Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2010

[indyank]

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

Here is alexa's take on the the oct 21-22 debacle..they do see a significant shift...

[blog.alexa.com...]

but wait, there seems to be one more tweak that happened this friday, oct 29. This could either be a reversal or yet another tweak...google is enjoying the tweak game and one thing for sure, they are trying to achieve something for themselves via the tweaks...

[edited by: tedster at 2:18 pm (utc) on Nov 1, 2010]

[Spencer]

I'm only talking for our particular marketplace, but I'm seeing high quality top ten listings. Except for the high level of company sites that are going out of business due to the recession, all of the results are both applicable and of high quality.

[maximillianos]

Anyone seeing significant changes positive or negative to their traffic since Thursday and particularly this weekend?

[backdraft7]

@max - I've seen a return to somewhat normal sales conversion patterns, so traffic quality seems to have temporarily improved. Not gonna hold my breath though.

[Kelowna]

Anyone seeing significant changes positive or negative to their traffic since Thursday and particularly this weekend?

I have seen my rankings dip slightly but there must be better quality visitors as my sales are up a bit over the last few days.

[maximillianos]

Thanks for sharing. We noticed a similar trend to the week of Oct 22 start again on Thursday. But as we all know, it is becoming increasingly difficult to gauge the reason behind changes anymore.

[scottsonline]

Changes should have rolled through I really hope this is it until 1/1.

Traffic is solid. Bing is steady. Google up. Exact reversal of the month of change we just had. Lots of carts.

Please let this be it. I think a lot of us cannot take many more down days due to google shifts/tests.

[Spencer]

Last year we noticed a mid November link update that manifested itself in sales around Jan 1st. This year has changed somewhat, with the advent of instant and the quicker uptake of changes, I think we might see a data and PR (visible or not) around the last 10 days of November.

[Dave_Hybrid]

If Google is boosting spam so it can be reported, then that would imply they know what and where the spam is, so there would be no need to get anyone to report it. It's a bizarre suggestion.

[scottsonline]

Dave not really. If someone creates 200 sites and loads them up with links to category pages of ten link buyers paying 2k a pop while adding links to low ranking sites and some scrapped content how would they know?

If someone sends them the link to the site selling the links then they know. Otherwise they are only guessing. It can help confirm what their algorithms tell them.

The buying season has begun in the most delicate economic recovery in 100 years. I really hope the tweaks are done.

[Mal_Jones]

Mal that's not always true. You are assuming errors in google resulted in just different stores being shown for products when in reality no stores were being shown for thousands, maybe millions of products.

Have you not heard of pay per click results or are you saying that google screwed up showing relevant product pulled from paying customers as well as from Google products?

[Mal_Jones]

Brinked I honestly believe this update will put thousands of businesses under

The update seems to have been rolled back today but I expect this to roll out even bigger very soon. I agree that businesses will suffer and the ones that will suffer the most will be affiliate sites.

[scottsonline]

Mal I see no signs it was rolled back. Terms we ranked first on three weeks ago we are now 5-10.

In every niche you'll see google expose bad sites for a week PR two during the flux and then a return to a newer set.

[brinked]

Dave, not at all. Their algo is not perfect. It never will be. If it was perfect then there would be no spam ever in googles index. But there is, sites always manage to sneak through. Google may be pushing questionable sites to the top to see what kind of feedback they get about it. Spam reports can help confirm that it is indeed a spam site, and they can use that data to adjust their algo. I know if I ran a search engine, this is something I would do. I would also track bounce rates. For example, if 90%+ users click through to a search result, then go back to click on another site almost instantly, this could tell google that this site is of very poor quality, and users have no interest in it.

[williamfor]

Wanted to give update on my situation:

Traffic is still well down but.... the quality is much better. We have probably had the best day in terms of numbers today. The search does seem to be taking out a lot of random keywords we used to get. If we get a few more tweaks and a bit more traffic, i will sleep a bit easier. Bounce rate down and no. of pages up.

However, i have noticed a lot of the traffic is coming to the homepage.... this is certainly one reason the bounce rate is down and page numbers up. Fingers crossed for next week - good luck to us all...

[scottsonline]

Brinked yes and not all feedback is spam reports either.

William luck to you also. Clearly this adjustment reduced traffic in the form of wrong traffic. Probably 2-4% of our traffic was random junk something in the algo that found a nugget where it didn't exist. That traffic is gone and that's fine it's better directed elsewhere.

[Mal_Jones]

Mal I see no signs it was rolled back. Terms we ranked first on three weeks ago we are now 5-10. 

Your not seeing the results that every one else is seeing , the results are fluid by I.P address.

[CainIV]

1. Google is replacing the homepage with inner pages that either have the same/similar keywords in the title or URL for certain rankings in what seems to be an effort to get users to what they are looking for and not having them taken to an intro or "doorway" page.

See exactly the same thing here. Interesting idea.

[tedster]

Me too, and all I can say is, It's about time! Up until now I was doing a good bit of "code yoga" to get the best landing page for organic search results.

[brinked]

I agree, it is nice to see google split testing our inner pages for us. This explains the decrease bounce rate we are all seeing. My bounce rate can never dip below 20% though, never has it been 19%, every day 20-22%. Maybe clickystats is rigged

[scottsonline]

Mal I think most of us are seeing better results, lower bounce rates and overall decent returns. I won't be convinced the results are going to stick until I see how Monday/Tuesday goes.

Traffic for the last couple of days is up both cpc and organic in the exact percentages which tells me finally in my niche we have stability.

[brinked]

I have noticed an increase in traffic as well. I know a lot of it is due to the mini site links that G generously gave me for a load of searches.

[scottsonline]

Can someone give me an example of mini site links?

Thanks

[John_Lee]

yes...traffic is increasin daily..not on a large scale but observable..my position in the SERP's was 12 past week...now it is 8 :)

[brinked]

Guys dont forget, your traffic may seem like it increased on sunday because there was an extra hour in the day. Daylight savings. Traffic is always up about 10% when we take the clock back an hour.

[steerpikegg]

My traffic was up yesterday by about 300% - still only half of what it was this time last year, but after having it drop by so much on and off this year, it's like a blessing. I'll be glad when this year's over - it's been like a rollercoaster both for my business and emotionally.

Just have to hope this improvement sticks, but I've said that at least 3 times since Mayday.

I just want a solid base so I can work on building it back to where it was in 2009.

[tedster]

mini sitelinks

Four sitelinks in a horizontal line below the snippet. For a discussion and a screenshot, see this thread from last year: [webmasterworld.com...]

[ohno]

We saw great improvements Thursday/Friday. When I checked the logs first thing Saturday single page views & foreign traffic had returned, the weekend was dire(traffic/conversion wise) as is today so far. So, we had two days of normality then back to the dire situation that we have been in since October 21st.

[backdraft7]

@OHNO - we had a good Friday, Saturday and a phenomenal Sunday and sales continue to come in this morning. I hope I won't see the drop off you are experiencing this week! Good luck!

[ohno]

Good to hear backdraft, long may it continue! I wonder if Google is treating you differently considering what you sell and the time of year?

[scottsonline]

Well not the way to start a Monday! About 15% of my coworkers are gone 11/19! Sales slowed so much online the 2nd half of October. The bosses didn't want to hear it was google and I guess it doesn't matter?

Results did change as mal predicted. It makes it really hard to book sales when or average turnaround is 3.5 days. People that searched last week can't find us today on 40% of the terms!

Any brand search that has any type of implied geographic reference is a nightmare right now.

I have a job for now but instead of posting here I'll be posting my resume the next few days. I can't believe a simple algorithm change can effect a 20 year old business so quickly but I guess if we are all here to handle web business and google has decided to make it hard to profit organically what can you do. We've gone through three SEMs and all concluded there was money to be made in adwords in this niche and the bosses don't want to spend 1k a day to make 0k after expenses.

It's going to be a gloomy holiday for many.