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]

[colonelu81]

A very strage thing happened . A had a lot of domain pages redirected to a new subdomain because i wanted to split the content . Till eary february it was ok , but since then google started indexing back the pages from my domain , so i have had duplicate content . It's hard to say why sudden google started ignoring the 301 redirect . On 6.03 bang , traffic dropped 90% on domain and all subdomains . Now i thing the drop was caused by the duplicate content issue
Now i put an 404 to the pages on my domain and eventually they will be gone . Has anyone experienced this bug ?

[Convergence]

I personally wouldn't be totally surprised if the integration of Panda to the front end of the algo has caused some processing power issues that's keeping the datacenters from being aligned. IIRC the reason they only ran it once in a while was due to the size and processing necessary for it.

A bit before and since they stated it's integration I've seen a definite lag in indexing, slower spidering, obvious cycling in results and different site: result counts way more than I saw previously.

Interesting as I agree as I'm seeing the same things. However, I am NOT convinced that Panda hasn't rolled out alone - as in last Friday...

[TheOptimizationIdiot]

Yeah, I'm definitely seeing some oddities and differences.

One thing I've noticed that really makes me think there is a datacenter alignment issue is I've had site: searches changing page count throughout the day for the last few days.

The real "tying together" point for me though is when traffic is down, it's up overall due to expansions, but when it's down on an hourly basis relative to the previous week or year, I get a lower number of pages when I do a site: search. When it's up the site: search is "at it's peak" for pages indexed.

I've definitely also seen a shift to "location specific results for generic queries" in place since Sun/Mon and it might be that "rolled out" earlier (like Fri) into different sectors earlier than the ones I normally watch.

[netmeg]

@netmeg - How do you file a DMC report against a site that has scraped a couple hundred pages of your content?

As I said, I don't mess with DMCAs cause I just don't have time for it (and the scrapers don't outrank me); I just go all netmeg on them on twitter and/or facebook, or in their comment sections, or to their competitors, and that usually does it.

But if I did have several hundred pages or more, then I wouldn't even bother with Google, I'd go to their ISP and send THEM the DMCA.

From my republishing policy:

I reserve the right to make as much a nuisance of myself as I have time to become. In past years, this has included (but is not limited to) phoning your place of business to discuss the matter, firing off emails to your management, issuing DMCA takedown requests to your internet service provider to have your offending pages removed, issuing DMCA takedown requests to Google to have your offending pages removed from the search engine (it’s amazingly easy now), calling you out as a douchebag on Facebook and Twitter, and posting screenshots of your theft alongside screen shots of my pages in my Hall of Shame

[turbocharged]

Today, however, the Googlebot is on a feeding frenzy - 1000+ pages being crawled per niche/category on our main site. This rate It should have the entire site recrawled in a couple hundred hours, lol.

I'm seeing heavy crawling as well. No dips or rises in traffic from my side.

[Convergence]

The real "tying together" point for me though is when traffic is down, it's up overall due to expansions, but when it's down on an hourly basis relative to the previous week or year, I get a lower number of pages when I do a site: search. When it's up the site: search is "at it's peak" for pages indexed.

Exactly what we're seeing with our site. When there is flux traffic fluxes with it.

Top it off by getting different totals throughout the day - talking 800K difference AND sometimes it's at the same time when using site:example.com and site:example.com/ (with forward slash).

Today has been "stable" with a peak of 827K pages on both site:example.com and site:example.com/

Yet no real traffic...

[Martin Ice Web]

As many like you we see shifts in traffic. We see times with nearly no visitors switching to times with high amount of visitors.
What me now makes crazy is that fact that in times when there are no visitors we do not get visitors from linked sites? That makes me wonder if sites that linked to our site also suffer from linking to us? Or is it other way round? You may say that at least some poeple would get to our site by the links from forums/mum & dad sites....

[helenp]

My site have changed rankings, in 3 words searches looks better in some countries other not, and in 2 word searches worst overall.

Something is going on as googled dropped a huge amount of 404s, I have less pages indexed now, I also lost some backlinks.

[backdraft7]

By the lack of posts are we to assume all traffic issues have miraculously cleared up?

[Sand]

Anybody seeing a big shift today? I'm away from my desk and can't check rankings, but I'm checking Analytics on my phone and traffic is up quite a bit over normal...

Edit: By 'up quite a bit' I mean that we've broken hourly records each of the last 5 hours.

[DumpManager]

My site is still getting nothing from google. Has been crawled only like 3 times since this thing happened, down from 300+ a day.

Sucks big time.

[diberry]

This may be the wrong thread for this, but I'm finally seeing something weird on two sites instead of just one and I can't figure it out. My stats program pulls the rank at which someone found me through Google, and averages my rank for each term over time. From that, these two sites appear to be ranking as well as ever for all the terms they have ranked for. And yet, I have these days where the Google traffic volume drops hugely, as if the world just decided not to search for those terms on Google that day, or to pick results lower than mine for some reason. The next day, all will be well again.

Is anyone else seeing anything like this?

[Convergence]

By the lack of posts are we to assume all traffic issues have miraculously cleared up?

LOL - no...

[frankleeceo]

I see something similar to diberry, but I think my phenomenon that I am seeing is that people still search for those terms, but Google does not rank the site at all for those terms.

Google instead route those traffic to other websites probably based on testing and such. Because the site is not being served at all, there is no data nor "impression" ranking estimates. How can you give a ranking position value to "infinite 0"? The average between rank 1 and rank infinite = no ranking at all. So the "infinite" and no shows simply gets taken out of the equation.

"When" the site gets served to those visitors the site sits at number 1 or 2 in SERP. This greatly skews the results or report that we see. If this is what you are seeing, your report should still say that you are ranking top 5 for your keyword terms. (At least I do) At the same time those keyword traffic heads lower and lower for specific terms. Assuming that search volume stays consistent, it only means that Google is now sending traffic elsewhere.

What I experience is win some lose some while certain key phrases consolidate and breakthrough in terms of traffic volume. While the site maintains an overall "glass ceiling" or "glass bottom" which is almost nearly impossible to break.

My guess is that Google is actively comparing the user metrics between the "results" and put all sites into a battle arena. Sites that deliver "comparative" worse user metrics will lose traffic gradually. While the winner grows and eventually dominate the SERP against the loser sites.

This is based on my own observation that I search for terms that I supposedly rank number 1 on webmaster tool. But cannot see it at all when I actually search for it on Google myself. Like far into the SERP like 100's. The keyterm however is bringing a decent amount of CTR. And vice versa rank number 10 on webmaster tool but actually see it as number 1 possibly due to personalization.

[diberry]

I see something similar to diberry, but I think my phenomenon that I am seeing is that people still search for those terms, but Google does not rank the site at all for those terms.

So for some visitors I'm #1, and for others I'm non-existent? That's also been my best guess for what's going on - that the sites are just simply "disappeared" for some users through personalization or different data sets or whatever.

But when I search my terms in Google myself, I can't catch them not being #1. I try it on computers other than my own, proxy servers, etc., trying to rule out that Google knows it's me and is showing me the rankings I expect to see. Maybe I'm just not hiding my tracks well enough, but I cannot catch my pages ranking lower than they are normally reported to rank.

If Google is doing this, it's unprecedented as far as I know. It's like the algo is giving everyone 15 minutes of fame... except that does NOT track with what we're seeing with brands and multiple results for a single domain and all that.

The only other theory I have is that we're seeing the start of a fundamental shift in how people find sites. Maybe fewer people are using Google, period. Maybe people are starting to rely on social media (word of mouth from people they know) to find sites of interest. After all, a search engine can't provide results as personal as your friends on Facebook or Pinterest who really share your tastes and know what you like. (Now that I think about it, I'm astonished to realize I may be doing this myself - and I've been dragged kicking and screaming into Facebook, LOL.)

[Panthro]

My guess is that Google is actively comparing the user metrics between the "results" and put all sites into a battle arena. Sites that deliver "comparative" worse user metrics will lose traffic gradually. While the winner grows and eventually dominate the SERP against the loser sites.

This makes a lot of sense to me given the trends and the information we have about where Google is headed into the future. They want to give answers not options.

[backdraft7]

@diberry - I don't what the cause is...but I know that we all want some answers, or at least a modicum of feedback. It just doesn't stop working over nite, unless manipulated in a very unnatural and devious way. With countless legitimate businesses suffering and livelihoods on the line, and with the current horrible search results, I suspect the general public wants some answers too. Perhaps it's time we stop holding back and rattle a few cages in the mainstream media to get this black box to open up and provide some disclosure. This level of secrecy is ridiculous and parallels the worst examples of history.

I'm mad has hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore! [youtube.com...]

[Str82u]

I can't say this would stop traffic during extended periods of the day BUT what about search ads in the SERPs.... how many are there during these times that traffic is dead versus the high traffic times... I've seen a good ad or group of 3 ads above a #1 SERP do what everyone describes, stops a keyphrase cold.

[diberry]

backdraft7, I hear ya and will share whatever info I can, if it'll help. I just can't quite figure it out.

I've seen a good ad or group of 3 ads above a #1 SERP do what everyone describes, stops a keyphrase cold.

That's a great thought, but actually my main keyphrases never have any ads.

[Str82u]

@diberry, I've been meaning to ask, it's weak but thought it worth asking.

[SEchecker]

As I see the situation with G is that they made it impossible to tune and tweak your website to achieve better SERP or get more visitors by doing so. It is G´s fight against SEO and spam tactics. The results so far are that honest Webmasters cant achieve nothing any more by THEIR doing as G decides all (traffic, SERP, shown SERP and so on) on the other hand black hat still works and always will. G actually just made it impossible for normal Webmasters to archive better results with their doing! Maybe that was there real goal of all the animals released?

I believe G knows that there is no cure against black hat and spammers but there is cure against normal Webmasters trying to archive better results, what is on some way also manipulating SERPS, even if done so called white hat... I believe G is very successful in that and solved many issues they had caused by normal Websmasters?

[ColourOfSpring]

I can't say this would stop traffic during extended periods of the day BUT what about search ads in the SERPs.... how many are there during these times that traffic is dead versus the high traffic times... I've seen a good ad or group of 3 ads above a #1 SERP do what everyone describes, stops a keyphrase cold.

Good point str82u - perhaps strong advertisers appear on a specific schedule which really impact negatively on the organic listings during those very specific times (same times of the day) - it's possible and might explain at least SOME (not all) of the queries on this forum about sales drying up at certain times of the day, then returning at others.

[backdraft7]

Day parting has begun at approximately 7am CST. I was watching GA since about 4am, and there was a small but constant flow of visitors, now back to my new daily traffic level of ZERO. They only traffic that does make it through is a trickle from Yahoo and Bing or direct customer returns. Not even seeing Adwords traffic.

Here's funny part, I had the same dismal pattern yesterday, yet my server stats show what would normally be considered a very decent day. So much for Zombies, now it's Ghost traffic.

[bsterz]

I am seeing the same thing with my hobby site. My rank (for a specific two word query) is the same, even when I use a proxy to check several Geos, but traffic is way down. Overall Google traffic is down less than 10%.

In a more competitive niche I am seeing the Geo dial turned way up. This has been a pretty consistent SERP for the past few years, but over the last few days (maybe a week) the SERP changes dramatically with location. Also, no Google local results just local pages.

[SnowMan68]

In a more competitive niche I am seeing the Geo dial turned way up. This has been a pretty consistent SERP for the past few years, but over the last few days (maybe a week) the SERP changes dramatically with location. Also, no Google local results just local pages.

I've been seeing the same thing since about Friday evening-Saturday am in the USA.

[SEchecker]

Seeing a noticeable traffic drop from G around 5.- 6. April 2013

[diberry]

Mods, should we shear off the posts about "same rankings, but less traffic" to a new thread? Seems like it's picking up steam and may or may not be part of April algo changes. (I've definitely thought I was seeing it for a few months).

Str82u, it wasn't weak at all! I'll go a step further than ColourOfSpring and say it almost surely will explain *some* of the queries we're talking about, and must be ruled out in each case for us to discover the real cause.

The more I read on this phenomenon, the more I think maybe it's a fundamental change in how people are finding websites, and NOT just something Google is doing. Or maybe it's a combination of the two, but I sure can't catch Google "disappearing" my sites from the SERPs even for a minute, and I can't think what *else* they could do to cause the effect I'm seeing. This could get very interesting.

[Dymero]

but I sure can't catch Google "disappearing" my sites from the SERPs even for a minute

On a couple occasions, I've seen this happen for the keywords I track, but it's only been a couple times and my site comes back when I go back to look again. It's hard to catch because the first thought we have is that the site is just ranking lower on that particular search. Then we still don't see it and go back, but it's showing up by that point.

I've recently wondered if Google has a problem where it thinks multiple pages ought to rank in the same position but it obviously can't show more than one site in the same position at the same time, so it will allot some time to one site and some time to another site and so forth.

[backdraft7]

still clamped to between 0 and 4 all day so far...this is depressing. Ran a few general keyword checks and I'm still ranking for around 2 or 3k keywords, most of which are on page one, plus adwords is active, yet traffic is clamped at 0-4. Bizarre, but I'm getting tired of being G's test rat. no conversions yet today.

[Martin Ice Web]

Since 5 pm traffic immediatly cut off. From normal traffic to -95%!
Never saw this no traffic #*$!fs last this long! The whole day my strong prepanda keywords have been back and from user interaction I would say they have found what they were looking for.
As a have stated before, even traffic from other websites linking to us died off.
Local results are filled with lousy MFA sides or scraped content.

ecom, germany