Google's New Rolling Updates

Has Google Gone Insane?

Yes, the biggest, baddest, best free-search engine on the planet has had me bent for the last 4 weeks.  Here's why...

 

Back in the good old days (i.e. this spring), you could pretty much be assured that if you had a web site that contained lots of good content, some reasonable search engine optimization, and some recognition in the form of links from other web sites to yours, you would score well in Google's search engine ranking.

 

In fact, Audrey and I had nearly 500 1st and 2nd page rankings in Google for just about every little niche keyword that we targeted.

 

And it wasn't terribly difficult either.  We knew what search terms folks were using, we knew just about how long our pages needed to be to make both the search engine spiders and shoppers happy, and we enjoyed lots of friendly links from other web sites, increasing our Google Page Rank, which increased our search engine positioning.

 

Please be patient, I'm setting you up for something...

 

Anyway - During this time, we used a phenomenon called the "Google Dance" to time the release of our new web sites and changes in our current site's Search Engine Optimization Strategies.

 

A "Google Dance" is when Google re-evaluates its database and assigns search engine positions to all of the web sites that it's crawled.

 

So, a few days before the "Dance" (usually on the 25^th of the month), we made sure that we published the changes to our stores, our mini-sites, our affiliate sites, etc.  Then, the Google "FreshBot" would visit our sites, index (record) our new content, and a few days after the Dance, we could look at the effectiveness of our new strategies.

 

ALL

OF

THAT

HAS

CHANGED.

 

Cut To:  The present state of Google. 

 

Remember the Google Dance? - GONE.

Google now does what's called a rolling update - meaning that as soon as it's spiders have indexed a certain amount of new WWW information, Google starts gyrating and search engine rankings change.  In fact, in the last 3 weeks, we've seen new material show up in Google in just a few days. 

 

That's a Good thing.

 

Now, here's the Bad.

 

To get to the point of functional rolling updates, those Shrewd Engineers at Google had to seriously tweak the programs that give web pages their search engine rankings. 

 

And that's where things got funky. Real Funky.

 

Things got so bad that at one point, if you searched for "Google.com" AT Google, Google was NOT the first Search Result.  I’m sure the Google Chairman was thrilled.

 

Dozens of associates of mine have admitted that they had disappeared from Google all together.  I've personally seen a 1-page web site BEAT Circuit City for the search term "Retail Electronics".

 

What - a - mess...

 

The search engine forums were flooded with desperate cries for help.  Moderators were urging calm, but for the most part, starting on about August 9th, it's been sheer pandemonium.  One forum topic that had almost 100 reply-postings had the title “Unbelievable Garbage!”. 

 

Fortunately, the folks at Google have responded.

 

 

Okay, at the writing of this newsletter, Google has started to shape up.  It's heard the pleas of honest, legitimate e-commerce store owners and web masters and has begun the process of getting itself together.

 

Things are slowly returning to normal.  The honest search engine optimization strategies that have been working for the last 6 months are slowly starting to see results again - with one very important factor added.

 

It's a concept called "Backward Links".  This concept has been around for a long time, but it's more important now than it's ever been.

 

Let me explain:

 

Google often defines how important a particular web page is based on not only the elements that are on the page, but also by how many pages are linking to it. 

 

There used to be a theory that a web page could score HIGHLY in Google's search engine results based on the number and quality of incoming links alone.

 

This is NO LONGER a theory.  Google favors, heavily, web pages that have lots of other pages linking to them.

 

There are 2 kinds of Backward Links.   The first, and pretty effective, is the kind that are from your own site.  If you've always wondered why your home page ranks so well, think about how your web site it structured...  Most of the internal pages of your site have links back to your home page, right?  So, when Google sees this, it figures that since a bunch of web pages in your site are all pointing at your home page, your home page must be pretty important...

 

Larger sites can create their own “Popularity” simply because Google evaluated relevancy on a page by page basis.  So, if you’ve got a lot of pages on your site, and they link back to your home page, you’re creating “Backward” links.

 

The other kind of backward link is one that comes from another site.  Now, these can be GOLD.  If a very popular site or directory has a link pointing to you, it could have a seriously positive impact on your search engine position.

 

So, now more than ever, you need to work on getting other sites to link to your own. 

 

Here's one way to do it.

 

Head over to Google and type in a keyword that you'd like to have a link to your site for and the phrase “+directory”.

 

For example, if I were looking for a link from a directory about swords, I'd type into Google (with the quotes) "sword+directory"

 

Also, I might try "sword+link" or even "sword+add link".

 

What I will end up getting from Google is a list of pages that might allow me to add a link to my Yahoo! Store just by filling out a web form!

 

How cool is that?  Pretty Cool.

 

Let’s address one other New and Improved Google Issue.

 

If you're having trouble getting into Google, having a link from another web site that's already been crawled by Google is the FASTEST way to get your own site indexed.

 

Remember the "FreshBot”?  Google's "FreshBot" is always snooping around the net looking for new content and new web sites.  If it were to find a new link on a web site that's already in it's index, it will follow it - and discover your site!

 

Google favors new sites found in this manner so well that they often climb the rankings rapidly, at least for a while.  Google seems to give a boost to sites that it finds through these backward links for about a week or two.  Then, you're site might disappear while the Google Master Computer chews on all of the new data it receives.  Then, after a time, your site's ranking will slowly stabilize.  And if you've done it right, you'll end up sitting pretty.

 

How well does this work?  I'll give you an example.

 

At one time a2armory.com had about 400 backwards links to its home page.  Google thought so much of our site that it put us in the number one position for the search term "Medieval Weapons".  Not too shabby.

 

When Google went insane, in a fit of memory loss, it "Forgot" that we had that many incoming links.  We dropped to the third page for that term...

 

Now, Google has been on medication for a little while now, and it seems to be re-adding our backwards links at a rate of 10% per month.  Every time it does, we move up in the search engine rankings for that term.

 

So, backwards links can mean the difference between page 3 and page 1.

 

Get them.  Get A LOT of them.

 

In terms of the big picture, things will eventually end up for the better. Sean McPheat from “How to Get a top 5 ranking in Google and Yahoo!” isn’t worried.  After all, he says, it’s in Google’s best interest to rank a site that’s about a specific thing specifically. 

All right friend... We've got our eye on Google, as a matter of fact, we've got 4 eyes on Google, and we're making notes of its every wiggle.  As we find out more, we'll pass the information on to you.

 

In the mean time, did summer just decide to end or what?  One day I can't breath because it's so hot outside and the next day our cats have started growing their winter coats...

 

The weather might be as crazy as Google...

 

 

Be well,

 

Andy Jenkins

http://www.online-store-profits.com