Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jun 2013

[epmaniac]

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

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

[Martin Ice Web]

I mean, after last update 05.06, did someone gained some traffic?
We are more down then ever. Outranked by brands with shallow sites.

[muzza64]

For once, whatever happened on the 6th June has been positive for us. Traffic up only slightly but converts much, much better.

[Chris13]

Have any of the sites which have been affected by update Penguin 2.0 or the other update on 5th June (could be Penguin 2.1) noticed any sign of recovery?

Here's what I've done:

I was initially hit fairly hard by Penguin 2 as I have many #1 and #2 rankings. I then dropped down to below name brands and a few independents. Lost 30% of the traffic.

I did a reorganization of my pages where more content was pushed to the top of the page and I added a bar to the right which offerred related links within my own site that were very specific to the keywords on that page. I offer more information than most of the independents in my niche, so I took advantage of that fact. In the 8 months my site has been up I've developed a fairly large number of returning visitors.

The result is that the traffic I get from google is now only 10% below what it was before Penguin 2, instead of 30% below. I'll never move above the brands as they are given top spots even if undeserved.

Previously I had been having trouble getting bing to index my site at all.

I was already working on doing a split test between between adsense and media.net and had a contact at media.net. I asked my contact if there was anything he could do about the lack of indexing by bing. He said not really as media.net only handles the ad side of things. However, two days later my logs began to balloon with bingbot hits and this continues to this day. The traffic from bing isn't that much yet as my pages aren't ranked nearly as high in bing as they are in google, so that's going to be one of my next things to figure out.

Overall, I'm hoping to not only replace the lost traffic from google, but increase well above it.

I noticed no change on the 5th of June. I did have a particularly bad weekend (8th and 9th) with adsense however. Very low CPC and CTR. Had been trending up until then.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Personalized results: One persons #1 is not everyone's #1 and personalization is on the rise making rank watching pointless.

[randle]

Personalized results: One persons #1 is not everyone's #1 and personalization is on the rise making rank watching pointless.

I dont think people realize how much geo targeting has been injected into the main regular SERP results as well - the difference in the top 20 results from region to region, city to city is quite dramatic.

[netmeg]

Yep, and as someone whose sites are mostly closely targeted to regions, I have seen HUGE changes in the past year.

[Chris13]

Personalized results: One persons #1 is not everyone's #1 and personalization is on the rise making rank watching pointless.

I am sure you are correct in this. I tend to judge rankings by how they show up in the google webmaster tools where I can see ranking positions by page. That at least gives me an average for the people who searching. Although I don't know the accuracy of that tool.

In all, I've been able to recover much of the lost traffic.

[SerpsGuy]

how does google determine if a site is a "brand" or merchant? it seems one could duplicate whatever they use to identify them and gain back top rankings. Could it be SSL Certs?

[netmeg]

Nope, anyone can get an SSL Certificate for $19 nowadays.

[turbocharged]

In my opinion, it's the behavior pattern of users that qualifies a website/business as a brand. Are people searching for your official business name in Google? Are they referencing your business name on Twitter, Facebook, etc.? You can create the conditions to become a brand, but it's how users seek and interact with your brand that builds branded authority in the view of search engines. Whether it be through hard work, a lot of marketing, etc., you can develop brand awareness in such a way that has lasting potential.

[Wilburforce]

In my opinion, it's the behavior pattern of users that qualifies a website/business as a brand.

Well, mine is a registered trade mark, on which subject Google seems to suffer from selective blindness (as in "deficiency in intellectual or moral perception"). I don't doubt they would recover quite suddenly if I started trading as Googlewidgets.

[Jez123]

I don't know what has happened or how it's done but for the last few days my site has been seeing more traffic again (I gained 50% after Pengion 2 but then lost it again) but the last 3 days or so, what I have been getting has been converting really well. Last month I couldn't have painted a blacker picture on traffic and conversions.

How the hell is it done or is it coincidence? It it a part of Penguin recovery? I hope it continues to improve.

Is anyone else seeing similar?

[Wilburforce]

Is anyone else seeing similar?

I have seen a slight increase in overall traffic from yesterday, but I attribute this to UK schools returning after the half-term break.

Google isn't up to any degree that I would call "recovery": Bing/Yahoo are still ahead of google.co.uk (and still rising overall, so I continue to hope search habits are changing).

[diberry]

My Penguinized site had a sudden ~30% increase on yesterday June 10, and it's holding today. It looks like the gain is all on longtail phrases. (Then again, this site mostly gets long tail traffic - my short tail stuff all died with Penguin 1.0).

[mhansen]

Read through the entire thread - it's been awhile since I posted. I stopped chasing the algo and worked on building reader loyalty at a few sites we manage.

We noticed a drop on a site from June 7th to June 8th.

Keyphrase rankings in search results are still there... in fact, we seem to have moved up a few spaces here and there from when I last saw them. Serp structure appears to be the same, no additional adverts or localization.

When I visit sites like Startpage or foxstart, the specific site in question is nowhere to be seen. Poof... not in the top 10 pages of results.

- All over the top results in Google, Google.uk, Google.fr, etc.
- Not in the top results pages on meta search engines. (not found at all actually)

Has anyone else explored the multimple-dataset angle yet? Anytime I have seen this happen before it usually settles in a few days, not sure how or why.

[SerpsGuy]

I just ran a rank check, and some rankings are up (not where they were before, but at least within the top 4 pages). I also see a lot of results shifting around right now. I can search terms I rank number one for, and the first time I search I see myself as number one, and second time someone else.

Also, I have noticed sometimes my website is there on page 3 for example, and sometimes it wont be. If I refresh page 3, I am suddently there, but I was not previously. Whats that about?

[SerpsGuy]

OH- ALso I noticed google implementing some kinda brand recognition in the images search. Search for any brand name, (try XBOX) and it categorizes them now. I see different brands affiliate sites in some of my niches. Like for example, Golf Clubs, and it would show Gold Club Bob as a category, which would be his website name.

[reseller]

Very interesting indeed!


Google’s Panda Dance: Matt Cutts Confirms Panda Rolls Out Monthly Over 10 Of 30 Days

[searchengineland.com...]

[Whitey]

@Reseller - I guess folks have something to focus on now.

Congratulations to MC / Google on a fantastic level of communication at SMX. I note there was plenty of applause at the conference.

This is worth a specific mention :

DS: What’s going on with Panda. You said you’d stop confirming them. How many updates have their been since then.

MC: We had one about a month-and-a-half-ago. We haven’t updated it since then because we’re looking at pulling in a new signal that might help pull some people out of the gray zone.

A lot of business' and site owners were badly ruptured in these updates - I do hope those folks are able to pull themselves through and transition to the next level of the key changes required.

[Martin Ice Web]

@White, when was the SMX conference?

[Whitey]

@Martin Ice Web - It finished approx. 6 hours ago.

@Reseller has the link above. There's enough positive material there to keep the webmaster community busy in conversation for months. Plenty of thread post material to.

You might like the focus on Panda roll backs for "gray sites, link clean ups etc

[reseller]

In fact Matt Cutts is on Twitter and tweeting right now in relation to #SMX :-)

[twitter.com...]

[Jez123]

I see something shifting today. One of my SERPS is sometimes not there at all and when it is, it's considerably lower than it was. Another that it was #1 for yesterday I cannot find it at all. All other pages and SERPS seem unaffected.

[Martin Ice Web]

@White, thanx.
This explains the 9. May shifting.

[JDoe]

I took a hit on several of my best keywords. All on the top 6 result on page 1 pushed way back between 60-90 place. It happened on 10th or 11th of June and the weird thing is few days before that I had a auto message in google's webmaster tools that for a page of my site there is significant increase of traffic. The page for which the message was about does not contain those keywords who are pushed back.
To give you full story I tinkered with my site about 7 days ago and changed a little both title and description (adding some new keywords) and from 5th of June there is big increase in impressions and clicks from 10 000 impr and 2 000 clicks on 5th to 15k impr and 3,5k clicks for both 6th and 7th from there it went on 18k impr and 3,5k clicks for 8th and 22k impr and 3,5 clicks on 9th and 22k impr and 4, clicks for 10th. There is also big increase in search queries from 2000 something to 3143 in the time span of those days from 5-10th of June. So my question is was I penalized or this is google dance in my case? Could this be also because I made changes to my title and description? Im really sorry for the long rant but Im really worried over my keywords. Please share thoughts

[SnowMan68]

Google’s Panda Dance: Matt Cutts Confirms Panda Rolls Out Monthly Over 10 Of 30 Days

[searchengineland.com...]

This deserves it's own thread. Nice catch!

[diberry]

So the last Panda update was around the start of May. Still no clues about what the ~May 10 and June 10 updates are, then.

[muzza64]

Hang on a minute, that Panda Dance article needs clarification.....it's referring to updates to the algo but it also mentions the announcement by Google in March that they would no longer be confirming Panda dates (updates or refreshes) because "it" (which I personally took to mean refreshes) would be more of a rolling thing.

So, does this mean "updates" are happening monthly but "refreshes" are a rolling thing......or what? I'm confused.

[taberstruths]

According to MC, Panda is still being refreshed monthly or so but it rolls out in the serps over a 10 day period thus causing a "panda dance".

[petehall]

Panda Rolls Out Monthly Over 10 Of 30 Days

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but surely this does not necessarily mean 10 consecutive days out of 30.