2: Google MAYDAY Update - SERP Changes May 2010

[cangoou]

< continued from [webmasterworld.com...] >

Puh, this is really strange: I still see 2 resultsets - and after 7 days I can say that SERPs #1 are shown from right at 0am to about 5am local time and SERPs #2 the rest of the day. I thought this was some kind of dancing around again but it seems to be quite stable now for 1 week.

Funny thing is: SERPs #1 are better then before, SERPs #2 are worse (in rankings of main keywords).

Google is no longer following my robots.txt file. It has indexed hundreds of pages that I have disallowed.

Same here, got a complete set of new pages with robots=noindex in the index.

Generally it's best to make any changes when SERPs are stable, never within an update due to panic!

In general I would agree, but I haven't seen something like "stable SERPs" since January... This makes it quite hard not to panic ;-)

[edited by: tedster at 7:43 pm (utc) on May 13, 2010]

[tedster]

How can you improve when you do not know what is getting the results?

You do it to improve your visitors' experience, not strategically to fix Google rankings. There's no reason to freeze all activity just because Google traffic took a dive. If you can't figure out Google, then just plain-old build your business - directly.

[mrez74]

I can't understand this big fluctuation in traffic from day to day. One day all the sites get great traffic then next day they all tank (all this with my positions in the SERPs being the same at least from my end).

So am I to conclude that everyone pretty much is not getting the same set of SERPs now similar to what I'm seeing on a daily basis?

I think we should test this out by all of us searching on one keyword phrase and then reporting back what we get as the top 3 results for each person. Something like "dog training" which is always used in all the ebooks as an example keyword. I can start this off by saying that the top 3 sites for me for the "dog training" are "dog-obedience-training-review" then "dogproblems" and finally 101-dog-training-tips."

Moderator's Note: the Forum Charter [webmasterworld.com] asks
members not to post specific search terms. However, for the purpose
of this experiment, we will make this one exception.

[edited by: tedster at 10:05 pm (utc) on May 18, 2010]

[mrez74]

One site has move up all the way to #4 from #10 from a few weeks ago. But the traffic has not increased at all. I get the same 3-5 a day uniques like I did when I was at the #10 spot. By the way this term is suppose to get 10K searches a month (exact). So this is very frustrating to see improvements in the SERPs, but no traffic to go with it.

[Reno]

dog training:

...............

dog-obedience-training-review

pupdogtraining

dogproblems

...............

Reporting from USA; mid-Atlantic states; Tues 5:45pm
Windows 7 / IE 8

[mrez74]

By the way my results are reporting USA, West Coast.

[gouri]

I am seeing that the number of competitive sites for some keywords that I search have decreased today in what appears to be the Caffeine dataset.

[freejung]

Denver USA here, logged out, personalization off:

dog-obedience-training-review
trainpetdog
barkbusters

Edit: just repeated the search, and got:

dog-obedience-training-review
pupdogtraining
dogproblems

With barkbusters buried, nowhere in top 100. Then repeated again, and got the first set.

Feels like I'm looking at a filter toggle -- and that's not the sort of thing I'm seeing in my niche, where the only movement between the two sets is a reshuffle of the top results. Interesting.

[edited by: freejung at 10:27 pm (utc) on May 18, 2010]

[mrez74]

Reno: I just hit the same DC as you and my top 3 are the same as yours.

Freejung: The second two sites are not on the first page for me with either of my datasets.

It seems that the first site is pretty much the #1 across the few datacenters. I guess it varies from #2-#10.

Now the only thing is whether this variation is just based on different DC's not being all updated or more to do with each user's search habit, IP, etc.

[mrez74]

freejung...I just checked and those two sites that show up for you at #2 and #3 comes up on the bottom of page 3 (#28 and #29) for me. Now that is a big difference.

If I was the the owner of either of those 2 sites and saw that my site was at #2 or #3 on my computer when I did a query and then saw no traffic for it I would wonder. But if most of the people get SERPs like me (where sites are on bottom of page 3) then it would explain the lack of traffic.

Funny that the sites are listed right after each other whether they are #2 and #3 or #29 and #30.

[Reno]

Repeating the exact same search, to see about other results:

101-dog-training-tips -- not in the top 10 pages

trainpetdog shows up as position 27;

barkbusters at 29

[freejung]

This exception to the forum charter is a great opportunity to gather data.

Yes, mrez74, I think you've hit the nail on the head. We're seeing radical fluctuation between two (or more) sets which would cause the kind of traffic discrepancies you're seeing. I'm not seeing that, but as I said, in my niche there seems to just be reshuffling of the top results, not these radical shifts.

Generally this sort of thing doesn't last long.

[mrez74]

freejung..Well at least for me the last week or so I do get the same SERPs as far as my sites are concerned.

But even though I'm seeing good SERPs probably does not mean that everyone else sees the same thing as me. They could be presented with SERPs from DC where my sites aren't even on the first page.

[rocco]

2 of my sites had 150k/day. After the incident they dropped bellow 100k. Now one of them is improving by week, the other is falling by week (It is 2 full weeks since the incident when both sites were on record level traffic wise - 2 very clear shifts in traffic were observed). Interesting. But I cannot say what exactly happened, I am not a SEO, but build content and services.

Smaller, newer sites are getting indexed quickly and traffic in the low 100's/day.

A site, punished for some reason I could not figure out, which had some sort of -65 penalty for its own very unique fantasy name, came back after 2.5 years.

I cannot complain about my own search-experience, but I have heard complains from friends who do not observe google serps.

[dusky]

dog training (no quotes):

No PS, logged out, UK ISP connection, G*.com search:

dog-obedience-training-review: Position 1

pupdogtraining: Postion 2

101-dog-training-tips: Position 28


Yes, the more I study this the more I think I and others here are on target to believe G* is serving results to different people in different SERP positions, see my response a page or two back (part of the AI debate). We are all AIed now!

Welcome to the AIED search!

[helpnow]

dog training:

- Canada -
1. dog-obedience-training-review
2. pupdogtraining
3. dogproblems

- East Coast USA -
1. dog-obedience-training-review
2. dogproblems
3. 101-dog-training-tips
- Local Results map
4. pupdogtraining

[dusky]

dog traning, First 3 positions:

dog-obedience-training-review
pupdogtraining
dogproblems

[TheMadScientist]

West Coast US

1. dog-obedience-training-review
2. pupdogtraining
3. dogproblems

34. 101-dog-training-tips

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 12:18 am (utc) on May 19, 2010]

[Abigail]

BC - Canada
dog-obedience-training-review
barkbusters
wikipedia

[proboscis]

Washington State US
logged out, 5:16 pm

dog-obedience-training-review
pupdogtraining
dogproblems

logged in same results, with or without quotes same results

[dusky]

I think this is so important, tedster or someone who's a stats addict (sorry Ted I meant that as a compliment), are you filling in you csv file, it's a waste not to, I don't have time, I would if I could.

I know it's not as simple as filling in, one has to know what to fill UNDER WHAT. Keyword, Country, Date, DCs, +- position, daily fluxes / fluctuations...which are not available for members here, man this could be fun and serves are a study to prove at least if G* is serving people different SERPs and different positions.

I propose a thread on its own with a voting poll (or a link to a voting Poll), you have the keyword above, positions 1-5 (5 text boxes to fill in which sites in order they were returned), 8 largest country blocks, US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, L America and Other and probably one or two other variables. Basically one just needs to fill in sites, tick country / block and that's it as compulsory, other variables optional.

[icedowl]

Just for fun I tried this and got identical results to TheMadScientist's:

1. dog-obedience-training-review
2. pupdogtraining
3. dogproblems

34. 101-dog-training-tips

I'm in northern Nevada. 5:36 pm PDT

[mrez74]

Well one thing is for sure in that the #1 spot is the same for every search.

How is that site is not changing across the different datcenters? What makes that site so stable compared to the rest?

So I'm wondering why the big shuffle from #2 and down. I could see maybe a few spots lower/higher and roughly the same sites on the first page, but it's weird how you can be at #2 and/or #3 and also back to #30 or so.

[proboscis]

since we're having fun

26. 101-dog-training-tips

34. seefido

[mrez74]

Hey guys is there an accurate way to check across Google's datacenters to see where a particular keyword ranks?

I've found a few tools online, but most of those come up with errors of most on the DCs and the rest show the same SERPs just like when I do my search on regular Google.

[imbckagn]

East Cost U.S

1. dog-obedience-training-review
2. dogproblems
3. 101-dog-training-tips

[Tallon]

central Canada (IE 8):

dog-obedience-training-review
barkbusters (canadian domain)
wikipedia.org

u.s. search (webwarper proxy) Firefox

dog-obedience-training-review
uwsp.edu
andreaarden

[caribguy]

Caribbean, 22:00 AST - dog training
Safari/Win - no js/cookies

Top 3 same as dusky and TMS:

dog-obedience-training-review
pupdogtraining
dogproblems

101-dog-training-tips ~30
seefido ~35
barkbusters ~45

[tedster]

You'll see more churn between 7-10 and LOTS more on the deeper pages. Too much to make any sense of it all on a public forum, I think.

[Reno]

I'm finding it very interesting how some people are finding "101-dog-training-tips" in the top 3 while the rest of us are finding it on Page 3!

AND, I want to thank Tedster for letting this search "experiment" go forward -- the results are fascinating even if I cannot gleam a reason for the inconsistencies. If nothing else it at least proves from input around the country and around the world that there ARE inconsistencies.

.........................

[mrez74]

After doing several searches on my desktop and mobile phone I am getting pretty much like 3-4 different sets of results among the top 3. Just about getting the various sets of data posted here.

So do you guys think this will be an ongoing thing or will it settle down and be more consistent SERPS across the datacenters? I know before that at any given time there will be different SERPS for everyone due to all datacenters data not updated, but a we had a general idea of where we ranked when we did our own search.

So if we can't pinpoint how we are ranking then what good is it to build content and backlinks if we don't see the true results of our efforts?