Monday, December 16, 2003
It has been exactly one month since Google introduced its
infamous Florida Update. As the Florida Update has brought about
the largest and most comprehensive shake-up of Google’s listings
ever, it has generated a great deal of interest around the world
and genuine panic for the literally millions of webmasters who’s
sites have been adversely affected by the change. The following
article is a compilation of our writings about the Florida
Update since November 17th, the first Monday after the shift.
Monday November 17, 2003 - Happy Monday Morning Folks... DON'T
PANIC!
Have you taken a look at Google today? Yes, what you are seeing
is real. Google is showing totally different listings on the
search engine returns pages today. Actually, this weirdness
started sometime on Friday night or Saturday morning. Most of
our clients have not been affected and the only one we have seen
effected has had his rankings rise dramatically. Our site has
been affected though, rather badly at that. From the #6 spot
under the phrase "Search Engine Placement", the happy-go-lucky
StepForth site has dropped past the fifth page of returns.
I think this is a temporary thing. We last saw such a massive
shake-up six months ago and the listings went back to normal
after a few days. This sort of shake-up generally indicates that
Google is re-ordering their entire database of spidered sites.
Something big is happening at Google but we're not sure what it
is. What we do know is that since a major update of Google's
database started on Friday night, the search returns have been
extremely buggy with long-term Top10 pages dropping from
existence, recorded back links decreasing or disappearing for
many sites, and more than the usual amount of spam appearing in
the Top10. We have also noted the disappearance of one of their
major servers (www-sj.google.com).
Google has been delivering questionable returns for several
months now with spam and duplicate listings often making it into
the Top10. The last time their listings have been this upset was
in October 2002 when Google tried introducing Blog entries and
news releases into its general listings. Within two weeks, the
listings had been restored to a shakey state of "normal" but
that marked the beginning of strange and often spammy entries
into the Top10. This month's update is being referred to in the
SEO community as the "Florida Update" and has a lot of SEO
practitioners scratching their heads. Our current advice is to
wait it out for at least two weeks and see what Google does next.
December 3, 2003 - Google’s Florida Update
The impact of Google's Florida Update has not been fully
realized yet, but it appears the damage will be extensive
considering the reports we are getting from some clients.
Literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions of websites
have seemingly disappeared from Google's listings, most of whom
enjoyed a Top10 placement before the massive update which
started on November 16th. Like most retailers, ecommerce sites
that have faded from the listings needed a good Christmas season
to remain viable into the next year and many of them staked
their sales plans on a their previously strong placements at
Google. The fallout will be noticeable, particularly among small
businesses where advertising options are limited by small
business budgets. Small businesses, however, will not be the
only companies facing an uncertain future because of the Florida
Update. When the SEO community starts receiving calls from the
mainstream media and people who are not clients, asking what is
wrong with Google; one knows that Google itself has a problem
that goes far beyond their data centers. As one of the pioneers
of the web, Lee Roberts of The Web Doctor points out, "It was
word-of-mouth that generated their popularity because people
could find what they were looking for. Now, we only find sites
with less quality content and less sites that offer what we
want." The Florida Update encompasses the most substantial
changes to Google's famed ranking algorithm in the young
company's history. There are several theories as to why Google
forced this update. Some say that Google is trying to force
small businesses to join their highly profitable AdWords program
by making such a comprehensive update just before the Christmas
shopping season. Others say that Google has always used the
weeks around the US Thanksgiving holiday to make changes in the
hopes that the sudden decrease in traffic over what is often a
4-day weekend will give their engineers enough time to introduce
a new algorithm, (and fix any minor errors), without causing
massive disruptions to their normal users. A third theory, (the
one I lean towards), states that Google was simply tired of
being gamed by the growing cadre of less ethical players in the
SEO sector and has simply changed the rules overnight by
applying this new algorithm. Whatever the reason, the damage is
being done and now advertisers and web-users want to know what
to expect next. Unfortunately, that is not an easy question to
answer as Google does not comment on any changes to their
algorithm, therefore the only thing we can do is offer
experienced and educated guesses. I suspect that the folks at
Google know they have a major problem on their hands and are
working to fix it. We have seen MAJOR spider activity from
Google-Bot in the past 48-hours and see evidence that another
Google-Dance is currently underway. We have seen updates to the
algorithm in the past. The most recent happened earlier this
summer and the one before that was in October 2002. Each time
Google augmented its algorithm with a new feature or filter,
massive dislocation was temporarily felt across the commercial
web. Both times, however, Google began producing relevant
results within a matter of weeks. The new filters added to this
update were too comprehensive and penalized sites that Google
couldn't have been targeting on purpose. Again, I suggest that
Google's engineering staff knows this, and if they don't, their
customer relations and PR departments are most certainly telling
them. I expect to see parts of this filter retained and applied
to the formula that eventually evolves into their new algorithm
but I simply can't see Google keeping this algorithm, continuing
to serving up spam, and throwing its hard-earned reputation out
the window. Regardless of the number of MBAs they have on staff,
Google's brain trust is simply too smart for that. Google is not
in the business of driving websites out of business. Google
exists to make money by providing the most relevant listings
possible, a goal they are clearly not achieving. As Lee Roberts
stated above, Google was built on (and, implicitly can be
brought down by), word-of-mouth advertising, a fact that cannot
be lost on the management at Google. Google is not in the
extortion business and has in fact, built its reputation on
being above reproach in the separation of paid advertising
(AdWords), and the general free listings. I have a difficult
time accepting the theory that Google is simply trying to
increase AdWords revenues, or increase its own perceived value
before issuing the expected IPO next quarter. In reality, what I
think we are seeing is Google trying to reclaim its power when
it comes to choosing how it will rank websites. Think about this
update as a pendulum. Before the update happened, the pendulum
had swung to one extreme where, with enough hard work, some
could make Google do almost anything they wanted it to. Now,
with the application of the Florida Update, Google has pushed
the pendulum back to the other extreme. Eventually, and based on
past observation, the pendulum will find its way back to the
middle. As for those of us adversely affected by the Florida
Update, StepForth's best advice is to continue making minor
changes to your site as normal. We do not advise a full
reoptimizaton at this point, a task that would not likely
produce strong results before the end of the purchasing season
anyway, until the SEO sector has an honest handle on what is
happening at Google. As a wise and wonderful person recently
told me, "... you can't push a rope."
About the author:
Jim Hedger is the SEO Manager of StepForth Search Engine
Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth is the
result of the consolidation of BraveArt Website Management,
Promotion Experts, and Phoenix Creative Works, and has provided
professional search engine placement and management services
since 1997. http://www.stepforth.com/ Tel - 250-385-1190 Toll
Free - 877-385-5526 Fax - 250-385-1198
