Big Daddy or Not Big Daddy That Is The Question

The Google phenomenon that is Big Daddy continues to be a major source of discussion at Webmasterworld and it’s affects are most certainly being felt at the home of the duck. However, how bad a ride is it?

Whilst it’s not clear how many datacenters are seeing different results, so far we have seen a decrease in search terms - however we have also seen an increase is searches for our brand name not just on Google, but also MSN and Yahoo. New sign ups are slightly lower, but not too bad considering and 7 day average in fact is the same for this time last month.

Traffic doesn’t look to be too badly affected either - if anything the main drop has been in non-UK traffic, which as we’re a UK website isn’t something to be concerned about. There are some painful results including losing a #1 position for a specific section, however strangely we’re not #7 with the homepage. Revenue remains unchanged, which in the grand scheme of things is the best news of all.

Obviously this is taken over a short period of time and if the Big Daddy scenario as is takes hold then month to month this could have a bigger impact. The noises coming out of  Webmasterworld does seem to suggest that things will be resolved and that should/could mean an improvement in results. However, it does demonstrate that free search is not an easy way to earn a living, and that branding is an important feature for siteowners. That latin dictionary we picked up 8 years ago seems to have come in very useful!