Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2015

[Itanium]

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System: The following message was cut out of thread at: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4733881.htm [webmasterworld.com] by aakk9999 - 12:23 pm on Mar 1, 2015 (gmt 0)

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@samwest
10 years of data are worthless, if Google constantly changes the rules. It may as well be, that there was a stable conversion rate before Panda, because your rankings were stable throughout the whole keyword range you're targeting. That might have change with Post-Panda with a strengthened focus on authority and big brands.

How do you thing is Google managing to manipulate your conversion rate? The only way I could think of is via ranking changes and those have to be pretty obvious too. I haven't seen anything like that and can't find any correlation between conversion and my rankings (checked via Sistrix, Semrush and Searchmetrics) or general ranking changs (checked via Mozcast and Algoroo).

I just thing that the user behavior has changed and that Googles algorithm changes reflect that and lead to highly unreliable conversion rates for smaller sites (besides Amazon, Ebay & Co.).

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Mods Note: When sharing observations about Google changes try to provide some general details to help us better understand your observation. What details should you try to include?
Which country did you find this?
What type of site? (B2C, B2B, e-commerce, content only, old, new, less than <100 urls, >10,000 urls, wordpress, etc.)
What type of serp was impacted? (desktop, mobile, tablet, local, etc.)
When did you notice this? (weekday, weekend, morning, business hours, late night)

For example it is not very helpful to say "My site went up" but it can be very helpful to say "My e-commerce site with less than 100 urls increased its Germany rankings on the weekend for mobile devices."

[edited by: goodroi at 4:06 pm (utc) on Mar 2, 2015]
[edit reason] Added Mods Note [/edit]

[nomis5]

For certain, the site I have been working on day and night fr the last nine months has been zapped up the serps sometime in the last week. It's site wide. For many main terms it's gone from position 5 - 8 up to 3. And i'm not holding my breath for it to go higher, the BBC and another major brand hold positions 1 and 2.

UK informational site, 400 urls. Applies to mobile and desktop serps but both are identical for the searches i perform.

[supercyberbob]

What's happening to Google?

[seroundtable.com...]

Panda not running, Penguin not running. Penguin is running in real time, but not. Penguin will be updated regularly, but not.

They don't seem to know what they're doing. Might be time to shut it all down and let a real search engine take over.

[samwest]

Looks to me like there are three classes of websites today:
1. The regular business webmasters who never did anything wrong other than following Google's directions and WMG's and writing original content.
2. The Black Hat, scraper rank & bank MFA's that use every dirty trick in the book, going sp far as to placing links to "good" sites that rank well on bad neighborhood sites. (it's happened to me from a blackhat SEO firm)
3. Google's Ad Network Partners.

Today the Google serps look like #3 wins out, then followed closely by #2. #1 is fast facing extinction if not already relegated to obscurity on page 9+.

By the results, it's clear that $$$ wins over user experience all day on Google.

[Itanium]

I guess Panda and Penguin are not running, because they are completely rebuilding their mobile algorithm. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw the next Panda refresh on 21st of April.

[RedBar]

Wouldn't be surprised if we saw the next Panda refresh on 21st of April.

I'd considered that possibility as well or they may just wait a couple of weeks or so and make it a full year since their last major Panda run. If so then this mobile "thing" may have a far bigger impact than many realise.

[EditorialGuy]

I'd considered that possibility as well or they may just wait a couple of weeks or so and make it a full year since their last major Panda run.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a Panda run" (that term may be as archaic as "the Google Dance"), but in any case, the Panda algorithm got a pretty significant tweak in late September of 2014, or about seven months before the coming mobile-search rollout.

On our own site, I haven't seen anything really big happen (in terms of Google rankings or traffic changes) since May of last year, but there have been plenty of little changes since then. Even after the May 2014 change, we had small but easily measured incremental changes from day to day and week to week before things settled back to "everflux." That shouldn't have been surprising, since a major change in the algorithm will always be followed by testing and tweaks.

[rish3]

I'm not sure what you mean by "a Panda run" (that term may be as archaic as "the Google Dance")

You keep implying that Panda is somehow smoothly integrated into Google's algorithm. Google did say they planned on doing that, but personally, I don't see any evidence that it ever happened.

Matt's direct quote, in an audio clip, is here: [searchengineland.com...]

Barry Schwartz was there, and summed up Matt's other related comments like this:

"What happens is Google will run the update on a particular day, let’s say on the 4th of the month. Then Google will slowly push out that impact over 10 days or so throughout the month. Google will typically repeat this cycle over monthly." That's from here: [searchengineland.com...]

That's not "integrated into the algorithm". It is clearly describing the semi-automation of what is still a cumbersome, long-running, manually managed mess :)

That's all in mid-2013, which isn't that long ago. If they ever made it better than that, they didn't say anything about it.

[RedBar]

the Panda algorithm got a pretty significant tweak in late September of 2014

That was supposedly Panda 4.1 yet across all the sites I monitor it didn't have any effect whereas May 2014's run impacted many sites including, as noted, your own.

I wonder if they've managed to make a lighter-weight Panda which they can run a little more often, that would certainly make sense.

Something has been tweaked recently since I have a couple of sites which have suddenly gained traction with many pages ranking well plus I've also noted some sites suddenly appear in the image SERPs that are very heavily keyword laden.

[samwest]

So far the entire year of 2015 has produced nearly identical traffic and conversions on a day to day / week to week basis. Still no natural variation, but I believe that pattern is long dead. Another Sunday morning totally stolen. I suspect the rest of the day will be the same. Search queries totally flat lined. I supposed I should be grateful for the small ration of gruel they still deliver.

[Kratos]

Guys I'm 99% sure something has been happening for the last 9 days, topping at about last Tuesday. I really cannot tell what it is but we have seen some (very) unexpected drops and rises.

I'm talking of well established sites. These sites have never gained or benefited from any refreshes and mystery updates for the last 6 months. They've staid solid on the top 3. Now they are moving up and down. Top ranks disappear for 2 days, then are back. Spammers with new sites appearing at top. Looks like churn and burn is working (as it always has, no matter what Googlers say). Admittedly these are really good black hatters and are exploiting techniques and web properties that Google hasn't caught up yet. Sometimes it makes you want to go to the dark side, huh? 500 dollars per day on first 2 positions. Stay for a week at the top and you've paid for your 20x20 hipster loft in Brooklyn.

I am going to say that Google does indeed monthly refreshes of Panda silently. But when it's time to update or it's a big refresh, they will confirm it (not always). Mostly because of the chaos in forums.

Panda is well and alive, it's just that with all the other algorithms in place and considering everyone is panicking for the 21s April, it's difficult to say what is what.

As said, for the last 9 days something has been going on and probably still is.

Oh, and also, I'm a big believer that Google launches specific parts of the algorithms on the different industries at different times. I am very confident they do. And they do it in our industry too.

Anyway ---> Cars/UK/USA/A bit of western Europe.

[Mentat]

Panda is working, but as mention, with "old info", that means that all the changes we have made in the last 6 months, are not taken in consideration.

There are a lot of local optimisation. (local as Geo and industry)

Anyway ---> Cars/UK/USA/A bit of western Europe.

Automotive area is full of spam!
I really hate the spammers that are writing "car reviews" by rewriting the press release and by interpreting the tech sheets of the cars!

[Kratos]

@Mentat I would hang them all (can I say that in this forum? LOL).

Yes, anywhere where affiliates and reviews make money, you will see spammers by the bucketload. Mostly guys from India and Philippines adding more noise to the internet. There's some good black hats though (Russia, I'm looking in your direction). Also I know a guy from India who is also cashing in big money in similar niches by spamming like a sir. Living the big life too.

You can actually learn a lot of studying them. For one, I know that there is a certain spam tool that works really well if you know where to post your spam. I'm having a field day studying the Russians LOL My hat goes off to them, really (and long live SAPE!).

As said, 500 bucks a day for less than 10 keywords in first 2 positions. It's worth it to them. Google can only deal with the spammers who are using the stuff that the elite spammers were using 4 years ago. These guys (elite) have been using PBNs since 2004 (when it really only became popular in 2012). It really amazes me and at times I'm tempted to go to the dark side.

[Rasputin]

Just saw a search (in google.fr) with a presentation I have not seen before with inset arrows highlighting some of the entries:
[i.imgur.com ]
Note that:
1) the search was just on the place name with no mention of hotels, but it is hotels that have the inset arrows
2) the BEST PRICE mentioned at the end of each hotel description was just text, not a link.

[edited by: aakk9999 at 1:51 am (utc) on Mar 17, 2015]
[edit reason] Changed link to go directly to the image [/edit]

[RedBar]

Hey, nice make-over WebmasterWorld:-)

[petehall]

Panda is working, but as mention, with "old info", that means that all the changes we have made in the last 6 months, are not taken in consideration.

I am witnessing duplicate content all over the place - sites are being allowed thousands of pages of duplicate content spun from databases without any repercussions. Right now it's like going back 10 years in time... maybe more!

I am hoping they push a big Panda update through sometime soon, although I suspect it will be around April 21st along side Penguin and mobile updates.

[Kelowna]

Panda is working, but as mention, with "old info", that means that all the changes we have made in the last 6 months, are not taken in consideration.

Can you post a link to this information please, seems like a very odd use of resources for the Gorg to run panda on stale data?

[dethfire]

Traffic knocked about 20% from last Monday. Something must have happened.

[aakk9999]

@Rasputin, regarding this:

Just saw a search (in google.fr) with a presentation I have not seen before with inset arrows highlighting some of the entries:
[i.imgur.com...]
Note that:
1) the search was just on the place name with no mention of hotels, but it is hotels that have the inset arrows
2) the BEST PRICE mentioned at the end of each hotel description was just text, not a link.

These inset arrows are nothing to do with Google. They are part of what the hotel has entered as their <title> tag. If you look at View Source of these pages with arrows, you will see that the title starts with &#8594; which is the same as &rarr; (right arrow).

Regarding 2) BEST PRICE, it is part of page meta description, including three dots that are also part of meta description.

So it is not a new Google layout.

[Shrikant]

Google to launch new doorway page penalty algorithm of 16 march-2015.

[Wilburforce]

These inset arrows are nothing to do with Google.

They clearly help the page to stand out in the results, however, and haven't (so far) been penalised for it, which I find faintly surprising.

[Rasputin]

Aakk9999,
Thanks, as it was three different sites next to each other in the results I didn't think to check that.
I guess that if the technique catches on widely G will put an end to it but looks quite a good idea for the moment.
Cheers

[Wilburforce]

looks quite a good idea for the moment.

Only until everybody starts doing it, or until Google kicks it down to page 103.

[flatfile]

Google to launch new doorway page penalty algorithm of 16 march-2015.

Looks like Google hasn't mentioned a release date for the algo.
[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com ]
[searchengineland.com ]

[Wilburforce]

Google to launch new doorway page penalty algorithm of 16 march-2015.

Google has never liked doorway pages. They now say they will "launch a ranking adjustment to better address these types of pages", and have "added clarifying examples and freshened..." (their) "...definition of doorway pages in our Quality Guidelines".

"A ranking adjustment to better address these types of pages" sounds like a euphemism like the Final Solution or something out of 1984.

It could mean a lot of damage to sites that have a structure like widgets/blue-widgets/specialised-blue-widgets/...: will the widgets page be seen as a doorway page for specialised blue widgets? If so, will it be penalised for all types of widget?

In my view, anyone whose site has hierarchy and some broadly overlapping content or similar keywords in different levels or sections could potentially be under threat. I'm not sure what the solution is: possibly, if your site's general topic is widgets, the only safe answer is to put the whole site on one page.

One thing Panda and Penguin should have taught all of us is to expect collateral damage, whatever we do.

[Nutterum]

In my view if your pages pass penguin and Panda you should not feel very troubled about this advanced doorway algorithm slapping you. Maybe some collateral on your thin personalized pages, but even that will be pushing it. If you have pages that you make for the sole reason to rank for a term you do not really need to rank for, or putting it in other words - if you funnel traffic, then you already know you are in trouble. For the honest webmasters this algo is only "scaring the crows".

[Wilburforce]

In my view if your pages pass penguin and Panda you should not feel very troubled about this advanced doorway algorithm slapping you.

Have a listen to Christy Moore's Yellow Triangle: this looks to me like declaring war on a new group of violators, and you sound like someone whose triangle hasn't been selected yet.

aakk9999 has started a new thread on this explicit topic:

[webmasterworld.com ]

[samwest]

Are we now to assume that if we offer more than one product or variations thereof, that all those pages are doorways? They imply that doorway pages "confuse" the algorithm...that's no surprise.

I see my page views took a nosedive yesterday. I'm assuming I was hit because I offer more than one model of my product. The evil empire strikes again.

[Wilburforce]

I'm assuming I was hit because I offer more than one model of my product.

Based on what evidence? You should not assume this because of the "doorway pages" posts.

[olenoides]

I'm pretty sure that Google was just pre-announcing the doorway page algorithm change (like they are doing with mobile) and it hasn't rolled out yet. I haven't seen any significant movement in sites that are likely to be affected by a doorway algorithm change in the past few days.

[olenoides]

I had noticed recently some of the content farms like eHow have started to heavily employ doorway pages across different domains. I wonder if the algo change is in response to this.