Google Algorithm change

**10k** · 26-01-07

So has anyoone been affected by this tweak in Google's algorithm? They say it's a small change but I would imagine changing the weighting of anchor text would have quite a large impact, any thoughts?

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...oglebombs.html

**Mogga** · 26-01-07

I've just noticed some page from 2005 being really high up (not mine) and i've been watching this search phrase for a while.
Some bizarre shuffling going on.

**CompareStore** · 26-01-07

With a thread title like that expect this to be the most read thread this week!

Luckily it looks like there is no need for anyone to panic or get excited though as it's only a minor update to the algo so that it can automatically detect "Googlebombs" (read Matt Cutt's post for an explaination).

**deano6410** · 26-01-07

Best to give it a week or so before getting too excited/worried.

I don't think they have finished yet.

**10k** · 26-01-07

I think we'll have to wait and see what affect it has, and if there's any more to be rolled out. Only time will tell. It's a shame though, google bombing was funny.

**nfinland** · 30-01-07

I guess the talk about the googlebombs is a PR thing. Right that miserable failure doesn´t give the presidents page, but some well known googlebombs were I live (Finland) still work. As an example if you search in finnish for "the castel of Mordor" you get the home page of our parliament :-). That is a googlebomb and it is still working!

**Shackattack** · 30-01-07

What is Google Bombing?

**Atomic** · 30-01-07

Its a case of wait and see as it always is with Google, I'm going to resist temptation and see if I go up or down due to this, it should, should not really have any real effect

**matty** · 30-01-07

google bombing is when you get loads of links to a site with the same anchor text, so google sends you straight there.

"french military victories" i think was one such phrase? loads of people linked to a spoof "page not found" style page, suggesting that your really mean french military defeats.

**10k** · 30-01-07

The French Military victories page still works - although not technically a google bomb because the page was designed to work in that way and has on page optimisation to rank for that phrase - bloody funny though (didn't know about that one). Do you remember the old 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' spoof, that was my favourite.

With everything else they've been doing this week - I think this'll be a big year for Google (so the same as the past 5 really!)

**Flightmapping** · 30-01-07

We've still got some really funny rankings, and in all honesty, I don't think we've had a "fair" ranking since before June 27th, but then again, what I think would be "fair", and the way Google sees the world are never going to be exactly the same thing

.

We think we might need to do a few more site map tweaks, but are also weighing up the pros & cons of a re-include request. No major changes in last week, but overall rankings are still creeping up, against a back-drop of a massive surge in traffic for the first two weeks of January, and a slightly quiter second half.

**HarveyC** · 30-01-07

Hmmm, on Sunday traffic from Google shot up by about 5x, so not much

Traffic's been good since, but it's a jewellery site so it may just be because of Valentine's day coming up - hopefully it will last.

**sgpratley** · 30-01-07

Originally Posted by nfinland

I guess the talk about the googlebombs is a PR thing. Right that miserable failure doesn´t give the presidents page, but some well known googlebombs were I live (Finland) still work. As an example if you search in finnish for "the castel of Mordor" you get the home page of our parliament :-). That is a googlebomb and it is still working!

So, you learn a new thing every day.

"Mordorin linna" is Finnish for Castle of Mordor, and "eduskunta" is finnish for parliament.

Bit of a shame this change as I've been trying to teach a few clients about the importance of links compared to on-site factors in SEO and my best example has just gone down the toilet.

Thanks for the tip nsfinland, shame it doesn't trip off the tongue quite as easily as the "dumb motherf***er" = George Bush example.

I just had another look though and most of the results for the most famous google bombs are now taken up by pages about the most famous google bombs, so maybe the also isn't that hot after all.