Increased importance given to spammy/educational domains in SERPs!?
-
Hey guys,
Can anyone shed some light on these bizarre and confusing SERPs which Google seems to be producing following their latest update??
For example, we have a client who targets "payday loans" with another targeting "IT services".
However, since the update, the former keyword brings back a host of spammy domain results while the latter seems to have given all focus to educational institutions like universities.
This just seems utterly ludicrous considering that if I'm searching for "IT services" I don't want the help desk of a local university - that's completely irrelevant, right?
Can anyone provide some information on what seems to be going on?
Thanks
-
I think I remember reading something about Google toning down the impact of their EMD update.
-
There also seems to have been an increase on the prevalence of EMDs - anyone else picked this up?
-
This is what I was thinking of: http://mozcast.com/ - you can't check your own keywords, it's based on 1000 that MozCast selects.
Here are a couple of blogs related to it:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-week-in-the-life-of-3-keywords
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-bigfoot-update-aka-dr-pete-goes-crazy -
Thanks for the reply - i've not seen the stability tool, where is this in the pro account?
Getting some strange results, yes the it services results of the last few days do not make any sense whatsoever. Will have to see what happens with these....
-
[payday loans] is probably one of the most competitive, spammy keywords there is. Page 1 probably often has significant changes, there are loads of black hats who set up a new site and spam it to hell to the top of Google, only for them to disappear a few weeks later when Google catches up with them, with the same process repeated again. Hopefully Google will get better at combating this. SEOmoz has a tool for checking SERP stability for a particular keyword, though I'm not sure if it is public?
The [it services] one is crazy. I even get the same problem if I search [it helpdesk services] and [it helpdesk] - though not all are universities. Something to point out to Google I think!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Exact Keywords Domain name
Hello everyone!, I would love to have your opinion on this matter. I am working on a company e-commerce site; these guys would like to change their domain name AND their company name, so the most logical thing that came to mind was to name the domain after the company name. However, they also bought in the past a domain that have the exact keyword they would like to rank for. I know that keywords in the URL are not as important as they used to be in the past, but nonetheless when I do a Google search for those keywords, 3 domains out of 10 on the first page are slight variations of those same keywords, meaning that they might have a really good domain name (also the other result are government, medical stuff and so on). And, no matter how many times I have read that keywords in the URL are not so important anymore, I still see a lot of sites ranking also because of their domain name (well at least outside the US) So, my question here is: would it be better for them to use the exact match keyword-domain name or should they use their company name for their new site? Or some sort combination of the two? (the keyword-domain that in some way points also to the brand domain). Thanks for your opinions on this; really appreciate it! Cheers
Algorithm Updates | | Eyah0 -
Geographical location influencing Auto Complete / Search Suggest
I was reading this q and a and found some video that Rand had made about this and how using influence to change the auto completes in Google. Is there any chance Google is also dividing the lists from a Geographical location. So users on the East Coast might see something different than the West Coast. I also wonder if Google takes local search over regional. That could also make the auto completes different based on location. Just curious...
Algorithm Updates | | cbielich0 -
Privacy page ranking above home page in serps
I'm using OSE to try and get some clues as to why my privacy page would rank higher than my home page. Could anyone help me figure out which metrics to review to rectify the issue? My key word is: Mardi Gras Parade Tickets The url that is ranking is <cite>www.mardigrasparadetickets.com/pages/privacy</cite> I'm happy to be ranking in the top 3 for the keyword, but I'd rather hoped it wouldn't be my privacy page. Any help would be awesome, Cy
Algorithm Updates | | Nola5040 -
Why if PR and DA are higher is this site lower in SERPS
Hi there Why if PR and DA are higher is this site lower in SERPS. Example: https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=samsung+SF-4200+cartridge&oq=samsung+SF-4200+cartridge&gs_l=hp.3...13009.13824.2.14464.2.2.0.0.0.0.72.143.2.2.0.eiatsh..0.0.l4idQl3RGWc&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=69f1c60047c60e0c&biw=1045&bih=580 Pos 1 www.inkfactory.com/ink-cartridges/samsung/sf4200-series PR:1 DA:48 Pos 3 www.internet-ink.co.uk › SAMSUNG INK PR:25 DA:60 I though is you had top DA and PR you should out rank those below you?
Algorithm Updates | | smashseo0 -
How Do I Make My Google SERP "SiteLinks" more relevant?
I have a shopping website with thousands of products, and the sitelinks that google has chosen for me (for a long time) are random product pages, which makes no sense to me. I do not emphasize those products on the home page, and I have a sitemap that clearly lists the directory of all the categories. I also added a "nofollow" attribute to almost every link on the home page that is not important. These products in the site links seem completely random and there isnt even a sitelink for "about" or any of the footer content! What gives? Also, my sitelinks never updated to the new, better version. Any suggestions?
Algorithm Updates | | cDNAInteractive0 -
How does an exact match domain.me rate for SEO
Anyone have any idea how an exactly matching keyword (using the "domain.me" register) will compare against an almost matching keyword in the Google .ie search engine. (assuming that on and off page SEO will be the same). eg, www.wigets.me against www.mywigets.ie Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | peterds2 -
Major Slipping of highly important keywords in a few days
Realized some major slipping on some of my most important keywords- mn realtors and minnesota homes for sale- my site is joeandcindy.com After months of working on traffic, blogs etc, wondering what could slap me 10-25 spots in just a few days. There were no errors showing up on the report that I can see. Just looking for some quick advice on what I might be missing and some quick action steps I might take to reverse the trend. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | jjwelu0 -
How to increase my traffic?
I've performed countless SEO tactics, post tons of unique content. social bookmark tons of it. Facebook, Twitter, etc. Implement new sections to my site all the time in the past month I've implemented a dating site and a discussion forum. Yet my traffic pretty much always stays the same. We are at a level where our site is now the best place on the web to find disability news, and I can't really think of how else to improve it without simply having it more active. Is my niche just too small? http://ablemagazine.co.uk
Algorithm Updates | | craven220