Changes at Google -- how should we react?

This month Google have apparently changed how they do indexing and
page ranking; a typical article is at

http://www.websitenotes.com/websiten...Algorithm.html
and
http://sharpnet.typepad.com/search_e...s_new_ran.html

I've found lots of speculation, but no one seems to _know_ what has
changed. (I couldn't find anything useful on Google's own site).
Anybody know?

Also, I failed to find believable advice about what (if anything) we
site authors should do by way of changes. Granted that the advice
"create good content, use sensible <title> tags" is still good for
the long term, is there anything else we authors should be doing?
I'm thinking of information-type sites like mine, rather than sites
whose main purpose is selling stuff.

Ideas?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/
2.1 changes: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/changes.html
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Stan Brown wrote:

I've found lots of speculation, but no one seems to know what has
changed. (I couldn't find anything useful on Google's own site).
Anybody know?

Also, I failed to find believable advice about what (if anything) we
site authors should do by way of changes. Granted that the advice
"create good content, use sensible <title> tags" is still good for
the long term, is there anything else we authors should be doing?
I'm thinking of information-type sites like mine, rather than sites
whose main purpose is selling stuff.

I cover things like that in my blog:

Google Blogoscoped
http://blog.outer-court.com

Like you said, the <title> is important (and it should be unique, and
precisely describe what a page is about). So are headings, emphasis,
main content. Also important are keywords contained within links. The
rules for a good website apply to Search Engine Optimization as well.
There are some hacks for short term optimization with risky unreliable
results in the long run. Such as link-farming/ guest-book spamming,
which might or might not work well for a period of time. It's a better
idea to write to a selected group of people with good pages themself,
and if they feel like your content is worthwhile, they will link to
you. The blog format is also doing good in Google, but that's just
because it's doing good with people, too.

The recent algorithm change had much to do with keyword stemming. So
now if you look for [smoking detector], Google will also return results
containing [smoke detector]. Some also suspected the latest update is
an anti-SEO (Search Engine Optimization) filter, so that when you
follow all the tips (like having a URL like
my-keyword-is-here.com/my-keyword.html with title, h1, and main-text
containing my-keyword, and thousands of backlinks containing "my
keyword), Google will rank you lower. And some even say Google is doing
this to sell more Ads, because this would be the only way for people to
still be shown in Google.

Well, I don't believe that last point, and I get good results for my
pages. Which, like you say, are information-type sites, and I'm not
selling stuff (though my pages contain Google AdWords). I get many
thousand referrals per day from Google of people entering a variety of
phrases/ keywords, which my pages contain. So content is king, with
Google as well (most of all: _unique_ and _interesting_ content), but
it also must be based on a solid web architecture, with meaningful
links, titles, and so on.

Stan Brown wrote:

This month Google have apparently changed how they do indexing and
page ranking; a typical article is at


http://www.websitenotes.com/websiten...Algorithm.html
and

http://sharpnet.typepad.com/search_e...s_new_ran.html

I've found lots of speculation, but no one seems to _know_ what has
changed.

There is certainly a lot of noise. The chatterati over at
news:alt.internet.search-engines are rushing around like headless chickens.

(I couldn't find anything useful on Google's own site).

It's there, subtle but there nonetheless.
http://www.google.com/help/basics.html#Stemming
<qoute>Google now uses stemming technology. Thus, when appropriate, it will
search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar
to some or all of those terms. If you search for "pet lemur dietary needs",
Google will also search for "pet lemur diet needs", and other related
variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were searched for
will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.</quote>

Also, I failed to find believable advice about what (if anything) we
site authors should do by way of changes. Granted that the advice
"create good content, use sensible <title> tags" is still good for
the long term, is there anything else we authors should be doing?

You've got it - maintain a steady ship. Perhaps relax the optimisation for
a particular key word or phrase and let the subject flow. Continue working
on getting incoming links.

I've been wondering if Google sets [ http://labs.google.com/sets ] was ever
going to make the transition from beta into the indexing algorythms - maybe
it has now.

I'm thinking of information-type sites like mine, rather than sites
whose main purpose is selling stuff.

I don't believe the conspiracy theories that have popped up recently.

--
William Tasso - http://WilliamTasso.com

In article <MPG.1a3ebd8965bd1d5498b90e (AT) news (DOT) odyssey.net> in
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.site-design, Stan Brown wrote:

This month Google have apparently changed how they do indexing and
page ranking. ...
I've found lots of speculation, but no one seems to _know_ what has
changed.

This thread didn't generate a lot of responses, but the two that
were posted both did a lot to set my mind at rest.

My thanks to Philipp Lenssen and William Tasso!

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
HTML 4.01 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/
validator: http://validator.w3.org/
CSS 2 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/
2.1 changes: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/changes.html
validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/