Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

[edited by: tedster at 3:52 am (utc) on Jun 2, 2013]

[getcooking]

serp poistion is intact but then why is traffic down?

We actually even had some gains in SERP positions but yesterday (May 31) our traffic was the worst it's been in several years. We ended up almost 20% lower than usual. I kept checking my site to make sure it was actually running. It hadn't been that low since 2005. I'd chalk it up to the time of year but for the sudden and noticeable early morning drop in traffic. Everything was going along fine and then BAM. It was knocked down several notches in traffic levels (not rankings - those stayed the same through the day).

[Mentat]

25% traffic loss Friday, 31 of May...
Big site, perfect SEO, no problems...
I've lost more than I've gain last week (Penguin 2).

Webmastertools reports -60% for the name of the site on one day!

Something MUST be broken...

[epmaniac]

can anyone explain this phenomenon?

[venti]

Same observations across a couple properties concerning the 31st traffic levels. I was also up on 2.0.

[Mac_Guy]

@mentat: My traffic is down 50% (and my conversion too) since late April. Yet my position has improved in a Google search. Now, how can that be possible that I have less traffic and sales
if I'm on page 1 or 2 of a search for my keywords ? Is Google re directing my traffic to
the big brand and people whom paid G for advertisement .....

[Frost_Angel]

Did someone turn Google off? This seems like more than just a "ranking" issue.

[Mentat]

Friday, 31 of May 2013 my second site got hit by a 25-30% loss.

The loss is visible/hour compared with the last 2 Fridays.

It's a big site, good SEO (I hope), good content and few links, no spam.

This site gained about 15% on Penguin 2.0

[edited by: tedster at 4:05 am (utc) on Jun 2, 2013]
[edit reason] moved from another location [/edit]

[Robert Charlton]

perfect SEO

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ;-)

Not to pull this thread off topic by discussing this particular phrase, but "perfect SEO" (to an SEO) may now look artificial (to Google), particularly if it's not supported by other signals. Just noting it here as something to keep in mind.

It's not a phrase I'd use to evaluate the quality of a site post-Panda and Penguin.

[ColourOfSpring]

I think "perfect SEO" post-Panda / Penguin would simply be "no-SEO".

[ColourOfSpring]

Did someone turn Google off? This seems like more than just a "ranking" issue.

Sounds like a drop in search volume.

[Mentat]

@ Robert Charlton - "perfect SEO" as technical correct meta, titles, H1, no duplicates etc.

Now my mains site was also affected, but Saturday and not so much..,, but it adds to the loss from the last 2 months.

[Robert Charlton]

"perfect SEO" as technical correct meta, titles, H1, no duplicates etc

Mentat - I don't think that's enough any more. In the long run, every page of your content needs to be unique and compelling. See some comments I just made on this thread...

Recovery from Google Changes on 16 Nov 2012
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4523365.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[luckystrike]

it really is unheard of. My 2003 authority site and modestly useful site is basically irretrievable now with google search - it cannot be found on almost any keywords.

I expected a decent jump with the penguin update but zilch, nada - if anything the site rankings are worse now. I don't know what to do - quite confused at this stage, I've already been practically waiting since April last year.

[dolcevita]

@mentat: My traffic is down 50% (and my conversion too) since late April. Yet my position has improved in a Google search. Now, how can that be possible that I have less traffic and sales
if I'm on page 1 or 2 of a search for my keywords ? Is Google re directing my traffic to
the big brand and people whom paid G for advertisement .....

I've noticed same thing. All key positions remain same but traffic is down for +/- 35%

Example:

red widget position 1
Yesterday 2,122
Last week Saturday 3,516
-39.65%

Something must be wrong here. I thought that maybe my hosting block thought firewall some IP ranges but it like me unusual.

[epmaniac]

same with me, all keywords at top position but traffic down by manifold

[skweb]

Let me also confirm this change. My ranking are as good as they could be since Panda first hit me but the traffic actually went down early May and has recovered somewhat but not much.

The other related trend is that since then my AdSense CPM has doubled.

Are the two things related? I wish I knew.

My only theory is that I maybe getting more US traffic and less of cheap traffic from poor English speaking countries like India or those in Africa.

[Splugged]

Quick observation (just quick, i'm just married... lol !)

Gained tons of SERPS for many kewords/keyphrases (+200/+300 in some cases) but traffic terribly down. -56,8% in three days, all gains by Penguin 2.0 lost.

... no comment ...

[luckystrike]

you can't really make comments basing yourself on 3 days worth of data. I've waited for Penguin 2 before really commenting and its terrible.

[diberry]

Splugged, congrats! :)

Re: "better rankings, worse traffic." I have a well-ranked site that has lost Google traffic steadily throughout the past year or so. I couldn't find any other culprit, so my best guess was that Google just isn't where my audience is finding sites like mine anymore, i.e., the #1 rank in Google doesn't bring in the traffic it used to (and I am still sure this is part of it).

For about a month before Penguin 2.0, I started seeing something else, though. It looked like there were two data sets, one in which I was #1 for lots of terms, and the other set had me at #2-3 for some of those terms, at least at some times of day. Strangely, through about May 27 (three days after Penguin 2.0), I would consistently get MORE traffic on the days when my rankings slipped that tiny bit!

But around May 27 or 28, that shifted. Now I'm consistently ranking very well, and the traffic is up just as you would expect. So what was going on before that? Tedster, would any kind of user testing or something explain this?

My first thought was that I must have ads above me when I'm #1, but not when I'm #2-3 - that might explain a lower volume of traffic on higher rankings. But I checked AdWords and no one is bidding my top keyphrases.

[venti]

Is anyone that is seeing a drop not on Google Analytics or not seeing it match up in their logs?

[backdraft7]

I hate to bring up the Z word, but this is the biggest run of Zombie Traffic I've seen in months.

[flatfile]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but I'm noticing that for long tail queries Google will sometimes show few results and then another set of results under "Results for similar searches". Under this "Results for similar searches" Google will eliminate certain words from your query and also shows which query has been eliminated. I think this is gonna affect people's traffic on long-tail searches.

[Kelowna]

can anyone explain this phenomenon?

Ya it seems pretty obvious, your site(s) rank well for main keywords, but google changed the way the juice flows to the inner pages so your long tail is way down.

Guess I will have to throw tons of spam to the inner pages as well now to keep the gorg happy. Time to spread the love (spam) to more pages of the sites.

[taberstruths]

The phenomena can be explained a couple of ways.

1. Google's serp layout has evolved to keep most serp traffic on Google rather than send it off site.

2. Adwords are being displayed more prominently in serp results thus resulting in lower ctr in organic searches

3. Google is loosing traffic to other websites or people going directly to the site of their choice.

[Shepherd]

3. Google is loosing traffic to other websites or people going directly to the site of their choice.

Since penguin 1.0 we have gained back the traffic we lost from google plus another 40% by pursuing traffic from places other than google. I would say it's a safe bet to say that we are not the only ones doing this.

[getcooking]

your site(s) rank well for main keywords, but google changed the way the juice flows to the inner pages so your long tail is way down.

Not necessarily the case. The traffic for our high ranking keywords has diminished despite their rankings going up. Is Google losing market share to something else? My niche loves Pinterest and we get a good volume of traffic from it - I'm wondering if people are going there before going to Google for content related to our niche. I would think this would be all a buzz, however, if something was taking away from Google's traffic. But it really feels like less people are searching Google for these terms.

[chrisv1963]

Is Google losing market share to something else? My niche loves Pinterest and we get a good volume of traffic from it - I'm wondering if people are going there before going to Google for content related to our niche.

For certain keywords in my niche I see up to 3 Pinterest pages in the first 5 results of the Google serps. People are not stupid. If Google keeps sending them to Pinterest, then they will after a while simply skip Google and search on Pinterest instead.

[Str82u]

It looked like there were two data sets, one in which I was #1 for lots of terms, and the other set had me at #2-3 for some of those terms, at least at some times of day.

I don't know how you're researching, for us that happens because of local results; a #1 in Atlanta, Georgia is #3 in Los Angeles, California.

[diberry]

Not necessarily the case. The traffic for our high ranking keywords has diminished despite their rankings going up.

Right - we're not talking about overall traffic, but how many people found us for "top keyphrase" from one day to the next. I've seen the traffic decrease with higher rankings, and also increase with lower ones. Very strange.

Is Google losing market share to something else?

In my niche, definitely, but this would NOT explain why I saw an increase in traffic when my rankings lowered slightly. I think it HAS to be something Google's doing - some kind of testing or something.