Google and redesigns

[gaydemon]

Last time around I redesigned gaydemon I also lost a very large amount of google traffic, it took about 6 months to come back (and increase greatly).

But

My question is. Does google still react badly to redesigns and changes?

Anyone got any recent experiance with Google in this sense?

Have you done a redesign lately - but not changed URLs or site structure. Does it still impact Google rankings and score?

I did recently redo both Bostonboyz and Gaypornengine but on both I had to change the URL and structure of the sites which I know for sure impacts heavily on Google ranking.

[tombarr]

yes, and it's a fact that really seems like a double edged sword. New and fresh is what consumers like the most, and New information is something google prides itself in finding and pushing to the top of results in a timely fashion.... however, change your site, and BAM, you get punished by reduced rankings.

Makes you afraid to change anything on your sites...which seems to me to stack things in favor of stagnant sites that never seem to change or update....

Kind of a catch 22 by the nature of what google is.

[gaydemon]

Well thats exactly it. Google has been accused of actually holding people back rather than helping development.

As i mentioned, I learned the hard way last time around. The problem is that I changed both my design AND changed URLs which makes it slightly difficult to know exactly what caused the drop.

How sensitive is Google? How much change is possible before it triggers some sort of filter or reset at google.


yes, and it's a fact that really seems like a double edged sword. New and fresh is what consumers like the most, and New information is something google prides itself in finding and pushing to the top of results in a timely fashion.... however, change your site, and BAM, you get punished by reduced rankings.

Makes you afraid to change anything on your sites...which seems to me to stack things in favor of stagnant sites that never seem to change or update....

Kind of a catch 22 by the nature of what google is.

[dzinerbear]

I'll let you know. Gay Porn Pig is about to go through a redesign of sorts, a face lift, and a change in technology.

I'm bracing myself for a Google hit, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

But I experienced the same thing as you when I redesigned my AVS hubs. It was about six months before I started noticing the rankings coming back.

Michael

[RottenRay]

Folks,

For about 18 months, Goog and Yahoo have been "poising" their spyders for a pay-only listing when looking at "completely commercial" sites.

Nice: Goog and Yahoo still "pull" from dmoz.

Tough: Getting listed with dmoz.


Face facts. The SE's have realized that porn is a $$$ biz, so they're naturally going to do all they can to extract $$ from us - rather than simply caching our pages.

[BabyMaker]

yahoo is the same i was #1 for free sex chat and changed 1 tiny thing to fix something and dropped into the 100's lol :D fixed it back and stayed #1 for 2 years straight, with a boring ass stangant site, couldn't even cgange ads or copyright date....it's fucked.

[gaydemon]

Will you be changing URLs (structure of the site) as well?

I would recommend that you do anything but changing the URLs. Thats what really hurts.

Will be interesting to see on a site that has major changes which are not structural.


I'll let you know. Gay Porn Pig is about to go through a redesign of sorts, a face lift, and a change in technology.

I'm bracing myself for a Google hit, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

But I experienced the same thing as you when I redesigned my AVS hubs. It was about six months before I started noticing the rankings coming back.

Michael

[dzinerbear]

I would recommend that you do anything but changing the URLs. Thats what really hurts.

Looks like that's the way it's going to have to be, which sucks, but I'll live.

Michael

[Relentless]

Once your site is well established small gradual changes are the way to go. Morphing your site from the old design to the new one is seen as "updates" by Google rather than re-design.