Google algorithm change overnight

[bestbingowebsites]

There has been a Google algorithm update overnight dubbed the "webspam update" - has this affected anyone?

The SERPs have changed massively and it seems to be bringing up some really irrelevant results, which defeats Google's objective. I wonder if they have made a slight error and will be adjusting/reversing it.

[vmlinuz]

Yes, one of our sites is ranking much better now :O

[crowngate]

Had a no 1 ranking go to page 13! It was a test phrase, spent a month getting it there and boom, gone overnight.

[Rummy]

Yap! Some of my keywords got down in Ranking almost it's on 2nd position from many days but dropped down to 3-6 Positions... how it's happened? drastic change like this i had never seen.

[davemerry]

Castle has done quite well from the web spam ranking, although some of my affiliate sites have dropped down considerably. Usually we seem immune to these algorithm changes as we're quite careful.

I'll be following this thread with an eager eye to see other peoples thoughts.

[ddm]

1 exactmatch domain vanished for me.
Looks like it only affected like 1/50 of my sites.

No surprise for this domain, as it was heavily templated, used non-unique db data from elsewhere and had next to zero unique content.

[baldidiot]

Kind of hoping this gets rolled back a bit because a few of my sites have taken hits.

Something that I've noticed in a large number of cases where the rankings have had big drops (eg: gone from #2 - #36, or whatever) is that the page which used to rank is gone out of the rankings, and the new lower ranking is actually a completely different page on the same site. Smells a bit penalty esque.

Also from the looks of the serps at the moment, it may be time to break out the EMD's...

[thebookiesoffers]

Kind of hoping this gets rolled back a bit because a few of my sites have taken hits.

Something that I've noticed in a large number of cases where the rankings have had big drops (eg: gone from #2 - #36, or whatever) is that the page which used to rank is gone out of the rankings, and the new lower ranking is actually a completely different page on the same site. Smells a bit penalty esque.

Also from the looks of the serps at the moment, it may be time to break out the EMD's...

seen some very strange results so far, will probably take another couple of days yet to all settle down. does look like there has been quite a few sites caught in the 'friendly fire' as well

[SlotsAff]

haven't noticed any changes really - not sure if that is a good or bad thing

[davemerry]

Something that I've noticed in a large number of cases where the rankings have had big drops (eg: gone from #2 - #36, or whatever) is that the page which used to rank is gone out of the rankings, and the new lower ranking is actually a completely different page on the same site. Smells a bit penalty esque.

Agree with that on some of my hits.

From my side it appears to be totally on a keyword level, rather than a whole page level. E.g. an internal page will still rank for the more 'roulette' but not for 'play roulette'.

Bouncing around everywhere at the moment, so going to wait until next week for things to settle rather than potentially stoke the fire.

[alexcruncha]

Pavlos, thanks for starting this thread.

Apparently there was a Panda update a few days before the webspam update so people should be aware of this too. I have completely disappeared for a search term that I was around #1 for one and a half years and I now see scraper sites on page 1 for that search term. I see thin affiliate sites with very little backlinks on the first page for heavily competitive search terms and things just dont seem right. I have also noticed that a lot of strong sites have not been affected much but others have vanished from search (or are on page 5 or something).

I have also seen examples posted on the net of blogs with no posts being in pos 1 for major competitive search terms.

I think Dave is right... we need to leave things to settle before we see what happens but I would absolutely love this to be rolled back. It just appears that it has had the opposite affect that was intended as loads of webspam has surfaced in the results that were not there before.

[thebookiesoffers]

Pavlos, thanks for starting this thread.

Apparently there was a Panda update a few days before the webspam update so people should be aware of this too. I have completely disappeared for a search term that I was around #1 for one and a half years and I now see scraper sites on page 1 for that search term. I see thin affiliate sites with very little backlinks on the first page for heavily competitive search terms and things just dont seem right. I have also noticed that a lot of strong sites have not been affected much but others have vanished from search (or are on page 5 or something).

I have also seen examples posted on the net of blogs with no posts being in pos 1 for major competitive search terms.

I think Dave is right... we need to leave things to settle before we see what happens but I would absolutely love this to be rolled back. It just appears that it has had the opposite affect that was intended as loads of webspam has surfaced in the results that were not there before.

the panda update around April 19th so check your stats to see when traffic bombed and that will tell people what hit them

[mike65]

Definitely a sudden change in keyword rankings overnight on 24 April. For some pages it was devastating, but for others it was a boost. Do you think it will get better or worse?

[alexcruncha]

my traffic actually increased to highest levels ever after April 19th... then my traffic took a nose dive yesterday according to the stats... so for sure the webspam update is what hit my site. Its really sickening especially as I have been doing everything correct as far as I know.

[alexcruncha]

An update: all of the keywords I was ranking for on page 1 are no longer there... but I am now on page 1 for a couple of other keywords that weren't there before but they are not ones I have been going after. Its driving me mad.

[lots0]

...Its driving me mad.

Don't let it get to ya... or it really will dive you nuts...

If your pages are jumping around in the SERP...
IMO that is a sign that you should check your out bound links, very carefully to make sure your not linking to any "bad" neighborhoods (With this new algo tweak, google will almost certainly be adding new "BAD" neighborhoods to their list.).

And I would suggest everyone make double sure to "no_follow" all affiliate and paid links.

[capes]

One of my sites has taken a massive hit... I've lost 75% of google traffic overnight! Almost every page that appeared in the top 10 for certain keyword searches have completely vanished.

Most of my casino review pages are nowhere to be found now... (although site:www.... shows them as still listed) It surprises me that i've been hit with the 'webspam' update, my pages are unique, reviews are regularly checked and updated, and contain almost no outbound links. I haven't exchanged links in months, haven't bought or sold links for years, and i've never overdone keywords within content, but still it seems i've been penalized.

I'm interested to see what peoples actions will be to recover from this... Maybe its too early to start panicking as its only a few days in... I've read on other forums that blank pages and low quality sites with very little content are showing up in the top results in google for competitive keywords... maybe a temporary glitch?!

[mike65]

What do you mean by using "no-follow" for affiliate links? Affiliate links for the brands you advertise on your site? I didn't see many sites using no-follow for the brands they advertise, but I was thinking of it. Actually, I am thinking right now that all external links to your advertised sites should use rel no-follow.

Don't let it get to ya... or it really will dive you nuts...

If your pages are jumping around in the SERP...
IMO that is a sign that you should check your out bound links, very carefully to make sure your not linking to any "bad" neighborhoods (With this new algo tweak, google will almost certainly be adding new "BAD" neighborhoods to their list.).

And I would suggest everyone make double sure to "no_follow" all affiliate and paid links.

[Ryanloop]

Anyone know exactly what were the parameters that change?

I read somewhere that about 5% of the sites would be affected, in my case 100% suffered some changes for the better and others worse ...

[cass]

It seems like most sites have been hit quite hard especially those with quality content. To be honest I don't think Google got it 100% right.

Read this: http://www.webpronews.com/webspam-an...012-04#respond