Google Mobile Algo - April 2015 Roll Out

[keyplyr]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4743698.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 3:18 am on Apr 21, 2015 (PDT -8)

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Different DataCenters probably, but I'm seeing new SERP for everything I search for... that I'm familiar enough with to notice a change. So Cal

[ergophobe]

No drop here across two sites that are not mobile friendly.

[trabis]

And now I'm on #42. Yesterday I was #4. No change on desktop. Looking at analytics, I see a small lost in mobile and a small gain in desktop starting on day 22. Traffic remains the same. Need more time.

[Kratos]

Interesting. Nonmobile sites have increased in traffic while the mobile sites have decreased in traffic.

I've browsed around and I've seen similar observations. Page 1 results have yet to be dominated by mobile friendly labels although we have to bear in mind that while mobile friendliness is a strong ranking signal, there's more to ranking on Google mobile. Links will always trump mobile friendliness. However we weren't expecting it to be day 3 of the update with nonmobile sites with higher traffic and viceversa. You'd expect by now the nonmobile sites would have reduced traffic or at least show signs of it.

It's very likely tho there's a shuffle going on as Google re estructurs the SERPs so right now nonmobile sites may have increased traffic, and not decreased their traffic - but not for long.

How are you guys seeing it in the USA as of now? We compete in USA-UK-Western Europe. I'm surprised we're seeing this paradox in US results as supposedly it's with the US data centers that all updates start at and propagate from there. UK and .FR/.DE results seem the same as of a week ago, no movement at all, at least in our niches.

[olenoides]

Still not seeing any updates mobile changes myself. But talked to a friend who started seeing dramatically different mobile SERPs about an hour ago. Sounds like the update has rolled out in only a small proportion of the data centers, but when it does the changes are big enough it's pretty obvious that the mobile update has hit.

[worker]

Ok, just throwing this out there to see whether or not anyone has discussed this concept. I'm not seeing significant SERP changes for my sites (yet). My sites seem to be in the same places on desktop and mobile devices as they were (even though I've been bracing for a mobile traffic drop).

Today in Analytics, I'm seeing between 33% and a 50% drop in traffic...despite my sites still showing up in basically the same spots in Google SERPS.

So, has anyone discussed the secondary effects of the mobile change...where referrer sites are being bumped down in the SERPS because they are old and not likely to update to mobile friendly.

In essence, instead of just worrying about one's own SERP positioning issues, aren't we all going to suffer from the negative effects of our strongest referrer sites dropping due to the mobile change?

(I'm still looking for some other explanation for the significant traffic drop, so I'm hoping my theory doesn't hold too much water.)

Any thoughts?

[olenoides]

@worker It very well could also be because the update is starting to hit a portion of the data centers. So you are seeing the traffic drop from due to the rankings drop for a portion of the searchers.

[trabis]

I think this filter should have propageted google servers by now. My expectation is that we have to wait while google crawls all the web pages and assign new values to them and that may take months to complete.

[randle]

I don't see any change at all. (I'm not complaining, just reporting)

US - East Coast

[Broadway]

No big changes for me.
I'm responsive but expect all of the big names above me are too.
I thought I might get a boost in long tail traffic where the competitors are often one-offs (little guys who happen to have a great page on that particular focused topic). But I'm not really noticing anything like that either.

[guggi2000]

Comparison of 3 days of this week to 3 days of last week. Break down by Operation System and Continent (organic SE traffic).

North America:
Windows +2%
Android +3%
Mac 0%
iOS -7%

Europe:
Windows +4%
Android +4.5%
Mac 4%
iOS -1%

In Google Analytics: Audience->GEO->Location and User->Operating System as secondary dimension.

Edit:
We are mobile friendly. iOS traffic has been hit.

[edited by: guggi2000 at 5:45 pm (utc) on Apr 24, 2015]

[EditorialGuy]

I think this filter should have propageted google servers by now.

A new Search Engine Land story (dated this morning, April 24) quotes John Mueller of Google as saying, "From the first day to the next day, I don’t think you’ll see a big change. But if you compare last week to next week, then you should see a big change."

"Google Confirms Mobile Friendly Update Live In Some, But Not All, Data Centers"
[searchengineland.com...]

[Kratos]

How about your WMT, guys? What do you see there from the 21st? You should have search query data already for the 21st and 22nd already. In our WMT data for those 2 days, I can confirm what I said about this particular paradox. I think by Sunday we will have a solid 4 days of reporting on WMT to see if the mobile algo has hit our niches.

Anyone seeing any funky_ness on WMT for the 21 and 22? Make sure to also select the country in the filter as well as the mobile filter (and mention your target country in your post). Just saying as the search queries data has all countries traffic by default, and you may have dropped in the USA on the 21st but the rest of the world has maintained its traffic so the default report would look like it's maintained or even increased. This is as the data centers outside the US have yet to be updated since they always start with the West Coast of the US.

[blend27]

At this point, as far as I know, most of mobile devices lack ad/beacons... etc blocking tools for the browsers they forced to utilize. Most sites simply don't work with scripts/tools in place, freeware at the expense of YOUR VISITOR'S PRIVACY.

The biggest mistake any Webmaster can do is to allow outside companies track its users presence without having an honest understanding what is going-on on his/her site.

I'll tell you why: You are speaking of a piece of software that mostly none of you have trusted from the get go.

[EditorialGuy]

I haven't had time to fiddle much with the new Webmaster Tools, but I can see our average position for mobile queries has been steady. No spike or dip in recent days.

[keyplyr]

I can't test Google mobile results since...
However I have just borrowed a frend's HTC M8 and the mobile results are identical to my desktop.

@RedBar - Since you can't do a thorough test of Google Mobile Search, and from the limited test you were able to try on a friends phone shows desktop & mobile SERP identical (indicating the update probably has not occurred yet in your region) why do you say that Google caused a 50% drop in your site traffic due to the update?

This update is for mobile search on phones. Tablets will show the same SERP as desktop.

BTW - on ANY mobile phone you can launch a browser and go to Google Search, which will be the mobile version. You don't need an Android phone or any particular app to do this.

[RedBar]

why do you say that Google caused a 50% drop in your site traffic due to the update?

Because that specific site, none of any of my others, has had a 50% drop in traffic since the 21st and is continuing the same today.

on ANY mobile phone you can launch a browser and go to Google Search, which will be the mobile version.

Not on a Lumia you can't.

In fact Lumia phones do not even register as a smartphone in AdSense, it registers as a desktop.

[RedBar]

Just to correct myself, when going to Google using a browser it does go to their mobile site however it's not possible to load the Google app to check stuff, however it still does not register as a smartphone in AdSense.

I'll check whether it's as desktop or tablet tomorrow but I'm fairly sure it's desktop.

[DXL]

As of today (Friday the 24th), I haven't noticed any changes in mobile search ranking for my client sites or personal sites since the algorithm was to be updated. And almost none of those sites are mobile-friendly by Google's standards (I know, I know), with the exception of any supplemental blogs those sites have.

I've also been checking out visitor statistics for a few of the sites that always had the most traffic. Site traffic is either the same, or even slightly increased in a few cases. But I'm not taking this lightly, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop in the next few days. And figuring out the steps needed to make a couple hundred sites mobile-friendly before this year is over (I'm an old dog that never bothered to learn new tricks).

[keyplyr]

it's not possible to load the Google app to check stuff

What "Google app" are you referring to?

You don't need an app to do mobile searches and see where your mobile site is ranking in the SERP.

[Sand]

I haven't seen a single iota of movement.

[supercyberbob]

haha.

[flatfile]

On my side, something definitely happened about 15 hours ago. Usually my Friday traffic drops off throughout the evening, but last night I saw the opposite. Saturday has started off better than any Saturday. Also some of the SERPs that I track are definitely different from mobile to desktop. I honestly did not expect any traffic change in my niche after this update since most of the high ranking sites went mobile a long time ago, so this is probably just long tail traffic. Now since it's so easy to recover from this algo change, I bet this traffic won't last as more sites start implementing mobile-friendly designs in the coming months.

[piatkow]

Same search comes up with no ads on desktop and an ad on mobile pushing the first organic result (my site!) off the page.

Tried a different comparison, results three and four in the organics are reversed and results five and six from the desktop drop off page one in mobile.

Considering what I have done, and not done, on various pages my impression so far is that if you are relevant enough to be in the top 5 it shouldn't take too much to keep you there but if you are below that in desktop then you need to do a bit more work.

[RedBar]

What "Google app" are you referring to?

I assume Chrome, Why do I say that?

Because every piece of equipment that I have (3 pcs, 3 laptops, 4 tablets, 4 smartphones) does not show "mobile-friendly" on any Chrome browser when searching Google on any machine, nor Firefox/Opera/SeaMonkey/Netscape/Safari/K-Meleon/MSIE when using Google search in any of these browsers shows "mobile-friendly" for me.

I cannot see "mobile-friendly" using Google search, can I be clearer than that?

Using a friend's HTC M8 using Chrome and searching Google it shows "mobile-friendly".

Using Bing on my smartphones it shows "mobile-friendly".

[keyplyr]

What "Google app" are you referring to?

I assume Chrome, Why do I say that?

You kept saying you couldn't access the Google app. However Chrome is a web browser not an app.

...every piece of equipment that I have (3 pcs, 3 laptops, 4 tablets, 4 smartphones) does not show "mobile-friendly" on any Chrome browser when searching Google on any machine, nor Firefox/Opera/SeaMonkey/Netscape/Safari/K-Meleon/MSIE when using Google search in any of these browsers shows "mobile-friendly" for me.

I cannot see "mobile-friendly" using Google search, can I be clearer than that?

This thread is about the update to Google *mobile* search. The mobile-friendly tags are ONLY shown in Google *mobile* search, so you will not see this tag searching from your "3 pcs, 3 laptops or 4 tablets." You will only see the mobile-friendly tag for pages listed when you search from your mobile phone using Google mobile search. There is no problem using Chrome as the mobile web browser from a *mobile* phone.

Using a friend's HTC M8 using Chrome and searching Google it shows "mobile-friendly". Using Bing on my smartphones it shows "mobile-friendly".

So you actually CAN see the mobile-friendly tag after all. Great, your problem is solved :)

[nettulf]

You can also see the "mobile friendly" tag when searching from a desktop in Chrome, by emulating a smartphone using the developer tools.

Press F12 and the mobile-icon in upper left, and select a smartphone model of your choice. Remember to refresh the Google search page first to get mobile version or else it does not work.

[trabis]

I can predict increased bounce rate and lost of at least one reader in WebmasterWorld after this move to mobile "friendly". Can you have a link in the bottom for the classic version?
I hope this is the correct thread, I am totaly lost.

[flatfile]

I can predict increased bounce rate and lost of at least one reader in WebmasterWorld after this move to mobile "friendly". Can you have a link in the bottom for the classic version?
I hope this is the correct thread, I am totaly lost.

The most annoying thing for me about this responsive version is the lack of pagination. I only noticed it today when I visited on a smartphone. I've seen a bunch of forums do this sort of thing(some only paginate to page 2) and it's downright irritating. Please guys find a way to sort this out.

[Awarn]

Have any of you considered the demotion for non mobile friendly could in fact be something else? We see these posts saying they feel they are being deindexed etc. I for one feel like while WMT shows being fully indexed but I think it may actually not truly be indexed or somewhat throttled. If this is the case with the mobile feature it may be a slow slide for the non mobile sites. Those that are mobile friendly will see gradual gain as well. I am thinking more like a 1000 page site and say 980 or so show up based on the sitemap etc. Yes Google skimmed the site enough they know what is there. However if they throttle it 50% then only 500 pages are ranking like they should. Oh sure you can find the page but is it ranking in the position it should? You would see a slow fade in traffic and gradually the rankings will slip. If that is the case it could be a month or more before you see the results.

[RedBar]

Great, your problem is solved

No I can't, only on a friend's mobile, none of mine, which bit do you not understand?