Google Updates and SERP Changes - July 2011

[Shatner]

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

Here's what I am more interested in than anything...

How are all the cosmetic changes Google is making going to affect the traffic driven from Google search?

It definitely seems like Google is de-emphasizing the straight up search aspect of itself more and more and more. They're going out of their way to direct people AWAY from search with every cosmetic change they make.

That has to be having an impact on people who get a lot of traffic from search... I don't know I don't get any search traffic anymore since Panda took it all away.

If you do still get Google search traffic, how is this impacting you?

[edited by: tedster at 3:32 am (utc) on Jul 2, 2011]

[disspy]

@Hairycoo

Roger that! It seems to me that the "Panda" turns into "Grizzly", starting to eat meat instead of bamboo ;)

[zerillos]

7 year old site that has had steady traffic for the last couple of years has suddenly lost 30% of its traffic from July 13th.

same loss here, on the same day. This is getting ridiculous. I really don't know what's G's problem with my website... I've asked the opinion of several SEO experts, and none of them seem to be able to find any problem with it.

[hairycoo]

zerillos was your website affected by Panda before 13th July? Mine wasn't at all.

[indyank]

yes, things are getting worse with google for no reason...some PHDs are having a joy ride with their thesis i guess...

[ohno]

Talk about kicking a man when he's down! We've taken another hammering today, stats down about 50% on a normal Monday.

[HuskyPup]

stats down about 50% on a normal Monday.

So far I'm seeing much lower traffic levels than usual for a Monday morning.

some PHDs are having a joy ride with their thesis i guess

Send me their papers for marking, I'll wake them up with a massive fail!

[mhansen]

Have any of you who are losing traffic, checked to see if some of your former keywords are now triggering local results? (The 7-pack and sidebar map of local serps)

From ambiguous one-word search terms like @Robert Charlton talked about, to 3-6 word long-tails, I'm seeing a significant push of local results.

MH

[indyank]

mhansen, I see some changes in local results but these algorithms don't seem to stop with them. A couple of country specific sites are getting hit big time and I see no rhyme or reason for such massive hits...

To understand the damage, one of the sites that used to get 14K visitors per day before panda hit it on March 12 (international rollout) is now down to 1.1K. It was getting 8-9K until July first week.

[walkman]

If Panda run again, that means one more horrible month for most of us. Just make sure not to call it a penalty.

some PHDs are having a joy ride with their thesis i guess

They are too busy trying to fool people to give their real names and do all the searches logged.

And how to try to send less traffic to sites. On some monitors you can't even tell the difference between ads and non-ads.

Looks like Google has marked those sites for destruction, traffic is much much much worst than after Panda. I can't say here how I feel about Google but let's hope they get it back in spades.

[edited by: walkman at 1:11 pm (utc) on Jul 18, 2011]

[indyank]

One thing I notice with every hit is the gain for the likes of wikipedia. I didn't even knew that wikipedia had pages for some of the stuff and all these have surfaced straight to page 1 for the keywords.

someone said google looks more and more like yellow pages and for me it now looks like the internet is so small in the new google world.

[edited by: indyank at 1:00 pm (utc) on Jul 18, 2011]

[indyank]

If you have a good product, the solution seems to be having a good page on the likes of wikipedia and amazon, that would serve as a doorway to your medium/smallish site.

[Forbin001]

Anyone still getting movement off the update? One of my keywords is floating between position 10 and 8 on the first page.

[walkman]

Did Panda run or what? On July 11th many sites came back, many got hosed. Is it holding up, is it Panda?

Does anyone have an idea

[ohno]

Something was happening yesterday for sure, in the late afternoon we flipped the other way, traffic well UP and sales in the evening. I can't keep up with this. Whenever I check the SERP's we look great. Google bot has been all over us lately too?

[jmccormac]

Google used to be a good search engine. Now it has jumped the shark because of this peabrained Panda effort. It is on the same road as Altavista now.

Regards...jmcc

[ohno]

GA shows traffic around normal in the end for a Monday. Unfortunately another tracker we use had a hard disk failure last night so all that data has been lost! Shame as it gives us a much better indication as to what is going on.

[onepointone]

If you have a good product, the solution seems to be having a good page on the likes of wikipedia and amazon, that would serve as a doorway to your medium/smallish site.

Yeah, I see the web's "middle class" disappearing. Either you are an elephant or an ant.

The 'ants' will need to get smart at getting their message out on 3rd party websites. Twitter, facebook, youtube, all the free blogging websites.

More for the direct traffic, less to promote their sinking ant sites.

[zeus]

is the panda update done means those sites hurt need to create new sites and what we see here and then now is just small updates, so we do not see a pull back like normal.

[agent_x]

My biggest site lost 90% on the 13th but came back today, except for the page I was working on - just waiting to see what happens with that.

[gehrlekrona]

Over the last 6 months or so I have lost 75% of my traffic from Google. I said back then that we won't be able to do any kind of SEO in the future and it looks like we are there now. At least for me. I can't even try to figure out what is wrong with the site(s). Before you could kinda' guess and try things but not anymore.
I can't really figure out why there are so many crappy sites showing up and most of it isn't anything I tried to find. I am not saying that my site should have been there instead, because it is when I just try to search for anything, really.
There was a story on Fox News ( http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/20/3-reasons-why-google-is-killing-internet-search/ [foxnews.com] ) where they also say things like that so it's not just us webmasters but also mainstream it seems like.
I tried to search for information the other day about a lawn pump and try to figure out what is wrong with it. It was IMPOSSIBLE to find anything and the first 5-10 pages was not even about fixing it except from a Fix Ya site...

[edited by: tedster at 12:16 am (utc) on Jul 21, 2011]
[edit reason] make link clickable [/edit]

[supercyberbob]

Again, glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks the serps are filled with super junk.

I did some research on mountain bike parts and components last week, and I couldn't find jack on what I was looking for. And no, none of my sites have anything to do with bike anything.

Also, we're several months into the rollout, and I haven't seen anybody say definitively that post Panda serps are better than before.

Sorry Gooble fans, looks like somebody screwed up big time.

[edited by: supercyberbob at 12:30 am (utc) on Jul 21, 2011]

[gehrlekrona]

@supercyberbob, I am sorry to say but I don't think Google screwed up. I think this is exactly what they had in mind with the algo. I had to set my Location to something in AK so I didn't get all the sites from this area. Why do I have to do that? Why does Google think that I want sites from my area? Why would they even care what I want and try to guess what I want? Why do I have to try to fool Google to try to find something? Do I have to use -CityName -state in all searches now? Is there a setting not to use local results? If there is, I haven't found it.
So what do I need to do with my sites? Do I have "localize" it? By city? By state? Is Google more of a Yellowbook now with local pages?

[jmccormac]

The irony is that Google dumped its version of the Dmoz directory and given the mess that Panda made of things, it might now be more accurate.

Regards...jmcc

[walkman]

I hope your site comes back Brinked (read your Google forum post). It sucks, and I know how you feel. Month 5 for me as Google ....

I went down again last week. One or two more updates and it will probably reach zero.

[ohno]

Oh for crying out loud, normalish week, check logs this morning and back to junk foreign traffic (Indian, sure fire sign that they are tinkering AGAIN). This really is a piss take now, FFS Google just leave the bloody thing alone for a few months eh? (preferably roled back to pre May Day).

[zerillos]

@hairycoo
yup. it was hit by almost every single update since February :( I really don't know what's G's problem. it's like it's picking a fight with absolutely no reason at all...

[Martin Ice Web]

ohno -> same in germany.
Since monday your site loses every day a little bit more, but bounce rate went up.

Up to now, amazon sits on place 1 to 3. 4 - 8 are price comparing sites, 9 - 10 some forums. Shopping sites are all wipped out.
I recognized a growing number of competitors that are using google adwords.


Sometimes there is zero traffic from google. Then, a switch seems to be turned on/off -> organic traffic for goomazon is up. But only a few minutes.

I noticed that if its a one word serch, goomazon servs mostly
manufacturer and wiki sites. No shopping sites.
Not before u type a second, more specific word goomazon servs amazon , price comparing sites and some shopping sites, but no manufacturer sites.

[disspy]

Once again, can anyone else confirm significant SERPs shift (drop/gain in traffic) on July, 12th and even July, 19th (another episode) or is this just me?

[trinorthlighting]

My Niche it is typically:

1. Amazon
2. Walmart
3. Home Depot
4. Lowes
5. Ace Hardware
6. Target

All big big brand stores. I think Google needs to figure out that most shoppers come to Google to search because they do not want to buy it from a local big box store.....duh

[Martin Ice Web]

disspy - 19th, July - big drop - significant serps shake up.
today - is getting even worse, maybe is because of beginning of vacation season in germany tomorrow.