Google Updates and SERP Changes - June 2012

[garyr_h]

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

Traffic from G is down by 30% over this month. 20% from Knowledge Graph day and 10% from Panda.

I changed the site from being static width to fluid width (CSS changes only). I did that around Mid-May. Also moved the members section to a subdomain last week.

Other than that, I've just been adding content to pages which needed it.

Is it even possible that the fluid width change (was originally 990 width) would cause a Panda smack?

My main terms are still the same (although, none are #1 since they lost that ranking in January). It's the terms which usually get 1 or 2 hits which completely disappeared. That made up a big chunk of traffic.

[edited by: tedster at 1:48 pm (utc) on Jun 1, 2012]

[Jez123]

Has anyone noticed google dropping pages from submitted sitemaps? Out of 80 submitted google only reports 31 are indexed. If I go to look at the cache of the pages it gives me a 404 BUT the page is still ranking. I have never seen anything like this! Can anyone shed any light please?

[louieramos]

It could be another Panda update, I have been working on a client site to help him escape Panda. His rankings have just jumped back up to Top 3 on his major keywords where he used to be before Panda got him 2 months ago. So these recent fluctuation and Thursday night events might be Panda

[Lab_Rat]

Webmaster Tools was reporting about 1,200,000 links to our site last week. This morning the report now shows only about 300,000. Google traffic has dropped 25% since Friday evening.

Does the change to the number of links indicate Penguin?

[karunverma]

My site was previously de-indexed by the Google, but I tried and removed some spammy links to my site and then submitted a reconsideration request and Google re-indexed my site and as a bonus after 4-5 days, ranking for some keywords get a boost and now they are on Page 1/2.

[Jez123]

@karunverma why did it de index the site?

[IanTurner]

Is it only US that is showing these recent fluctuations?

I have seen nowt here in UK.

[diberry]

I'm in the US, and the fluctuations I thought I was seeing were nothing more than the same fluctuations I've been seeing since Penguin started.

[karunverma]

@Jez123 Due to violations of quality guidelines. Couple of month back I received a warning message from Google but I was on a long vacation, so I didn't checked it but when I saw that message it was too late. After that I complied a list of backlinks to my site and then removed the links from some low PR sites specially social bookmarking and directories.

[getcooking]

Since June 7 we've lost 11K backlinks, gained quite a few keyword positions, and have had about 10-15% increase in google referrals.
This is a pandalized site, not touched by Penguin. We were hit with EVERY single Panda update until April 19 where we gained about 8-9% of our traffic back until the April 27 Panda update - where we lost most of that (ended up about 2% up...woohoo). Overall we're still down 60% since Feb 2011.

If this latest activity sticks, I'll be one pleased puppy. Although I saw similar traffic increases before the Sept 27 2011 Panda and we got smacked back down then too (so I'm not opening the Champagne just yet).

[crobb305]

Starting June 9, my G traffic fell over 50%. I see no visible changes in my rankings (on a handful of phrases that I check), so I am not sure what has happened. My observation is similar to those mentioned above.

[netmeg]

Panda refresh confirmed on Friday.

[twitter.com...]

[reseller]

FYI Panda data refresh started rolling out on Friday. Less than 1% of queries noticeably affected in the U.S. & 1% worldwide
[twitter.com...]

[1script]

@karunverma: you removed or you asked to remove the bad links? It's normally a huge difference. What you're describing sounds like nothing short of a miraculous recovery and I'm wondering if that may be in part because you were more successful than most in actually removing the bad links.

Usually, when you ask to remove, only 2-5% of webmasters would actually do anything for you. It also makes me wonder if a large percentage of successfully removed bad links would indicate that you have control over them and therefore you have actually put them up yourself.

I'm not judging you, just trying to understand Google's logic here: if a guy put up a bunch of bad links, then quickly removed them, why would you reward the behavior by allowing a very speedy recovery?

[Nichita]

@louieramos, can you tell us which changes you've made at the penalized website ? Can you confirm the rankings recovery ?

[gouri]

Does there have to be a Panda refresh to see the effect of a title tag or h1 tag change or is the effect of these changes seen through regular ranking changes in the SERP?

[IanTurner]

Title or H1 changes would be in the regular ranking updates, when the page in question has been spidered after the change was made.

[gouri]

Title or H1 changes would be in the regular ranking updates, when the page in question has been spidered after the change was made.

Ian,

Thanks for the response.

When you say changes, do you mean just showing up in the SERP when typing unique text, for example, after the page has been spidered or the effects of the change.

[IanTurner]

You can see if the change is in the index by searching for unique text on the page and using site:example.com (replace example.com with your domain)

If the change is showing then ranking effects from that change will be in the SERPs too.

[Sand]

I saw some strangeness for awhile this afternoon / evening. From about 4:00 - 7:00 EST, I saw intermittent results that looked like pre-April Panda (at least in my verticals). There were major shifts everywhere I looked.

It will be interesting to see if that was a bug or a sign of big changes to come.

[Panthro]

Anyone else see Google NOT finding their location by default when searching? G always has my location until I noticed that around 10:30 EST while doing some personal searching I see "Search near..." where my location usually is.

I'm using the same browser I always use, no recent software updates, did not empty cache or clear cookies or anything like that.

[Sand]

Anyone else see Google NOT finding their location by default when searching?

I'm seeing that too. I just did a search for 'restaurant,' which normally would have returned localized results. Instead, it seems to show national results and I have a 'search near' box in the sidebar.

[Robert Charlton]

Anyone else see Google NOT finding their location by default when searching?

Yes, seeing it in two different browsers... one signed in, one not.

Highly unusual, in part because location is perhaps the most consistent (and insistent) of all Google personalization factors. It's clearly happened recently, because one browser was displaying my default location from my last search until I refreshed it.

PS: It might help to note that I'm in the SF Bay area. Would be interesting to find out if this was happening in just one area, or all over.

[Sand]

PS: It might help to note that I'm in the SF Bay area. Would be interesting to find out if this was happening in just one area, or all over.

East coast, here.

[Robert Charlton]

This is bizarre... I just did a search that wasn't geo-related and suddenly a location appeared on the left in red, but it was for a town about 10 miles up the freeway.

When I changed the search (and searched for "pizza", location disappeared. When I went back to the original search, incorrect location reappeard. This was on the signed-in browser.

Now, checking same searches, no location in either browser.

[viral]

This is bizarre... I just did a search that wasn't geo-related and suddenly a location appeared on the left in red, but it was for a town about 10 miles up the freeway.

When I changed the search (and searched for "pizza", location disappeared. When I went back to the original search, incorrect location reappeard. This was on the signed-in browser.

Now, checking same searches, no location in either browser.

I have seen the problem also it is being looked at by Google aparently there is a bug in Google local at the moment it shows pixzaa places for all sorts of weird searches.

(Mod's note: Added quote box.)
.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 4:49 am (utc) on Jun 13, 2012]

[IanTurner]

Not seeing Geo search related problems here in UK.

[Martin Ice Web]

@Sand,

confirmed. And immediatly bounce rate is very low, conversion are up. Page view time ist up. This all indicates that panda and penguin is the wrong way google goes, except for their adwords conversion.

[wingslevel]

Geo is working for me. East coast.

I am also getting the relevance that I know and love. On a food related search, I got a shoe store, a pool supply store and a sewing machine repair shop. And then they dominate the above the fold real estate with this junk. Please guys, why even bother?

[viral]

I hope Apple and Facebook are watching this.. There is a real opening for some company to make a dent in Google's monopoly. Offer real search results and people will start moving. Build it and they will come.......

[themaninthejar]

I'm now sitting at #7 for the plural of a two-word phrase while my same page sits at #303 for the singular...

I fail to understand how this can be...