After spending the last few years posting in search engine optimisation forums I
have noticed a growing defeatism from webmasters in relation to natural (organic) search positioning. Google has a number of problems and some of these have hung around for a few months but they are only affecting certain sectors of the index.
The hype around these Google problems has led to many SEO companies and webmasters making a statement that their websites are no longer listed because Google is broken. They are also using this excuse both the exclusion of the website from high profile in the Google database and then the lack of activity in relation to improving the website and make it competitive again.
Quite simply the news from the grapevine in general is that Google is broken and so its not our fault your website is no longer listed.
The real picture is very different and it is a lack of understanding and in many cases laziness that is causing the problems for so many websites, SEO expert Shaun Parker has written a paper called: Is Google Really Broken? This is an extremely interesting and informative paper which I would highly recommend.
The document looks at this growing defeatism by webmasters and some SEO companies and the impact it is now having on the industry, it examines grapevine information and the under currents from search engine forums.