On Smelling Rats...

**Vin DSL** · 03-04-2005, 06:31 PM

Sorry for whining, but has anyone else noticed a drop in their SERPs and BLs on Google lately? I have!

For the first time in 7 years, I'm no longer in the #1 postion for 'Lenon' searches on Google, plus my BLs are way down. I used to have 10's of 1000's of BLs on Google. Now, it's in the 900+ range. And, my site is currently #7, according to searches I've done today (and dropping).

I first noticed this trend while revamping my Link Checker a week or so ago...

http://www.lenon.com/modules.php?name=Popularity

It's been even worse since the recent 'referer' debacle.

I strongly suspect the 'problem' is because MSN Search bots are hammering away at my site (plus visitors using MSN Search to access my site), and MSN links are flooding my 'referer' block 24/7. I think the Google algos are punishing me because of those MSN 'referer' links.

Whatta ya think? Are your SERPs and BLs dropping too

**Oldfrog** · 03-04-2005, 08:15 PM

Interesting questions, Vin. I have also gone through the experience of feeding a lot of googlebots 403's when they came in with bad queries and have seen an influx of both MSN and Yahoo bots. At the same time, my SERP's and BL's have slowly but steadily increased. More importantly, I am seeing an overall rise in non-SE traffic, more "other site referrers", and the SERP visits are serving content that is contextually consistent with the search and not based on meta tag keywords. I also note that my overall Google PR is holding consistently at 4. Since I have only had the site open to bots (through robots.txt) for 4 months I am both surprised and pleased.

I guess that I am pleased, anyway. I didn't build the site with the idea of attracting much attention but as a test bed for learning. It may all turn out to work against me in the end.

**Vin DSL** · 03-04-2005, 08:45 PM

I find it odd, to say the least, that I have almost 80k BLs on Yahoo and Altavista, but only 900+ on Google. It used to be the other way around.

Something smells rotten in Mountain View...

**Connie** · 03-04-2005, 10:27 PM

Vin, after this last update a lot of sites dropped in Goggle based on site name. Not all but many were SEO sites. The first thing I would suggest you check is who do you link to. Google has come down hard on outgoing links in the update.

By the way Google is doing another backlinks update. Started yesterday. There are a lot of data centers involved and all of them have not been in sync for at least a month.

Based on the little I know in the last year Google never shows the number of links that Yahoo shows. For my site since MSN went live MSN shows about twice the BLs that Yahoo shows. Google only shows a sample of Back links and it has been that way for at least a year. For example Google shows 50, Yahoo shows 500, MSN shows 1000 and that is checking considering the internal links.

Any way I invite you to visit IHY forums If you want to keep up with what is going on with the SEs.

**Vin DSL** · 03-04-2005, 11:30 PM

Well, good! At least I know it's not just me...

I'm getting more hits than ever, so screw Google! They just dug their own grave...

**Ron** · 03-05-2005, 02:01 AM

Have I mentioned that on my forum, I have lost 50% of my visits, but almost none of my page views? All the hits from google searches dried up... but each and everyone of them only looked at one page, and left. Almost never a second click. I half feel like saying "Good riddance." So much for awesome Google targetting and relevance in search results.

On the "other half" of my site, traffic is level to perhaps down a tad, but again, page views are still high. On some other sites, 90% of my traffic comes from the new msn. Diversity is cool!

Nitey night.

**Vin DSL** · 03-10-2005, 04:45 PM

In dunno! This drop in SERPs and BLs on Google is inexplicable!

I'm going to test the theory, hide my 'Last Referers' block from public view, and see if that makes a difference...

**Connie** · 03-10-2005, 11:39 PM

No doubt that diversity is good. Ranking well with Google is better. For the same key words Google will drive more traffic that Yahoo and MSN combined. Google traffic converts better. That is my experience.

On the other hand I'm glad that all my eggs are no longer in one SE basket.

**Vin DSL** · 03-10-2005, 11:43 PM

MSN is drawing WAY more traffic to my site than Google ever did, so let 'em eat cake!

I'm just curious if 'that' is why Google is throwing 'cold water' on my site...

**Vin DSL** · 03-21-2005, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by Vin DSL

In dunno! This drop in SERPs and BLs on Google is inexplicable!

I'm going to test the theory, hide my 'Last Referers' block from public view, and see if that makes a difference...

Hrm... 10 days later...

**jason** · 03-21-2005, 07:22 AM

Vin, have you tried using the 'rel="nofollow"' attribute in your referrer links? Google will bypass any link that has that attribute in it so that it won't hurt you in the ranking when your site gets referer spam. It was designed for bloggers to mitigate comment spam, but it might help your standings too. I'd be interested in seeing what happens if you implement that...

--Jason

**Ron** · 03-21-2005, 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by jason

Vin, have you tried using the 'rel="nofollow"' attribute in your referrer links? Google will bypass any link that has that attribute in it so that it won't hurt you in the ranking when your site gets referer spam. It was designed for bloggers to mitigate comment spam, but it might help your standings too. I'd be interested in seeing what happens if you implement that...

--Jason

I have implemented that throughout my site. No more Mr. Nice Guy giving away links to just anybody who posts. If they want a valid link, either I have to want to give them a "real" one, or they are going to have to reciprocate with a "real" one.

So far, I believe I have added the rel="nofollow" on all but a very small handful of links.

I wonder if there's a recursive html crawler out there that could be quickly modified to walk the whole site and find links that do/don't have the attribute.... just to be sure! Know of any? Anyone?

**Vin DSL** · 03-21-2005, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by jason

Google will bypass any link that has that attribute in it so that it won't hurt you in the ranking when your site gets referer spam...

Noted... Thanks!

I only have a minute...

Ron, have you ever tried Poodle Predictor? I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but here's the link:

http://gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go