How-To
Rebuilding Your Website After the Hurricane
Steps to recover from the algorithim changes by Serge Thibodeau
Dec 23, 2003
By now, probably just about anyone that has a website has noticed that Google made some drastic and major changes to its search algorithm, when it began the regularly scheduled monthly update of its massive database, consisting of about 3.5 billion pages. This one was dubbed the “Florida dance." Others prefer to call it the "Devastating Florida Hurricane."
No matter what you want to call it, hundreds of articles, theories, wild guesses and just plain gossip have circulated since Google implemented its new "spam filter" around Nov.15, 2003. There were even some wild allegations in the press of a Google conspiracy, in an effort to maximize the sales of its AdWords PPC program.
On Nov. 26, Stephen Lynch of the New York Post called me and conducted a phone interview, to better understand how small and medium-size businesses can cope with this disaster, and published the results of its findings the next day.
I have written a number of articles, offering my analysis, both on Google’s new spam filter, as well as the way the Florida update behaved.
If your site suffered some major hurricane damage of the category-5 type, or if you just lost a few positions on some of your keywords or search terms, this article will help you repair a lot of the damage the "Google gods" have caused to your website.
It is hoped you will profit from my advice. Since Nov. 26, I have been "repairing" many sites that received the Over Optimization Penalty or OOP. If your site did get the OOP, I will offer some advice on how you can fix that, and prevent it from happening again. Additionally, if you are already participating in a link exchange program, or if you’re contemplating one, read the section in this article titled "The new linking strategy."
Removing the rubble after Hurricane Florida
By now, it’s very clear what Google has implemented in its new algorithm and how to prevent yourself from falling victim, either now or later. One thing is certain: the "good times" are over and from now on, only the best optimized sites (the ones that Google approves) will maintain the original rankings they had prior to the Florida update.
First, you need to make certain and carefully determine if the OOP was implemented on all your site’s pages, or just a few of them. So far, in 90\% of the sites I have seen that received the OOP penalty, most of them only had a few pages affected. The other 10\% will have to be completely revamped, from a search engine optimization point of view.
You can determine if your site had any OOP penalty applied by simply entering your keywords in a Google search, but you will need to add an "-" exclude for a unique string of characters. Example:
Your main keyword or key phrase –blahblahblah
The -blahblahblah string of text doesn't matter one bit; it's simply a string of nonsense characters; you can type in anything you wish and it will work. What is important is that you put the "-" character, which informs the Google algorithm to exclude the new spam filter which appears to cause the OOP penalty.
After running this simple test, if you see your page reappearing back under these conditions, it's highly likely the OOP is in effect for that particular keyword or key phrase on that page.
Note that there is a possibility Google might modify how this type of search works, in an effort to prevent some people from seeing the results, but without the penalty filter. However, at the time I wrote this, that search technique enabled me to detect which of the penalized web pages have been affected by the OOP, so it is a pretty fairly accurate test.
Repairing your OOP links
The reason why your site has received the OOP is simply because Google’s new anti-spam filter penalizes web pages that use their exact keywords in the links that point to those pages.
Here’s an example: If your site sells home decorations and you have links pointing to it with the keywords "home decorations” in them, you will have to edit those links with other keywords that will still work in your site.
In the above example, instead of using “home decorations” in the link to that page, use “decorations for the home” or “home and interior improvements." An alternative would be to leave the link unchanged, but changing instead the title of the page, the description tags, the H1s or H2s and the headlines with the new keywords “decorations for the home” or “home and interior improvements”.
Personally, I think simply changing the keywords in the link text is faster and less complicated, but you are free to use the one you feel most comfortable with. Either way, it will have the same desired effect. Remember that any changes you make will not be fully implemented until the new Google “dance,” which some believe might happen near Dec. 19 or later. It is only about 7 to 10 days later that you will see your rankings improve again.
The new linking strategy
If you already practice link exchanges with other websites, commonly known as "reciprocal link exchange programs," or if you have been thinking about one, then this section is for you. Since Google counts a link to your site as a "vote," sites with a PageRank of 4 or higher can be beneficial to your site’s link popularity, hence your rankings in the Google search engine.
Since the advent of the Florida update, Google is more selective and more carefully analyzes links pointing to and from your website. On top of making certain you don’t use your exact same keywords in the text links from others linking to your site, you will also need to link to sites that are relevant to your site. If you sell accounting software, linking to sites that offer spreadsheet programs or accounting templates will certainly give your site and the other a boost in your respective rankings.
On the other hand, if you link to a hotel or a casino, that link will certainly not be counted as a valid link, since it has nothing in common with your site. Before requesting or accepting a link, ask yourself if that link will actually benefit your users. If so, then go ahead and do it. Otherwise, your time and efforts can be better used elsewhere.
Conclusion
The Florida update is certainly the biggest and most important changes Google has ever implemented to its search technology in its short five-year history.
However, it probably won’t be the last either. Whatever skeptics are saying, it can only be hoped that the real reasons Google made those changes in its search algorithm is to improve the quality and relevancy of its results.
However, I would add that it’s also an attempt to remove all the unwanted "spam-dexing" and the large amount of search engine clutter Google had in its massive database of over 3.5 billion pages, prior to Nov. 15.
Granted the amount of work or expense some websites need to incur to repair these damages can be important, in certain cases. However, it is imperative that the repairs be done correctly, in accordance with the recommendations in this article. If these corrections are done and implemented in the right way, at the end of December, these sites should enjoy many of the rankings they used to have, before the passage of the hurricane.