Be sure to scroll down to the many resources and tips from top SEOs on how to survive Panda, improve your site and regain some of your traffic.
Long term be sure you understand that Google Favors Big Brands and how Google will impact your business and life.
Click image for Panda Update Survival Tips
All of the sites mentioned below are on the Numbers Crunchers list of the most affected domains published by SearchEngineLand.
If your site is on that list and not mentioned below, let me know in the comments and I will add it.
If your business was affected you are encouraged to leave a comment.
GOOGLE FARMER UPDATE MOST AFFECTED:
UPDATE March 1, 2011: The types of sites most affected by Google Farmer Update are:
- Article directories including Wisegeek, EzineArticles, Hubpages, Squidoo, articlesbase, CBS’s Bnet findarticles, etc.
- Competitors to Google Shopping such as TheFind, ShopWiki, BizRate, Buzzillions, Shopping.com, Kaboodle, DigitalTrends, TestFreaks, GaltTech.
- Competitors to Google Maps / Google Places that are Local Search Directories such as Merchant Circle, InsiderPages, American Towns, Manta, CitiTownInfo.
- Competitors to Google Maps / Google Places that are travel related sites include Roadside America, TravelPod, Trails.com, and MyTravelGuide.
- Answers sites including do it yourself sites such as fixya, lovetoknow, howtodothings, doityourself, answerbag.
I argue that many of these sites have great added value for users and ARE NOT “thin on content”. More details on competitors to Google Shopping and Google Maps below.
While the Google update (that occurred last Thursday, February 24, 2011) has been dubbed the “Farmer Update” because the target was supposedly content farms, the list of Sistrix’ top 100 losers includes many who are direct Google Competitors.
GOOGLE SLAPPED GOOGLE COMPETITORS:
Glancing through the tables of Sistrix data, I picked out this incomplete list of sites affected and grouped them by type. No doubt I missed a few and many similar sites will be affected.
Many are competitors to Google Maps (because they offer maps or business listings or travel information). Sites on the lists published by Sistrix and Search Engine Land of most affected sites including Merchant Circle, American Towns, Manta (business listings), InsiderPages (Local Business Listings), CitiTownInfo.com, and you could also travel sites include Roadside America, TravelPod, Trails.com, and MyTravelGuide.
Google Shopping competitors Google-slapped by the Farmer Update include TheFind, BizRate, ShopWiki, Buzzilions, Shopping.com, Kaboodle, Buzzillions, DigitalTrends, TestFreaks, GaltTech (one of the oldest sites on the Internet) – all shopping comparison or review sites that make it easy to find out who carries a specific product and compare prices.
I know many still haven’t wrapped their minds around why it is bad to have only ONE source for anything, why I believe Google IS Evil, or why I keep warning about the dangers of Google Favoring Brands and Google’s Monopoly, so here is an example.
While TheFind lists 4,401 stores with 138,507 products matching a search for business card holders, Google Shopping suggests only the five stores shown in the screen capture to the right of this text: Amazon, eBags, Buy.com Walmart and Office Depot.
When you click More they offer a total of twenty stores (fifteen additional). Something else I find interesting:
Google recently went after Overstock’s organic listings but they’re featuring them in Google Product search?
What if you were on Google Product Search and wanted to see any of those thousands of other small stores that sell business card holders?
Even though these other sellers DO list their products on Google Shopping, Google doesn’t choose to show them to us. You would have to know the name of the store and search on it specifically.
When I searched for +”business card holders” +”Executive Gift Shoppe” – a small store whose product feed I am familiar with – Google returns only THREE of their business card holders. I changed the search to +card +”Executive Gift Shoppe” and got 403 results.
So Google can broad match ppc ads for the phrase business card holder in AdWords but CHOOSES to only show three of the roughly 264 business card holders listed in that store’s feed.
Worse yet, I specifically searched for that one store, but Google showed me 403 results but that store only has about 264 business cards. That means Google probably showed me 139 results from OTHER stores (I didn’t count them manually) even though that store had exactly the same item in stock! Here is a screen capture of one of them:
Click the image to see full size - note the last product offered by Google Shopping is for New and Blue
Executive Gift Shoppe carries that same business card holder for $40.50 – $3.70 cheaper. So why didn’t Google Shopping show me what I specifically asked for in the store I specified? It isn’t because it isn’t there. When I search for that specific product name on Google there it is:
The first product listed on this page is THE EXACT product Google showed me in another store even though I searched specifically for that type of product in Executive Gift Shoppe's store.
TheFind shows two other small stores selling that exact item. Neither of those comes up in a search for their business name on Google Shopping. SO, if Google causes TheFind to disappear from the search results, we don’t know about them to go to their site directly, and we ONLY had Google Shopping, we would not see the item in the store I specifically searched on nor the two other small stores that sell it.
We would ONLY see what Google chooses to show us.
This is simply unacceptable for shoppers and devastating for small businesses. If Sistrix is correct and TheFind lost 83% in this farmer update that could equate to a drop of 83% in their income. (Exactly how much would depend on which products got dropped, the profit margins or commissions on each product -TheFind participates in affiliate programs – and the conversion rates per project.)
No matter what the exact percentages end up being, what business can survive a massive drop in sales?
THIS IS THE FUTURE GOOGLE has planned for Small Businesses!
Are we going to let them further destroy our economy or are we going to wake up in time to save small local and online businesses? I have explained how in many posts here including these:
DIAGNOSING GOOGLE TRAFFIC LOSSES:
- XLNT: Search Engine Watch: Google Penalty or Algorithm Change: Dealing With Lost Traffic by David Harry (Jan 25, 2012)
- Hacking for SEO – BEWARE of the Crap Hats
- Stone Temple Consulting: New Clarity on Google Reconsideration Requests from Tiffany Oberoi
GOOGLE PANDA INFOGRAPHICS:
- NEW: Stay on Search Google Panda Algorithmic Update Infographic
- Cognitive SEO Infographic: What in the Name of Google is a Panda Infographic
Google Farmer Update Advice:
- Write reviews for your favorite businesses: Where to Review Businesses.
- Why Marketing is NOT Evil – includes stats and more details on why our economy is sliding and how Word of Mouth can improve our standard of living.
- What Caused the Great Depression is Happening NOW – includes many exceptional links to everything you need to know about our economic challenges.
- Priorities for Small Business Internet Marketing – offer these services or share this post with business owners.
- Techland on the Google Farmer Update
GOOGLE FARMER ADVICE:
- NEW: How CMOs Can Survive a Google Panda Attack
- Unique insights from @RobdWoods on Recovering from Panda
- Kristi Hines on Stay on Search ~ Is Article Marketing Still Effective?
- Search Engine Journal ~ Farmer Update Harmed Co-Dependent Site Owners
- Adotas ~ Google Breaks Up with Content Farms and WHOA! Google’s Farmer Update Helped eHow
- The Role Manual Reviews Played in the Farmer Algo Update
- Google Forecloses on Content Farms with Google Farmer Algorithm Update
- Google Best Weapon: Fear by Example
GOOGLE FARMER OPINIONS:
After that we could use some comic relief. I offer here a Matt Cutts video parody Google on Brands followed by AdWords Scam Ads created by Aaron Wall at SEOBook:
I hope those reading this will leave their input in the comments – and don’t forget my related posts on why I believe Google IS Evil, why I keep warning about the dangers of Google Favoring Brands and Google’s Monopoly.
P.S. Any theories why they would hit Technorati? (On theSystix Google Farmer Update table published by SearchEngineLand.)
Related articles
- Farmer Update Update (localseoguide.com)
- Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s “Farmer” Algorithm Change? (searchengineland.com)
- Google Kills eHow Competitors, eHow Rankings Up (seobook.com)
- Farmer Update: Target was SITES not content (blindfiveyearold.com)
I think google is taking too much to do with what people are looking for in their search engine. I think their approach would be so much different if they had some competition. The only bright spot is, nothing last forever on the internet. Does anyone remember MySpace. Google should be cautious.
Google SEO is still the major traffic for me – fortunately. Others, such as Bing and Yahoo, are almost nothing. So… Google is still working
john100 would love you to read ..1441 Lucerne Pl, Cottleville, MO 63304
Twitter: GrowMap
says:
Hi John,
I am glad that you’re still getting traffic from G but I warn you that it could drop at any time. I know small businesses that lost about 1/3 of their traffic to MayDay and after Panda they were down to less than half. Google is going to consistently keep doing that – and when they do, what you will see is that instead of small sellers of appliances on the first page all you will see are Big Brands that sell appliances.
Read the text in red in this post. If Google intentionally hides a small businesses products that ARE in their feed to Google Product Search for their best converting phrases – and that IS what the screen captures in this post show – they are the greatest threat to small business that has ever existed. Do NOT count on continuing to get traffic from them.
The solution for small business is:
I’m really disapointed in Google and their panda smanda update! Google says they are all about quality but only big names are showing up in the top ten listings, and the most annoying thing of all is that these big companies has some of the unhelpful content on the web. What happened to Google just being a simple search engine?
Google seems like sites more natural. “Too much” SEOs may affect the ranking unfortunately.
mark would love you to read ..Viking Gas Range
Twitter: Moviesonclick
says:
Organic SEO is process of improving a website naural target & visibility in Search engines….we know that very well the google panda update is nt joke it has affected high pr website & bigbrands & we need to be more cautious about it…..I agree with your post theres no doubt its slap on competitors of Google…….
Smith would love you to read ..The Bourne Legacy
Twitter: bpinakin87
says:
Well just search for the google, for any terms you will find what we have done to the internet !!! you will find lots of autoblogs, juncky spuned articles, unnecessary and totally irrelevant content….Google have done the right thing
at least now a quality writers and content provider will have their credits 
Twitter: GrowMap
says:
Do you actually LOOK before you believe their spin? Google is still ranking scraper sites above the original version and keeping MFA (Made for AdSense) and parked domain sites in their index.
growmap would love you to read ..Top Small Business Books – My Picks for SmallBizTrends 2012 #BizBookAwards
Anything on the Latest Google Algorithm update affecting Google Base?
Pudu Lifestyle would love you to read ..20% OFF on Linen Shirts
Twitter: LiftedWebsites
says:
Looks like they just updated Panda again http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-3-2-update-confirmed-109321
Google is on a mission to deliver high quality search results. It applies to paid and natural search results. People involved in internet marketing must help Google in these titanic efforts.
Lisa would love you to read ..Parfum
It is certainly done to harness the G power over the Internet. But it is not that easy to avoid G in our lives as @andy told. If it were then all what is happening wouldn’t be a problem.
google is the biggest search engine till now.. and i’m sure it’s going to remain like that untill somebody comes up with something new and revolutionary, but taking into consideration that it’s a search engine, i don’t really think u could to something more on it.. but who knows, that’s how big brands appear..
~alex
Some good credibility but I still love Google. Keep in mind that Google is a business and they do sometime have to accomplish business decisions. I anticipate they are doing a great job of bringing adjustment to the internet. Their motto is something like “don’t be evil” and I think they are adhering to it appealing well. I can’t think of a corporation that I trust anymore than them. Can anyone else?
iPhone App Development would love you to read ..Cake PHP Is an Amazing Technology for Developing Scalable Application
Hi James,
I clicked here from your other story r/t commentluv. I have also been worried because Google has become a monopoly of sorts. The online blog or business owner is in a quandary as to the dilemma caused by this.
On one hand, websites want Google to notice their site, but on the other hand, I at least, am all for supporting local and small businesses to help our economy. I’m not talking about just the economy of the US, but the worldwide economy. Great article! Sally
Sally Brown would love you to read ..It’s Time To Step Up To Blog Engage!
Frankly, I can’t hate on a private business kicking competitors off their property when their competitors are trying to sell the same good as the private business.
Unfortunately, when you have such a massive impact on the global economy as a whole, governments should take notice. It boggles my mind that any government has yet to tell Google firmly NO to any of their business practices. $500,000,000 lawsuit! Ehhh, chump change to a 21,000,000,000+ company! Sometime in the future I can’t help but think the entire world will end up being “powered by Google.” And when competitors step up and challenge, Google will and can cut all resources to ensure the competitor is squashed. We are definitely becoming too dependent on search engines to live our lives. And it’s not like business owners can really resist Google at this point…the majority of people use Google, so the only way to make money is to do your best to be on the top of Google.
Twitter: GrowMap
says:
Hi Ciro,
Powered by Google is EXACTLY where the world is going and if we don’t want to go there we need to be able to jump off before we get locked behind the gate to never return.
In order to understand how Google ended up with so much power we must understand who owns the major media and what their master plan is. Start with my post on Why We Can’t Trust Google.
No company can compete with Google when they get free media coverage continually telling everyone how wonderful they are on television, in movies, in the papers and online.
No company can compete when Google gives away for free what other companies have to have income for to cover their overhead.
You’re right – Google’s monopoly means the average business gets 65=98% of all their Internet traffic from that one source UNLESS they really work at creating new sources.
The bad news is that Google is now churning results. Look at the keywords bringing you traffic in your analytics for any Web site starting July 28, 2011 and note the very generic one word keywords that will never convert (and will raise your bounce rates).
To survive businesses and bloggers need to focus locally and create another path to the information.
growmap would love you to read ..Blog Outreach Services
Twitter: gpcvservices
says:
Found this article after I followed retweet by Murray Newlands. Please stop writing your blog, its terrifying!! Seriously, a great article and keep up the good work.
Paul Thomas would love you to read ..Is it up to government to create jobs?
Your example about the business card holder proves how evil Google has become. I think we need government assistance to break a monopoly as big as this. In normal business, small businesses (actually all businesses) get protected by government and law. But this virtual area is too grey. Makes it hard to govern it.
Danny would love you to read ..Black & Decker NPP2018 18-Volt Cordless Electric Pole Chain Saw
Twitter: GrowMap
says:
Hi Danny,
Small businesses MUST understand what is going on. The government is NEVER going to protect us from big business because big business OWNS our government now. The fox has been guarding that hen house for decades or longer.
We need protection FROM government just as much as we do from big business – or have you not noticed the U.S. is a police state (see my comment at that link) with an ever increasing Law Enforcement Growth Industry?
growmap would love you to read ..Is Impartiality in Media or Blogging Even Possible?
Twitter: WebMAOhist
says:
Did not Orwell already predict it all.
This is wrong approach which I frequently hear.
Small biz, webmasters should…
Just recently I commented about similar wrong approach
would advertiser like cheating, and he would?
This is the main reason spam and all problems in the internet exoist
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1655176#post16731204
It should be governed by end-users.
And understanding is very simple if to cite Andrew Lewis:
“If u are not paying for it,
you’re not the customer;
you’re the product being sold”
I’d like to leave references to my articles to this point, not sure if it is well-written but I hope the points are catchable:
The Google+’s Nym Probe – Isn’t it a Scam to Change Agreements Unilaterally and Retroactively?
KeyCAPTCHA Spam Platform – Rebutting KeyCAPTCHA.com’s Claims that Spamming is Legal
KeyCAPTCHA Scam – How to Make Spam Unavoidable
and see more in my blog