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9 Complete Failures in the New Google Mayday Search Results

Google recently made a VERY significant change in their search algo, which is affecting everyone… not just those in the affiliate world. Just look at some of the very obvious failures in the new algo.

Edit: Read the next post also – traffic is down, but conversions of the traffic it IS sending, is UP! There is a positive effect of Google mayday!

Google Fail Whale

Image from Flickr

  • Jewelry Auctions – You would assume to find eBay right? nope, not even in the top 10… but you can find several affiliate sites!
  • OK then… how about Car Auctions? – eBay not even in the top 20!
  • Upload and Share Videos – YouTube? Nope, not even in the top 10…  Even though its part of their tagline meta description!
  • Webmaster Forums – Listen, I’m not hate’n on the results, but WebmasterWorld has been one of the BEST forums for years! Not even in the top 10.
  • Search the Internet – What would YOU expect to see here? Nope… not gonna find Google, the MOST popular way people search the internet!
  • How about Search the Web – Nope. Still not in the top spot! Hmmm
  • Search Engine – Google ranks 6th! Dogpile and Altavista come in top 2 though!
  • Find Friends – Really, Facebook not even in the Top 10? Cmon!
  • Music Search Engine – No Baidu? Its the #1 music search engine in the world!

This list is easily manipulated… but the truth is still there, Google is failing its users right now!

Comments are wide open on this… How many OBVIOUS FAILURES can you find? Please do share them! I will revisit and list the bog ones here:

Learn to Blog – Darren Rowse is #2, check out the number 1 natural result… it’s a one page website from 2002! (Which is likely VERY popular right now!) Don’t get me wrong, its a very good page, but compared to the info at Problogger, its really outdated and nothing!

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About the Author, Mark Hansen

has written 573 article(s) at the Niche Store Builder site.

I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing. 

Latest Readers Who Commented on This Article

12 Comments »

  • Mike Roosa said:

    Very interesting research. Some of those keywords aren’t even considered long tail are they? That is what they said the update affected. I’m just getting started in all this but the few sites I have weren’t affected. Somehow they actually improved, but I know this is not always going to be the case.

    Reply – Quote
    # 7 June 2010 at 2:42 pm
  • Greg said:

    That definitely puts things into a new perspective. I thought just us “pee-ons” were getting beat up.

    Reply – Quote
    # 7 June 2010 at 2:54 pm
  • Brian said:

    There are a whole range of keywords around car/auto auctions that I normally expect to see eBay at the top, but nowhere to be found. Sheesh…

    Wish I could pull the trigger on a spyfu.com or compete.com subscription. You could find really find some good keywords that they no longer rank for today.

    Reply – Quote
    # 7 June 2010 at 5:45 pm
  • Rochelle said:

    Wow. That’s just awful.

    I searched for “Online Auctions” and eBay is #6. The #1 site is WeBidz.com, which I’ve never even heard of. I’ve also never heard of the #2 or #3 results, and the #4 result is Goodwill Auctions. Didn’t even know they were in the online auction business…

    Rochelle

    Reply – Quote
    # 7 June 2010 at 9:06 pm
  • Cherie said:

    Surely if google’s family of sites aren’t coming high up they will have a rethink They won’t want to screw their own sites up will they. A few of my sites haven’t moved at all but some have completely tanked, never mind, onward and upward.

    Reply – Quote
    # 8 June 2010 at 11:30 am
  • Phil said:

    Waht I am finding very annoying these days is when searching for really up to date articles on popular items, especially techy stuff, Google faithfully returns reviews and pages years old on the first page. We need a way to filter out this outdated stuff.

    My 2cents.

    p.s. ‘Bans’ and hyphens still work. Still number one for over a year now.

    (Edit to remove site name)

    Reply – Quote
    # 8 June 2010 at 12:05 pm
  • Mark Hansen (author) said:

    @Phil – Hey Phil. I removed the URL of your site… for your own protection! :-) If people saw it… you would no longer be alone in that market.

    If you disagree and prefer it to be here… just let me know, and I will add it back in.

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 8 June 2010 at 12:12 pm
  • Kevin said:

    Hello

    Can’t understand all this stuff.We watch the video from Mark Cutts telling us all about the best things to do for ranking your website.
    Then now you see that they can’t even get their own sites up there.Along with some of the examples you’ve shown us, Mark.

    Also Venessa Fox was talking about Mircosites and there’s a one page site from 2002 above them,wow.

    Regards.

    Kevin

    Reply – Quote
    # 8 June 2010 at 12:31 pm
  • Martin said:

    I got one, if you have searched for Facebook Login for the last two days you would expect to find.. right, Facebook at the top. Apparently Google decided to put a basic blog in that spot that did not even have a link to Facebook anywhere on that page.

    The blog showed 404 error for a long time, probably because of the traffic increase.

    http://www.ghacks.net/2010/06/08/facebook-login-ranking-problems-return-in-google-search/

    Reply – Quote
    # 8 June 2010 at 5:18 pm
  • Cherie said:

    Something else very strange. I did an advanced search in google for a sentence from one of my articles to see if it came up and whilst my own site is nowhere to be seen (having been at No1 for months) a bunch of other sites did come up and upon going to them none of them have that article or sentence on them. This is one of the crappy sites that doesn’t appear to anything much at all on it http://sports-auction.info/abc-bowling-ring.html. Go figure

    Reply – Quote
    # 9 June 2010 at 3:43 am
  • Richie said:

    As long as they prefer billion dollar corporations and fail to recognize the power of small businesses and affiliate marketers; disactivating adword accounts for no reason.
    Trying to rule the Internet, create laws, rules and regulations that favor big businesses but, not smaller ones – they will continue to fail woefully…and subsequently go bankrupt! Gone are the days! They have to wake up!!

    @mark: My first comment after almost 2 and 1/2 years of following your blog.

    Reply – Quote
    # 9 June 2010 at 4:02 am
  • Mark Hansen (author) said:

    @Martin – Yeah – I saw that posted at WMW. Funny… you would think… well, forget it.

    @Cherie – Results are definitely ALL over the place Cherie!

    @Richie – Glad you decided to comment Richie! :-)

    I think google has done a GREAT job of growing their business, nobody would challenge that. But with that huge amount of control (and it IS control) over the commerce that flows across the internet, they need to bear more accountability for changes like this.

    M

    Reply – Quote
    # 9 June 2010 at 10:04 am