Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2012

[Web_speed]

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

"TRADE_PERSON Knoxfielld"

Google *insisted* on presenting me with nothing but results for:
"TRADE_PERSON KnoxVILLE" .... WTF!


I've tried the same search 12 hours later and now i do get what i was actually trying to search for, "TRADE_PERSON Knoxfielld". Obviously different servers, constant flux...

Zombie traffic anyone? ....well heres one of the main reasons. Google trying unsuccessfully to second guess its users and present them with wrong results. User ("used to" getting the best results from Google) automatically click the link but oopes...it is not what he/she was looking for. Click back.

On both occasions Adwords ads for "TRADE_PERSON Knoxfielld" was spot on. Coincidence?... ya right!...

I wish they'll get it over and done with already and move to "paid only" results. Maybe the broadening of exact match and phrase match (Adwords) are the first signs of them heading down that route...


p.s.
TRADE_PERSON = insert "doctor", "painter"...etc

[edited by: tedster at 3:43 am (utc) on May 9, 2012]

[crobb305]

I got a brand new link today and my site fell 300 positions on a couple of important terms.

[diberry]

I got a brand new link today and my site fell 300 positions on a couple of important terms.

I wonder if every new link is going to go into a sandbox of sorts until Penguin is able to look at it more closely for signs of naughtiness.

I'm just seeing the same shifts I've been seeing - up on one term, down on another.

One odd thing I've noticed over the past week, though: I'm getting more and more hits for long tail queries where I rank 66, 100 - really high numbers, well beyond the first three pages. This makes me think that the reason Google is seeing more searches (discussed here: [webmasterworld.com...] is that people aren't finding what they want.

[Sand]

@diberry -- I'm also fairly confident that Google will sometimes show your page on page 1 or page 2 for a search every now and then, possibly just to try and establish some engagement metrics. In my experience, this seems especially common shortly before an update.

[crobb305]

One odd thing I've noticed over the past week, though: I'm getting more and more hits for long tail queries where I rank 66, 100 - really high numbers, well beyond the first three pages

I am seeing that too, and ranking #1 on some of them, but I rank around #5 or #6 for my company name, and in the supplemental index for snippets of text (in quotes) from ALL of my pages. Spammers, scammers, scrapers, and thieves get to rank #1 for my stuff. Search for my company name and you're bound to land on a copycat phishing site. Consumer beware.

[ibeau]

This morning I've noticed that my results have disappeared for longtail keywords/product names. I was ranking in the top 1-5 spots for over 100 products and now nothing. My company isn't even coming up on page1.

[gouri]

When Google does a Panda update, do they look at what is on the pages of a site or the pages' cache versions?

[reseller]

I think there has been a Panda 3.6 data refresh on May 30th.

Wish you all good luck :-)

[garyr_h]

Very weird. Made gains in Panda in March and April, then hit by something weird mid-May (it didn't occur at the same time as the new Penguin), and now hit with this Panda.

Moved the members area to a subdomain, hoping that will help with Panda but it won't be until the next refresh, I'm sure (after this one).

All gains are taken quickly away. Fascinating.

[IanTurner]

garyr_h are you talking about 16th May?

Google released its Knowledge Graph thing that day - I also had a site that went south on that day, but it came back again on 24th May

[irishsolar]

I made some internal interlinking changes prior to this latest refresh as well as trying to enhance user engagement in simple ways...was just waiting to see the effect before reporting in on it.

Site moved up 1 entire page back into the top 4 of the SERPs for main competitive "money" term immediately following the refresh.

Although one can never be sure exactly why anything happens in the Google SERPs I did isolate these changes to only one site and used the others as a control group.

Sure enough only the site that was changed moved.

I am now working on changing the navigation of the site as I believe this will also improve the site's ranking.

[garyr_h]

@IanTurner yep, it was the 16th. Thanks.

[fred9989]

This morning I've noticed that my results have disappeared for longtail keywords/product names. I was ranking in the top 1-5 spots for over 100 products and now nothing. My company isn't even coming up on page1.

Try typing in the verbatim text of the meta title of a page on your site - if the page doesn't appear in the top 100 results, it's almost certainly penalised.

[reseller]

I mentioned in my previous post "Panda 3.6 data refresh". More correctly is Panda 3.7 data refresh. Accordingly to rewrite my previous post:

I think there has been a Panda 3.7 data refresh on May 30th.

[Bill_H]

Fred:
"Refresh" on the 30th indeed. Our traffic is going up and down in traffic as much as 50% each Thursday when Google rolls out their latest attempt at "improving" their algo. We seem to eventually almost recover, but get slammed in the interim. Frankly we can make no sense of it at all. Our serps remain almost unchanged, but our stats clearly indicate that there is some sort of throttling also going on. Can anyone else substantiate that thought?

Cheers,
Bill

[bikedorkseattle]

I just wanted to confirm that our forum traffic from search seems to be completely untouched, but our affiliate pages get next to no traffic. Again, this indicates to me that these changes are page and not domain specific.

[Sand]

our stats clearly indicate that there is some sort of throttling also going on.

Yes, I feel like I'm seeing the same thing. Just about every hour is the same in terms Google visits. If an hour gets off to a huge start, it dials back down to nothing for the remainder. If it gets off to a slow start, it revs up right at the end and leaves me right around the same target.

It's weird, and absolutely feels like throttling.

[ibeau]

fred9989: Yup.. Looks like I've been penalised. I've also noticed a huge jump in duplicate content and my site performance speed slowed by over 100%. Not sure that those 2 things would have such a dramatic effect though. My site is only 3 months old

< discussion continues here: [webmasterworld.com...] >

[edited by: tedster at 1:46 pm (utc) on Jun 1, 2012]