Google Updates and SERP Changes - November 2014

[Anon]

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System: The following 8 messages were cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4706161.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 9:17 am on Nov 1, 2014 (PST -8)

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"Anyway, something happened in the past 24 hours and things have gotten MUCH worse. Spotty traffic, long zero runs, non converting, page sitters...GA seems to freeze too, anyone else noticing that? "

I have noticed further drops the past 24 hours also. Really hope these new changed are only temp.

[aok88]

We saw the sunshine for a brief two days then back to the pit.

Exact same thing here. Wish it would go back. Yesterday was great, with excellent visits and conversions. Today is the exact opposite with the conversions, like a whole new set people, tire-kickers instead of buyers are visiting today.

[Martin Ice Web]

Since two days my complete unattended site ( that is realy not a good one ) with just plain selling items is back to more than 100%. It had no sales for 3 month now it converts on every day Basis.
Thanx Google! I appreciate this: less work for me.
About 4 weeks ago i implemented some new features for UE, nothing big but this seems something that Panda loves.

[aristotle]

Some big changes may have occurred on Sunday, Nov 9, especially relating to the handling of long-tail searches

[Jez123]

Some big changes may have occurred

Can you expand on that please? I haven't seen anything. Not so far, at least.

[aristotle]

Jez123 -- I have 5 websites, and 2 of them have had traffic boosts of about 20-25% starting on Nov. 9 and still holding. The new traffic appears to be coming mostly from long-tail searches. My other 3 sites weren't noticeably affected, but they are small low-traffic very niche sites. All 5 sites are purely informational, with no products or ads.

[mrengine]

Neither Mozcast or Algoroo show anything of significance on Sunday. Mozcast shows flux yesterday, but Algoroo does not - imperfect tools. Nothing has changed much for my site or those we provide product too. Seems like these updates of Google's bypass my industry altogether.

[Jez123]

@ aristotle. Were they Penguin affected before? I say this as this is what happened when my site came out of Penguin last October (2013). I got long tail boosts before it was "properly" released.

[aristotle]

mrengine --
One thing to consider is that some sites depend on one or two main keywords (and their variants) for most of their traffic, whereas my two biggest sites (which saw the gains) have dozens of articles, each of which has its own main keywords. In each case all of the articles relate to a central theme or subject, but each article is about a different aspect of the subject. So these two sites have always gotten most of their traffic from many different keywords and long-tail searches, instead of just one or two main keywords.

Jez123
One of the two sites that had gains was hit by the original Penguin in April 2012, but it escaped in Oct 2013 after i submitted a disavow file list of some free directories that I had submitted the site to in 2006-2007. But I don't think the other site has ever been penalized for anything.

[mrengine]

@aristotle

Maybe what Jez123 noted is correct - you are in the process of being released from Penguin. With the absence of data suggesting broad algorithmic changes, it appears what you have witnessed is isolated to a small percentage of websites. Whether it's a release from Penguin, Panda or something else, I hope it sticks for you. I also hope whatever it is comes around to my industry next!

[aristotle]

mrengine
One of the sites already escaped from penguin in Oct 2013, or at least I thought it was a full escape. But both of these sites get their traffic from numerous different keywords, so that if either site is penalized for just one or two keywords, as might happen with penguin, the effect might be too small to notice, especially since I don't have time to monitor the rankings for so many different keywords.

[ubound]

I also have gains on two informational sites. Never had any problems with Penguin though. One of the sites is new, only started in May. Another one is 4+ years old.

[aristotle]

I also still don't think that my recent gains have anything to do with Penguin either, but instead with long-tail. Actually, I suspect that the Penguin rollout ended some time ago. I'm pretty sure that the earlier pengiun rollouts only lasted 2-3 days. Also, there was a Google employee who said that the latest Penguin rollout was over about 3 days after it started. It's true that another employee said that it was still underway, but one of them must have been wrong.

[Wilburforce]

Pierre Far (21 October):

"It’s a slow worldwide rollout, so you may notice it settling down over the next few weeks."

[RedBar]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahhhhhh, it's been a long time, yeah, it's been a long time ... what a load of codswallop!

Even more confirmation that they haven't a clue of what they're doing.

[glakes]

A near virgin site that is 6 months old and has one link pointing to it from a popular social site (minus their YouTube, Twitter and Facebook links) lost most of its Google traffic today. It appears to be long tail traffic as well. The site is seasonal ecommerce (not very competitive) and the entire site runs on https. Great content, related images/video, unique product made by the site's owner, etc. It's main keyword still ranks at #16 and beneath a lot of old forum posts, YouTube videos, Amazon and other big preference brands.

[Mattypants]

Big jump in rankings tonight for a .ca domain in financial-related industry. Anyone else seeing movement?

[petehall]

Yes, something happened in the UK late last night or this morning. I think it may have been Panda related but it's getting very difficult to tell.

[Mattypants]

Ya, Pete, I have a feeling it's Panda-related.

The site I saw movement with was launched in July, with only some well known business directory links, and some social media outreach. Nothing has really been done to the site since launch. No "link building", so it isn't Penguin-related. The site has been steady halfway down on the second page for the site's most interesting search term, so last night's jump to 4th spot feels like a lot more than just regular flux.

[petehall]

@ Mattypants I think so. All of my sites sailed through previous versions of Penguin, however one site did drop a little (5-7 places) this time round. I did identify a couple of Panda issues which have been resolved and have seen a slight increase on a weekly basis (strange as I thought Panda was updated monthly!).

Having never been affected by Penguin I'm unsure if the drop would be slight, or large. I always put a slight dip in positions down to Panda and presume Penguin affected sites would drop much lower and quite quickly?!

Having said this with both updates running at once it has been a confusing few weeks....

[Wilburforce]

Yes, something happened in the UK late last night or this morning.

I'm not seeing any movement in my sector (niche service). The results for a lot of key terms have barely moved in months.

Long-tail is a bit harder to evaluate, but the shortest phrases showing in my server logs for yesterday are three words (accounting for only two of the top 20 referrals, in which more than half are six words or longer).

That might account for the increase in both Impressions and Clicks in Monday's WMT stats, but the whole picture is very indistinct.

[Mattypants]

The general consensus is that Panda is close to a weekly refresh now.

None of my sites have ever been hit by Penguin either, with the exception of a domain I bought that was previously penalized on top of being filtered by Penguin.

[petehall]

The general consensus is that Panda is close to a weekly refresh now.

It seems that way but it's speculation for the time being...

[xelaetaks]

Anyone think Penguin will refresh more often this now - such as once every few months or something?

A penalty recovery specialist put out a article on issues with the recent penguin update - xxx.hiswebmarketing.com/something-wrong-with-penguin/ It looks like she is emailing John Muller so that is hopeful but it seems like something is wrong with this recent Penguin update.

If Google were reasonable they would at least cut down on their penalties particularly with legit businesses that were screwed over by seo that was done years ago when it was common and there wasn't Penguin penalty garbage.

[RedBar]

screwed over by seo that was done years ago when it was common

As in black hat common?

I've never, ever employed such methods in 20 years, this is no defence however I do agree that probably many sites were compromised from their very beginnings by webmasters promising them the earth by using such tactics.

Maybe a few didn't know it was being done to their sites however I'll have a bet that the vast majority knew believing they were getting an "unknown" and "secret" advantage over their competitors.

Who wouldn't if they didn't know any better?

[UK_Web_Guy]

anyone notice google only showing 9 results on page 1 of the serps?

[Jez123]

@ uk-web-guy not on all SERPS it seeems. Odd. Well spotted!

[SnowMan68]

anyone notice google only showing 9 results on page 1 of the serps?

I have been seeing this in my niche for about 4 weeks now. Sometimes it's only 8 SERPS too. these are all generic searches.

[petehall]

@UK_Web_Guy, @SnowMan68 me too.

Starting to see quite a bit of shuffling again... not sure what to make of this anymore. At least the crazy results from Tuesday have not made a reappearance!

[SnowMan68]

At least the crazy results from Tuesday have not made a reappearance!

Knocking on wood! :)

[samwest]

back to zero run traffic...again.