Google algorithm change overnight

[Frank Benjamin]

found a great example of thin spammy site getting a top result in google last night...one of my own lol, i built a 5 page microsite with a keyword rich (spammy) domain name around 6 months ago to link out from the homepage with the keyword in question to one of main sites, as a bit of an seo experiment, well the thin microsite is now ranking no2 in google uk for the keyword..crazy

yeah, one of my WP.com blogs actually ranks for a keyword that an article on my site ranked for. The funny thing is that the WP.com page that is now in the SERPS is an excerpt of a post on my main site. I completely forgot about using a syndication plugin when I first started. I meant to change that post at some point but never got around to it.

But anyway, how does that paragraph offer a better user experience that my site that has the full article as well as many more posts that actually provide betting tips - not just reviews of sportsbooks.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around this update and figure out why I was slapped so hard.

One lesson I learned is that I need to not only diversify my links, but also my revenue and marketing strategy. I have been slacking on the latter. I am refocusing on it more now and working on a new plan.

Hopefully I figure something out sooner or later. I would be happy if my one money post found its way back to the top 5!

[roger]

If google had started out with this algorithm they would have been just another failed start-up company.

Agreed 100%. I haven't seen SERPs this bad since the 90's.