Google Updates and SERP Changes - January 2014

[Panthro]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4627107.htm [webmasterworld.com] by aakk9999 - 4:37 am on Jan 4, 2014 (gmt 0)

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I think we had a Penguin or some EMD update. I have an informational site that's been around for a while - 1 word EMD - and it's nowhere to be found.

[3zero]

Wikipedia seems to take up very high slots where no one deserves number one because of their onsite or offsite behavior.
Also known brands are beeing boosted, edu sites and information sites.

[Mentat]

I believe that this January update had a big Penguin component.

2 of my previous affected domains are going UP (not as a rocket), after I've submitted a huge disavow file about a moth ago.

[Wilburforce]

2 of my previous affected domains are going UP (not as a rocket), after I've submitted a huge disavow file about a moth ago.

My site is also currently showing (very modest) gains, also following a huge disavow file (at the end of October).

However, I think disavowal will take some time to filter through, as I removed some links at the same, and about half of these are still showing in WMT.

Possibly the combination of a Penguin-related update and partial implementation of disavowal would have the effect I am seeing, but I would hesitate to say anything much more conclusive.

[chalkywhite]

Question. Anyone remember the update in May last year - the update before penguin 2 - "Ghost update". Ive a site effected on that date that has recovered. anyone else?

[petehall]

I am now seeing the updated advert style (small yellow 'AD' graphic only) but only in Chrome. Come to think of it, I think this style has been present on iPad and iPhone for a while now.

[EditorialGuy]

Anyone remember the update in May last year - the update before penguin 2

Yes. Our traffic was affected by that update (not hugely, but noticeably), and it continued to erode until late December.

Ive a site effected on that date that has recovered. anyone else?

It's too early tell, but I've definitely seen an upsurge in traffic in the last few weeks, partly for seasonal reasons but also because of a change in organic-search referral patterns.

We've had some of our biggest growth on informational pages with affiliate links that could be classified as either "informational" or "commercial," depending on the user's search intent and the eye of the beholder.

Also, Google seems to be doing a better job of recognizing the topics for which we have authority or expertise.

[smithaa02]

Municipal sites seem to be doing VERY well with the latest update.

Maybe a non-commercial/non-profit type update for google. If you're more ad-heavy or in the neighborhood with ad-heavy sites, you don't get as much credit? Just a theory...

[Ueland]

Municipal sites seem to be doing VERY well with the latest update.

Actually no.
Here in Norway, multiple(all?) government websites has lost PR, we went from 8 to 7 for example. I find that pretty strange.

[ohno]

What a mess, why have an image result tab if you are going to stick images below ads to push organic below the fold Google? Given up on this crap.

[Wilburforce]

I'm still getting quite a few "new" broken links showing up in WMT that haven't been in the referring pages for a very long time (and Google has crawled the referring pages several times since the links were removed).

If very old data are factored into the current SERPS it is difficult to extract explanations, but it might explain the mess.

[Ueland]

Maybe a non-commercial/non-profit type update for google. If you're more ad-heavy or in the neighborhood with ad-heavy sites, you don't get as much credit? Just a theory...

Our Norwegian website which i work with contains only public information about all our country`s laws and regulations. And are *the* place where all current laws/regulations are published. We are non-profit and have no ads. Yet we got demoted in PageRank terms.

[CaptainSalad2]

>>>Yet we got demoted in PageRank terms.<<<

I see a lot of sites deleting and added "nofolow" to old links left and right since penguin, I would guess this is probably widespread and your PR probably went down because of this natural behaviour that's going on throughout the web right now, unless you can verify you have the exact same amount of follow links I would guess this could be the cause of your drop.

[EditorialGuy]

We are non-profit and have no ads. Yet we got demoted in PageRank terms.

Do you mean "PageRank" or "rankings"? There's a difference.

If Google were to look at ads and other "commercial" content when ranking pages for informational queries, that would be an aspect of the ranking algorithm, not the PageRank formula (which is about the number and value of a page's inbound links).

[Wilburforce]

@CaptainSalad2

My site's PR has also fallen, and there hasn't been much change in the proportion of nofollows. Most of the sites I monitor have fallen too.

Incidentally, google.co.uk now shows as PR7 from here (while Bing - also Amazon - is PR8!).

[Wilburforce]

@EditorialGuy

...and see my previous post: it looks like PR has been adjusted, as well as whatever is going on in the SERPS.

[ohno]

I get 7 for G, 8 for Amazon & 6 for Bing. Not that PR means anyhting these days. We got a PR boost & traffic went down.

[EditorialGuy]

Toolbar PR? Seriously?

Let's party like it's 1999.

[Shai]

Cant see any toolbar PR update yet, but google layout seems to have been updated on some searches. Anyone see this yet? Im in the UK

[adder]

Question. Anyone remember the update in May last year - the update before penguin 2 - "Ghost update". Ive a site effected on that date that has recovered. anyone else?

@chalkywhite, yes, I remember the update. I'm monitoring one site which was affected by it. In fact, it was hit for the second time on 6/7th December last year and now has got virtually no traffic.

What did you do to recover?

[DirigoDev]

My medical information site moved up in a big way on the 12th. Huge sustained spike in impressions. CTR is not as big. I'm seeing a similar pattern on other health information sites that I manage. But the change is not across the board. Newer domains and those that don't publish regularly did not move up.

This particular site has not had ANY development or content added for more than three years. It is not a low-end site. It does not practice overly aggressive SEO tactics. Same with the others. The few other sites that moved up follow a similar strategy but produce content regularly. None of these sites got hurt by the Google zoo.

[ohno]

Cant see any toolbar PR update yet, but google layout seems to have been updated on some searches. Anyone see this yet? Im in the UK

Layout is back to Google Shopping results to the RIGHT, image results are now gone so at least we have organic above the fold again! How long will that last I wonder? Overall the page looks MUCH cleaner than the mess I saw yesterday.

[jmorgan]

Slight drop in traffic today compared to last week. Is there a public holiday somewhere or something?

[superclown2]

Half the searches I've done today have been changed by Google. If I search for red widgets I get "Showing results for green widgets". Yes I know that this has been happening for a long while but today it's stepped up considerably.

[smithaa02]

Another big change today? From my end, it seemed to undo some of the recent changes from last week...?

[chicagohh]

"Is there a public holiday somewhere or something? "

There was a recent update/change around January 10. Something happened. I am seeing movement across a bakers dozen of niches. Confirmed with some others that SERPs have been moving.

[Zoolander89]

I've seen big SERP movement upwards in the SERPs this week for a very information rich technical niche. Though appears to be cooling off slightly with a few rankings dropping back down a touch. Looks like the standard google shakeup.

[EditorialGuy]

Under "Search Queries" in Webmaster Tools, I'm seeing some big increases in clickthrough percentages for many different terms, even when average rankings haven't gone up (or, in some cases, have slipped a notch or two). I'm not sure what to make of that. (A seasonal effect? A change in reporting?)

[chalkywhite]

@adder

I went through my link profile and this site has never had any intentional SEO. I was a member of a lot of technical forums and my signature had the site it.

Using AHrefs I worked out that the links where far to many percentage wise. Basically removed all forums links and waited patiently.

Makes me think this is a penguin iteration.

[Jez123]

Makes me think this is a penguin iteration.

Unless Penguin runs all the time now.

[smithaa02]

I think they combine updates now. So we could be looking at multiple algo updates (makes it tougher for people like us to reverse engineer what they're doing).