Google Updates and SERP Changes - October 2014

[samwest]

---

System: The following 8 messages were cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4699490.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 10:31 am on Oct 3, 2014 (PST -8)

---

Traffic still lethargic here...funny how the traffic looks human, but acts like bots. I've never seen a human sit on a privacy page for 30 minutes, and yet have bounce rates of almost 70%.
The mobile vs. desktop pie chart shows 25% desktop, 14% mobile and 51% unknown.

[Wilburforce]

@samwest

Different data sets could account for the yo-yo effect (although I don't think so: usually all DCs arrive in a similar state within a few days, and it has been going on too long).

However, that doesn't of itself explain the 10-position difference, which applies only to my own and a couple of other sites (although I suppose localisation effects might make that kind of difference between one DC and another).

Anyway, I keep watching, and my site keeps bouncing up and down.

[samwest]

Chalky...usually on bank holidays I do a LOT better, not worse. Everybody is home and half the US is covered in rain. Perfect day to surf and perfect day to skim.

I'm not trying be sound like a conspiracy nut and I never blame G for 100% of the problems, but as I've said in the past, there's got to be SOME logical explanation for these gradual, progressive across the board drops. If you're not dropping, bully for you, but a good number of us are and have been for a long time. No matter how much we trim, tweak and try.
When I see my niche full of well financed sites, and G up another 22% over last year I suspect I know the answer already.

[Wilburforce]

It looks like some kind of change went through betweeen Monday and yesterday, bringing a modest (~20%) traffic lift, and a lot of minor shuffling in my sector (UK niche service).

One site has returned from purgatory to page 3, while a couple of others have moved up to 10 or so places up or down (with a couple swapping adjacent positions), while probably 60%+ of pages - including mine - have not moved.

Is anyone else seeing gains or losses (or statements from Google)?

[Jez123]

@ Wilburforce. I'm not seeing any changes at all. The only thing I note over the last few weeks is that google is preferring to show my main page for some SERPS instead of the more targeted inner pages.

[Wilburforce]

@Jez123

Where are you based? Monday looks pretty turbulent from Mozcast, too.

For my main key term Google has been toggling between main (mysite.com) and inner page (mysite.com/key-term.html) for at least a couple of years, with occasional periods - usually coinciding with posts here about domain crowding - where both are returned.

[Jez123]

@ Wilburforce, I'm UK based too. Not seeing it in my niche. Perhaps your niche is being tested?

[Wilburforce]

Perhaps your niche is being tested?

Certainly from the way my site has been bouncing up and down lately I have suspected that something is being tested, but I have generally assumed that my sector - which is fairly minor in the grand scheme of things - is not the focus of it.

[Jez123]

Don't get me wrong, my site has shifted quite a bit but for my main term I am in the turbulent waters of page 2/3 and can waver between mid page 2 to bottom page 3. Only one other has seen a bit of movement.

[samwest]

WF - I saw a similar boost in traffic for a few days. If your niche is being tested, so is mine.

As an interesting side note...
One of those ubiquitous answer sites has a freebies page that offers up a bunch of inaccurate ad ridden links to free versions of my product, so I posted a review of their page...totally original except that I included the exact links they offer with my review and rebuttal.

It was quickly indexed and appeared below the fold on page 2. A day later in was below the fold on page 1. It moved up to within 1 position of the answer site (about dot com) and today it has vanished.

I suspect the answer site flipped their special Google alert switch and had my review removed.

The review is still in Bing.

Clearly accuracy is trumped by ads.
Not only was the page removed, my entire sites seems to have tanked. Gotta love censorship.

[getcooking]

My main site had a pretty deep crawl on Sunday, then took a noticeable drop starting Monday night. Since then we're down about 10% over last week - and we typically have seasonal growth from September through December. So, I'm pretty sure something rolled out - or is rolling out. The only flux my site normally sees is from Panda. It often has noticeable drops in rankings when Panda starts running but then bounces back (and since May has had gains by the time the Panda rollout was done).

[Jez123]

The problem that I have at the moment is gauging where I should be! My business is fairly seasonal and I can't tell if it's slowing down due to that or Google or both. Or neither.

[Itanium]

In the last couple of days I've seen some different data sets going live. I guess they're testing a few things right now.

[samwest]

Oh yeah, there's churn going on in the last 12 hours. My article that had vanished a few hours ago is now back where is was...

It's always my knee jerk reaction to blame some nefarious force, but it was just Google switching data sets.

They can keep this data set, because traffic just turned back on.

[EditorialGuy]

"Same old, same old" for us. (Something to do with our topic or niche, maybe?) We haven't even had a really deep crawl on our main site since early August.

[Kufu]

I have a site that is about ten years old, with nothing but organic links, and the most comprehensive content on the topic it covers. Impressions and traffic have nosedived starting 10.9, and has lost 90% of its traffic at this point.

I'll give it a few days for Google to 'correct' itself, but if it stays like this then I will have serious doubts about Google being able to figure out what is what.

[samwest]

@Kofu - My problem is very similar to yours and hundreds if not thousands of other sites that got dinged FNFR. I wouldn't hold your breath - Google hasn't know what is what in years. They just know what pays...for them. That may be somewhat of an oversimplification, but it's how it looks from my reference point. ON /OFF (mostly off) traffic is here to stay.

[Wilburforce]

@Kufu

Same here, except that mine nosedived in 2012. I recovered to about 50% of 2012 traffic in May this year, with a very gradual loss since then, until yesterday (and, so far, today), which is more-or-less back to May levels.

I do not foresee any likelihood of returning to 2012 levels, whatever I do, and whatever Google does.

[rustybrick]

Anyone seeing any massive ranking shifts today (this afternoon).

[Shepherd]

Nothing significant here on our penguinized sites.

[Wilburforce]

Anyone seeing any massive ranking shifts today

No, not since Monday/Tuesday, and although that was clearly noticeable, it wasn't massive.

[Kufu]

Interestingly enough, I have some sites which are questionable in quality and link-profile, yet they are doing just fine, and have sailed through all the updates that Google has thrown at them.

Either the algorithm has gotten so complicated, Google doesn't know what they are doing anymore, or it's just hit a wall.

[rbarker]

Interestingly enough, I have some sites which are questionable in quality and link-profile, yet they are doing just fine,

Seeing something similar here. I dropped from page one #2 to #4 for my main term. The three sites above me are all homemade and crappy looking. One has all text shift-left and another has all text centered. My site was/is professionally done, laid/blocked out nicely and reads well--and has a very strong link profile.

I'm hoping Penguin will sort this mess out...

[JD_Toims]

Either the algorithm has gotten so complicated, Google doesn't know what they are doing anymore...

[micklearn]

^Either that, or they know exactly what they are doing with the SERP's and ads. (The latter seems more likely.)

[liamkk]

Anyone seeing any massive ranking shifts today (this afternoon).

yes, lost about 2-3 ranking point for a few terms that had recovered from Panda 4.1.

I suspect the answer site flipped their special Google alert switch and had my review removed.

How's that possible?

[samwest]

How's that possible?

It's not possible...but if you go simply by reaction, that how it appears.

Google seems to have become a master of misdirection, showing what we want to see and personalizing results. I typically check serps with Google Chrome in incognito mode, but since it is a Google product, I don't particularly trust that either.

Just like Eric Schmidt is paranoid of garage start ups,

However, even though Google holds the dominant position of accounting for more than 90% of the online search market, Mr Schmidt said he was still wary of the "next Google".

"Someone, somewhere in a garage is gunning for us. I know, because not long ago we were in that garage. Change comes from where you least expect it," he added.

Unfortunately, I have become paranoid too...of anything Google does.
I used to love that company, but sadly not anymore.
It's comments like that and "don't be evil" that really make you question their true M.O. or arrangements with well financed sites.

After a full day of zip traffic, it turned back on about 9pm CST until early this morning, then it shuts off. I call this new, repeatable pattern the "daytime skim". Sure doesn't match my decades+ collection of traffic and sales data.

We can only pray that Schimdt's fears come true some day soon...or at least within my short remaining lifetime.

True competition (and full disclosure) might be the only way this is ever sorted out.

[Wilburforce]

showing what we want to see and personalizing results

One major problem this creates is that our target market is being shown what they (i.e. what Google thinks) want to see through personalised results.

Periodically I do a completely masked search, and the results when Google is deprived of location and search history are astonishingly poor. Paradoxically, I am often on page 1 for my important terms when I do that.

I suspect, therefore, that some of the overall traffic loss many of us are reporting is because of what Google is doing with locality and history (it isn't Panda/Penguin alone).

A specific issue with this is that although my primary business is location-based, my business also offers services that are not, and Google doesn't seem to differentiate well. If I want Key-Term My Locality, that is what I search for, and, more to the point, if I just search for Key-Term I expressly do not want locality-based results. It annoys me when toggling between UK-only and Any Country makes almost no difference, especially when half of page 1 is within 20 miles of my desk.

So, in my case (based on my own search terms), Google no longer shows me what I want to see.

[samwest]

WF - I really should re-phrase that to say "showing what THEY THINK we want to see". It was too early in the morning. ;)

[Wilburforce]

@samwest

That is what I understood you to mean (I'm sorry if my post suggests otherwise).

"Personalisation" isn't based on what I tell them, but on what they infer from my searches and my location in the context of what they infer from other compiled (general and individual) data.

The trouble with that approach is that there is often a difference between what I actually want and what, statistically, I am likely to want.

[samwest]

Schmidt is so eloquent: "Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it."

"We don't need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about."

They must have hired "Carnac the Magnificent". [bit.ly...]