Quote:
Originally Posted by Greenie
Bill - it was YEARS after I added category recips (which I copied from Murray) that we dropped out of the top rankings on the SE's. I don't think one has anything to do with the other.
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Since I didn't take notes at the time, I can't be sure, but this is my mental model of it.
Cat recips became the standard in 2004, give or take.
18 months later google had recognized them for what they are, an attempt to game google, and started revising it's algos to pare away "excess recips intended only to increase ranking". So, in 2006 these algos start to have effect. Remember, it used to be 3-4 months between major google reshuffles, not instant like today.
Another year passes in which many of the weaker linklists are driven back in the serps, and traffic falls after each google update. You and several others are held up by your history and the number of one way links pointing to you. But you start to weaken. It's late 2007-2008.
Then, and I could be wrong about this, I cheerfully admit, but I personally believe google had it's manual review team (which existed at the time, and I gather has mostly been dissolved) start to hunt specifically for link competitors, directorys and linklists. Over a period of about 8 months, in waves, the bigger linklists suddenly dissappear from top positions they had held for years.
With a few exceptions - the manual review team picked a few "survivors" that were allowed to survive. We all know who those survivors are.
(I'm probably totally wrong about the manual review team idea, it just fits the pattern I seemed to be observing. Anybody is free to come up with their theory, cuz none of us know.).
The manual adjustments that the manual review team made are still in place, artificially holding down a bunch of pages that would otherwise bob up. Thats been the story of 2009.
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Anyway all of this could all be bullshit. I'm full of shit on my best day.
But, the bottom line is, nobody seems to think the cat recip is the magic bullet it used to be.
And it's easier, more flexible, and more time efficient to build without them. Tho I still use them all the time.