Google Updates and SERP Changes - October 2014

[samwest]

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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)

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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.

[JesterMagic]

It looks like I dropped 10% in traffic yesterday. The effected keywords are pretty much site wide with 3 to 7 position drop. This doesn't feel like a tweak to the algorithm to me.

[SnowMan68]

Doesn't seem like this update is across the board. None of the reporting tools even show muchmovement. If there was this kinda movement across all serps you would see big spikes. I would hold tight, as this is far from complete.

[SnowMan68]

Wow, sorry about all the posts. Phone went crazy, lol

[petehall]

Holy moly Snowman, you've made your point :)

I am now thinking something Penguin related is going on as I'm watching a site nose dive by the hour, with all other sites relatively stable.

[Kelowna]

So far it looks like older sites with older back links are not moving much or moving higher. Our newer stuff with newer back links have dropped a bit. I have a feeling that the newer link data has not been calculated in yet, or simply because we only use spam links that they have been discounted or dropped. So far we have seen 4 old spam sites that were killed back indexed again so a filter may be off or perhaps the evil penguin has set them free. Time to get ready for my flight, you guys have fun watching the penguin crap all over good sites again while the spam keeps on banking.

[Wilburforce]

In the last couple of hours an EMD holding page ("we are building a new site...") that has been at #3 for my main key term for months has dropped to page 5. This is the first sign of anything I have seen in my sector, and it doesn't shout "Penguin" at me.

Mozcast has now updated with yesterday's stats, and only seven of the last thirty days have been quieter.

[elguiri]

Barry Schwartz has it confirmed - Penguin Update
[seroundtable.com...]

[Savanadry]

I'm seeing lots of movement since this morning in one of my niches. It's one of the most competitive and one of the most targetted by spam. I'm rising but I know from experience that probably means I'll be nowhere tomorrow. I didn't know this site was affected by penguin so a little surprised.

[Robert Charlton]

Barry Schwartz has it confirmed - Penguin Update
[seroundtable.com...]
Thanks elquiri. Discussion on the details, as they become available, here...

Confirmed: Google Penguin 3.0 released Late Friday Night
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4709602.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[matt621]

use a real search engine, not an online late night infomerical channel website, which is what google has become.

I can see the tide turning. It'll takd 2-3 more years, but there will eventually be competition, real competition.

[Sand]

I've seen a 35% uptick in traffic starting around 11:00 EST.

This is a Panda-impacted domain that was a beneficiary of the latest Panda release.

Maybe a data refresh went through? That would be just like Google to do a Panda data refresh right after a Penguin update.

[petehall]

That would be just like Google to do a Panda data refresh right after a Penguin update.

Totally. In fact I'm amazed they haven't thrown a mobile update into the mix... !

[RedBar]

Does anybody use Google mobile? I have no idea where it is since I always use Bing!

[samwest]

Nails were pounded in coffin last week, looks like they are coming back this week to add screws.

I'm just staring at GA in disbelief, adwords on, ranking basically unchanged. Lotsa #1 and page 1 listings..yet GA holds at zero....or one.

[getcooking]

I've seen a 35% uptick in traffic starting around 11:00 EST.

Did anyone else see a big change around this time? My site had a noticeable shift in traffic right about then.

[Wilburforce]

I was seeing more movement in my sector before last Friday than I have since.

Again - this shouldn't have anything to do with Penguin - my unmoving position for key-term has toggled a couple of times between index and key-term pages, but overall it looks like the new Cement algorithm to me.

[samwest]

My listings hardly moved, a few +1 or +2 moves, maybe one or two -1 moves a few new listings and the rest the same. Regardless, the traffic I'm now getting is all zombie. Funny how your site can be banging away one minute on a trickle of traffic, then traffic increases a bit and it's all non interactive.

I have two terms I'm studying...both are page 7 or worse in Google but #1 in Yahoo and Bing. Occasionally (rarely) I'll see it pop up in the #3 position on Google, so it seems they are penalizing it one minute and not the next.

[Wilburforce]

it seems they are penalizing it one minute and not the next

More likely whichever is the latest version of events hasn't reached all DCs yet.

[samwest]

WF - I don't think that is the case. It's firmly at page 7 which is usually due to some penalty. I woke up this morning, did a search and there is was on #3 on page 1, I check again and it was gone. Been this way for weeks.

Whatever is happening Yahoo and Bing aren't doing the same.

[Wilburforce]

@samwest

It could still be a DC issue. However, you should also be careful - if you are not already - about browser history and other tabs you might have open. During P1 I found that Google was returning my site on page 1 (in FF) if I had WMT open in another tab, but not if I restarted with cache, history and cookies cleared. I haven't noticed that effect lately, but it might be worth checking.

Have you tried different browsers? If the results vary from one browser to another, it is probably a local issue (as IP address - and probably DC - will be the same).

[Robert Charlton]

samwest - With all the zombie-like traffic you're reporting, have you checked out those threads I mentioned for you in this discussion, in msg #4706393, up near the top on page 6 if you display the thread at 30 posts per page...?

Panda 4.1 Rolling Out
Oct 4, 2014
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4704237-6-30.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[petehall]

WF - I don't think that is the case. It's firmly at page 7 which is usually due to some penalty. I woke up this morning, did a search and there is was on #3 on page 1, I check again and it was gone. Been this way for weeks.

@samwest is the site there on a mobile phone web browser accessing Google (not the app)?

I've been watching this phenomenon happen for weeks with a very clean but new (12 months) site so I don't believe it can be a penalty. Its still there on a mobile search and actually doesn't have a mobile friendly site yet, so can't be that.

It also vanished with the recent Penguin update, was back yesterday an now gone again today. We're not even on page 7, it's gone completely.

One thing we did do is transfer over to https which is also roughly when it started to 'go wrong'. Have you made an recent changes to https?

[samwest]

RC - the discussions don't really shed much light on the problem. I guess my biggest question right now is what happened to semantic search? and how did we lose it? I do rank for a lot of phrases, but not particularly competitive ones.

PH - Unfortunately I may have caused more mobile traffic to be thrown my way by selecting a responsive theme when I switch to CMS in early August...Google makes a lot of assumptions based on what they know...and it seems they don't know too much.

I stopped by the G product forum and received some very surly, vague advice from a level 10. They said my site was an affiliate site and that I need to remove all affiliate links. They couldn't even identify the simple business model from the text in the header or in the body text.
Clearly they read nothing and just skimmed the content and pictures, making wrong assumptions and sticking to them, just like their bot seems to do.

[samwest]

the spigot turned back on...a nearly normal day for a change.

[tigger]

I stopped by the G product forum and received some very surly, vague advice from a level 10. They said my site was an affiliate site and that I need to remove all affiliate links

so what are G saying they don't like affiliate sites again ! - or is calling a site an affiliate just a polite way of saying thin content

[samwest]

@Tigger - I don't know, I have one "vendor" page that links (nofollowed) to several very related affiliated vendors that are recommended for use with my products...one page...that's it.

The ill tempered level 10 said that's why my entire site has tanked. I asked for a second opinion and that's when this same person rained down on me that they know this because they used to run an affiliate system any they are God. They even sternly cautioned me about asking twice and creating "duplicate content" in their forum, which I thought was laughable as it wasn't even the same question, but just a second question. Guess you only get one shot over there.

I took it the same as you: affiliate links or ANY outbound links are poison. I think that's why so many back links are being lost: "link paranoia".

If you just "nofollow" you should be OK...but that rule will likely change in the near future and become a new penalty metric.

Google LOVES their penalties.


BTW - back to zero again today. Actually 25 minutes between visitors... Google is no longer a place to build a viable ecom business.

[EditorialGuy]

I took it the same as you: affiliate links or ANY outbound links are poison. I think that's why so many back links are being lost: "link paranoia".

Google's policy on affiliate links is quite clear:

[support.google.com...]

People (including that snotty Level 10 guy) need to learn the difference between "affiliate links" and "affiliate sites."

[samwest]

EG - Agreed, their stated policy is precisely what I've always thought it should be, but then again they used to recommend having your keywords in your domain name then penalized EMDs. You never know what to expect from Google.

[aok88]

the spigot turned back on

That is the case for the site I am dealing with. Just now (3pm est) the spigot was turned on and it got three large orders within 50 minutes. The last 5 days have been horrible. There was only three orders all day yesterday to give you an idea.

It's super-clear to me that Goog is giving the site a completely different set of visitors. My conversions go up and down but the amount of traffic has remained about the same since Panda 4.0! And it's a healthy daily visit count.

How do I get Google to just send me the converting traffic? I don't even need to increase visitors, it's just the types of visitors I am getting daily need to be different. Any ideas?

[EditorialGuy]

then again they used to recommend having your keywords in your domain name then penalized EMDs.

Google may have penalized obviously keyword-stuffed EMDs, but I'd guess that, in more typical cases, they merely removed or reduced whatever ranking boost EMDs were getting. (Certainly there are plenty of sites with their topics in the domain name that are doing just fine.)