Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2012

[xcoder]

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

Today has just been a miserable day.

For us this whole week has been miserable.

Traffic numbers more or less unchanged but hardly any sales, online enquiries or phone calls...(except for loads of spam emails). The only sales we did get came from paid ads.... organic visitors all seem to be dead beats.

It is like someone or something is cheery picking all the buyers and sending our way only the crap. I wounder who it is...

Off to reducing our ad spend again... the till is simply empty!

[edited by: tedster at 4:05 pm (utc) on Nov 2, 2012]

[Martin Ice Web]

@ethough, thanx anyway.

[Jez123]

@splugged - from when are you seeing this? I am seeing nothing for my site in my niche

[Jez123]

Hmm, I am suddenly starting to see some google.com queries - I target UK but .com seems to be showing better results for me at the moment. Is anyone else UK seeing this?

[diberry]

They certainly haven't rolled anything back for my site. I'm seeing a 14% increase on my Penguinized site starting Nov. 12, but not a return to the keyphrases of any past point. Those are the same as they've been for months, it's just I've moved up a few positions on some of them.

[taberstruths]

You know, this would be the subterfuge of all subterfuges. Google rolls out an update that kills links and makes all the black/grey hat SEO guys go nuts because their sites tank. Then after ratcheting up the pressure for months, they come up with a "disavowal" tool and everyone rushes in to use it to get rid of all their spammy links. Then Google resets the algo and penguin is removed and all the spammy links are disavowed. Genius!

[Jez123]

And as quick as that, they are gone again. The google.com surge I got earlier has stopped and the rankings I briefly had have gone

[Martin Ice Web]

@taberstruths, i think google never meant the tool to be a disregarding link tool itself but its a great source for them to identify linking farms and linking networks.

Second thought: if a website was ranīking very well prepenguin and now the siteowner kills all the "bad" links by removing them or using the tool, then it is obvious that the site gained its rannkings because of the bad links. Why should a site now rank after removing the source dip? This would reorder the prepenguin rankings and all scrappers/bad guys would be at the front again.
Penguin is a penalty for your domain and will not be removed. That my opinion. You can paint a zebra white but it is still a zebra?!

[taberstruths]

@martin It was a thought. I am not a fan at all of G. I just see guys talking about a penguin rollback, and have wondered why Google would make bad links pass bad juice, rather than just ignore them. That cannot be a long term tenable strategy otherwise negative SEO would have a field day. I think we are in flux right now. I see A/B testing of different sets of serps running hourly. I imagine it will remain in flux over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Personally I stopped feeding G any info. I stopped using GA, WMT, and Search. Their only info they get from my site comes from Chrome and Adsense.

[MHes]

I'm thinking Google has rolled back something. That's probably why they're tight lipped with Barry. They don't want us to know that they undid one of their previous updates ?

This doesn't explain why I have been hit, when I have had no problems for years.

[GreenDog18]

MHes I am starting to think so as well... My traffic doubled on the 6th (panda) and on Friday went right back to where it was.

[Jez123]

I think that they are just messing about with various filters. Lifting and replacing. Often goes like this before an update in my experience. Not that that means squat any more!

[MHes]

GreenDog18 - Its confusing. I'm sure Google mix things up to make it difficult for us! Maybe they have rolled something back as well as introducing a few new algo's.

[HuskyPup]

UK - Visitor numbers have doubled today with page views halving!

[Panthro]

Smart to make changes right before Thanksgiving. Of course, all the Black Friday/Cyber Monday searching is coming.

And to all you guys seeing double traffic with StatCounter, drill down and see if StatCounter is really reporting unique visits. I've been seeing them over reporting on SSL visits.

[Bewenched]

Here in the US, we're getting hammered with international traffic.... very little US traffic.

[Martin Ice Web]

I stopped using GA, WMT

i thought about it, too. So i would like to know if stop using it will change the throtteling of a site? So they would only have their search click but not my site clicks.

[taberstruths]

@martin. I can't say for sure yet Martin. I stopped using them a little over a month ago, however I have climbed in traffic from search since I did stop using them.

[Jez123]

So i would like to know if stop using it will change the throtteling of a site?

I can't see that happenng. Google would still know that info whether you were looking at it or not wouldn't they?

[taberstruths]

Search seems to be returning. 20% swing to the positive since my morning check.

[Tearabite]

Not returning here.. Still on a downward spiral.

[taberstruths]

@Jez,
Without GA, google would only know what what percentage of people clicked on their serps and how long it was before they clicked back. They wouldn't have site metrics other than from people using Chrome. Without WMT, they don't have permission to track information for your site. So, they would have some knowledge but not nearly as much as if you use both services.

Honestly I did it for a couple of reasons. One was purely emotional. I am so disgusted with them that I chose to stop using their services. The other reason is that I wanted to see if it had an effect on my traffic. I have stopped "caring" what google does and switched focus to social media. Part of showing that I don't "care" is by eliminating these programs. In real life, when you stop caring for someone, you stop communicating. Google is on a mission to weed out anyone who "cares" too much. i.e. spammers, manipulaters, ect. So I just stopped caring at all. The only thing I do is still use on page SEO within reason but not anally trying to get everything perfect.

[viral]

@taberstruths They collect WMT data whether you have an account or not. No Java script is placed on your site. All WMT does is let them share that data with you.

As for can they track info without GA? Yes they can.

If you call any Jquery from Google and most WP themes do these days.

If you run adsense ads then they can track cookie data through that

Chrome which is now the most popular web browser in the world.

and if you don't run chrome but run one of the other browsers and have Google as your default search in your tool bar then yes that toolbar search box drops a cookie on your machine. Test it, its fun. clear all cookies and run IE with a google search box in the toolbar and bang there is the cookie from Google.

If you install Google toolbar on a browser then yes that does the same.

Google is everywhere they know what 90% of people on the web are doing even if they don't go to google.com.

I can understand you being disgusted and I am also. However removing Google analytics won't change what they know about your site.

[Jon_King]

Bewrenched > Here in the US, we're getting hammered with international traffic.... very little US traffic.

I agree. Have you taken a peek at some international serps lately? Now that the left-hand column country filter is gone... well you see the results of that change.

[xcoder]

However removing Google analytics won't change what they know about your site.

It may not change but it sure sends a massage. A strong message that the list of disgusted webmasters is rapidly growing.

The short sighted fools at the plex don't realize yet that their draconian abusive actions are simply making Google more and more irrelevant...

Why use GA to begin with when you have piwik, which is free and can be easily installed on your own server within 5 minutes. Not to mention the amazing reporting features...

Honestly. GA is for suckers! get the damn thing off your pages...

[edited by: xcoder at 12:41 am (utc) on Nov 22, 2012]

[xcoder]

Traffic on some of the sites i monitor is significantly up BUT judging by the conversion rate, bounce and user overall interaction i can say with confidence that it is mostly boughs traffic.

How do they do it? is for them to know and for the world to soon find out...

A major scam is going on by the "do no evil" bunch... nothing to do with your sites boys and girls...

[taberstruths]

GA script also hangs or loads slowly also.

[gehrlekrona]

@xcoder, who knows if someone is even searching GOOG or it is just GOOG sending you some queued up searchers?!?
If I look at the queries that people have used over 2 hours for example, then I see a lot of different queries. Before all this crap happened I had somewhat the same queries showing up but within a minute when it was as best. Now they want me to belive that even if they are using the same queries, there are not people using the old terms within a minute anymore? Not sure what I am saying makes any sense, but then again nothing makes sense anymore.

[xcoder]

Not sure what I am saying makes any sense, but then again nothing makes sense anymore.

It makes perfect sense! and hopefully they will have to explain it all soon, under oath...

The smoking guns are all over the place...

[backdraft7]

Comparing my last 5 years of Thanksgiving week traffic and sales to this year leaves very little to be thankful for - you all try to have a happy Turkey Day anyway. How appropriate, Google continues to play the puritan role as they slowly eradicate us Indians.

[makin]

@xcoder are you trying to say that somple people is manipulating the results? So, my traffic will come back? Since now, nothing seems to change. Everyday Im losing keywords without any reasons. Im not a ecommerce and not a forum, Im a casual games site.

In what niche are you?