Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2015

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System: The following 4 messages were cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4739952.htm [webmasterworld.com] by aakk9999 - 2:27 pm on Apr 1, 2015 (gmt 0)

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My guess is: Google changed something when referring a visitor, not showing were they originally came from.

I saw this too. Freaked out big time when I saw the percent drop in Google referrers. I also noticed pages missing from the SERPS - but not consistently. Sometimes a particular page would be there and sometimes it wouldn't. And I don't mean just not ranking, I mean not indexed at all. Odd thing was, our traffic was up overall during this.

[Johan007]

Glenn recently wrote an article about the absence of Panda since last year?

Missed that article but that is what it looks like to me. The last one being Panda update 27 (4.1) from Fri Sep 26 2014 to Fri Sep 26 2014.

Glenn's (or could have been some other expert) point was more specifically when Google does release Panda's the intention was to make no announcement of it. With the Google Mobile update looming I have feeling I need to switch off.

[Johan007]

I think many may not agree with me here, but I saw something with Panda that I can't prove, but I believe to be true. Panda seems to associate things like a specific sequence of html, or css class names with "good" and "bad" sites. To the degree that a "good site" can get slapped solely because it's using a theme that is popular with a large number of "bad", or "spammy" sites. I believe this to be a sort of side effect of the way machine learning works. Similar to false positives from a Bayesian spam filter.

You bet rish3. Things like HTML5 Boilerplate are a standard these days. If Google observed that ice cream vans would show up on sunny days; would it presume the ice cream vans created the sunshine?

[rish3]

If Google observed that ice cream vans would show up on sunny days; would it presume the ice cream vans created the sunshine?

You're intentionally using the word "created" to make my observation seem silly.

A machine learning algorithm would probably assign a high weight to "is currently sunny" to areas with (currently) statistically high concentrations of ice cream vans.

That doesn't sound as controversial though, right?

[edited by: rish3 at 3:38 pm (utc) on Apr 10, 2015]

[samwest]

If Google observed that ice cream vans would show up on sunny days; would it presume the ice cream vans created the sunshine?

True enough, but the way Gorg appears to think is that some evil webmaster coaxed the sun to come out so they could sell ice cream and Google now needs to find a way to either quash the sun or find a way to monetize it themselves.

We could do this all day -lol.

[samwest]

Just a thought, if Google has a tab for "shopping" and a tab for "videos", why does "Shop on Google" and "Youtube" take up over a third of the search page? If I want shopping or videos, I'll click those tabs thank you. Is it a good user experience?

[petehall]

Eliminated any "tabbed" info, and made the product page a long page that you have to scroll down on. For example, if you have sections like "Description", "Specs", "Questions", "Shipping Info", stacking them to make a longer page, versus grouping them into a tabbed view. I've noticed this is how most of the bigger ecom sites are set up, including Amazon. I suspect it has some indirect effect that google likes

Google announced some time ago they were going to discount hidden text. I think I'm now starting to see real evidence of this and need to adjust my sites... annoying. I liked tabs as they made sense for users. Scrolling all over the place annoys me so much on tablets - it's fine if you're reading an entire document but not if you're looking for something specific.

Glenn's (or could have been some other expert) point was more specifically when Google does release Panda's the intention was to make no announcement of it. With the Google Mobile update looming I have feeling I need to switch off.

Good idea. I think it's going to be a rocky ride. Wish I was attending the show on the 20th, that way I'd be on the plane back home while the update is going on ;)

[aristotle]

I think it's going to be a rocky ride

If I understand correctly, the mobile update will only affect search results shown on phones.

[samwest]

Midday Friday...usually a nice flow of traffic on the site, but today only one lone visit from Tegucigala....yeah, I had to Google it too. Better than zero...wait, there it is...zero.

[Wilburforce]

Scrolling all over the place annoys me so much on tablets

@petehall

I agree, but I think it is probably best to keep everything that you want Google to index and rank visible on the page. A lot of the bigger players have what looks like a tab index (e.g. Amazon: Reviews - Answered Questions), but use anchor-tags, and that works fairly well: as anchor-tags are treated like page-links by most browsers you can use the browser's Back button to return to where you left if there isn't a "return to top" link.

If you need to refer to separate sections of text that can be accessed by a click that is one way to compromise that probably won't be too annoying for the end-user..

[MrBlack]

I don't know what Google did last night but today is my worst day in 10 years on a site of mine. Hardly getting anything from G today, and the visitors that they do send come from countries like Kuwait and Pakistan.
This site is UK based price comparison. I have never been involved in shady seo practices. The site is fast and mobile friendly. I know it adds value as when I do get a decent amount of visitors from G, I make plenty of sales.
Strange thing is, I am still ranking first page and top 3 for what I consider to be some good keywords and search phrases. But I am getting nothing.
Searching for product names that I would normally rank for I am seeing loads of product feed driven throw away websites offering no value at all.
Could it be that G is happy to have these crappy sites rank so that they get more people using their shopping comparison instead?

[samwest]

MrB - Same thing a lot us are seeing. Something big appears to be brewing. Some sites were hit as early as 3/30. Since then I've see a lot of strange behavior with Google. Analytics down, unusually long time for Google to redirect visits to our site, zombie traffic, distinct ON / OFF periods. Of course we can only speculate on the cause. Some blame Easter and Spring Break, but I think the more logical explanation is low earnings and a last minute push to please shareholders. All at our expense.

[Itanium]

Yep, something is up - SERPs are practically standing still for the past 3 days. No dancing at all, which is highly unusual in my niche.

Yesterday traffic was 12 percent down, but I guess it was the weather. It was 21°C here and today it's most likely gonna be the same. None of the tools show any ranking changes.

[samwest]

If it's the weather, then the weather has been the same since 3/30. This incredibly stupid pattern has gone on 11 days so far. Two sales in the very early morning hours then NOTHING all day. This is not a natural pattern. It's simple manipulation of traffic. Precision throttling. Besides the daily throttling, it goes as far as the week too. Since the first of the year they have had me clocked to XX amount of sales +/- 2. Now this week, it's EXACTLY the same as last week. Pure evil. I give up. Fghting Google is like trying to swim up Niagara Falls.

Stop trying to tweak your sites, it's no use. It's not your site. It's intentional redirection of buyers...or whatever they are doing, that's the result. How can you convert at a low morning traffic level, yet NOT during a higher daily traffic level?

I just opened GA and there is someone sitting on my TERMS page again (and ONLY the term page). Incredible. AND, it's from Boston, just like yesterday. Searching Wordfence Live Traffic shows no corresponding visit to that page. So crosschecking GA means it's likely bogus reporting.

BUT WAIT! I see there is a new thread about Google crawling from new IP addresses. [webmasterworld.com...] It is possible that Wordfence may have blocked these new bots due to a security feature of Wordfence that blocks fake google bots, something I had enabled. If that is it, then my bad and bad on Wordfence for not adding the new IP's. I doubt this is the problem, but it's worth looking into.

6:30 am - and right on time, here comes a sale. This is beyond impossible. While I'm thankful for the sale, you just can't duplicate this pattern without some very weird manipulation. Sale completed. I figure one more this morning and nothing the rest of the day again! I'll still retire to bedlam.

[samwest]

Well, so much for that theory. Google's webmaster help forum claims (admits) nothing new with Googlebot IPs. Still nothing after the token 6:30am conversion. What a joke this web has become. Totally gamed.

[RedBar]

Totally gamed.

Yep, it's been that way for quite some time now insofar as I'm concerned, it's pay to play whether for ads or SERPs positioning.

[glakes]

Could it be that G is happy to have these crappy sites rank so that they get more people using their shopping comparison instead?

I'm sure it fills their bank accounts. Users can't find what they are looking for in organics so they click more ads or enter the shopping results to click more ads. Every click is money in the bank for Google. Showing crappy results at the top will compel legit businesses to spend on Adwords/Shopping. More competition for ads equals a higher CPC and once again produces more money for Google. It's all about the money.

My Google traffic today is rubbish. I had more conversions from Bing and Yahoo, which collectively sent 1/10th the traffic that Google did. I'm starting to believe that the reason why Google is hiding keyword data is so they could run some massive hit bot. There's no way most of the users Google sent today are real.

[RedBar]

Saturday's PVs were -30% and today's are looking even lower. I can't see any major SERPs changes although some of my trade widgets results are absolutely appalling and really need a massive shake-up they're that bad.

[Johan007]

Regarding Panda I have done some reading. According to a couple of sources; because the mobile update on the 21st of this month is "on site" these experts believe that it should include Panda for the first time. If it does not include a Panda refresh I will be sad as we could be waiting a while more.

After obsessing over my site I believe I should recover. I would also welcome a PM or two of URL's waiting for Panda so I can can take a look. Good to have more than one pair of eyes look at a website.

[seoskunk]

these experts believe that it should include Panda for the first time

Seo these days is akin to looking into a crystal ball. No one but a very few hierarchy at Google know when the next panda update will be. Everyone else is just guessing.

[Mentat]

Crystal Ball does work, I've tried that.

This weekend the traffic was so low, that I suspect a big update.

Or... not.
I'm getting paranoid.

[Martin Ice Web]

This weekend the traffic was so low, that I suspect a big update.

Yes and no. IN Germany it was last Weekend from eastern and yesterday we had about 24°. So after this Long period of cold waeather i expected a very low traffic Weekend.

I myself did some reasearch on mobil / Desktop updated to come. And if i clook at the current serps i doubt that something good can come up with this. About 50% of sites in my niche are not mobile ready! So if this sites are gone for mobil what will Google fill the serps with? WIll we see Domain crowding again ( my guess ) or will Google release some Panda but mobile friendly sites out of the penalty? If not then serps on mobile will get worst ever seen, besides the the fact that this will be good for PLAs on mobile.

[Johan007]

i doubt that something good can come up with this. About 50% of sites in my niche are not mobile ready

..yet.

I think this update is brilliant idea to improve websites. In my niche I am seeing a couple of site update to responsive last week alone. At work we are fine tuning the low hanging fruit pages. At least in the UK it is very rare to come across a non-mobile optimised site. Purchases via mobile is extremely low but improving; especially with payment passports or repeat visitors who do not need to register again.

Mobile growth is phenomenal, but laptops have made improvements such as being smaller and much faster to boot up and we are not bombarded with pop ups asking us to down load the App or view via App or Browser.

[RedBar]

This weekend the traffic was so low, that I suspect a big update.

I feel it's already happened, since 1st April my UK traffic has been consistently halved, actually 50.3%, for the USA I have had only two days surpassing March's average with it running at 84.7%, without those two days it would be 79.1%

If there is no recovery this week then they can say what they like, my stats ain't lying, these are big drops at a time of year when my traffic ought to be rising.

[Martin Ice Web]

@Johan,

I think this update is brilliant idea to improve Websites

my niche isnīt that far. And i doubt that good sites with a Panda Penalty will rise while they are mobile friendly.
So this update will be in direct competition with Panda algo..

[netmeg]

Happiness is seeing your client's main competitor (outside of Amazon) misspell its company name on several thousand pages after a new site launch.

(Won't make a difference in the ranking, and I'm sure they'll fix it before long, but... d'oh. Just a reminder that little things matter)

[samwest]

I think this update is brilliant idea to improve websites.

Not to digress into a mobile rant, but...I have to disagree. Mobile phones might be good for some markets, but they highly restrict others. I personally can not stand the culture of "smart phones". In my state Abate chapter, we go on group rides, and when we stop, all the "smart phone dweebs" gotta grab their phones and check their Facebook pages. It's a social disaster. I see it all over, restaurants, stores, just a bunch of Zombies with their face in their screens. I can't help but laugh when they crash into posts, walls or each other.
Besides that, I don't see ANY mobile or even tablet users buying from my site. They are only tire kickers. For MFA's they are probably great as fingers are always accidentally triggering ads. Bad news for advertisers who have to pay for accidental clicks. The other joke is the continual move toward bigger and bigger screens. I still can't read a 7 inch screen. Worst of all is the GPS tracking and invasion of privacy through data history and contacts. Give me a basic flip phone any day. The only one who will really benefit from this update is Gorg.

Update for the day, this morning was a total disaster. Back to slow, unnatural traffic. Been watching the same three pages on GA for over 5 mins, no flow to other pages like a human would typically do, just sitting there. Zombies I guess. Two more days of R&P before the quarterly report is out, so we can see how much of our money Google made.

[Kratos]

Anybody noticing something funky going on today?

Are college kids still on Spring Break? and is it normal in the USA to have today (Monday 13th April) as a holiday and use it to travel back home? I'm seeing some huge fluctuations again, but I believe this weekend was a holiday one in parts (or in the whole) of the USA, correct? And it's still Spring break (is that correct too?)

It's normal in Europe to take an extra day off during a big holiday break, usually a Monday so that you can enjoy the Sunday and come back home on Monday. Do you think this could be happening in the USA today seeing how Americans celebrated Easter this just gone weekend (10 - 12th April) instead of on the previous weekend (3 - 5th April).

Everything was quiet and fine for the last 3 weeks and today it looks like something has happened and not just in my niche as I was talking to other webmasters and they're seeing some big drops in traffic.

Can anyone confirm the holiday status of today Monday in the USA? Is it used to travel? Are people still on holidays or Spring break? Or is everything back to normal today in terms of work/daily life? Thank you.

[kewlchat]

My traffic is the highest in 3 mo. The April jig seemed to double traffic almost overnight, Conversions are down a lot though, crap mobile traffic doesn't convert to well for me, but all my networks are 100% mobile friendly, and fast.


Doesn't seem to help ranking for good certain terms when serps are full of ads.
usa/global/adult/

Having said that, spam sites, keyword stuffed parasites, doorway pages, splogs and one pagers with a few sentances and adsense seem to be rocking, maybe its time to write some new toys and put my old hat back on. :/

[netmeg]

I don't know of any holidays today. And spring break varies across different schools.

[samwest]

Get used to "funky" - In my niche the results now all include a big four image ad panel titled 'Shop "Search Term" on Google'. Funny thing though, the image ads are hawking something much different (but close, nice try G) than the "search term". That is followed by a few stale Ad Network partner articles that rank for every key phrase under the Sun. Next is two YouTube videos vaguely related to the search term...by now you're well below the fold, so forget ever getting much traffic from Google. I've talked to many people lately who are far from tech savvy and even they are complaining of Google's junk ad riddled results and top ranked sites that crash your browser with ad scripts. I've set all my search defaults to Bing (you earn points on Bing that you can spend). Problem with that is (for remaining Google users) G will amp up their efforts to monetized and destroy the quality of their once great search engine even if it kills them. It's all about $$$. They won't stop until they reach a "google" dollars per quarter. Ok, maybe that's a little silly, but you get the idea. The 15th is end of fiscal quarter, we'll see if it relents after that date. It's also tax return time, so visitor should be spending their returns, but Google is eying them too. Google is now your biggest competitor. Love it or switch.

BTW - Easter, Spring Break and all that hooey NEVER had effects like this. It's a corporate monster evolving and perfecting its mastery over search monetization. It's like watching a video of Robodog and being amazed and at the same time frightened. Coincidentally Robodog was built by Boston Dynamics and DARPA, the source of Google's early VC. Not to mention the new home (2014) of DARPA's former director. Really makes ya wonder what's brewing inside that black box corporation.