SEO sites were blasted by Panda
-
Just noticed that lots of SEO sites were blasted by Panda...
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=webmasterworld.com&geo=all&date=2011&sort=0
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=seomoz.org&geo=all&date=2011&sort=0
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=digitalpoint.com&geo=all&date=2011&sort=0
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=forums.seochat.com&geo=all&date=2011&sort=0
-
Interesting thread. So now after the more recent Panda update, is that another dip I see in those same graphs There's gotta be something with wrong with the data. Most of the data I've seen from Google Trends and Compete is laughable.
So any further updates? How has Panda affected SEO websites? And why? Is it all the incestuous linking? Thinking out loud here... is it possible that Google has some way to benchmark what the mean/median/average links there are per industry and THEN it uses those to figure out what a websites link count is worth? (Know what I mean?) eg. SEO industry mean = 300 real links, so above 300 higher authority, but dentist websites mean = 60 real links, so different way to measure authority? Point is, links and their worth could also be classified and measured by industry.
-
waiting for the new profile photo
-
If it turns out to be right, I'm going to get myself a deerstalker hat, start smoking a pipe, and walk around calling everybody Watson.
-
Yeah, looks like Google Trends data is not to be trusted (like most other G products). I just looked at those graphs for some heavyweight trusted authority sites including the BBC and guess what - same big traffic drop LOL
Steve O, I think you may be on to something.
-
I have not heard of any sites that were hit by Panda being released from the problem. If people were getting out they would be yelling YEEEEHHAAAA! in the forums. So, until that happens you can only guess at what might be holding your site back.
I would focus for now on an overall improvement in content quality. That is always a great investment.
-
I am Managing SEO for Multiple Websites, One Health Website Traffic Goes Down Up to 60 % , Before Panda We are getting 3500 Daily Visits and Now It's 1700 Per Day, Help me Out, What Steps Should I Follow to Get my Traffic Back ..
-
Our Site learnhub.com & Jumbotest.com saw 30% increase in Traffic after panda update.
-
Interesting thread! Has anyone got any third party to confirm? SEOmoz have anything to add?
-
Eureka! (Possibly... I think/hope).
Trends uses four sources right?
Sooooo, if you think about it, all it would take is for Trends to stop using just one of those sources and wham! There it is, the drop!
Now, I noticed people recently saying that GA had removed benchmarking, which will be replaced by something better later. Since GA benchmarking is part of the permission-al "opt in" data that makes up Trends, and the fact that it disappeared at the same sort of time... logically you could conclude that Trends suddenly stopped getting data from that source.
That would explain everything!!
I should have been a detective
-
I think maybe they do spot but its not in their best interest to just release it to the world for free
-
Why did they all move the same direction on the same date - the panda date?
-
I'd like to say "you can only trust numbers if you have access to an individual site's anlaytics. Except every analytics program is suspect.
Oddly because they're all suspect, I use data for finding trends in the data. Which brings us full circle to Google Trends. Apparently Google can't even spot accurate trends.
-
"Especially Compete"... haha, worse then Alexa?
-
Yeah even if the numbers are way out with the different source, you'd expect to see some reflection with the trending. I wonder what's wrong with Trends then.
-
Yeah, all of these data providers are a little suspect. Especially compete!
-
Thanks Steve, I don't see an end-of-February drop for any of those sites in that data.
-
Yeah they do admit they estimate, based on their sampling. But I believe they mix panel with tool bar and ISP data, so I would have assumed their estimates would be kind of close but maybe not then lol.
Where do you use? I guess none can be trusted really can they?
-
I've never trusted compete.com data - every test I've done with their data has ranged from "wildly under-reported" to "wildly over-reported", with the occassional "lucky guestimate" thrown in.
-
Some of those same sites through compete.com:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/webmasterworld.com+seomoz.org+digitalpoint.com/
As they use a combination of data sources I guess we'll have to stick with them...
-
Damn, so Trends should be avoided due to false information for a while or...?
-
Thanks for looking into this, Tom.
I have been doing a little research myself..... I can find lots of sites that show massive traffic losses on the dates of panda updates. However, I am not finding any sites that show substantial traffic gains - at exactly the same time - which is what we would expect to find. Right?
So, I am now starting to think (like others in this thread) that the data being presented in Google Trends is suspect.
-
Hmm - not sure I'm trusting those graphs. SEOmoz didn't see any change one way or the other with Panda...
-
Perhaps someone from Moz can fill us in...
-
lol.... you are checking all of the low quality sites... J/K
There are lots of sites that do not show a drop at end of February.
A lot of sites are down at end of April because of college courses ending.
-
Maybe they changed their metrics? Every site im checking o google trends is showing a huge decline in the number of visitors.
For instance I tryed
Yahoo (not as big as the others but stil...)
They all have a similar graphic as the ones mentioned on this post, so if the visitors are leaving from everywhere , where are they going? To splogs? hehe
-
yeah unless we can get input from site owners, I am not convinced those are reflective of actual traffic. Just not sure.
-
WOW!!! That's a hell of a find. It's not like it could be some huge coincidence either, that many sites all hit at exactly the same time. How do we find out more?
-
I hope not!
-
Interesting theory! I just checked us on in trends. It says we got whacked too. Still I'm seeing pretty good traffic to our site. I wonder if those graphs are not as bad as they look.
-
So perhaps this is Google's way of leveling the playing field and taking away some of the advantage that sites with knowledgeable SEOs have?
-
SEO sites get lots of links from SEO blogs. Very incestuous linking in this niche.
-
Do you think it could be to do with the backlink pattern? I mean, if Google can tell that there are an abundance of manufactured links then this would make sense.
-
Maybe any site that smells like it has been touched by an SEO got whacked?
I checked other SEO sites and all that I have checked have been whacked.
-
And so much for BlackHats having an upper hand in the game
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=blackhatworld.com&geo=all&date=2011
Or those who believe it's all about backlinks
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=backlinksforum.com&geo=all&date=2011
-
Very interesting!
I just spent time looking at my competitors. Some of the really big guns took a drastic hit as well.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
How much to charge for my E-commerce SEO services and web design
Hello, I'm starting a web design company doing standard web design, E-commerce web design, and E-commerce SEO. I've been doing the nuts and bolts of an E-commerce business with four online stores, one very successful, for nine years. Since that's my main experience, I'm sticking with helping others with the nuts and bolts of their E-commmerce SEO. I also do the web design, which I've been doing since 2001. What should I charge per hour for my web design and E-commerce SEO services? I live in Boise, Idaho. I'm thinking $100 an hour for everything, is that too much for web design or too little for SEO? The SEO would be billed exact but my web design estimates are more generous. Looking for honest opinions. I don't want to over or under charge. Thanks Bob
Industry News | | BobGW2 -
Please critique my seo packages page on my website
Hello, I think there is a lot of room for improvement to my SEO packages (analysis) page on my website. Visit it by clicking here. I've always done SEO for our own business, so I'm new to this. Any help is appreciated. btw: I'm going to redo the chart on the page. I don't think profit and sales would ever compare like that. Thanks.
Industry News | | BobGW1 -
Does Penguin Help Negative SEO?
With negative link targeting seeming to become more and more of a ‘standard practice’ for more and more agencies and freelance SEOs (I, for one, have had to use the disavow tool far more than I ever thought I would) and the fact that there are more “link building services” that really only build ‘crap’ links than there were when that type of link building worked, I am honestly a bit afraid that Google is really just pushing SEO’s to the ‘dark side’ or at least handing black hat link builders a great tool for bringing down the competition. I had one SEO actually say to me “If my client can’t recover than at least I can target everyone that jumped ahead of them and only spend around $300 on bad link building”. This came from someone I NEVER thought would say anything of the sort and really got me to thinking’ “will this be the future of SEO?” I know the answer is no but still, it seems more and more people are just throwing their hands up and targeting competition rather than working on their own websites and with updates like Penguin I am afraid that more of my time will be spent disavowing links than building them.
Industry News | | Vizergy0 -
How do you learn SEO effectively, with so much information out there
I’m reasonably new to the SEO market, but I find it hard to keep up with all the information that comes out daily. I not always sure what to believe or who for that matter present company accepted (SEOmoz). But I’m sure I am not the only one who finds this difficult, does anyone know of accredited courses in SEO / Internet marketing, in the UK or distant learning that could give me a very good grounding. Or if anyone just has some good ideas on how to take all this information in, I would very much appreciate their views. Regards Kevin
Industry News | | Kevin01300 -
SEO-contests like “hochgeschwindigkeitsSEO” worldwide?
In Germany people out of the SEO industry seem to love SEO contests - the latest one being to bring up the keyword “hochgeschwindigkeitsSEO” on Pos. 1 on Google until a set time (contest entry example here). There obviously is a price (newest iPhone) and a sponsor (Randolf Jorberg), but for the most part it's a contest which holds the Olympic thought: Being there just means most of it 🙂 So I was wondering: are there any other countries where such contests are being held? I have not heard of any examples and I am quite curious if any other SEO communites out there have something similar going on 🙂
Industry News | | blueSummit1 -
Looking for Freelance SEO'ers
Hi, I wouldn't normally post a request for freelancers here, but I noticed someone else has done it and its not against the rules! so here goes... We are looking for Freelancers to help with our work load. In particular we are searching for Link Builders who can establish links on various websites through the use of article writing/blog content posting and other methods. Also, we require general SEOs who can perform the usual technical tasks such as creating 301's, canonicals and SEO audit reports on client websites. Ideally we only want UK based, white hatters with at least 2 years SEO experience. Please pm me if this interests you. Thanks Aran
Industry News | | Chiefblob0 -
Nuked by Panda 3.3?
As I understand it, Panda 3.3 was a relatively minor refinement to the general Panda process. We have a site that was absolutely nuked on or about the same time as the Panda 3.3 update. Does anyone have any particular insight as to what was contained in this update? We're scratching our heads. Thanks.
Industry News | | ChrisInColorado0 -
New business acquisition for digital agencies from SEO and CRO
I have a nice simple question to ask all you mozzers out there, specifically if you work for a web design/digital agency. Does your agency get any new business clients through your SEO and CRO efforts? I'm asking this to try and build up a qualitative data set. I am responsible for all SEO and CRO at our agency for all clients along with our own website. Having increased traffic by over 200% in the last 12 months, and obtaining page one of Google for all our targeted keywords, we are still without any new business or ROI. We are fortunate enough to get a lot of great clients via word of mouth, a great sales team and client retention, I'd really like to know what the bigger picture is here? If I get enough data back, I'll make it into my first Youmoz post and share all the data with everyone :¬) I've now added a survey so you answer anonymously: There are only 5 questions in all, your time is greatly appreciated. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/New_business_acquisitions_for_digital_agencies Any feedback gladly welcomed. Regards Sean
Industry News | | Yozzer0