My site was impacted by Google’s updates all this year and last. Not sure why. And despite Ken’s helpful updates in the forums, few sites have recovered from the combination of the anti-spam updates. There are many quality sites that have been really hit by the updates. And since many sites are larger, it’s hard to imagine how much work would be needed.
My coffee site was impacted, and despite now having over 300 pages, there are almost no pages ranked well in Google. The weird things is that Google traffic when it comes to my site is skittish, its lower quality, and doesn’t convert well. So I’m beginning to wonder if that’s the kind of traffic that is really desirable.
Google Facing the Future
I think the real situation is that Google is trying to fix itself up to deal with the threat from Facebook search. I believe that Google realizes how much of a threat FB search would be, and FB hasn’t really started search yet.
I also suspect that the traditional model of keyword focused content as we practice it is broken as a result of this trend to social search. Ken hasn’t admitted it yet, but he’s slowly getting to that conclusion.
The reality is that Google controls search, but it doesn’t control the future. And we’re caught in the crosshairs of this paradigm shift because it hasn’t really finished yet. So there is a lot of flux.
Do what you can
My recommendations would be: fix what you can, forget what you can’t, make contact with real people about your passion, and forget about Google. It’s hard, but if you make your visitors happy, then who cares about Google!? Let Google follow you, not be a slave to Google.
And in other news, it seems Nori has almost kicked Google Adsense out of her site! She’s removed almost all her adsense ads… I had reduced my Adsense to one block a page, … it seems stupid to my way of thinking to help Google earn money so it can spank our websites as it sees fit.
Been Pandalysed
I don’t think many people actually KNOW how to get out of the Panda Trap. I reckon part of Panda is designed to be a sandpit. So that people who do get out, don’t actually know what specifics tilted the balance. I doubt if even Google know all the specifics that affect rankings these days.