Interesting Googling - Removed common words

Not sure if you've all noticed this behaviour, but I'll post what I've
found anyway.

All results correct as of 01 January 2004 18:56 GMT, but you know what
Google is like lately.

- Keywords: web design bolton

Most results returned are irrelevant, as they're not located in Bolton.

- Keywords: "web design bolton" (with quotes)

My site is #1. Perfectly relevant.

- Keywords: web design in bolton (bearing in mind the "in" is removed)

My site is #1 again. Interesting result, considering Google removes
common words like "in", which would make the search keywords 'web design
bolton'. Same keywords as the first example, but better results.

Also works for other common words like "the" and "at".

Another example...

- Keywords: camping uk

Gives us a few useful website, which are relevant. No sign of one of my
sites on the topic.

- Keywords: camping in uk

My site comes up second (campingresource.co.uk), despite the "in" being
removed from the keywords.

Anybody else noticed this? I assume it's down to Google fine-tuning
their new algo.

--
Daniel Ruscoe
http://www.dualstone.co.uk
Web design in Bolton, Manchester

Daniel Ruscoe wrote:

Not sure if you've all noticed this behaviour, but I'll post what I've
found anyway.

All results correct as of 01 January 2004 18:56 GMT, but you know what
Google is like lately.

- Keywords: web design bolton

Most results returned are irrelevant, as they're not located in Bolton.

- Keywords: "web design bolton" (with quotes)

My site is #1. Perfectly relevant.

- Keywords: web design in bolton (bearing in mind the "in" is removed)

My site is #1 again. Interesting result, considering Google removes
common words like "in", which would make the search keywords 'web design
bolton'. Same keywords as the first example, but better results.

Also works for other common words like "the" and "at".

Another example...

- Keywords: camping uk

Gives us a few useful website, which are relevant. No sign of one of my
sites on the topic.

- Keywords: camping in uk

My site comes up second (campingresource.co.uk), despite the "in" being
removed from the keywords.

Anybody else noticed this? I assume it's down to Google fine-tuning
their new algo.

I found the same thing. If I use des moines iowa real estate without
the quotes, I am about number 100 -- used to be in top 3. If I use the
quotes "des moines iowa real estate" I am number 4. By the way if I use
the words des moines real without the estate, I am number one and with
no quotes.

By the way, I got my site stats for December and although I am down a
little, Google's actions apparently didn't hurt me all that much. I am
very strong on just about any other search engine you can name. Google
was still the number one source of search engine hits, probably from
people using various other keywords.

Obviously, Google has penalized the words "real estate" and for the most
part, the current results are irrelevant. Weather Underground is number
one. Apart from a small handful of relevant sites, the rest of them are
either irrelevant or spammers. This move really helped the spammers.

I've got an extra domain name, so I plan to build a site strictly geared
for Google.