Holy rankings Batman! the penguin strikes!

Google struck a major blow to niche retailers last week with the launch of the "Penguin Update." I personally saw my traffic drop by 400%. OUCH!

The update was supposed to target "over-optimization" and "webspam," but it sure seems to have missed the mark. One of the major gripes of small business owners is that the update seems to greatly favor sites like, Amazon, Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Wikipedia along with other 800 lb Gorillas.

I went from #1 to #4 for my highest traffic keyword and sure enough got beat out by Wikipedia, Walmart and Amazon.

You can read more about the frustration and then sign a petition to end this latest Google fiasco.

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This is a major bummer.

As is usually the case, Link hidden: Login to view demonstrates that the vast majority of sites penalised, had it coming.

Also, just a nit, but a 400% decrease in traffic is mathematically impossible. Are you sure you don't meant a 75% decrease, ie. a drop to one-fourth of previous traffic levels?


Frank