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Suddenly Dropped From Google

By Bill French

Services for Real Estate Pros with MyST Technology Partners

October 09, 2006 03:20 PM

I recently saw this message come through the WebProWorld forum... it cracked my up.

"From what I've been reading, this recent Google page rank update/data push from last weekend hasn't really effected many websites. For us, we saw a huge drop in traffic (about 60%) and the same drop in revenues. It's especially troubling because the entire site has not been dropped. We still have a few keywords in the top 10 listings, but many have been shifted to page 4-5 and even more completely dropped. One of the pages that got completely dropped even has a DMOZ link to it. I know that doesn't mean that it should automatically be listed, but it's been in the top 10 for years and now is suddenly gone. I must be triggering some kind of filter, but I just can't seem to figure out which one."

For starters, I have trouble sympathizing with people that believe that they are entitled to top rankings because they've always had them in the past. Thinking like this is just plain silly - absurd actually.

It amazes me that people who lose top ten [short tail] rankings never seem to consider the possibility that a competitor stole the positions from them. Why does everyone think *they* deserve the top ten for a handful of terms? Seeing evidence that short tail rankings can evaporate so suddently validates my assertion that short tail rankings - those typical of traditional SEO tactics - are not sustainable and highly prone to being clobbered by a competitor. If you optimize your web site for a few dozen popular terms, chances are at least one other competitor has also predicted the need to optimize for the same terms. Notwithstanding the fact that popular/predictable terms represent only 3% to 7% of total search traffic, they also put your search marketing strategy at great risk.

Google has about 12 billion pages in its index — give or take a few billion. Looking for the *one* reason that a page dropped out of the top ten is, well, really ignorant. For starters, a page ranks well as a result of hundreds of measurements taken by Google for each page. To even ponder the idea that one thing may cause your content to rank well or to suffer low visibility, indicates how deeply misunderstood business people are about SEO and how search engines really work.

" ...it's been in the top 10 for years and now is suddenly gone."

Hmmm… perhaps, over the past several years, there have been 10 pages published that are at least as relevant—and newer or fresher. As for “suddenly”, to paraphrase Steven Wright, all pages drop out of the top 10 suddenly. You’re in the top 10… you’re in… you’re in… BANG! You’re not in. ;-)

"I must be triggering some kind of filter, but I just can't seem to figure out which one."

I can – it’s the filter that says you ain’t the best recommendation for that subject. [sigh]

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Anonymous

this is the worst piece i have ever read!

May 23, 2007 05:03 PM

Bill French

MyST Technology Partners - Dillon, CO

"_this is the worst piece i have ever read!_"

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. If you have another 8 seconds, kindly tell me why no other articles you've ever read are worse than this one.

May 23, 2007 05:51 PM

you guys are pin heads

if youve got a listing on google at the top for a number of years of course you'de want to know why suddenly your listing has been pushed back to page 400. And most of the things your suggesting dont even apply, As if suddenly 800 thoughsand competitors made thier way up to the top. In this kind of situation you'll often find that the 800 thoughsand listing you fell behind dont even have the correct content for the search.

Sure being up top isnt a right, but when your working to provide a decent listing with the approriate parameters and good updated content and even that doesnt get you back to page 20. Thats a problem maybe not for hobbiests or personal pages but in business its a problem.

rubbahheads..

Jul 03, 2007 06:11 AM

Rubba...

"If youve got a listing on google at the top for a number of years of course you'de want to know why suddenly your listing has been pushed back to page 400."

Indeed, but that's not what this article was about. Rather, it was about a search ranking that fell out of the top ten and into the top 20.

"As if suddenly 800 thoughsand competitors made thier way up to the top."

You apparently didn't catch the net drop in ranking that these folks were complaining about - it was only 8 places, not 800,000.

"In this kind of situation you'll often find that the 800 thoughsand listing you fell behind dont even have the correct content for the search."

Yes - that happens frequently in Google and all search engines for that matter; the results are nonsense and typically this is likely to be caused by two possibilities:

The search engine result is flawed in some way - either the indices are corrupt, the engine is being updated, or the portion of the search infrastructure you happen to access is being reorganized for whatever reason.
The search query is flawed or unanticipated by the search infrastructure. It is possible to stymie Google from time to time; it is not a perfect piece of machinery and neither is English.

"...when your working to provide a decent listing with the approriate parameters and good updated content and even that doesnt get you back to page 20. Thats a problem maybe not for hobbiests or personal pages but in business its a problem."

Yes, I agree - for business people it is a problem, and when Google places other sites higher it has reasons for doing so. Now some of those reasons may in fact be mistakes on Google's part, but in most cases they aren't mistakes - they are based on quantifiable hueristics that are carefully considered and change from time to time.

But more important - there's a flaw in saying that anyone should be able to get into the top twenty with decent and fresh content. What if there are 100 sites that have reasonably similar content about the same topic. It's mathematically impossible for all 100 sites to be in the top twenty. The only alternative is to shoot for the 80th percentile or better - e.g., you must compete and compete well to be considered more recommendable than 80 of the 100 sites gunning for that recommendation.

I appreciate your comment.

Jul 04, 2007 03:31 PM

Suddenly Dropped From Google

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Bill French

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