Google Updates and SERP Changes - February 2015

[samwest]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4726139.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 10:15 am on Feb 2, 2015 (PST -8)

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wow - a conversational graveyard in here....anyway, just noting that weekly traffic has now inverted itself, whereas Saturday & Sunday used to be the busiest days of the week, with Thursday/Friday being the slowest. Now either the traffic pattern has somehow inverted or weekends have just been deflated to the point of the slow days now appearing as the busiest. This pattern started 3 weeks ago and is sticking.

[Andem]

It looks like Google is experimenting with rich snippets at the moment. I'm seeing green stars in one browser and yellow stars in another. I have to say the green-ish stars make the results pop out less to me.

[Shai]

Andem. Not seeing that at all. Where are you located? What browser are you seeing this in? Any chance of a screenshot next time you see it please?

[Andem]

Sure. Here's a screenshot [i.imgur.com...]

Seeing it in a custom build of Chromium.

(I changed the text in the DOM inspector as per forum charter)

[edited by: aakk9999 at 11:40 am (utc) on Feb 25, 2015]
[edit reason] Changed link to go directly to the image [/edit]

[samwest]

More repeatable weirdness: for the past few weeks, it seems mornings and afternoons, which for quite some time have typically been periods of light traffic are now delivering regular conversions. However, once 3pm hits it's all over for the day. Busy nights are no more (maybe this years horrendous TV line up is keeping everyone fixed to the tube). Every month brings more and more artificial looking traffic patterns, but they keep mixing em up. What was once clockwork regularity is now very fragmented. Why? Only the Oracle of MV knows.

[Nutterum]

@samwest checking my Analytics, I haven`t got a single conversion between 17 and 21:00 for the past three years and this is not going to change anytime soon either. Its just how the niche works. In your case perhaps you have keywords popping in to new content verticals that mix things up?

[samwest]

@nutterum, oh I believe it will change...for the worse. Since 2010 everything has gone south, month by month. Doesn't it seem statistically impossible for the "blackout" window to occur repeatedly for three years?

[Jez123]

SERPS are all over the place today! Is something going on?

[Itanium]

No changes here (Germany)

[samwest]

@Jez123: Same old same old.

[Baby_Moos]

I haven't noticed any SERP changes today but I did see some testing earlier, on mobile Safari results, every single result had almost a box round it in several colours - made it much harder to determine the ads from organics, haven't seen it since this morning though

[guggi2000]

Traffic drop at exactly 26/02 6:00pm. Traffic down by 10% until now.

Anyone else noticing the update?

[Nutterum]

Nothing on my end of the SERPS (Germany//global organic) just the usual fluctuations.

[Martin Ice Web]

Traffic drop at exactly 26/02 6:00pm. Traffic down by 10% until now.

Would by nice if you could append your Location or our timeline!

I see big changes in traffic since two days. Mostly unrelated non converting traffic. After gaining a lot of good converting traffic back this finaly ends up in zombi traffic again.
My niche is full of 100% brands, mostly unrelated mixed up with very lousy sites that seem not to be updated anymore. Smaller ecoms are gone and pushed to 3 page.
On mostly every query i can predict what sites will show up on the first two pages.
PPC in my niche for PLAs went up to silly 50 Cent for items that cost not as much as 30 Cents. This is what Google finaly whats to see. Choices for users are complete gone for organics, not for PLAs though.

[Itanium]

Too be honest, I don't think the conversion rate fluctuations have something to do with Google. It might just be the people who buy stuff by their mood, which has - especially in winter - something to do with the sun coming out or not. I see highly converting traffic on some (sunny) days (up to 20%!). On these days overall traffic goes slightly down (which might be weather dependend as well). On other days there's only a 1-2% conversion. I can't find any indication in visitor changes. The sites converting the best are getting stable traffic (+/- 5% visitor count) by same OS, resolution, sources etc. I found Algoroo the most reliable source on changes in Google rankings and there's nothing showing either for those days.

[Martin Ice Web]

@itanium, this is not true.
Before Google introduced Panda and penguin, we had a stable amount of conversions. The rate was about 30-40%. Wit Panda this went down to less than 5%. Yes for sure there is more mobile traffic today. But there are clearly off periods when Google shhuts of Panda for a few minutes, sales flow like creasy. Google turns on Panda again and the sales are gone. Unrelated to weather or time.
I can show you 9 of 10 sites that see this same pattern.
With Google having all this Information it is easy for them to "push" poeple to the "right" clicks.
Google moves on to get a paid SE for ecoms. With every month they squeeze out more free traffic towards paid traffic.
I they would have still their "donīt be evil" straightline they would addmit that Panda is more about Money than everything else.
Tell me a reason why ebay phb pages are back for every query when last year they had been get a Penalty? I canīt see that they changed anything on this sites?
Oh sorry, i just got angry again....

[Kratos]

Martin, AFAIK Google does turn off the Panda filter, it's just there and is either refreshed or updated (hopefully for the better). If you have such discrepant conversions, could not this be due to issues with mobile friendliness, precise SERP position (going from 4 to 6 on 1st page can mean a huge change in not just traffic), precise search keyword (and thus purchasing intent) etc?

I have seen some very interesting and unexpected results by going fully responsive on some of my sites. And some of these sites had some very bad conversion rate to begin with.

Food for thought.

[rish3]

AFAIK Google does turn off the Panda filter, it's just there and is either refreshed or updated

I assume you meant "does not turn off". They probably see it that way, but I see the same thing MIW does...unexplained short bursts of sales that make no sense. During what appears to be an update.

During an update they seem to have to turn it off for short periods of time. That fits with the "bolt on nature" of it. It runs outside the algo, as a filter. When they said they integrated it, I think they really didn't...they just automated some process that's still clunky. I imagine something like this in my mind:

newdata=panda_rebuild();
unhook_panda(olddata);
/* here's the panda_is_off window, as if the routine below takes a while to finish */
rehook_panda(newdata);

[samwest]

@itanium - I'm reasonably sure it's not the weather, I have over 10 years of data to pretty much disprove that theory.

@rish3 - I doubt they turn it off either, but maybe, just maybe, that short period of time it is being updated it goes temporarily OOS. I see the exact same ON periods that MIW describes, except they are becoming more rare. They are so noticeable because we will get nothing for a full day, then suddenly bang, bang, bang, 5 sales in less than an hour, all by different users around the world. Then POOF...nothing for dozens of hours. I used to be able to set my watch by the regularity of sales conversions. Lots has changed inside that black box. None of it good for my vertical.

[Kratos]

Yes, apologies as I did mean that Panda is not turned off. BY the way for some reason I tried to quote your post and reply but it doesn't register the post when I submitted it (I must have done something wrong as I'm new here).

I have also experienced the same as you guys report and even wilder stuff (re: conversions). I still think that Panda is hardcoded into the core algorithm and if we're to believe anecdotal evidence, it runs on a monthly basis.

What would be the advantage for Google to switch off the Panda filter, especially for a small window of time? I can't think of any especially considering that there are millions and millions of websites under the Panda filter.

Also bear in mind that Google likes to fool with traffic of websites that are about to be filtered. A website about to be hit with Penguin or Panda will suddenly (and paradoxically) receive a peak of traffic for a day or two and then it drops completely and long term. I have seen this pattern for sites affected by the Penguin and Panda filters. Not only that but Google follows a similar pattern when shady SEO methods are used on a website (such as link building) so as to catch webmasters red handed (I believe there's a patent by Google for this in fact).

What the above means is that there are many factors to take into account when one's website is jumping around with traffic and conversions. Not to mention that your position on the first page is crucial: those who are clicking through to the websites listed after the top 3 tend to be people who are doing in depth research for the product, so they will naturally not buy on the first go. Thus going from position 3 to position 6 will impact your conversions by a big margin.

[rish3]

What would be the advantage for Google to switch off the Panda filter, especially for a small window of time?

The theory is not that they wanted it that way, but rather because of a bug, or intentionally not spending much time/money on the "integration".

[Kratos]

I see, that makes sense then. I will pay more attention to traffic/conversion on the days where I have seen Panda update to see if indeed the wild fluctuations are occurring then. As said, I've always attributed these wild fluctuations to change of SERP position within the first page (from my own experience and testing) as well as to changes in traffic from link building or keyword stuffing a page that is ranking on the first page of the SERPs (I have tested this too).

A bit back on topic. I too am noticing some 'too noticeable' fluctuations on traffic. Industry is automobiles and location is mostly UK/Europe. Thursday/Friday were low days but it seems to be back to normal, though since it's saturday, I would rather give it a couple more days to draw any conclusions of anything going on.

Cheers all

[RedBar]

So far unusually low traffic for my sites today, I checked some important keyword phrases and all are as expected. Anyone else quiet at the moment?

[Kratos]

RedBar, as I mentioned in my previous post, Thursday and Friday were unusually low traffic days for us. Seems like everything is back to normal today but it could be because it's a saturday.

[denisl]

A site of mine, which was hit in the update last May, has been getting around double the recent normal visits for the last 8 hours.
Is this a blip or has G suddenly seen the light?

[dethfire]

My traffic is unusually low this Sat

[glakes]

A site of mine, which was hit in the update last May, has been getting around double the recent normal visits for the last 8 hours.
Is this a blip or has G suddenly seen the light?

If there is one thing the constant churn in Google signifies, it's that they don't have a clue or care what quality is. The continual shuffling I see better represents a search engine that is trying to stack the deck in the most profitable way.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by aakk9999. New thread at: google/4739952.htm [webmasterworld.com]
12:23 pm on Mar 1, 2015 (gmt 0)