Google Updates and SERP Changes - September 2014

[Martin Ice Web]

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System: The following 8 messages were cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4694139.htm [webmasterworld.com] by goodroi - 3:07 pm on Sep 2, 2014 (utc -5)

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Hopefully Google is getting this thing tweaked.

as i see today, they didn´t get it right. Very low and nonconverting traffic.
+ domaincrowding
+ not compelling sites are on page #1
+ Content is NOT king
+ search for bananas and get apples


On saturday a friend asked me to look into his niche and all the ranking sites are like
- keyword town
up to page two
I thought this would be considered as spam? There was not one local Business, there was not one realy -> compelling <- site.

[EditorialGuy]

It may just be my hallucination, but Google seems to use big brand sites to legitimize their ads which likely improves click through.

Actually, featuring big brands in the top organic-search positions may reduce ad clickthrough on SERPs.

Think about it: If you're a searcher who knows and trusts Amazon, and an Amazon page for "fuzzy blue widgets" is right at the top of the organic results for that query, you're likely to be happy clicking on that Amazon result instead of wondering if you should click on an ad for Wally's Widgets.

[samwest]

Whatever is above the fold on page one is going to get clicks...I can tell you from experience, nobody is clicking on my page two listings.

[EditorialGuy]

I can tell you from experience, nobody is clicking on my page two listings.

We get a surprising amount of traffic from Page Two listings. I'm guessing that it happens most often when the results on Page One suck or aren't a good match for the searcher's intentions. Some queries are inherently ambiguous: Is the person who searches on "widget" looking for information, or is that person shopping? When Google guesses wrong, the searcher needs to scroll or click to the next page for a useful result--and some searchers do.

[Awarn]

It really depends on subject matter. In ecommerce I think people will look at one or two sites unless it is a high ticket item. They are either are buying or not. Now in a case like EG who is dealing in travel information I think the user will go much deeper because they are gathering information. Page 2 will still attract readers. That user will probably stop by page 4 or 5 because they are gaining no new information.

[MikeNoLastName]

If searchers knew what sites they wanted to visit, why would they be using search engines?

Excuse the fact that I am 50+ and been doing programming and websites for 25+ years, and my apologies in advance to anyone in here in the group I mention shortly, but I think this IS the biggest problem G is trying to deal with in the last couple years. And it definitely is not trivial. With the advent of "smart phones" and other "mass computing devices" the explosion of (excuse my 25 year old colloquialism [That I may have even invented -- who knows] for lack of a better term) "dumb users" compared to those who USED to know how to search more properly/accurately, has forced G in a major way to change the way they produce results overall.

For example, I used to be an avid geocacher (look it up if you're not familiar) many years ago when you had to be a naturist and buy special dedicated equipment for it (and often owned a sat-phone as well). When they started putting GPS capabilities on every cell phone, I said "Well there goes the hobby" and I was right. The vandalism aspect went ballistic as every 20-something half-brained weekend warrior with a cell phone and undisciplined tadpoles in tow felt it was a free-for-all to desecrate.

So, today G has to deal with millennials and the entitlement generation and possibly many other groups who barely know how to enter non-texting-acronyms on smart phones or how to correctly spell words over 5 letters when searching, let alone know how to add verbs and adjectives to search for what they REALLY want. Sure, the closest tattoo parlors, party-clubs, and lyrics to hip-hop and rap tunes are easy to look up, but Ben Franklin's wife and childrens' names or how many soldiers died in the gulf war?

Naturally, over the last 16 years (Happy Birthday!) G is going to have to make some modifications and adaptations to appeal to the OVERALL Average Searcher's (OAS) expectations (which has "changed" in a number of ways over the last 16 years, which I will not elaborate on.) Better still, perhaps they truly DO need a customization feature which includes age, education level, country of origin, etc. to factor in a SIGNIFICANT way into the results. Their incentive to collect this info is not only to improve search results "for the user benefit", but more importantly to also to better target demographics for their client/advertisers to sell their products. A win-win?

On the flipside website developers need to take these factors into consideration when designing pages and keep these newer groups in mind when targeting their keywords and content.

[GreyBeard123]

A+ ^^^^^

[Wilburforce]

developers need to take these factors into consideration when designing pages and keep these newer groups in mind when targeting their keywords and content

@MikeNoLastName

I think the most important consideration is your target market. Designing my pages for Idiots might get more overall traffic, but will be counter-productive if my target market is academic professionals.

Targeting keywords and content isn't as easy as it used to be, either.

In a recent post I mentioned page description as one mechanism by which Google might affect referrals independently of ranking.

I have just started looking in depth at page 1 results (as stated in WMT) reported as CTR 0%, and the extent to which Google is using selective page snippets rather than meta description in the SERPs – at least on my own pages - is substantial.

It seems particularly prevalent on longer phrases where key terms are separated. For e.g. Can't Unlock Widget made by Brandname, the meta description (Using the Brandname Widget: detailed instructions…) is repaced with something like ...splunger can't be used for snaffling... ...widget no longer available... ...UK distributor for Brandname went into receivership in 2012...

However, there are a couple of cases where this type of hatchet-job has been done on searches for e.g. Blue Widget Disploding, replacing the meta description (Blue Widget Disploding: How to Unpopulate…) with much less relevant snippets.

While there are obviously cases in which description probably wouldn't have made any difference (where e.g. searcher is looking for wodget - a sporting term - rather than the popular bath accessory we all know about), in many cases Google has substituted page snippets where the meta description accurately summarises the searcher's intention.

I think it most unlikely that this is Motivated By Greed, or another part of the Great Conspiracy: more likely, I think, that Google not only understands what you are looking for better than you do, but can also describe it better than anyone who supplies it.

As a side-effect of looking at this, I notice that SERPs ranking for most terms I have looked at so far is higher than reported Avg. Position in WMT. While this is a known phenomenon (if there is more than one result, average must be lower than highest), it seems to apply to an extent that suggests that my site has risen recently in results across a range of search terms: WMT (historic) positions are lower than current. Presumably this is an effect of Panda 4.1.

[Wilburforce]

BTW

Today main key term has "flipped" again: double entry (mysite.com/key-term.html and mysite.com) has reverted to single entry for mysite.com, and regained the 10 places lost.

[Wilburforce]

...and flipped back again today. It may be a datacentre anomaly. Is anyone seeing "domain crowding" turning on and off?

Saturday is usually my quietest day, but yesterday was unusually quiet, even for a Saturday.

[superclown2]

Still seeing a fair bit of fluctuation here in the UK.

[samwest]

Just wondering if Google will every get serious about the things they want from us...Id verified on G+ complete with "face print", business registered with the state as an LLC or corporation, used SSL for past decade, site ownership verified, years of service to the web community, home mortgaged to pay for PPC campaign...and of course unique, complete and compelling content - what else do they want before they trust and eventually list us?

[samwest]

Also, just wondering how, without any changes whatsoever to the site, my bounce rate can go from 35% to 58% overnight?

[aakk9999]

Also, just wondering how, without any changes whatsoever to the site, my bounce rate can go from 35% to 58% overnight?

It can happen.
- Google may have started to rank pages that are not relevant enough for the query
- Google may have started to rank a page that had satisfied user's intent and user does not visit other pages on the site (an example of such page may be a page on Weather Forecast).

[samwest]

another day of the ridiculous "drip" trickle of traffic. No more than 2 at any time in GA real time. Used to be 30 average all day. apparently I'm the only one affected.

[Sand]

Sorry, samwest.

I've been in your shoes, and know what it feels like. Do your best to keep your head up for the time being. Things can (and do) turn around. Just try and keep a clear head, block out those emotions, and review your site completely objectively.

[Some_Bloke]

samwest

No, I've been suffering the same for a week now. More spiders than real users.

It feels as if google's got you by the throat (traffic throttling) and only loosens the grip in the turbulence of an update or data refresh.

Suddenly a spurious surge of conversions very close together, then back to the trickle.

[samwest]

@Bloke - exactly the same here...the window opened for 1 hour late last night and back to "on the hour" conversions. We need to examine this common clamping issue further. It's clearly some kind of sandbox or silent algorithmic penalty, because my listings have not changed. I've seen more positive or same deltas than negative moves.

It's as if they tagged us 4 years ago for extinction. No amount of tweaking stops the bleeding and downward decline.

My two direct competitors have also disappeared. All that's left is big name answer and photo spam sites. We all know the story. This is sickening.

[System]

The following 8 messages were cut out to new thread by robert_charlton. New thread at: google/4706161.htm [webmasterworld.com]
10:31 am on Oct 3, 2014 (PST -8)