| Question - My page no longer comes
up tops at Google for a particular search term. Why not? |
| |
| Answer - Google, like all search engines, uses
a system called an algorithm to rank the web pages it knows about.
All search engines make periodic changes to their ranking algorithms
in an effort to improve the results they show searchers. These changes
can cause pages to rise or fall in rank. Small changes may produce
little ranking differences, while large changes may have a dramatic
impact. Google made a change to its algorithm at the end of last month.
This fact is obvious to any educated search observer, plus Google
itself confirms it. The change has caused many people to report that
some of their pages fell in ranking. These pages no longer please
Google's algorithm as much as in the past. If your page has suddenly
dropped after being top ranked for a relatively long period of time
(at least two or three months), then it's likely that your page is
one of those no longer pleasing the new Google algorithm. Running
what's called the filter test may help confirm this for you, at least
in the short term.
Keep in mind that while many pages dropped in rank, many pages
also consequently rose. However, those who dropped are more likely
to complain about this in public forums that those who've benefited
from the move. That's one reason why you may hear that "everyone"
has lost ranking. In reality, for any page that's been dropped,
another page has gained. In fact, WebmasterWorld is even featuring
a thread with some comments from those who feel the change has helped
them. |
| |
| Question - Does a change of web
host penalize your search engine ranking? Or do you have to go through
the submission process again? |
| |
| Answer - You shouldn't have any problems with moving
to a new host as far as your domain is concerned. As long as the url
listed in the SE still resolves to the site you should have no problems.
If the site is down for awhil and the spiders stop by you may run
into trouble. The key is 'no downtime'. |
| |
| Question - Has Google done this
to force people to buy ads? |
| |
| Answer - Some feel Google has dropped their sites
to make them buy ads. In the short term, purchasing ads will be the
only way they can be found. For some, it may even be the only long-term
solution. In either case, it means more money for Google. However,
there's also plenty of evidence of people who, despite being advertisers,
lost their "free" top rankings. There are also people who've
never run ads that continue to rank well. This makes it difficult
for anyone to conclusively say that this change was ad driven. Google
completely denies charges it's trying to boost ad sales. The company
says the algorithm change was done as part of its continual efforts
to improve results. Google has always said that there is no connection
between paying for an ad and getting listed in its "free"
results. In my view, there are far easier ways that Google could boost
ad revenue uptake without doing sneaky, behind-the-scene actions --
which is why I tend to believe this is not why the change happened.
For instance, Google could make the first five links on a page --
rather than the first two links -- be paid ads for certain queries.
They might also make this happen for terms determined to be commercial
in orientation and offer up a defense that they've determined the
commercial intent of the query is strong enough to justify this. |
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