Google Updates and SERP Changes - Nov 2011

[canuckseo]

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

October 30/31 something happened - traffic to my canadian sites is down 15-20%. Traffic to US sites is only down slightly. In some cases traffic to some of my US sites was actually up yesterday - first time in months.

Not sure what happened. Still looking into it.

[edited by: tedster at 1:43 am (utc) on Nov 2, 2011]

[Martin Ice Web]

Has there been another update? googblebot crawls like crazy, lot of foreign traffic, -20% traffic....
(located in germany)

[ohno]

Lots of Gbot activity here(UK) but UK traffic at the moment. Yesterday turned out OK in the end too-on target for normal day.

[Web_speed]

If the keywords don't come close... why are people clicking on them?

Why do people click them?

Because of a long list of damn WRONG panda reasons.

1) google re-write page titles now
2) google re write or differently re-index page content for snippets now (read this : [insidesearch.blogspot.com...] "Snippets with more page content and less header/menu content:")
3) Google instant... wired ...so wired and unnecessary confusing "enhancement".
4) "Keyword suggestions" with a rigged "I'm feeling lucky" right arrow keyboard shortcut...WTF
5) Third world/ multinationals rating the entire web. Based on their ratings Google is trying to tell us now "what we are really" searching for.... ya right. WRONG!
6) and much more new and great little MORONIC enhancements to compliment the above.

An utter total mess at the worst frigging time of the year.

I simply hate this search engine and the damage they are causing to so many businesses world wide.
There is a saying... "be the the change you want to see in this world" and thats exactly what i did last night. Removed ALL google programs and services from all the computers i own or manage. Switched all home pages to bing plus published a long memo to all my colleagues, customers, family and friends advising them of all the WRONG things google has become and why they should steer well away and start getting used to using Bing and Yahoo for a change.

Google has been reduced to a pile of crap and thats a real shame really!

[chrism]

I'm seeing two completely different sets of results in the UK which are flicking from set A to B and back every few hours. Our site is #1 for our key term on set A, and #19 on set B.

UK traffic accounts for almost 100% when set A is live, set B gives approximately 30% less traffic, but its from all over the world.

Looking at the keyword data, it appears we must go from ranking well for a range of keywords in the UK (set A) to ranking well for the same (or similar) set of keywords everywhere but the UK (Set B).

The reason I think this is the majority of terms people use to find our site are UK specific, that is while the widgets we promote exist worldwide, we have our own name for the in the UK. This explains the lower traffic overall despite the increase in exposure in non UK markets that Set B brings.

[ohno]

@chrism, have you identified specific times for this? We normally see a traffic boost around 3pm in the afternoons for some reason. Thsi morning has bene quiet.

[chrism]

This morning it seems to have been mainly on set B reverting to Set A between 9am and 10am I believe (which is what I see now @ 10.58AM GMT).

[chrism]

And as I say that, bang on 11.00AM GMT back to set B.

It's not just my site either, I didn't make that clear. The whole of the first 20 results seem to shuffle, with only one site in the entire top twenty disappearing, replaced by one from page 3.

Of course, this may be a result of hitting different data centres too!

[leeds1]

@chrism I have been seeing the same thing -bobbing in and out for the past few days now - it actually looks like a good set of results so hope the new set comes in soon

[ohno]

Well it would make sense for Google to split test! Here's hoping it sticks on the good side for us.

[ohno]

Our cart system had lots of activity @ 11:30. Not converted yet but certainly a blip happened then.

[Habtom]

@Web_speed

Switched all home pages to bing plus published a long memo to all my colleagues, customers, family and friends advising them of all the WRONG things google has become and why they should steer well away and start getting used to using Bing and Yahoo for a change.

Google is still by far better than any of the other search engines.

[ohno]

Traffic from India, Brazil & Germany at the moment! Switching everything off from Google on your site is a bit like trying to win a war by hiding in the basement. Google is the biggest, this will not change, not now. Better to deal with them as best you can than run away IMO. Most punters think the internet IS Google!

[ohno]

Logs FULL of junk traffic this morning. Gbot all over us too, yet another visit from Google this time on a Windows XP machine?!

[ohno]

Terrible junk traffic constantly since 8am, anyone else seeing this? Converstions are terrible too.

[chrism]

Re my message about 6 posts back, I now either see a set C or A and B are being rolled in together. it looks as if the positions for my site are almost an average of the two. Not seen that effect before!

[petehall]

Terrible junk traffic constantly since 8am, anyone else seeing this? Converstions are terrible too.

Traffic a bit less than normal... but conversions terrible. Again, I think this might be the economy as the search terms even look OK to me.

[ohno]

Sorry I disagree, why would junk traffic always coincide with a rubbish day if it were the economy at fault? Oh, & our Google +1 badges are showing a lower count today too!

[Web_speed]

Terrible junk traffic constantly since 8am, anyone else seeing this? Converstions are terrible too.

Last 48 hours have been nothing but major junk traffic. So many third world countries filling my logs it is unbelievable. Some of the countries I'm not sure i even knew existed.

[Donna]

Serps moving today for 4 of my websites . Might be the freshness algo , still I am starting to see 4-5 listings of the same website from page 1 to 2. Also one of my competitors has finally broken the top , he would regularly update and the top was a stall old website. Please tell me you seeing similar results !

[ohno]

Last 48 hours have been nothing but major junk traffic. So many third world countries filling my logs it is unbelievable. Some of the countries I'm not sure i even knew existed.

Snap! Some colourful flags appearing in the logs! This morning is exactly the same, not good.

[ohno]

Thsi morning we have :-Australia, Philippines, Germany, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sweden, Macao, Romania.

All for a website that sell UK specific products to the UK only!

Something is broken & needs fixing fast. Either that or Google thinks no one will notice if GA stays constant!

[johnhh]

Massive googlebot crawl yesterday - final kiss of death ?

[dan_pohl]

Thanks for update me about Page rank this month.. I got my website pr up from 1 to 3

Thanks Google

[edited by: jatar_k at 12:41 pm (utc) on Nov 18, 2011]

[arikgub]

anyone notice substantial movement yesterday? shopping season update?

I see many pages of the type

www.some-mega-store.com/search?q=some+widget

ranking high for competitive keywords

[santapaws]

yes big change seen.

[Hissingsid]

Only minor change in my backwater in the UK.

[Martin Ice Web]

very big changes in germany, OHNO confirmed two sets of results ( first one in morning hours ( very,very bad ), second one in afternoon, better.
First time i see that amazon is not ranking first for keywords -> this is the first realy good improvement. But domains with sneaky redirects and cloacking, keyword stuffing are working great.

[santapaws]

and blog links!

[ohno]

Not a bad weekend sales wise, 100% of sales were made in the afternoon! Our .com site has all but died, .co.uk seems to be doing better. Both check out OK in the SERP's (which I've given up as checking to be honest as what I see is not what a customer may see). This morning shows lots of junk foreign traffic! Time we got this mentioned on blogs so Google know full well we see this pattern?

[neildt]

We are still big changes in the UK affecting our product pages. Rankings have dropped 50% or more. Other location and generic search pages/phrases are ranking OK