Google wiped me out

Biggles · 30-05-2005, 07:09 PM

Yes its all very strange and sinister.

My website is difficult to find under any search, not just under the obvouse title searches such as "aerial photograph of" but its even well done the page on unique search phrases, eg where a page title tag is the address of a photo depicted. Its all very illogical and unfair. search in google for aerial photographs of manchester and I am at no 207... 207 !!!!!!!!!!

http://www.webbaviation.co.uk/manchester/manchester.htm

Thats my manchester section, can anyone seriously say that that is the 207th relevant hit. Every page that has ever mentioned an aerial photograph and manchester is above me. Every school page that says "we use aerial photographs" etc. The interesting thing I noticed is that some of the highest listings that do show an aerial pic are sites that have been allowed to show my pictures.

I do have an interesting clue though. My german language section suffered the same problem, but has suddenly poped back up for some searches. When you search for "luftaufnahme schwelm" (schwelm is a tiny village) then it brings up a football stadium of mine. Wrong page for the search but at least Im there. Maybe someone big is linking to that page. I am also back to being the no1 "luftfotograf" "aerial phototographer" in google.de

Oh another clue-- google has just introduced their own aerial photographs service so perhaps its no surprise when no one else's can be found.

Hubuk · 30-05-2005, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggles

Oh another clue-- google has just introduced their own aerial photographs service so perhaps its no surprise when no one else's can be found.

I can't believe Google would do anything to jeopardise the integrity of its searches. People use Google because they believe it to be the best and if people ever got hold of the Big Brother idea of being manipulated that would be the end. Google is a very successful business and does not need to damage that.

It makes me mad the damage that is beinmg caused to my latest business projects thorugh what I believe is no fault of mine. I don't know why and until such time as I do (and assuming there is anything that can be done) I will sit tight.

Something has obviously being changed and from some of the results we are hearing about I would suggest that Google have ****ed up. Some of the top results are definitely wrong and even if I should not be top all the time I know I should be above the results I am thinking of.

Let's hope another week sees some gains.

**D-A-L** · 30-05-2005, 08:33 PM

Did either of you get hit in November 2003 by the Florida update? It was very similar in that it seemed to wipe smaller sites out of the serps.

Hubuk · 30-05-2005, 08:41 PM

Not that I noticed but then I was busy. Blue Diamond Travel (www.bluediamondtravel.co.uk) had just closed and I was deperately looking for work. Ended up working as an agency driver (which I am still doing because I am now regarded as too old for a proper job).

I don't think I was affected by it. What happened to the sites that were affected?

Presumably if they have changed the algorithms this time then as far as Google is concerned we are positioned where we should be and there we will stay until they change them again . . . or realise they have made a mistake and try something else. There must be a lot more sites out there (than just us two) which have been affected.

Biggles · 30-05-2005, 09:26 PM

I had a minor change on florida, when it first hit. My main page and keywords went to the second page of results, about no 20 or so but it soon came back. It never affected tighter surches on "aerial photographs"& town name, these have been at or near no1 for every town I cover.

Now I'm pushed back, usually by about 100 places.

Yes I'm more inclined to beleive the **** up theory than the conspiracy theory, but basically I have no idea whatsoever why its happened.

There are a number of reasons why I could have been indirectly seen as spammy. I have 3800 pages and most of them look much the same, the only difference is the full page photo on each page. Not a problem for human visitors as you can see the point but maybe google bot thinks they are all the same.

The trouble for me is that this is all I do for a living and as my customers are spread thinly over a wide area it was the only way of them finding me.

I'm still no1 in yahoo and I think msn and strangly still with google images but 80% my visitors were from google text and they have almost all gone.

I'm hoping it will all come back when google find and fix a problem but I'm making alternative plans now. I'm going to start a new seperate business on the same subject but this time only a handfull of pages. No adds, no buy buttons, just a few of the best images and and an email address. I'm also going to do a ground based photo library service too. Maybe tie up with some image librarys too.

One things for sure I will never again build a huge big stand a lone business on the web. If anyone is reading this has such a business I would advise they split it down into seperate distinct smaller websites all written and hosted seperatly. If only I had done a totally different website for each city.

Hubuk · 30-05-2005, 10:47 PM

As they say we live and learn . . . or at least I hope we do.

They do say you should never have all your eggs in one basket. My problem is that I did not create my basket as a business but having decided to turn part of it into a business this has happened!!

So much for creating my retirement fund so that I could live part of the year abroad!!

I have never managed to win the lottery either in fact over the years I have got used to things going pear-shaped whenever I think I am getting somewhere.

**D-A-L** · 31-05-2005, 12:22 AM

It is true, never put all your eggs in one basket but I disagree with the idea you shouldn't have one large business site. What your seeing may or may not be long term but that's why you need to review your pages and review your inbound links. Google has not singled you both out, your just seeing some changes, they could long or short term, you may even spring back next week. The key thing is you do some homework and adapt your site to keep up. I have just read The Search Engine Marketing Kit - http://www.sitepoint.com/books/sem1/?nocache=1797629232 and would certainly recommend this as a great way to refresh your knowledge of search engines and how they work. The kit covers all of the fundamentals for successful SEO and will definately teach you a few things. Another option is http://www.seobook.com

It is also true there's a possibility you have been hit by Google's duplicate filter on those pages, perhaps you could put some time into building some quality original content for each of those pages.

Hubuk · 31-05-2005, 09:10 PM

The Cooking Holidays section of www.hub-uk.com had identical pages to the new site www.cookingholidays.co.uk even though they had a different design.

I have now removed all the identical pages from Hub-UK and rewritten the Introduction page with a link to www.cookingholidays.co.uk - in addition each of the menu pages on the Hub-UK Introduction page links to the relevant page on www.cookingholidays.co.uk - the old pages on Hub-UK have been removed from the server.

I also had three domain names all operating under different domains:

www.cookingholidays.co.uk
www.cookingvacations.co.uk
www.cookingbreak.co.uk

I have now changed the second and third listed so they just forward to www.cookingholidays.co.uk

These may not be the causes of the problem (they were not done intentionally for getting up the search results) but if Google is punishing sites for this sort of thing then it seems like good policy to avoid it.

Will have to wait and see what happens.

**D-A-L** · 31-05-2005, 10:18 PM

Yep having multiple domains is not a good idea, what you did is the right thing - point two of them at the main site.

Biggles · 31-05-2005, 11:19 PM

I have so many things that could be wrong that I've started again rather than try to fix it. I'll leave webbaviation online, it still does well in yahoo etc but for now my efforts are going to go into something different

http://www.aeroengland.co.uk/

Its only just started this week.... theres only 6 pictures so far so I doubt I'll get knobbled for duplication this time! I will add a lot more but this time each will have different descriptive text describing the photo and my previouse practise of repeating lots of info on every page is finished. Over the next couple of weeks I will do one page with 50 to 70 tiny thumbnails on it and a full page image for each and then thats it, if I want to add an image I will delete an old one first.

I'm also working on a gallery of ground based architectural photographs specific to my home town.

Those two will keep me busy this week and maybe I will find something more after that. My lesson is learnt, if I extend my ground photos website to another city then I will simply open that as a seperate website and URL unconected to the first so if I loose one I dont loose everything.

I havn't given up totally on the 3800 webbaviation pages, but I have assumed that there will be no more google traffic. Currently I am undergoing a "give it all away" program of giving free small images to local town websites in exchange for a clear link. That way I will still get visitors.

Its all very madening because that was precisly the sort of website the public wanted. Now if you search for aerial photographs you are faced with page after page of spammy directories, link collections and the same satelite pictures re hashed over and over again.