Google Updates and SERP Changes - December 2014

[RedBar]

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System: The following 16 messages were cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4712477.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 5:04 pm on Dec 1, 2014 (PST -8)

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I have several sites from May's Panada which received good boosts and have retained their positions but I also have a few new, unique, widget-specific sites that seem to be floundering and getting no traction whatsoever.

Since there were only two Pandas in 2013 and we've already had two this year, do we assume that it may be another few months before we see another Panda update?

[Jez123]

I've got a feeling that this change signals the end of the Penguin roll out.

[GreyBeard123]

I've got a feeling that this change signals the end of the Penguin roll out.

I do not think this is Penguin...

I think Kelowna’s original assessment was correct and Penguin finished a while ago...

This is something else, perhaps Panda, perhaps a mixture, perhaps something completely new…

[Jez123]

I think it is as I see Penguin affected sites on the move. I doubt that any of the sites I see were affected by Panda. Could be something new though.

[Wilburforce]

There has been some shuffling in the last 24 hours on the first couple of pages in my UK niche - the first significant sign of any movement there since "P3" was announced - but my site is still glued at #28 for main key term.

[ActSpain]

Same here, site hit by penguin in May 2012, has shifted for good. Not like pre-penguin level but noticeable. I think last time I had such good positions was more than a year ago.

ecommerce Spain

[edited by: ActSpain at 11:17 am (utc) on Dec 5, 2014]

[Jez123]

@ Wilburforce. I see no major shift in my main terms either. I moved from mid page 3 to top of for my main KW. Everything else as far as I can see has not changed apart from 1 KW moving down 1 space. I see others jumping forward though.

[nathaniellee]

Sorry about that Robert. Ive never seen a manual action against us, we just figured that was part of the reason our ranking dropped.

[elAndrew]

I'm sure 90% this is a penguin shake, nothing big in the first page results. But I can see lots of old competitors apearing in top 40. Guys that didn't show up for a year or more. At least 10 of them.

[GreyBeard123]

@ Wilburforce and Jez123

It sounds as if you only gained a few spots that were lost by somebody else…

I see something completely different, I see major shifts…

I see sites, that lost all their rankings on the 10th to 20th October, moving from 200+ to the first page, to their original spots… As if nothing happened

[elAndrew]

anyway the results are dancing today, up and down

[Wilburforce]

@GreyBeard123

My site hasn't moved at all. What I see is movement in other sites, several of which have moved up or down more than 10 places. This isn't displacement.

[nathaniellee]

Yeah my rankings are still the same so hopefully ill see this change soon

[GreyBeard123]

@ Wilburforce
Sorry, the 'glued' part didn’t register…

You’re correct, 10 spots is more (or should be more) than displacement.

[Martin Ice Web]

Seeing the same positive movements. But atg 10 am there seems to be a roll back. Very low traffic with bounce back to 90% and certainly no conversions.
But it is friday, ist been this way for many weeks now. I think on friday they start something.

ecom, germany

[GreyBeard123]

Question…

There is a specific department that work with all the spam algo’s (all the animals)…

Is there another department that work with the ‘search’ algo(s)?

Or does the same department work with all the different algo’s?

[RedBar]

WTH is going on? My traffic is way down so far today across all sites except for one .co.uk however what is Mountain View doing? The last 3 consecutive days they've tried a site that has been 301 for almost 3 months?

There are some seriously weird things going on, are they trying for a roll-back?

[Pudders]

Am seeing some odd stuff for my niche over last couple of days.. I've dropped bounced back and dropped again. Something is happening!

[aakk9999]

What I am seeing is SERPs flooded with old URLs that are set up to redirect permanently (have been redirected for 2 years and are still redirecting).

They are now appearing in SERPs as its own entries, taking the title and meta from the target page. The examples I am seeing are not "shorter URLs", in fact the ones set up to redirect are longer ones, but are still shown in SERPs.

This is happening expecially for cross-domain redirects (for example if a domain has moved or if a section of URLs on one domain that was previously duplicated on another domain was redirected to that other domain).

[RedBar]

For my specific 301:

This is Google's cache of http://example.com. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 2 Dec 2014 00:44:21 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime.

It does 301 correctly but their cached page was not there, period.

[aristotle]

What I am seeing is SERPs flooded with old URLs that are set up to redirect permanently (have been redirected for 2 years and are still redirecting).

That sounds like some kind of bug

[superclown2]

Fair bit of movement for some of my sites here in the UK - all positive. They are following the usual pattern - the more popular the site, the more positive the movement.

[nathaniellee]

@redbar The same has happened wth my sites they fell off the map, spiked back up around thanksgiving and fell off again the past 4 days

[RedBar]

So far today, Saturday, I may as well have all my sites offline, I have hardly any traffic whatsoever, not just in the UK but globally as well. All rankings seem ok, has the shopping revolution for my products gone back to the traditional High Street?

Whatever it is I've never seen such low traffic, and when I say low I mean in many cases zero traffic, in comparison to a regular Saturday not even 10% of the traffic.

[nathaniellee]

Yeah our numbers were about 70% lower then suall yesterday we got maybe 3k unique visitors when we usually get close to 10k an thats mainly because we are forced to throw all our attention at social media for now.

[xelaetaks]

Checked a keyword seems like Google may have reverted back to before the last Penguin update again. 2 measly visits from Google today so far. A keyword went from page 6 back to page 9 today.

[xelaetaks]

Looks like a keywords back on page 6. Will see if these penguin updates continue.

[Anon]

Same as some others .. I've seen significant improvements in all secondary keywords over the past 48 hours (in Australia) but only slight improvement in primary keyword which is still on the second page - my site is far superior than many that i have overtaken and were ranked better than me before. Touch wood. Last time this happened, the improvement only lasted a few days and then went back to normal or worsened than before.

[Babadook]

This is a morbid hobby as well as pathetic trying to second guess Google or any other search engine. You are wasting your time.

[Martin Ice Web]

Big changes in Germany started on friday at 10am. Google traffic comes in surges with Long periods with no traffic from g. Traffic seems to be very unrelated though. It smells like a Panda Christmas make their pocket full update.

[nathaniellee]

Woke up around 8AM EST in US and my site it back to its original standing. Not sure what to make of it or rather or not to get excited. Could change tomorrow lol