Me neither - lol...

Then again I haven't seen many reports of success in doing anything to retrieve lost rankings since 'Florida' happened... everybody is panicking and looking for reasons / answers (understandably).

The one thing that causes me the most hassle & wasted time is 'seo gurus' who preach as facts what are really only guesses :(

urb - that article is very interesting - 'clumsy attempt' is the 'keyword' there though... whatever the hell they tried to do it sure has been clumsy!

Jay,
I wasn't doing anything 'shady' - had a nicely balanced index page when I last optimised it - then I added a lot of link exchanges (most of them included my keywords) - when I checked my concentration the other day the count for 'porn' had increased from 16% to 26% - lol (the same for several other phrases) - so now I'm one of those spamming bastards too!
I've since reduced it a little but I don't want to make any major attempt to de/re-optimise because I'm sure they haven't finished with this dance (although they may well take some time out to work on the problems) - If I make changes I'll never know for sure whether that had any bearing...
It's amazing how a few link exchanges can change the balance of words on a page though |doh|

I'm not saying you are doing anything shady. My SE traffic actaully went up with "Florida" - I just lost a few big terms. The people are just having to type more obsure search patterns to find the porn now.

>>>Then again I haven't seen many reports of success in doing anything to retrieve lost rankings since 'Florida' happened... everybody is panicking and looking for reasons / answers (understandably).<<<

Really, I wouldn't expect to see that info shared. If you found a loophole through Google's traps, would you post it all over the net? ;)

I'd expect over time some common factors start to pop up. I doubt this will be a quick fix sorta deal. :(

>>>The one thing that causes me the most hassle & wasted time is 'seo gurus' who preach as facts what are really only guesses<<<

Yeah- but it's good in a way, since people can compare notes and come to some sort of general conclusion. I think most know they aren't facts, but guesses based upon experience.

The biggest problem is that nobody can agree on anything because it almost seems like each results page has it's own set of rules..with a bit of random results tossed in for good measure.

I just keep thinking of those ubber dorks in thier casual outfits sitting on their bean bag chairs, eating free lunch, getting massages while at work, all the while knowing they will get some SERIOUS money when Google IPO's.

Doesn't matter at all if they wiped out 90% of the top 100 sites from their respective phrases. They laugh and go eat their free lunch then get thier free massage.

Also, the general media views SEO as 'cheating' more than not. That's why the New York Post titled an article something along the lines of "NO MORE FREE LUNCH FOR FREE LOADERS", or something to that effect.

I recall in some forum where i picked a nickname with 'seo' in it. Someone commented "So, you're one of those people who puts up a Britteny Spears site but when clicked on it takes us to a porn site, huh?"

There's no in between with most non web people. SEO=scum/spam/redirects

Only thing different this update is that it took out a lot of clean sites...sites that weren't optimized in any way shape or form.

Somewhat ironic that GOOGLE rode the wave of good SEO's trying to get relevant sites to the top of on target phrases for a couple years...then dumped us for the juicey money phrases and left the scraps only.

OK- sorry for the rant. :)

This thread needs more unfounded opinion , baseless speculation and crying SEOs.....

Deal with it and move on people...

DD

SIR, YES, SIR

Jay - I know you didn't direct that at me, just thought it's make you smile :)

Alphawolf - nice rant - (and you're right of course).

DD - crying seo's - lol - what's an seo? (oh yeah I remember... one of those people who puts up a Britney Spears site etc etc) :)

..... how to deal with it? That's the question :)

Actually, the entire thing is a plot by terr-ists to make us go crazy, and turn on ourselves and our leaders. Google has actually been taken over by bin hiding, and this is the result.

That enough specualtion, DD?

Alex
|jester|

DangerDave,

Not sure how the quotes under our nicknames are picked (# of posts or just random?) but for that post you got a good one.

:)

This is the search engine section. Look at the thread title. It's a place to rant.

It's not easy and actually impossible for any curious SEO'er to 'get over it'.

Entire industries have been wiped out during this update. OK- over dramatic...they switched to all Overture/AdWords- but that cannot be sustained for long.

Probably worse than that- is the fact a couple years of knowledge is down the tubes. Maybe not the core parts, but most of it. That's a hard pill to swallow, but it's starting to digest now.

It *is* a formula and eventually a few people will get into the meat of it.

But, for sure there are only so many hours in a day and it's probably best suited to building websites.

adding: Also, if you've done work strictly as SEO, clients want a game plan. They don't get over it. ;) The saving grace is that all their competitors was knocked off the index as well.

RawAlex- Plot to make us go crazy? Sign me up.

i really feel for the SEO people who have to explain to cranky businesspeople why they took money to get a site well ranked and now it's gone from the listings.

thank goodness i only have to answer to myself.

eatapeach,

Luckily, I wised up quickly regarding web design and SEO. Why be a chef in the kitchen when you can own the restaurants?

;)

I think this is a trend as per some other boards SEO related.

The adult site will actually be my first baby that is all my own.

Thing is- with no client limitations like timeline or budget, I go off on tangents design wise. And the artwork/color combos that looked killer at 3:40AM somehow tranform after sleeping into just plain "What the FUCK was I thinking with THIS SHIT???"

6+ hours down the drain. Oh, well- the PNG's will come in handy for other projects. :)

I barely take outside clients anymore myself. When I do I ask for an outragous amount and explain up front that anything (such as this) can happen.