if there is anything that could be responsible. Also watch the site/page for a while to ensure that it isn’t a temporal anomaly (that rankings don’t return) and if all else fails potentially hire a professional to do a site audit and point you in the right direction as far as strengthening the site’s SEO is concerned.

….or hey, if it’s still doing this in a week or two? Drop me a line and I can dig in a bit deeper for you.

Popularity: 8% [?]

And Then There Were Two?

Back when my company started in the search engine optimization business, there were a veritable bevy of search sites that all vied for market share (anyone remember Altavista? FAST? Excite?).

Over the years, Google has emerged as the consistent leader, with an ever-increasing lead over its main rivals.  It is now followed in market share by Yahoo, MSN, AOL (which doesn’t really count, since it serves up Google results), and, finally, Ask.com.

However, two things happened in the past few weeks that could reduce the number of search engines with any significant market share from four to two.

First of all, Microsoft offered an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo.  The Yahoo board has rejected the offer amount, saying that it severely undervalues the company.  However, the issue will probably eventually go to a proxy vote, in which Microsoft may be able to seat its own board of directors, making the deal a fait accompli. 

There is a possibility that the two search engines would still operate as independent entities even after a Microsoft takeover, but that’s not really Microsoft’s style.  The fiscal gains to be realized by laying off an entire research staff and employing only one search technology (probably Yahoo’s, since it is widely regarded as more advanced) are too tempting to ignore.  This is all mere speculation, but it also would seem that if Microsoft really wants to compete with Google, they will try to do so using one uniform technology and touting it as superior.

Yahoo’s board recently delayed the proxy vote by a couple of weeks (analysts speculated that this time period was probably all that shareholders would stand for).  But after flirting with a few other companies, they recently met with Microsoft executives to hear Microsoft’s vision of Yahoosoft (or is it Microhoo?).

So that scenario would likely take us down to three major engines.

And then Ask.com seemed to raise the white flag.  After a serious effort to compete head to head with Google (remember the commercials touting “The Algorithm”?) Ask.com recently announced that they would be laying off 40 people (roughly 8% of their workforce) and targeting a specific type of user.  It was falsely reported in USA Today and other publications that Ask was exclusively targeting the female housewife market, although company execs have acknowledged that they would begin tailoring their engine to their existing user base and stop trying to be all things to all people (which Google does fairly well, but that’s neither here nor there).  One thing is for certain – Ask is trying to carve out a niche for itself and no longer compete head to head with Google.  Another certainty – the butler didn’t do it.  He’s been dead for over two years.

Which may take us down to two major players in search.  Once people begin recognizing Google as the major corporation that it is (as they already acknowledge Microsoft), would there be room for a smaller, hipper, “anti-establishment” search player to hit the scene and make some noise? Things are definitely getting interesting.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Google Ever-Flux; its a crazy world out there

Pete Laird asked us;

“Have you any idea how often they move the goalposts as i have noticed massive drops and rises in my own sites position over the last couple of months. No matter how much I try to get my head around it I cannot figure out why there would be such massive changes, sometimes 300+ up or down.”

Well, once upon a time in Google-land we used to get index updates around once a month and then it started going to weekly and ultimately daily/on-the-fly. Along the way some one coined the term ‘everflux’ which essentially denotes the ever changing state of the index.

Often these days we will see new pages get some early love from the ‘query deserves freshness’ temporal nature of the indexing/retrieval process. Thus often times we will see pages jump around in larger fluxuations. If this is happening with a core target term and say, the home page of a well established site, then I might be a little more concerned.

It is not really unusual to even see established pages fluxuate, but certainly not movement of 300 positions and back again on a consistent basis. Some reasons for fluxuations can include;

Index updates; if it is new pages being indexed or spam pages being removed, there is always a constant stream of new pages in the index. This can also be seen in movement for total results on a given search query.

Indexation; if it is your site (global relevance) or sites that link to you, often pages are removed from Google’s index or shipped into whatever the current iteration of the ‘supplemental index’ is over at Google. These can certainly have an effect on your rankings.

Link profile; also there is a temporal nature to how Google apparently values inbound links to a page. Meaning that older links often tend to degrade over time and if your site is built upon older links, then as they are devalued, rankings drop. Further to that you may have been getting power from links that are no longer indexed in Google, thus more slippage. You might have links from sites that themselves have been devalued (directories come to mind) – your link profile can often be a cause.

Data Centers; Google has many data centers that serve up search results and often will switch them in and out when working on them (for data and infrastructure) updates. Often times we may be seeing a different data center (also geographically segmented) when checking rankings with various tools which can also skew rankings.

Welcome to Ever-Flux

In the end, most often large fluxuations are due to a newer/less stable page (or site) that hasn’t cemented itself and it will level out over time. There will usually always be a certain amount of movement even for more established pages, simply not larger ones as our example here (300 positions).

As long as the competition is creating more pages and building more links, one is never safe…. Movement is the norm

(if you’d like to ask a question, leave a comment here; Ask the experts )

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ask the Experts

Do you have questions relating to SEO? Then this is your chance to get them answered.

I thought I would open up the floor to our fine readers and try and cover topics that are relevant to their knowledge level and experiences. Now, this isn’t for you to ask about specifics such as, “How do I get my site ranking for X term?” – I am more looking for generalized queries about the world of SEO.

If you have a question you’d like answered, simply leave it in the comments on this post and I will see if I can’t help you out.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Keyword Research is not about tools

It is about ones ability to craft a program. It seems more often than not I come across people that are looking for the ultimate tool that is going to tell them exactly which terms they should be targeting and what kind of traffic they can expect. This is simply not going to happen, (except maybe for Google’s SEO company – snitter).

There is simply no reliable tool nor set of tools that can tell us exactly what we need to know. Here are a few problems with conventional tools;

Traffic Data – at this point and time, none of the existing search engines are giving out the search data estimates for a given term, not to mention individual SERP placement traffic estimates. Most tools are using network activity or 3rd party data from ISPs and other locales (meta-search engines etc..). While there is some data, how reliable the estimates are is usually suspect in my experience.

Competitor Data – depending which tools you use for keyword research, a different figure is often used in calculations. Often it is simply the total results (instances) of a given search query. This is not really a tightly targeted approach as it is mere instances of the terms for that query. Such as this;

Latest travel news – Results; 28 200,000  

Now what if we tighten this up? Let’s look at a few other potential comparative data sources that will tighen up the competition numbers

With Quotations “” – Results; 121 000

With All Terms In Title – Results; 5 460

With All Terms in URL – Results 746

 As you can see, with each refinement we gain new insights when compared to other terms in your research set. I personally feel that KW research tools that are using mere instances as we’d find in a straight, non-modified search, they are flawed. If we look at concepts surrounding KEI (keyword effectiveness index) that the data used for the ‘competition’ factor, can have a huge effect on the over-all viability of a given term – thus flawed results can be had. Regardless of which metrics one uses, there is no definitive answer that works.

In the end the two main data sets that can tell us the all important golden goose are not available or definable. This means there is going to be some deeper research into the actual search results and even an intuitive factor involved in targeting the right keywords and phrases.

So what is it all about?

The first part is easy and anyone can do it; roll up your sleeves and dig in. You will have to take the potential terms for targeting and actually start digging into the Top 10-20 competitors to see how well entrenched they are and look for opportunities in there for you to gain a foothold. There really is no other way to truly gauge the competitiveness of a given prospect. We can combine that with query tightening (as explained above) and even some PPC data (money terms tend to also cost more for PPC) and you will start to see a pattern across all of your data and the money terms should emerge.

The second part is not so easy; experience. All search terms were not created equal and often a term with less total results (say 120 00 total instances) will out perform seemingly more popular terms with higher total results ( of maybe 1 200 000). This is not an uncommon occurrence and you really cannot use that as a guide. It takes many years of looking at data, targeting terms and ultimately tracking the results. You need to get a good feel for a given market and watch what terms seem to hold the most value – this is where the art form comes into play.

Keyword research tools are great for collecting data to further the research process – they are not a means to an end…

Resources;

Keyword Research and Targeting – Reliable SEO

Keyword resarch for Bloggers – Copyblogger 

 Extended list of Keyword Research Tools – Ann Smarty 

 Beginners Guide to Keyword Research – SEOmoz

 Keyword resarch and analysis – SEM Basics

 Advanced Keyword research – Hamlet Batista

Popularity: 7% [?]

Search Marketing Tools

To get things going around here I thought I would start by listing a bunch of tools that one can use in concert with their Search Marketing efforts. As we move forward and start looking at the more specific areas of search engine optimization – they will come in handy.

If you have any questions or tools you feel should also be on the list – leave them in the comments.

Web site analysis;

Keyword Targeting

Link Building;

Rank Checking;

Developer Tools;

Misc. Tools;

Know of another great tool? Do tell – leave a comment ;0)

Here’s a list with more tools

Popularity: 10% [?]

Google closes Doubleclick Deal- now owns SEO company

Now that the EU has approved the acquisition of Doubleclick by Google, there is sure to be some serious scrutiny within the SEO industry about the fate of Performics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Doubleclick that is in the business of search engine optimization.

The conflict of interest is apparent.  Google has long maintained that there is a “Chinese Wall” between organic and paid results, and that no amount of money paid to Google could influence organic rankings.  However, every day that Performics remains in business and under the Google umbrella, Google is clearly violating this principle.  They are accepting money for better placement in their index (unless of course Performics doesn’t really do a good job of optimization, in which case a whole new set of problems arise).

The Performics homepage proudly announces that “We are happy to announce that Google has acquired DoubleClick.”  Two clicks from that is the page that describes their organic search engine optimization services.  It doesn’t seem at this time that Performics is worried about the appearance of impropriety.  It seems, rather that they may be trying to capitalize on the relationship.

I know that I would.  If I were marketing Performics and had no orders from the top to the contrary, I would proudly position the company as “owned by Google”.  The underlying implication, of course, would be “who knows how to optimize for Google better than we do?  We ARE Google.”

I recently called Performics and asked if they offered an unconditional money-back guarantee, as was stipulated in the Google recommendations for Webmasters.  I was told that they did not.  Shortly after I published this in an article, the language demanding unconditional money back guarantees was changed (I’m not arrogant enough to believe that these two events were related – I’m only pointing out that clearly someone over at Google recognized the same thing that I did and took steps to do damage control).

Despite these events, and despite the official Google FAQ about the acquisition that said that Google had no plans to dispose of Performics at this time, I still believe that they will spin off the company, or at least the organic search division.  The uproar that will arise from all of the agencies who represent millions of dollars in AdWords spending and that also offer organic search engine optimization will be too much, and, these days at least, it seems that money is what talks over at Google.

Several years ago, when Google was still privately owned, this never would have happened.  But now more than ever it has become apparent that Google is a corporation just like any other, and shareholder interests seem to be more important than the “Don’t Be Evil” mantra.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Dave the AlgoHolic

Cheers...burb

Hello, My name is David… and I am an algo-holic.

Yup, it’s true. While I work as a business development and marketing consultant, one of my greatest passions is search engine optimization. Not entirely because I wanted to learn one of the more effective marketing methods out there, it is truly a fascination. As a reformed numbers geek, the concept of trying to index and serve up the world’s data is a Herculean effort which drew me deep into the technical aspects of information indexing and retrieval. I just love the stuff.

To that end, I have been asked by the fine folks here at Site Reference to drop by from time to time and blog about it for all of you; so I felt an introduction was appropriate.

The Skinny

I started out in the world of web design back in 1998 and we expanded into web marketing in 2002. Prior to that, I was a business consultant in the off-line world and have nearly 20 years of entrepreneurial experience in total. Strangely, I only started blogging 2 years ago as I had always thought of my knowledge as business intelligence and rarely saw the need to share. It was around that time that I became a forum fly and began to enjoy helping others. The Site Reference forums is one of the few that I am still active on; but I do Get Around. Since then I have written more than 200 articles and even an eBook on SEO.

My Companies;

Verve Developments – Custom website design
Reliable SEO – Search Engine Optimization Services
Myos Hosting – Website hosting

My writing;

HuoMah – the Fire Horse Trail (Blog).
SEO Knowledgebase – Company site.
The SEO HandBook – Search Marketing basics.

You can expect a wide variety of topics in the coming months from the educational to the explosive – the entertaining to introspective. We simply never know what will happen next. If you, our fine readers, have questions I encourage you to leave a comment or to get in touch with me personally – it’s an open door policy. I am looking forward to the opportunity that I and my fellow writers have here to not only write for you, but interact as well. That’s the best part about blogging as far as I am concerned – Connecting with the readership.

Getting older by the SERP – David Harry

Popularity: 5% [?]