Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

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

[taberstruths]

My first thought is asking the question of "Why would there be a sudden rise of websites with minimal backlinks?" The obvious answer to me is that there has been a change in what G is looking at concerning link profiles.

More than likely it has to do with link velocity, what is a natural link percentage with no link building based on keyword search volume and traffic, and category of site link norms. I can see where different types of sites would have different norms.

Those are just my initial thoughts as to why sites with what we would call traditionally weak link profiles all of a sudden got power.

[epmaniac]

can anyone explain this 5th June,2013 update? its similar to update which happened on 6th March 2013... many sites who were dominant in the niche are now gone.

[reseller]

I think Matt Cutts and Co. have launched on 5th June 2013 a modefied version of Penguin 2.0 or a Penguin 2.1 data refresh! I could be wrong of course.

Here is Matt Cutts reply for the following comment about Penguin 2.0 on his blog on May 22, 2013:

Comment: "Still it needs to be more strong, I can see that most of the results are spam."

Matt Cutts reply:" ....., we can adjust the impact but we wanted to start at one level and then we can modify things appropriately."

[mattcutts.com...]

[Jez123]

"Still it needs to be more strong, I can see that most of the results are spam."

Matt Cutts reply:"...., That's because that's all there is left. We got rid of all the decent sites with Panda 1.0!

JK.

[diberry]

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.

But IIUC this is exactly what he was saying. It used to be knowledge of SEO allowed non-spammers to stay on Google's good side. Now a lot more people than ever before have no idea why their sites are tanking, and I don't believe they're all lying. I believe SEO has become like this impenetrable fog we can't navigate, so it's time to stop trying. You can't use SEO to rank; you can't even use it to stay on Google's good side. So SEO is dead, and it's time to just focus on "How do I get converting human visitors to my site?" Sometimes the answer is to do something Google might possibly see as spam. I did something like that two days ago, because I am done trying to guess what Google's going to decide is "spammy" next. It's just too much time and energy.

[epmaniac]

what is the common factor in the sites that tanked today?

spam? duplicate content?

[epmaniac]

one of my site that tanked has an external link (in the header, hence site wide) going to the BUY NOW page of my other site... could it be because of penguin?

[Wilburforce]

So SEO is dead

Only on Google.

I know Bing isn't at the same kind of level of traffic now (and other engines are a much smaller fraction), but I can't see Google hanging on to their share of searches with the current standard of results.

All my pages/key terms are still doing as well on Bing and other engines as they once did on Google.

[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 ).

I've seen that also. I'd say it's a weakness in the current state of the algo - but I can confirm tjhat not every forum is having trouble. Nevertheless, ever since Panda 1.0, many forums went from doing really well to having troubles.

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 really think they can compete with this scrapped and childish knowledge base?

I'd say that's collateral damage - a weakness in the current state of Google's algorithm. Yes, it probably has something to do with hoping to return "the" answer, eventually through the knowledge base. But clearly they aren't there yet. On TV right now, I see Google advertising the "one answer" mode on mobile search. Mobile is also a very high priority for Google. They feel (and so do I} that mobile usage will rapidly become the majority of traffic.

[Sand]

On a daily basis, I've lost about 25% of daily traffic since Tuesday (the 4th). With that said, I grew about 25% over the previous month. So I'm basically back to where I was a month ago...we'll see if it lasts.

[Wilburforce]

mobile usage will rapidly become the majority of traffic

I think that might be so in some areas of:

1. Overall traffic, and
2. Search traffic.

However, what I seek on my mobile and what I seek on my PC are typically very different, and I imagine that difference persists across a large number of users who possess both means of internet access.

The fact that more people use planes than buses does not make the bus timetable redundant, or make information that only addresses plane users of any use at all in getting me from one side of town to the other.

However (if that is a demand they intend to satisfy), the Google results I currently get on my mobile are no more helpful than those I get on my PC.

[Awarn]

Im convinced anymore there are like three sets of results. Google is screwed up and two of the sets are kind of like patches. They throw those two out there just to have somewhat reasonable results. That third set is the main set and it is totally screwed up and they can't figure it out. So they run it and it blows everything up and they then will revert to one of the other 2 sets. They wait a couple weeks and try again. Matt Cutts will appear and give some PR BS and hope they stop the complaints.

Like many of you I am flat out sick of it. There is no excuse for it anymore and they are ruining businesses. No longer can we focus on our business, our customers. We are just reacting to Google's mismanagement. If Google was sincere they come out with somebody higher than Matt Cutts and they would be more open to those businesses that are affected.

[Andem]

I guess I should add my $0.02:

I have a (content) site which has been live for 11 months now and I've seen increases in traffic every few weeks since the beginning which peaks, falls slightly by around 5-7% and then stabilizes until the next boost. The drop this time was a little delayed and a little more dramatic (~11%) and it happened on June 5th.

I don't know if this has anything to do with Penguin or Panda, but the site has a pretty thin backlink profile and I don't do any type promotion or backlink building at all. On the other hand, many of the backlinks that I have noticed are on non-English language forums and blog articles/howto articles to this English-language site.

I do have to admit that SERPs look a little bit off and they seem to be dancing.

[Sand]

@Andem,
That's interesting. I haven't personally seen a dance, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.

All of my top keywords are still going strong. My particular hit seems to have been in the longtail.

Do you happen to have ads above the fold? I put a couple up in the middle of last week, just to get an idea of what I could make vs other monetization forms. It's probably a coincidence that my traffic is down some now, but it's worth asking.

[JesterMagic]

What is the definition of mobile? Smartphones and tablets, or just smartphones?

A lot of people use their smartphone just for quick searches or just for something to do on the go when you are waiting for something. If I am really researching something or looking to buy something I am at home either on my pc first or tablet second. A smartphone screen size is just to small for viewing especially if you need to type. Responsive web design isn't the answer either for most sites as it either hides stuff I am looking for or makes me scroll to look for it.

Mobile traffic will continue to grow for websites but for a lot of businesses the traffic quality for mobile will remain low

[mike2010]

I lost significant google keyword traffic today for some reason...multiple sites.

Yesterday was fine though. they must of tinkered with another algorithm.

[Andem]

@Sand

Do you happen to have ads above the fold?

I only have ads on around 20% of pages, which make up around 12-13% of pageviews. They aren't really above the fold, but more half-above and half-below in most cases while content and recommendations for other pages on our site are much more prominent.

In any case, I can't say whether any algorithm updates are having any effect as opposed to normal growth patterns when it comes to search result referrals.

[bluntman001]

My site was tanked as well, went from 100 uniques per day, to 10 uniques today ...

[reseller]

@bluntman001

Welcome to the forums.

Can you tell more about your site?

[chrisv1963]

"Still it needs to be more strong, I can see that most of the results are spam."


Matt Cutts reply:"...., That's because that's all there is left. We got rid of all the decent sites with Panda 1.0!

In a real world business a similar scenario would be:
Step 1: Fire all "good" employees who are not "perfect".
Step 2: Only bad employees are now working for you
Step 3: Lose business
Step 4: Fire the CEO

[Martin Ice Web]

tedster,

thanx for your reply.
Are we going common if I say that Google puts all it efforts in ecom search results? Because thats the only business that brings money. Informational searches are of low priority and/or will soon be served with shallow knowledgebase? Else i canīt explain this shallow results.
Second: Would u ever give our customers a result where only half is ok? I think not, the customer will immediatly look for an new SEO. BUt Google puts up a half backed algo and they it was tested and proofed? Never!

[SerpsGuy]

100 uniques a day? Try 6,500 uniques a day and a 400k alexa. All traffic gone

[tigger]

Second: Would u ever give our customers a result where only half is ok? I think not, the customer will immediatly look for an new SEO. BUt Google puts up a half backed algo and they it was tested and proofed? Never!

but the difference is theres lots of SEOs and for the UK theres only one SE ...If you only have one place to find information it doesn't matter what crap you throw at people they will take it in

[Diabolik]

@SerpsGuy? 6.5k/day? Try 60k/day... it's all relative!

Traffic from Bing and Yahoo is now higher than Google traffic, it's a joke!

[Martin Ice Web]

SerpsGuy and Diabolik,

u both say thay u realy lost all(!) of your traffic with 05/06 Update? 6.5K and 65K ?

@tigger,

that is what i wanted to point out. There is no Need for g to Server better results. They do have a competition only in ecom search.

[Diabolik]

@Martin I lost my traffic with the Oct 2012 update and haven't recovered any yet. I currently receive 20k/day traffic.

[Wilburforce]

Interesting development in WMT today: the Change stats for both Impressions and Clicks show either infinite increase or 100% drop for all entries.

Overall (this is on last month, already down 70% on the same period last year), Impresssions are down 47% and Traffic is down 55%.

And

Traffic from Bing and Yahoo is now higher than Google traffic,

For google.co.uk (all of my income-generating traffic) I see that too. However, information-seeking traffic from google.com is still marginally ahead of Bing/Yahoo.

Conceivably, that, coupled with the reported drop in impressions, might actually mean a real shift away from Google among searchers is beginning. Let us hope it gathers momentum (and take solace from the fact that Google seem to be doing all they can to help it).

[Shepherd]

Not seeing much in the way of traffic changes from google this week, up ever so slightly if anything, however conversion rate from that traffic has dropped by about 45% since Tuesday.

Saw a couple of penguin 1.0 keywords go from 100 to 300 this week, not that it matters at that point! Just google's way of saying "the beatings will continue until morale improves"!

[edited by: Shepherd at 11:48 am (utc) on Jun 7, 2013]

[chalkywhite]

Something has hit today or its hitting my niche, 11am GMT. Big drops.

Info. What a pain the last 6 weeks have been.

[Martin Ice Web]

Info. What a pain the last 6 weeks have been.

U mean from g* site of view? Yes, where to put all this money they make? It must make them headache to think about how not to pay taxes for this extra earnings the last 6 weeks.