Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2013

[sunny_kat]

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

I am seeing a lot of ranking drop. Lot of keywords ranking between 10-50 have disappeared from Google top 100.

Is anyone else also noticing changes?

[edited by: tedster at 11:54 am (utc) on Apr 1, 2013]

[Bones]

This SERP is brand-related but is not only the brand name, as is typical with the seven result SERPs.

It's not just for brands. You seem to get seven results displayed when Google have a high degree of certainty on what your search intent is.

[brokaddr]

The top sites in this niche all do blog spam comments or write articles which are unrelated (sometimes loosely related) to the topic with a targeted anchor to the site shoved in there at random. Meanwhile I sit here too scared to do anything like this to compete. I think if Penguin manages to detect these type of links the Internet as we know it is literally going to change overnight... wipeout!

I posted about this a few pages back, I've been seeing this activity for 10+ years, and to-date (unlike 5-6 years ago, where, IMO the results were at their cleanest) Google (and even Bing!) appear to be rewarding this type of nonsense with high position in the results.

[Dymero]

It's not just for brands. You seem to get seven results displayed when Google have a high degree of certainty on what your search intent is.

But I'm logged out, incognito, and haven't clicked on any results. Also, this is something rather new, and isn't happening on many SERPs, which I check weekly.

Also, I spoke too soon on the other 7-result SERP. It's now almost entirely dominated by the brand. The only two non-brand sites are the big retailers in this space.

[HuskyPup]

Is it just my widget images or is Google image search completely and utterly borked?

If I search for many of my trade widget images I may get half a dozen so so results and all the others have absolutely nothing to do with what I am searching for, yes they are widget images, simply totally incorrect ones.

[JesterMagic]

It looks like yesterday (Friday) I experienced a 13 percent drop in traffic when compared to the previous few Fridays. The keywords I have left all still seem in place so I am not sure what happened. Did anyone else experience a slower day yesterday?

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

Did anyone else experience a slower day yesterday?

Yes, and I would have probably paid more attention to it if I hadn't been so busy watching the news like the rest of the country. I definitely wouldn't stress at lower traffic even the last few days, unless you're a news related site.

[netmeg]

I have a feeling a lot of people were glued to TV sets yesterday.

[HuskyPup]

Don't these people have jobs to go to, aside from Boston?

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

Even while I was working on sites I had a tab with a live news stream open. Not surfing. Not shopping. Not trying to find a new product.

They probably have jobs, but the "order of daily events" looks more like this:
Job > Break > News
Job > Home > News

Not:
Job > Break > Look for Product on Phone to Order from Home

Job > Home > Surf > Find a Site to Order Product2 From > Order Product & Product2

[JesterMagic]

I have a feeling a lot of people were glued to TV sets yesterday.

That was the first thing I thought of but traffic was down in all English countries (but the US was the bulk of it).

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

Still seeing what seems to be two different datasets or data center's not being aligned (which is basically the same thing, but not quite lol)

[simplo]

English countries are defiantly down. It's likely due to the news, but nice weather may have something to do with it as well. India and Philippines did not change at all for me but US, Canada and UK had a drop. Early morning stats were down but are now approaching normal Saturday levels. Sure looks like it's something to do with Boston and all the news.

[bsterz]

The top sites in this niche all do blog spam comments or write articles which are unrelated (sometimes loosely related) to the topic with a targeted anchor to the site shoved in there at random. Meanwhile I sit here too scared to do anything like this to compete. I think if Penguin manages to detect these type of links the Internet as we know it is literally going to change overnight... wipeout!

I have always wanted to see what the SERPs would look like if Google just turned down the anchor text dial down to nothing. I have to imagine that it would look chaotic, but it sure would be interesting.

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

The top sites in this niche all do blog spam comments or write articles which are unrelated (sometimes loosely related) to the topic with a targeted anchor to the site shoved in there at random.

I've wondered about this too and have my doubts about it counting in much of any way, personally. It seems a bit too easy to detect algorithmically, but if they "internally nofollow" rather than penalizing and making a bunch of noise about it, people will likely think the links are helping and be more inclined to continue with something Google can detect rather than trying to find a different way to manipulate the rankings like they would if they were penalized.

Just because something's there (like hidden text) doesn't mean it counts as a positive or isn't noticed, it could just be ignored by the algo and other factors are reflected in the rankings.

If you penalize everything you make it way easier for people to figure out what counts and manipulate your system than if you "silently ignore" some things and let people think they're effective when really they have no impact.

[ethought]

I am seeing some positive traffic movement on quite a few sites across our network of sites since the 15th of April. A few drops in traffic on some sites but mostly positive movement. Conversions rates are noticeably up on, what I would consider, our better quality sites since that date.

[Martin Ice Web]

I am seeing some positive traffic movement on quite a few sites across our network of sites since the 15th of April. A few drops in traffic on some sites but mostly positive movement. Conversions rates are noticeably up on, what I would consider, our better quality sites since that date.

I see the opposite. It began 11 April. Only two normal since then.
Google shuffled a lot of manufacturers in front, that do not sell to joy public or donīt have a ecom shop. Ecoms have been vanished in a lot of sectors, except Amazon, they now rank for every query again, also they Amazon page is nearly useless. It seems like they go from sector to sector and vanish all the ecoms. In regard of the upcoming start of google payed shopping this only could be coincidence.

ecom, germany

[backdraft7]

Today I am finding pages of nothing but Youtube Videos in my vertical. Many have loaded titles, but no information related to the search term. Google claims to hate webspam yet they are slinging their own ad filled sites in a manner not unlike the sleaziest spammers I've ever seen.

There's a tab at the top of the page that used to say Videos, but now says YouTube. They are so "anti quality user experience" it's not funny. That 31% growth in the first quarter was just blood in the water, now watch the feeding frenzy as they push all their own ad filled interests to the top. Next quarter it will be up 62% over last year. I've given up any hope of ever ranking in that dumpster fire of a SE again.

[petehall]

Today I am finding pages of nothing but Youtube Videos in my vertical.

I've been seeing these as well for the past couple of weeks...

[robster124]

I think Google are getting better at promoting their own products e.g. youtube/local etc. I run a business directory type site for UK market. Seen traffic under pressure last 2-3 weeks as I've also noticed Google getting better at displaying their own local results (and often with a lot more information than they used to e.g. more reviews from external sites around the web, nearby similar places etc).

[malinkam]

robster124, google will beat you hands down... you have to come up with a type of website that Google hasn't "taken over" yet.

Once you do that, Google will send you traffic to your site. Once Google realizes that you're doing good and receiving a lot of traffic, they'll create their "own product", and that's the end of the road for you. Good luck

[Str82u]

Today I am finding pages of nothing but Youtube Videos in my vertical.

We've had YouTube videos in serious positions, including misleading titled videos, for over a year that have been moving back to page 2 or further for about 2 weeks now, ours too. I mentioned it in one of this month's threads if you need an exact date of when we first noticed it.

Moxie mentioned seeing more in msg:4562891 on the 8th while my
msg:4564938 on the 15th referred to a post in another thread.

[ethought]

In regard of the upcoming start of google payed shopping this only could be coincidence.

Personally I think Google knows exactly what they are doing and coincidence this is not.

[petehall]

The issue with YouTube videos, certainly on a niche I watch closely, is that people are creating worthless videos with just a picture on playing some music. And they do this for each type of widget available to get a ranking.

So tell me, how do you create an algorithm which validates video? That's going to take some serious processing power...

[Leosghost]

^^^ something tells me that G don't care how "valid" the youtube videos are..as long as they can run a " personalised ad" over the first part of it..

Which they can..so, expect to see much more of this..

[Faizan_Khan]

Went a little down in SEPRS but traffic and bounce rate increased.

[icecream]

wow, I am lucky, I didn't feel any change at all.

[Martin Ice Web]

I think Google are getting better at promoting their own products e.g. youtube/local etc. I run a business directory type site for UK market. Seen traffic under pressure last 2-3 weeks as I've also noticed Google getting better at displaying their own local results (and often with a lot more information than they used to e.g. more reviews from external sites around the web, nearby similar places etc).

I think you mean they get better in scrapping and stealing content from other sites!
I wonder when g* will recognize that poeple wont update their sites anymore because no visitors come anymore and the conetent is beeing srapped by Google. In the end g* has nothing to scrap anymore related to new topics. Internet is getting smaller.

[martaay]

This is where google have *almost* everyone by the danglies - that will never happen

[JesterMagic]

So tell me, how do you create an algorithm which validates video? That's going to take some serious processing power...

A few easy data points for the algo is to take subscribers to the channel and user ratings into account. Of course people can fake this as well...

[HuskyPup]

I wonder when g* will recognize that poeple wont update their sites anymore

I don't update my sites for Google, never have done, never will, my sites are for my customers. The big AdSense days were nice whilst they lasted however I always knew that would end as people became bored with seeing so many ads.

If one's site(s) is all about promoting popular consumer products with lots of competition then expect the worst to happen since it most probably will.