Google webmaster tools author statistics suddenly halved from October
jetteroheller
12:17 pm on Nov 1, 2012 (gmt 0)
Yesterday, my author stats showed between
5000 to 12000 impressions per day 320 to 600 clicks per day for October
Today, this stat changed to half
2500 to 3500 impressions per day 200 to 400 clicks
Changed the rules what to count in the stats?
tedster
4:13 pm on Nov 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
That does look like something different from a real change for your site. I don't see anything comparable for mine right now.
Sally Stitts
6:45 pm on Nov 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
The WMT "author stats" have been flaky and inexplicable since they were introduced. They never counted all of mine, not even close. Then they dropped them, then they brought them back. I read that they are going to drop them AGAIN, this time forever (next month?). Suits me fine, since they are nothing but a source of frustration.
They NEVER show my photo on ANY SERPS. Recognizable? My face fills the whole effing frame. Maybe they want a more obscure photo, because they don't like the way I look. This is getting old. I am about to pull all my authorship cr@p. It is simply not worth fretting over, especially since Google refuses to TRY to get it right. Jumping through their hoops to no avail is not only frustrating, it is demeaning.
Sand
7:10 pm on Nov 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
Not sure if it's related or not, but I have seen an overall drop in reported impressions in the search queries report (about half as compared to a week ago). Traffic is the same, though. Initial analysis leads me to believe that image results are no longer being counted as impressions.
jetteroheller
7:44 pm on Nov 2, 2012 (gmt 0)
Initial analysis leads me to believe that image results are no longer being counted as impressions.
This could be a reason. I am good in the image results.
Andem
6:22 am on Nov 3, 2012 (gmt 0)
I'm seeing exactly the same thing over here!
I checked and Google is now defaulting to "Web" traffic only, which means image search results are no longer included in the default graph under 'search queries' and on your dashboard.
Sgt_Kickaxe
9:54 am on Nov 3, 2012 (gmt 0)
GWT is undergoing some kind of change, I had 2000+ error pages suddenly appear for content that has been gone for over 5 years. The site speed section has also been deprecated apparently.
themaninthejar
2:58 pm on Nov 3, 2012 (gmt 0)
I placed the author tag on the articles on my site at the end of July and saw a healthy amount of impressions for about two weeks, then the numbers nose-dived. On 1st November Google sent me a mail welcoming me to the authorship programme (three months late). Also on 1st November my author impressions spike dramatically.
This suggests a manual evaluation of my suitability perhaps...?
