Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

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

[SerpsGuy]

6/5/2013 - My site that held page 1 rankings, top rank for almost all terms tanked. Page 3-9. Analytics usually shows 40-50people at any given time, now showing zero.

Whatever happened today, I did not benefit

[epmaniac]

same with me, my site that held page 1 tanked also... currently zero people on my 3 sites.

[reseller]

@SerpsGuy @epmaniac

It could be a new algo update of some kind, or just a Penguin 2.1 data refresh.

Btw. Have your sites been affected by the recent Penguin 2.0 ?

[epmaniac]

no... but traffic was down since May 28... I had mentioned earlier in this thread also that SERP was intact but traffic was down (it was down but not out)....... now the sites have tanked

[reseller]

I think we need to take a close look at what Matt Cutts said and wrote on May 13, 2013 :

What to expect in SEO in the coming months

[mattcutts.com...]

[chrisv1963]

What to expect in SEO in the coming months

Honestly, I'm getting sick and tired of Google. I would like to concentrate on creating content and not on trying to avoid getting penalized for things I didn't do.

[SerpsGuy]

My site wasn't ever previously affected by any updates. Now page one has no spam though, so the update did help remove the trash. Unfortunately google believes I am trash too I guess. :-/

Looks like it's time for me to go job hunting oncraigslist. All my rankings that made me money are gone.

[taberstruths]

Mozcast showed major changes starting yesterday. I have seen typical traffic flux that happens when an update is rolling out. So far I don't see any plunging off a cliff for my sites.

[epmaniac]

so we have been dumped by penguin 2.0 ?

didnt it come on may 22nd?... nothing happened to me back then...also webmastertool shows only 97 links to my site... how can this kill me by penguin?

[Wilburforce]

I would like to concentrate on creating content and not on trying to avoid getting penalized for things I didn't do.

Amen!

[htdawg]

Could it be safe to say that due to people removing backlinks in fear of pengin could have a negative affect on some sites. Our site has lost quite a few backlinks before and after the update in turn causing us to drop a little in rankings. any thoughts on this?

[SerpsGuy]

just checked my rank again. all my listings are gone- all of them. in their place? my content, scraped and put on blogger.com. yes i use authorship. yes i filed dmca two weeks ago and blogger wont reply. i am #*$! furious

[nettulf]

My sites are gone also.

A few sites with no SEO and almost zero incoming links doubled and tripled after the Penguin 2.0, so I was thinking it was some kind of reward for being nice and follow the rules.

But today they are gone.

My older site with adsense has the same number of visitors, or even more. But it got only 10% of the normal adsense clicks the last 24 hours. Strange...

[Wilburforce]

My sites are gone also.

My own site has now reappeared for key term (it has been missing completely for over a month).

I was initially encouraged to see it on Startpage 17 pages higher than it had disappeared, only to find that the next page was the last one: Startpage is returning fewer results for Key Term.

I then checked the results on google.co.uk and the same applies: Google returns substantially fewer results.

Presumably, therefore, quite a lot of pages have been filtered out of the current results. This could be at least partly accounted for by cleaning up some of the domain crowding, but I notice that one of my competitors, who had been steadily edging upwards in the SERPS, has disapperared completely.

I have no idea what would account for this.

[tigger]

I'm seeing old sites of mine ranking that haven't been touched in over 5 years - I can't see G leaving this in place as it makes a mockery of updating sites

[colonelu81]

Site got hammered on 6.03.2013 [webmasterworld.com...] recovered almost 100% today .
Wait to see what happens next , i think the update is not finished yet

[dolcevita]

I'm still speechless because i can not find any explanation for dropping of traffic for 1/3 comparing with the last week.
I have never experience something like that. All major positions are still there but traffic is down for 1/3 since last week Friday.

Last week server issue with firewall where firewall blocked some data for 10seconds, site waiting to load all this time and then after 10-12 seconds site fully loaded.
Explanation from host was that firewall block some data. Still then traffic was not down of down for +/-5%.

Wednesday 29 May i've noticed some dropping 20% but this day was still major issue with firewall. Finally when issue with firewall was completely solved on Friday i've realized that next day Saturday traffic was down for 1/3.

It is maybe coincidence that traffic dropping started similar with firewall issue on the server. Because of that i've request to move my site to another server just to be sure that it have nothing to do with firewall.

Otherwise i have not any explanation for 1/3 dropping in traffic. Before there were 10.000+ daily visits, and after 7000+ daily visits.

[Wilburforce]

I'm seeing old sites of mine ranking that haven't been touched in over 5 years

One of my competitors who ceased trading in 2010 (and hasn't touched his website since then) is still doing fairly well in Google SERPS. Another, still trading, but also unchanged for years, has been outranking me in the local SERPS for months now.

There doesn't seem to be a "leaving pages untouched" penalty, and my own advice would be if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

[tigger]

There doesn't seem to be a "leaving pages untouched" penalty, and my own advice would be if it isn't broken, don't fix it.

theres fixing it & updating it with new content - it does seem G is turning all into spammers and its about throwing up sites and moving onto the next, rather than rewarding webmasters that keep on top of sites offering new information ...If thats the game it wants then P2 has turned a people over black hat

[Martin Ice Web]

Looks like a roll back to late April serps.

[tedster]

Honestly, I'm getting sick and tired of Google. I would like to concentrate on creating content

Have you noticed the paradox here? Working on your content is one of the things Google has been suggesting since Panda 1.0 at least.

Could it be safe to say that due to people removing backlinks in fear of pengin could have a negative affect on some sites.

Yes, and even those sites to link to you may be having trouble, too - so their links have less power.

[Wilburforce]

Looks like a roll back to late April serps.

Not from here: for my key term the results have shrunk by more than 20 pages since April.

[tigger]

Not from here: for my key term the results have shrunk by more than 20 pages since April.

agree I'm seeing sites ranking that haven't been around for a long time let alone a few months

Have you noticed the paradox here? Working on your content is one of the things Google has been suggesting since Panda 1.0 at least.

which is why you should never believe there Spin Doctor if sites that are now ranking that have not been touched in years

[JesterMagic]

Have you noticed the paradox here? Working on your content is one of the things Google has been suggesting since Panda 1.0 at least.

I always work on my content but in reality it has become less and less about content and more about the links. What's the point of good content when everyone who links to you (and any other site for the matter) adds a no follow just to be on the safe side because their afraid of the off chance of linking to a bad site and being penalized. I am seeing more and more sites ranking in my niche that either hack a pile of sites and add a page of content with their link or create a bunch of their own blogs and link back to their main site.

No follow and the disavow tool have been a complete failure IMO. It has just pushed the brands and major news outlets up and small businesses down.

[Martin Ice Web]

Working on your content is one of the things Google has been suggesting since Panda 1.0 at least.

Nice joke, i needed this today after a messy day.

[tedster]

Here's the deal, as I see it. SEO for Google used to be:

1. See a ranking drop
2' Take an action to fix it
3. Wait for the change to show up

That was kind of a fun game for many years. But it doesn't work that way any more, the fun game is gone, and that is frustrating for many.

More and more. it does take a base of long term efforts and brand building to have a sound foundation these days. That is just running a business. Sometimes the metrics Google uses are mysterious, and they definitely make errors. Still most sites who avoided or recovered from recent Google challenges have a strong brand and content that gets good user response.

This is a whole new SEO mindset for many who depended mostly on technical SEO in the past. Technical SEO still matters a lot, but that is only a foundation today. Yrs, links still matter a lot - but they are a lot harder to dummy up these days.

The most recent ranking changes (those since Penguin 2.0) seem particularly strange to me, and I'm not at all clear what they're about.

[JesterMagic]

My site was one of the 3 or 4 main authorities in our niche now all of us has lost traffic while a lot of thin content cover pieces from large news and information sites rank above us.

[Martin Ice Web]

tedster,

that does not explain why so many good forum sites have been vanished? They had good user response too and have been well known and established, trusted sites ( in this case i mean coding sites ).
Now a search gives my some stupid blog sites and sites that do scratch the topic but will not give an answer?
Collateral damage? Or does Google realy think they can compete with this scrapped and childish knowledgebase?

[chrisv1963]

At least one of the websites scraping my photos is still ranking.
Only stolen photos and a few words of crap text, private domain registration in Panama and hosted on a slow server in Ukraine .. but still doing well on Google!

[tigger]

this is the problem how can you work out what works when so much rubbish is ranking - I have three domain site review sites outranking me for one of my two word terms where as before they were no where to be seen and have knocked me to 4th