Something is Seriously Wrong with Google's Search Results Now

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Updated

As part of my on-page SEO tactics, I usually put the keyword in the image file names, alt tag and description. Since Google's recent algorithm update, I've noticed that it often displays the image page in the results.

Take a look at this one:

The first result is my actual post with the review on it. But results 2 and 3 are just the pages containing the images. Google is not being intelligent here. This is clearly not giving the best results for that search term. The best results for #2 and #3 would be two different results from other websites.

As you can see here, visiting one of these image pages doesn't give the visitor any content. They can't even click through to the review post from that image page, unless they click the link in the sidebar. It's a total disaster in terms of trying to give the Google user a good search experience.

But this is just the one that I noticed just now. I've had worse ones recently where just the image page shows up in the results, but not my actual review at all. Totally useless!

I wonder whether the staff at Google have noticed this mistake yet?

Oh well, there's always my exit popup to possibly catch people who arrive on silly image pages like that and then try to leave...

The lunatics have taken over the assylum...


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Recent Comments

27

Two weeks ago I wrote a post, and the following week I found one of the images on that post on the page 1. I didn't search "Image." I searched "All."

So, this was what that was? Google's change had something to do with it. I was excited for a while, but I just checked that keyword now and this image is no longer on the page 1.

The post itself (without image) was on the page 2 last week but now dropped to page 5.

I must be missing something here Marcus. Why do you have pages with just an image? And why do your images link to media file instead of none or to an actual page?

Every image on your site has a page associated with it. To see what I mean, go to your Media Library, click on an image, then you should see a link on the bottom right called "View attachment page".

I knew I must be missing something Marcus. I've never clicked on that link before. I had no idea that images had attachment pages. I live and learn something new every day.

Curious still Marcus - I get what you're saying, but when you do use an image, do you choose to link to none, media file, or attachment - or custom link?

I used to to link images to my affiliate link, but these days I think I tend to not link them to anything.

But these attachment pages you have no control over.

Then if you choose none, I wonder why they show the way they do - a mystery for sure.

This is weird, these results usually only shows up when you click on "view all results" at the bottom of the page. That said, it's good news in a way that you are at the top. :)

Cheers,
Anh

That is very odd. I have searched a few things in google today, and for the first time, I only get a Wikipedia page no matter what the search phrase is. the word is always the first word in the phrase. That's weird,too.

oooh very weird....

Thanks for the sharing Marcus, but why not contact Google support center and tell them about that!

But this link gives the signup page, good for you.

Buy the way, "the keyword in the image file names, alt tag and description" is a serious overkill.

Use it in the file name only. You can use other attributes in a better way and also avoid being penalized.

Okay, thanks Jovo, I'll keep that in mind and maybe go back and edit some of my old ones.

Jovo,
Does it mean that we have to use the keyword just in the file name?
What about alt tag, and description? In what way we can use them?

Thanks

Hi Nenad
see in my training how I deal with it. Of course I am not an expert so take all with a grain of salt, but it worked well for me: Ako treba pomoc javite se. Pozdrav.

Hi Jovo,
I just found both of your tutorials, which I have bookmarked a long time ago. I just forgot about that.
I just need to start implementing all this useful stuff!

Thank you ever so much for taking your time to respond!

Hvala Vam na Vašem dragocenom vremenu koje ste odvojili kako bi mi pomogli!
Ako mi bude trebalo još malo neke pomoći, biću slobodan da pitam, a Vi ako i kada budete imali vremena odgovorite.

SVakako, imam, mogu i hoću još dosta toga da naučim od Vas, uzevši u obzir da ste već veoma iskusni u "online" svetu, dok ja još uvek povezujem stvari sa početka. Nekako nikako da krenem,
Ali dajem sve od sebe i ubedjen sam da ću uspeti.

Pozdrav iz Novog Sada!

Thanks Jovo. I will take a look at your tutorials. But here's the thing: what I was doing was working well for me right up until the recent Google update. So Google is always changing.

I know you were doing great. The point is keyword is only for machines, so the image file name appears logical place for it. The caption is mainly for users, and alt-text for both machines and users with visual problems.

Of course keyword can appear here as well if appropriate but better not in so many places. Sometimes images do not appear (slow connection for example) and you see only alt-text in boxes, so it looks ugly if you see the same keyword phrase everywhere. Note also when you add image to Pinterest, it is alt-text that is displayed automatically under the image as caption, so you do not have to re-type anything, but if you have keyword there it will appear under every image, ugly.

Okay, thanks for the explanation, Jovo.

Not sure why you're getting those results, but make sure you're logged out of your site when you search for yourself. It may yield different results. I could be wrong. Either way, I like those photos. Very funny!

Was thinking the same

No, I did this search in an Incognito window.

Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for this.

Very interesting my friend and thanks for sharing

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