Thread: Weird Google Behavior

Google is in the middle of a major algo update. This one has been nicknamed "Bourbon".

Expect everything to stabilize by Monday.

Good to know Some of the results I have seen, seriously worry me

Originally Posted by frobn

Since the return of Google PR, I am seeing movement on one site at several data centers. I am also seeing some weird results.

If if put in Keywest homes, I am on the first page but if I put in Key West homes I am on the second page. Not too much of a difference, but when I put in keywest real estate I am on the second page but with Key West real estate I am on page 18. It is just the opposite in yahoo and msn.

I have not targeted keywest which makes it even less understandable. Does anyone have an idea of why the discrepency.

I am beginning to think Google is highly neurotic or perhaps borderline pyschotic

I have it figured out. Google returns results for all of the words and word pairs in a key word phase. Because of my internal linking strategies I am well optimized on 'real estate', which is a small fraction of key west sites. Not having done much external linking I am not optimized on 'Key West' which takes precedence when searching for 'key west real estate'. On the other hand, the key word 'keywest' is not very competitive so 'real estate' takes precedence. So my next strategy is to build 'key west' links and content.

I still think Google is neurotic

Erratic for sure, this could possibly be the major update that has been predicted a while back.

I just gained about 4 dosen of pretty competitive keyphrasese after this update and good half of them are from first to fifth results pages - gotta get to work

Originally Posted by SiteTutor

Erratic for sure, this could possibly be the major update that has been predicted a while back.

Some of it has to do with the update, but you may have missed what I said about a 18 page discrepancy between a search on 'keywest real estate' vs 'key west real estate'

"....Google returns results for all of the words and word pairs in a key word phase. Because of my internal linking strategies I am well optimized on 'real estate', which is a small fraction of key west sites."

It's subtle but if my assumption is even half correct the implications for SEO are enormous.

Originally Posted by frobn

I have it figured out. Google returns results for all of the words and word pairs in a key word phase. Because of my internal linking strategies I am well optimized on 'real estate', which is a small fraction of key west sites. Not having done much external linking I am not optimized on 'Key West' which takes precedence when searching for 'key west real estate'. On the other hand, the key word 'keywest' is not very competitive so 'real estate' takes precedence. So my next strategy is to build 'key west' links and content.

I still think Google is neurotic

The best way to optimize a real estate web site for Google is to understand their concept of hub and authority web sites. That will give you insight as to optimizing for city name + real estate.

Originally Posted by HHI Golf Guy

The best way to optimize a real estate web site for Google is to understand their concept of hub and authority web sites. That will give you insight as to optimizing for city name + real estate.

From what you are saying I can gather that there are more authority sites for key words "Key West" and less for "Keywest" which is what I am saying indirectly. Either way the implications of such an assumption are many. Have you done a data center check on "Hilton Head" vs "Hiltonhead" + real estate?

I think it would be interesting to hear from others with two words in their city names to do a data center check. The assumption or hypothesis is: discrepancy between the two is directly proportional to optimization on the key word "Your city."

well.. I'm #1 for my city real estate and #2 for mycity real estate - the two competing web sites are also there as usually.