There seems to.be a way to check your websites rankings pre- penguin.

 

So if you think you've been hit search for the following

 

"YOUR KEYWORD -amazon.com"

 

Take out the quote marks. Compare the rankings to "YOUR KEYWORD"

 

Ill write more about it in a blog but it seems to work for now. I think even a page difference in position shows you've been hit.

 

I don't think it will always work and I'm unsure for how long but others say it doesn't show any difference, but I've seen good examples of of working

I'm confused as to how this works? Surely putting the - then your website removes it from the results?

I think the exclusion of Amazon is forcing it to use an older index, because it's rolled out for simple queries first maybe?

Renaissance is right I believe.

 

I've not really had chance to read into it properly though

 

It's not the most accurate way of checking as you website might not appear where it was before the update but you can get a good feel for whats happened.

 

Many think it's a bug with that particular operator but if you put -ebay.com or -wikipedia.com after your keyword you get the same results.

Didnt work for me.

Same here. Couldn't see anything more than 1/2 changes in position. I just find it so hard to gauge how well I'm doing because my places constantly change. I moved up to within one spot of the first page for a key phrase the other idea and thought, brilliant, keep doing what I'm doing and I'll soon be page 1. Two days later we dropped back down to where we were previously. So was I doing the right thing or not? I was, but then wasn't? Argh.

 

It changes so much it's just an absolute nightmare trying to figure out whether I'm doing OK, whether it's working, not working, having an effect, having no effect.

 

Wish I didn't have to do ANYTHING to do with SEO to be honest, it's horribly tedious, and I find all these stupid-name updates tedious too.

 

Not a rant at you Jason...

Edited May 18, 201214 yr by brightonmike

You guys were probably not hit by the update? or the data center you've connected to is up to date.

 

That could've been a Google shuffle: Google will pick up on the changes you've made to your website, before it sees the changes your competitors have made. It then gives you a new position because you're doing better than others, and then it catches up with things it puts you back down to your natural position.

 

It happens with new sites as well, quite a bit. Personally, I'd say carry on with what you were doing. It's better to go up then to go down (oo err)

 

Don't worry! I enjoy it for that reason, amongst others, because it's a constant challenge

The trouble is, no matter how hard I try, everything I do never seems to work and only ever has a negative impact.

 

I try so hard and it just doesn't work. Spend ages writing decent content, try to spread it around, doesn't get picked up, has no effect. And on and on.

 

Just so tired of this crap that doesn't work. I'm wondering if I've been fighting a losing battle because the sites above us are too strong, and are able to run much bigger campaigns than me and it's just a waste of time me trying to compete.

 

You know what's the annoying thing? There are probably only three key phrases worth ranking for in our industry. Three. And the competition on all three is just too damn hard. We can rank for other phrases, but they don't bring any traffic, or it's useless traffic. The clients we deal with, when they look for company's like ours, they only ever type in 2/3 different phrases.

Edited May 18, 201214 yr by brightonmike

Unless you're a big brand or targeting local markets, it can get to this point where you're just not getting enough traction.

 

Usually, I've found, when you hit a plateau in rankings then you need to start looking at incorporating on-line marketing with off-line marketing.

 

But yes, it is amazingly annoying sometimes lol