Changes in Google "Site:" Search Algorithm Over Time?
-
I was wondering if anyone has noticed changes in how Google returns 'site:' searches over the past few years or months.
I remember being able to do a search such as "site:example.com" and Google would return a list of webpages where the order may have shown the higher page rank pages (due to link building, etc) first and/or parent category pages higher up in the list of the first page (if relevant) first (as they could have higher PR naturally, anyways).
It seems that these days I can hardly find quality / target pages that have higher page rank on the first page of Google's site: search results. Is this just me... or has Google perhaps purposely scrambled the SERPS somewhat for site: searches to not give away their page ranking secrets?
-
Hi Jess,
That doesn't seem to be my exact issue. I was just wondering about an overall, permanent algo change affecting 'site:' search.
Though we have not received any GWT notices, I'm trying to figure out if Google may be penalizing / lowering the ranking order / omitting ... for whatever reason... some pages we've previously targeted with link building. Because when I do a site: search, I'd expect to see the more authoritative pages of a website closer to the top of the first page of SERPS.
Russ
-
Hey Scott!
I had the same problem:
Hope this helps!
Jess
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
-
Google & Site Architecture
Hi I've been reading the following article about Google's quality signals here: https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/10/10/guide-to-google-ranking-signals-part-6-trust-authority-and-expertise/?utm_source=Search+Engine+Watch&utm_campaign=464594db7c-11_10_2016_NL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e118661359-464594db7c-17828341 They mention - 3) All your categories should be accessible from the main menu. All your web pages should be labelled with the relevant categories. Is this every category? We have some say 3 levels deep, and they aren't all in the menu. I'd like them to be, so would be good to make a case for it. Thank you
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey1 -
Creating Content for Semantic search?
Need some good examples of semantic search friendly content. I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject, but have seen no real good examples of 'this is one way to structure it'. Lots of reading on the topic from an overall satellite perspective, but no clear cut examples I could find of "this is the way the pieces should be put together in a piece of content and this is the most affective ways to accomplish it". **What I know: ** -It needs to answer a question that precludes the 'keyword being used' -It needs to or should be connected to authorship for someone in that topic industry -It should incorporate various social media sources as reference to the topic -It should link out to authoritative resources on the topic -It should use some structured data markup Here is a great resource on the important semantic search pieces: http://www.seoskeptic.com/semantic-seo-making-shift-strings-things/ ,but I want to move past the research into creating the content that will make the connections needed to get the content to rank. I know Storify is an excellent medium to accomplish this off page, but only gives no follow attribution to the topic creator and links their in. I am not a coder, but a marketer and creating the backend markup will really take me out of my wheel house. I don't want to spend all of my time flailing with code when I should be creating compelling semantic content. Any helpful examples or resources welcome. Thanks in advance.
Algorithm Updates | | photoseo10 -
Why is Google.co.uk showing so many US retailers on search queries?
Over the last couple of years Google seems to be showing more and more irrelevant search results in the field I am based in (dietary supplements) with searches for products coming back with results which highlight US vendors. Given I am in google.co.uk and actually logged in as well, why is Google so far off with their results lately?
Algorithm Updates | | predatornutrition0 -
Google Page Rank not improving
Hi All, I have a site live with a homepage rank of 5, Ever since relaunching (on the same domain) 6 months ago the inner page rank has remained at NA. Its crawled pretty consistently, Can anyone think of a reason this may be happening? www.glowm.com
Algorithm Updates | | thebluecubeuk0 -
Author Photo No Longer Showing Up in Search
My author photo has been showing up in search for quite some time but starting today I noticed that it no longer does even though the structured data testing tool still has it showing up. It only seems to show up on my google+ profile. Anyone notice the same thing?
Algorithm Updates | | casper4340 -
Client's site dropped completely from Google - AGAIN! Please help...
ok guys - hoping someone out there can help... (kinda long, but wanted to be sure all the details were out there) Already had this happen once - even posted in here about it - http://www.seomoz.org/q/client-s-site-dropped-completely-for-all-keywords-but-not-brand-name-not-manual-penalty-help Guy was a brand new client, all we did was tweak title tags and add a bit of content to his site since most was generic boilerplate text... started on our KW research and competitor research... in just a week, from title tag and content tweaks alone, he went from ranking on page 4-5 to ranking on page 3-4... then as we sat down to really optimize his site... POOF - he was gone from the Googs... He only showed up in "site:" searches and for exact matches of his business name - everything else was gone. Posted in here and on WMT - had several people check it out, both local guys and people from here (thanks to John Doherty for trying!) - but no one could figure out any reason why it would have happened. We submitted a reconsideration request, explaining that we knew we hadn't violated any quality guidelines, that he had less than 10 backlinks so it couldn't be bad linking, and that we had hardly touched the site. They sent back a canned response a week later that said there was no manual penalty and that we should "check our content" - mysteriously, the site started to show back up in the SERPs that morning (we got the canned response in the afternoon) There WAS an issue with NAP mismatch on some citations, but we fixed that, and that shouldn't have contributed to complete disappearance anyway. SO - the site was back, and back at its page 3 or 4 position... we decided to leave it alone for a few days just to be sure we didn't do anything... and then just 6 days later, when we were sitting down to fully optimize the site - POOF - completely gone again. We do SEO for a lot of different car dealers all over the country, and i know our strategies work. Looking at the competition in his market, he should easily be ranked page 2 or 3 with the very minimal tweaking we did... AND, since we didn't change anything since he came back, it makes even less sense that he was visible for a week and then gone again. So, mozzers... Anybody got any ideas? I'm really at a loss here - it makes zero sense that he's completely gone, except for his biz name... if nothing else, he should be ranking for "used cars canton"... Definitely appreciate any help anyone can offer -
Algorithm Updates | | Greg_Gifford0 -
Google new update question
I was just reading this, http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220662 We have our official site, which has 200+ service pages, which we wrote once and we keep doing SEO for them, so they rank high all the time. Now my question is, how does Google handle the site freshness ? Service static pages or if we are adding blog items, then also they consider them as fresh site, right ? So, we dont have to update those service pages, right ?
Algorithm Updates | | qubesys0 -
Google SERPS problem - "block all results from this domain - click here".
Anyone know what can be done about this when it happens to one of your own domains? On the Google SERPS page, underneath the Title, next to the Description, Google has added "Block all results from this domain?". I understand that this is a new "feature", aimed at allowing users to filter out results from low quality, pornograhphic or offensive sites. But the site in question is none of the above - any ideas how to tackle? Couldn't find anything yet by searching.
Algorithm Updates | | Understudy0