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]

[bobsc]

I have seen the problem also it is being looked at by Google aparently there is a bug in Google local at the moment...

Did Google confirm this?
Reference please.

[Panthro]

I've got location back this morning - U.S. East coast.

[DigiSEO]

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.

I saw the same thing and it lasted for two hours. For a period there, I thought I was finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Things looked great. Bummer. Hopefully it is a sign that some good changes are in the works though.

[wingslevel]

calculated my conversion rate from google organic referrals during the local search blackout yesterday - +15%. US ecom

conversion rate is my primary UX metric - wonder if the engineers at the 'plex will take a look at their UX metrics during the local blackout - if so, i think they will find and that users were happier. Many of us have commented here on the poor relevance of local serps.

maybe this would be a serendipitous way for them to de-emphasize local by either limiting results to 3 or sliding them down the page.

[Rasputin]

apparently there is a bug in Google local at the moment

That might explain why I just searched 'Hunger Games' (a recent book/movie) and the no 1 result is the film times for a cinema in New York. Fascinating, except I live in France.

So not quite sorted out here I think.

[wingslevel]

That might explain why I just searched 'Hunger Games' (a recent book/movie) and the no 1 result is the film times for a cinema in New York. Fascinating, except I live in France.

I would have expected a dry cleaner and a dance studio. Local search, even when working "properly" is laughable.

[traduz]

My website traffic(brazil) went down 50% too since June 06. Dammit.

[johnhh]

I would have expected a dry cleaner and a dance studio

don't worry we just got out ranked by a Chinese restaurant

[legaleagle]

This is strange, just seen wikipedia disappear on several result pages in the UK...... A temporary blip or something else?

[ibeau]

For one of the top keywords I chase, serps haven't had a single change in months. This morning though, a competitor that was in #1 position has been pushed back to page 2 and replaced by a wiki entry. Domain crowding has just started happening on this keyword also.

[breeks]

Was just doing some keyword research and number 1 & 2 are the same site, on the index page of the site in big bold letters it says:

NOTICE
------ has gone out of business,
closing it's doors effective February 1, 2012.
All ------ have been cancelled.

Followed by 4 results from a different site which has nothing to do with the topic.

[viral]

Was just doing some keyword research and number 1 & 2 are the same site, on the index page of the site in big bold letters it says:

NOTICE
------ has gone out of business,
closing it's doors effective February 1, 2012.
All ------ have been cancelled.


Followed by 4 results from a different site which has nothing to do with the topic.

Buy the domain when it drops? :)

[scottsonline]

Tuesday the 12th we had the highest conversion rate ever on the site by 2x. I did notice google localization wasn't working but never made the connection.

Slow the rest of the week.

[gehrlekrona]

I guess today has been the worst day so far since 1998 when I launched the site. I am not sure if it is because of the new site that is redone and if it is like someone said, that the better the site is for users and the faster it loads, the less Google likes it. It could be that it is "in between" the old and the new or that having duplicate pages wasn't so bad after all.
Kind of in the dark here.
I got my first request to REMOVE a link today. I asked and they said they were hit by a Panda and a Penguin and this is a well known e comm site that is being hurt. They said that they had asked Google (!?!) and Google said "things will change for the better".... So "negative" SEO might work? I have some site I could use it on :)

[Scurramunga]

Absolutely bleak. I am down by about 93% of my pre-panda traffic. I wonder what it was that I did that got me to this low point.

[spreporter]

I don't know but this new banana republick "Domain crowding" is becoming really negative for user experience and finally for Google? almost the 50 first results in thousands of keywords have no variety except a couple of brand name repeated urls, really whos gonna click on those results?

[Martin Ice Web]

lly whos gonna click on those results?

You do have to think in other ways than yours. You are firm with this but public joe is not. Poeple are clicking like they will get a reward for clicking on every link they find. And google does a great job in revenues eyes. Show organic traffic with almost same domains that are adwords users, too.
In reference to this mess, BING has a clean serp listing and it makes fun to use it without to bite in my keyboard.

[petehall]

@scottsonline exact same stats here. Great Tuesday for conversions, then back to poor levels the rest of the week. Traffic, referrals etc all at normal levels.

Are you UK based? I am wondering if this is market forces again not Google.

[zeus]

OHH MANNNN what is this now, I can not get to google.com, will they now force us to stay at one country google, I NEVER use the google version where i live.

Is it time to use proxy 24 hours a day now

this works http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&sa=N&tab=lw

[edited by: tedster at 10:43 am (utc) on Jun 15, 2012]

[jemois]

@zeus
Have you checked via google.com/ncr ?

[zeus]

google.com/ncr works also thanks

[PaulJa]

Try searching for 'HP Server' on google.co.uk. Without the UK filter on, nearly every result in the first top 10 pages is the HP website.

With the UK filter on the results get back to roughly how they were a couple of weeks back.

Same goes for other HP trademarked terms too. Not really sure what to make of this.

[HuskyPup]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld PaulJa

Try searching for 'HP Server' on google.co.uk.

Blooming heck, that's almost unreal, if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it!

[ascensions]

Someone broke the Google.

Broke it bad.

[PaulJa]

Cheers HuskyPup.

Aye, Google is def broke at the mo

HP Proliant
HP Integrity
HP Care Pack Services

They all follow the same theme as the HP Server search :(

[jemois]

You people are wrong. Except for 2 results ALL results from the first 7 pages are only from the HP domain:))

[ascensions]

Learned this Google FAIL today:

Type "english person" into Google.

[PaulJa]

Just seen Frankie Boyle announce that on twitter.. haha!

[tedster]

Let's stop listing bad search results now, please - they're always out there and at this point in time there are MANY.

Let's keep this thread focused on reporting and analyzing Updates - and there are 3o to 50 every month. If we get stuck on bad search results, we're going to miss the rest of what Google is doing.

[HuskyPup]

Of course you do realise that HP actually stands for HuskyPup? :-)

My SEOing is working very well indeed!