Thread: Post Traumatic Google "Mayday" Update

After experiencing the trauma of the Google "MayDay" update, and checking everyday a way to improve my site, I observed that the Google index is removing and additing pages.

It seems like the Google team is trying to adjust or correct the new algorithm.

IMO it is excessive to see 300 pages indexed and removed from my competitors who have much more pages than my site.

My question is simple: Do you think they screw up their index with the new algorithm?

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

My question is simple: Do you think they screw up their index with the new algorithm?

The MayDay "eCommerce filter" has angered a lot of online merchants, because it takes search traffic away from them.

They still need traffic though, so they are naturally pushed towards Adwords. This is a definite win for Google, in terms of increased ad revenue.

Matt Cutts stated that this change would not be reverted.

I guess it is what they want pushing e-commerce towards Adwords. They sent me a couple of $100 coupons, I used one and the second went to the trash.

I am sure I will be not alone with this attitude, but isn't going to work to push e-commerce owners for their crap ads system working like a slot machines.

Here is a good article showing that Google lose steam and looking for new revenues.

Google's dominant position on the global online search market slipped slightly in the second quarter, as it retreated from the Chinese market, research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) said on Friday.
Google's market share fell to 69.7 percent in the June quarter from 71.1 percent in the previous three months.
"Google's search revenue growth continues to slow down as the Western search market reaches maturity and Google struggles to gain share in the Google's dominant position on the global online search market slipped slightly in the second quarter, as it retreated from the Chinese market, research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) said on Friday.

Google search share slips, Baidu gains: report | Reuters

This hit most of my affiliate marketing datafeed sites pretty hard, as well as my one e-commerce site.

Some people would say that it doesn't appear to be accidental when Google makes changes that drive e-commerce store owners toward AdWords. Twice in the past they have introduced major algorithm changes that negatively impacted e-commerce sites in mid-November during the Christmas buying season (Florida Nov 2003 and ?). The first one was right before they went public (Aug 2004). Result: huge boost in AdWords revenue.

If you remember, the complaints about the prior "e-commerce filter" updates were one of the reasons Google cited for delaying the introduction of Caffeine until after January 1.

At the same time that Google is implementing changes like Mayday and Caffeine, a lot of AdWords members are reporting that their accounts are getting tossed into Smart Pricing.

It could be a coincidence, but maybe not. Ask yourself who wins.

"Don't be evil" Bwahahahahaha!

Originally Posted by TopDogger

"Don's be evil" Bwahahahahaha!

"Evil is whatever Sergey says is evil." -- Eric Schmidt

You can always be good... when you define good and evil in your own terms.

It comes to mind that the changes in the index are aggravated by personalized search, the bad economy and all the tools etc like Google maps, shopping results, the "left side" menu.

I will say in the May Day case that Google is evil because most e-commerces suffered a huge drop from the economic crisis, and now Mayday will finish the job.

I think Google backstabbed the small business owners who were already having a hard time to make it.

Besides that, like I said Google Adwords was much better 2 or 3 years ago. At that time your ads converted into sales. Now their system is much more complicated to operate, the price of keywords is skyrocketing and their system poorly converts into sales and is no better than a slot machine.

I'm not even talking about the fraudulent clicks you still get months after you have closed your Adwords account. And now they are pushing e-commerce owners to subscribe to their slot machine by manipulating their algorithm system? What a joke!

The way I see it, is that more people will fall into using black hat SEO and other "tricks" more than before to avoid using their Adword system. Right now, this has already started.

Google isn't the only game in town. There's a lot of traffic on facebook, twitter, youtube, andvia article marketing to name a few.

Relying on Google is always risky. A lot of websites never recovered from the Jagger 1-2-3 updates in October/November 2005 which was another slaughter that occurred just before the Christmas shopping season.

Jagger -- that was the other update that I could not remember that forced hordes of e-commerce site to AdWords.

The timing of both Florida and Jagger could not have been worse for struggling e-commerce sites. If a lot of the sites that got hit by Mayday do not recover for Christmas, it will be the final nail on their coffins. There isn't enough profit margin with a lot of e-commerce sites to be able to afford AdWords.