Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

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

[gouri]

I have seen the following in the SERP and am wondering what it could mean (this is before the multi-week rollout and other updates):

I do a keyword search and look at a few pages in the SERP. Then I go back a couple of pages in the SERP (looking at the SERP that I just looked at) and see sites that I didn't see before. Generally, it is the same sites that I see appearing when I do this. I don't think this is about personalized searches or localized searches.

I am wondering if this could mean something about the sites that I didn't see when I was going forward in the SERP but appear when I go back in the SERP?

[DigiSEO]

I have seen about a 25% improvement today on one of my Pandalized sites. I hope this is a long-term improvement, but I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

[getcooking]

Then I go back a couple of pages in the SERP (looking at the SERP that I just looked at) and see sites that I didn't see before

I've seen this once in a while before but it seems to really be happening a lot right now which would explain our see-sawing traffic lately. Whatever this multi-week rollout is, it's killing my Panda-hit site. I didn't think things could get worse for us but they have.

[Dymero]

@gouri

and see sites that I didn't see before

I've seen something like this a couple times. The result is nowhere to be seen, then I go up a couple pages, then back, and there it is. I've wondered if it's a bug.

Are you seeing all new results or just some sites being replaced? What about the sites themselves? Are they ones that appeared on the later pages or new ones entirely?

[GodLikeLotus]

I have seen about a 25% improvement today on one of my Pandalized sites. I hope this is a long-term improvement, but I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

I WOULD be keeping my fingers crossed

[Alex997]

Huge Google update on 25th according to Moz:

[moz.com...]

[Martin Ice Web]

@DigiSEO, we see that on our pandalized site too. Unfortunately in most cases this +25% seems to be the reward of beeing panalized even more after complete roll out.

We see surges of traffic, then 30-45min nothing! Not one user from Google but from bing/yahoo. The traffic is very unrelated, bounce nearly 100%. I guess this is a Quality update for users to give them more UE!

ecom, germany

[Faizan_Khan]

Google Says " Each year, Google changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times" and i think it is now EACH MONTH

[Saffron]

It gets worse and worse here. I just searched for a very common phrase and out of the first five results, two sites each had two links. You just can't compete when Google obviously favour certain sites enough to give them two results in the top five :(

[Wilburforce]

Google obviously favour certain sites enough to give them two results in the top five

Multiple page 1 results from one site is generally (and historically) less common with Google than with Bing/Yahoo, although the current Google results certainly show quite a lot of examples.

I wouldn't describe it as "favour": penalty factors aside, it just means that more than one page from the same site has high relevance for a particular term, and it isn't always possible to resolve this canonically: one page may be product placement and the other informational.

[Saffron]

They're honestly not the best articles though :(

I just "Googled" another common term, and once again, Yahoo answers outranks my articles. They've driven us into the wall. It's just awful.

Sorry, today has been horrendous. I've spent six months trying to fix this and it's at the point where we are financially ruined. It's a good site, a really good site, 100% unique content, well researched, well thought out, detailed, and Yahoo answers and wikihow now outrank me :(

Awful day. Just terrible.

[backdraft7]

@Saffron: There's some easy qualifiers to determine if a site will be at the top...

1. Is the page on a demand media or similar, well funded content farm site?
2. Does the page contain at least 3 Adsense ad blocks?
3. Is one of the ad blocks above the fold?
4. Is the content scraped from another more authoritative source?
5. Is the text short, keyword loaded and pretty much useless?
6. Does the article link to half a dozen keyword related, thin pages on the same domain?
7. Is there a link that says "does this spark an idea"?
8. The site has no shopping cart.
9. The site is associated with a G+ "author" who participates in 700+ circles.
10. The site contains no links to Facebook.

If you answer Yes to all these questions, I can pretty much guarantee your site will be at the top.
See, who says you can't figure out this black box search engine.

You're not alone...I'm sitting here this morning with no traffic (zero) for the last half hour.
Not sure how I can still be listed but receive no traffic. Probably some new Jedi mind trick Google is playing...show us what we want to see, but in reality, we are nowhere to be found.

[Shepherd]

11. Is your business/site listed on the google Ventures companies page.

[johnhh]

12. Is your site owned by an American corporate brand
13. Is your Adwords spend $millions a year

[Savanadry]

14. You are lucky... this month

[Martin Ice Web]

Finally they screwed down Quality to 0% and big brands/LowContentSites to 100%.

I never thought i would say this, but since 2 days my referrals from bing are growing. And that in a country where Google HAD over 90%.

ecom, germany

[CaptainSalad2]

15. has no backlinks at all
16. has lots of HTML/CSS errors as if the site was coded by someone who had a pet goat, and said goat fell onto the keyboard during the coding process, mashing the keyboard.
17. Has a slower download speed than 60% of the sites out there.
18. Has keyword cloud in the footer of the page to increase keyword density.
19. Has a developer who has never heard the website terms "Accessibility" or "usability"
20. Has been infected with malware that allows the spread of Trojans to infect the google users computer and result in identity theft of said google user (its shocking google labels these as "This site may be compromised." so knows, but still leaves them at the top of serps)

side note, Im seeing traffic from duckduckgo for several of my larger clients over the past 5 weeks, NEVER seen anything from duckduckgo before this. Are people moving?

[edited by: CaptainSalad2 at 2:46 pm (utc) on Jun 27, 2013]

[backdraft7]

Captain - no, people are not moving, it's just that when Google is removed from the flow of traffic providers, these little guys now appear in a larger proportion. Strangely when the shadow of Google traffic is lifted, I feel somehow liberated and free! even though I'm now a poverty level citizen.

No US traffic at all today. Something hit HARD in the past 12 hours. Running serps checks this morning...will report results later. Looks like G firebombed our business again.

[Martin Ice Web]

Do we have winners in here?

[taberstruths]

I wouldn't call myself a winner in this. Just untouched.

[gouri]

Are you seeing all new results or just some sites being replaced? What about the sites themselves? Are they ones that appeared on the later pages or new ones entirely?

Dymero,

I am seeing just some sites being replaced when I go back in the SERP. The sites that I am seeing when I go back in the SERP are new ones entirely.

Have you seen what I have seen or maybe something different?

Do you think that maybe this is not a bug but something about the quality of the site?

[robster124]

I'm still not seeing any movement whatsoever in the UK serps. In fact I'd say they seem overly static for terms I watch.

Any other UK webmasters seeing anything different? Perhaps all the testing is just going on in US and UK will just adopt whatever changes G deem good after their testing the US.

[Martin Ice Web]

Complete shake up, sites that have never been there before. 99% i wouldn´t trust. There is only one thing that we can be aware of: AMAZON rules #1 for every single term.

[Dymero]

Have you seen what I have seen or maybe something different?

Do you think that maybe this is not a bug but something about the quality of the site?

It's something different. As far as I could tell, it was just one site. And as I was looking for my site, that's the only one I really noticed missing until I went up a few pages and then back.

I'd say it was a bug, unless Google was testing something at the time. It's infrequent, anyway.

[GeraniumV]

I'm in the US - and I don't see anything changes much in the SERPs (at least what I look at), but my Google referrals have been all over the place this morning, surges quiet periods, etc - so I guess something must be happening out there.

[HuskyPup]

Any other UK webmasters seeing anything different?

Yep, quite a lot of movement in my sector with several quality sites that had been demoted a few months ago back onto the first page, weirdly I have one of my .asia sites on the first page for some keyword searches. They're good pages but my .co.uk ones are better and more applicable.

The worst thing though is a mothers' discussion forum board, absolutely pointless and misinformed posts, and a crowd-sourced image site with nearly all stolen/hotlinked pictures.

[outland88]

I'm seeing a considerable shake-up in my areas. It's hard to believe it got worse. Plus that's hard to do when they've practically hit rock bottom already. The scrapers have been given carte blanche and are finally outranking me.

Why are these stats sites that add nothing of value being ranked so well? Obviously 100,000+ pages of drivel is a deciding factor for brands.

[taberstruths]

It might be interesting to do a study on the number of pages vs. ranking.

[backdraft7]

70 pages...still #1 or 2 for a dozen keyphrases and the emd phrase...used to rank decently for over 12,000 keyphrases. longtail is dead...for some.

[Bewenched]

Anyone just see a sudden shift starting today. We certainly have.
Our site has been recovering over the last year. Slowly but surely and it's taken a lot of really hard work, then today it's as if some massive event has taken everyone's attention away from shopping.

Odd and it makes me nervous.