Like many people, I have spent the last couple of years furiously trying to figure out what Google is up to.
Over that period, some of my websites have seen an increase in search engine traffic while others have seen a decline. And no, I haven’t always been able to figure out exactly why each increase or decrease has taken place.
It used to be relatively easy to figure out what Google was looking for. Not any more.
The Panda and Penguin updates in particular had a huge impact on people who thought they knew what Google wanted.
Yes, many sites that deserved to be impacted saw their listings drop off page one.
But there were many false-positives too. People who had worked hard to play by Google’s rules suddenly saw their traffic drop significantly. It was toughest of all on those people who really couldn’t see where they might have gone wrong.