Web Moves Blog

Introduction
By now, if you market on the web, you know all about the Florida update, and have likely heard of the Austin update.

But in case you haven’t – a little reminder: Back in November 2003 we began to notice a fairly major change occurring in the Google index. In fact, if we go back to May 2003 we can discern hints of the changes (targeting affiliate sites and so forth). Back then no one knew what was coming our way.

Recently, another fairly major update, named Austin, occurred and even more sites were removed from the index. So many people are asking why. I thought I would throw in my two cents.

Florida was a major change in thinking for Google. They are attempting to return the engine to supremacy. In doing so, however, they did harm to a lot of sites who were playing fairly and by the rules. This collateral damage caused many to surmise that Google was again broken and again wouldn’t be fixed.

We developed our own theory
We developed our own theory fairly early on with regards to Florida – that Google has implemented a context based algorithm. Indications are still there that this is the case. We hinted at the improving results then, and this seems to be happening.

You see, the next thing Google had to do once they had filtered out some sites, was to recalculate back links and PageRank. This happened in December. We were noticing some PageRank fluctuations on our own site during this time. It has since leveled out.

So once Florida happened, Google had to recalculate PageRank to adjust for those sites which were filtered. Since the site was removed – its influence on back links was also removed.

Google Austin Update
Now January comes – the Austin update. And what does Google do? They perform a refinement of the same algorithm which caused the Florida update. Nothing major – more like a tweak to allow some of the innocent sites which were previously dropped back into the SERPs. These are the results we are seeing now – some semblance of where Google will be in the next couple of months.

I don’t see this as the end though. Likely, in February another back link check will occur and those sites which were removed in January will lose their link influence in February. Then in March we should see a more stable index. True to Google’s nature – it will have been 90 days since the Florida update.

I bring up this figure because traditionally after a major Google change, it takes about 90 days for the Google index to stabilize and start returning more relevant results.

Be patient
Therefore, if you are a small site whose results have just now started to come back, try and be just a little more patient. My feeling is that in the next couple months you should start to recover some more of what was lost in the last two months. That is unless you were a site which was a target. These include affiliate sites, or sites which didn’t offer any useful content or information.

If your site is well constructed, easily spiderable and provides lots of useful information that is not too promotional you should start seeing a rise in results. You may want to increase the amount of content you have but be sure that it is informational in nature. Take a look at the average site ranking for your key phrases – how many pages are they? You will probably want to fall somewhere in that range of pages. Also, while you are analyzing your competitors – take a look at what kind of back links they have. Perhaps you can get links from these sites as well, as long as they are related to your industry. Remember that if your PageRank and site size are comparable to those currently ranking, you should also be considered an authority on the topic.

Summary
So as we begin February, remember that the Google ride isn’t over. We have just entered the phase where we are coming down the last hill near the end of the roller coaster ride. The end is near, but it’s not here yet.

Author Bio:
Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning Specialists