Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2015

[Mentat]

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System: The following 3 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3003161.htm [webmasterworld.com] by aakk9999 - 4:35 pm on May 1, 2015 (gmt 0)

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Just thought I'd join this thread.

Our traffic from old man google has been consistent +-5% since panda 4 in May 2014. Our main site IS mobile friendly and wasn't hit on the 21st of April, however it suddenly lost 10% of Google traffic yesterday. Many our top 10 positions dropped 1-2 spots.

I'm almost 100% certain it wasn't panda (as other pandalized sites in my niche didn't drop positions in the queries I'm watching).
I'm about 95%% certain it wasn't penguin either as I did a massive disavow in mid Feb and not that many scrapers, weak sites have been linking to us since then


So what the hell happened on the 28th (29th Australia time)?

The rank drops occured on both desktop AND mobile.

@ColdRum

I believe it has something to do with that huge disavow file..

My disavow file is ~ 20 000 domain lines, gathered with a lot of work from a lot of sources, but my traffic follows a very strang downward path in the last 2 years, so I've said that I need to try something.
I've used as source only the info from WMT and I've selected only the worst spammers for 2 of my sites.

Guess what? I see increases in the last week!

P.S. All my sites are mobile friendly.

[Kratos]

@Mentat go to Google and do this search:

site:yoursite.com

Take any Google result (page) from your site that has the cialis text on the title. Go to the cached version of that page, then click on the text version. Then do a search (ctr F) for cialis or whatever name you saw in the title (viagra, tramadol etc).

What do you see?

[Nutterum]

Starting 29/04 - I saw the same pattern over and over again every 8 hours or so. Several stacks of keywords get down in SERPS with 2-4 positions and then they recover. And I am very meticulous in using third party software (infact I cross check them with another paid SERP checker, to be on the safe side). The pattern is there, like clockwork. Either results are switching between data centers or something else is in play. As for traffic -8% on average week on week. Its getting grim.

[Itanium]

@Mentat: You're 100% hacked. I know, because it happend to one of my sites too. It was a pain to remove the hacked files and took some reading on what to look for. I can assure you: If Google is seeing some Pharma-Content, your site is comprimised.

B2T: Google says there was no Panda update: [seroundtable.com...]

This strenghtens my believe, that this was in fact the doorway rollout finally happening.

[Nutterum]

If it really is doorway, I am getting the popcorn and will wait for the collateral.

[Martin Ice Web]

Since two hours we experience the biggest drop ever seen. It about -90% right now. Wereas our plain old site that is broke down only to price/buy button/image/very, very short description gained 90% of traffic.
But : there is no update in progress ;)

[Itanium]

Well, I think we can all agree on with 100% certainty, that there was some kind of update over the weekend, maybe with an ongoing roll out. There's no denying that, no matter what some Google-Guys told someone.

The question is: What kind of update? Barry asked if it was Panda and they said there was no update (at all): "But as far as Panda, it was definitely not a Panda update. Google said there was not an update at all, but I specifically asked about Panda." [seroundtable.com...]

Maybe the guy he asked just didn't know about he, because he's on another team. Wouldn't be the first time....

[rish3]

I wouldn't rule out an "unintentional update". It's certainly possible that the current Google rollout process is cumbersome and error prone, and that something happened with the mobile update that they were not expecting to happen.

[EditorialGuy]

Google has said in the past that its algorithm has several hundred changes per year. Not every change is an "update," certainly not on the scale of Panda or Penguin.

To Google, an "update" is likely to have a specific meaning (and involves intent); to the SEO or site owner, it's about noticing an effect without necessarily knowing the cause.

[rish3]

Google has said in the past that its algorithm has several hundred changes per year. Not every change is an "update," certainly not on the scale of Panda or Penguin.

I believe that's the rub. Some sites are seeing dramatic Panda like recoveries and/or drops. It has the feel of something significant...something you might reasonably call an update.

[Shai]

We are seeing one client site who is already affected by Panda due to content duplication and thin content drop further rather steeply. The underlying problem with the site has not been resolved yet due to internal squabbles within the company. This is the only Panda affected site we have to gauge.

UK Ecom.

[seoskunk]

If it looks like a update, smells like a update, sounds like a update, and acts like a update, is it still a update?

[Kratos]

Huge movements as of the last 6 hours and continuing from what we've seen since Monday morning. I'm talking of sites that have 10k visitors a day have doubled since Monday morning and right now the incoming traffic is huge. Desktop traffic and mobile traffic.

We've tracked 14 sites, 11 of them have shot up to 1.5k to 2x their usual traffic. These are sites with 5k to 10k visitors per day. It's a big number we're talking about. The other 3 sites remain stable (different niches in same industry).

Automobile industry/UK/USA/Western Europe (english searches). The major incoming traffic is coming from USA indeed.

I have a bit of a wild theory. Google covers different industries manually and they do specific algorithmic changes to industries or verticals that they see have a pattern of spamming. Our industry is full of spammers to the point that it truly grosses people out. I'm talking of spammers ranking scraped content and surrounding it with Adsense so visitors click on it. So Google tweaks some parts of one of the spam-filtering algorightms specifically to an industry or vertical.

I know for sure (or so I think) that Google has people from the webspam team who cover all industries and adapt to the spamming patterns. This could be specific to industries, guys. When a site goes from 6k to 13k overnight and keeps that traffic... your guess is as good as mine.

[OldFaces]

@Kratos: We are similar sized web property and began to see the first decline around 8am Silicon Valley time April 27th. Yesterday we saw the normal decline that began then (around 6% day over last week comparison).

Very strange (has nothing to do with Cinco de Mayo for us), but today we have stopped loosing traffic. We are on par with last week's lower than usual traffic.

[rustybrick]

The guy I asked was Google Press, so it went to the people who know the answer.

[Robert Charlton]

This strengthens my believe, that this was in fact the doorway rollout finally happening.

FWIW, indicators I've been watching for doorway pages that clearly deserve to go are still ranking prominently. I don't think it's the doorway rollout.

I'm also thinking that Google would have mentioned this in its response to Barry, since the doorway algo is one that had been announced. I assume it would be an update that Google wants people to know is happening.

[liveseo]

John Mueller claims in that the doorway update rolled out in April. [seroundtable.com...]

[seoskunk]

Well if this is not an update its some sort of massive data refresh, and if its not panda and not doorways I suspect its link related instead. Blame it on links, links lost and unwanted ones gained..... For some reason Google don't want to be too transparent on this one.

[Martin Ice Web]

my niche is now full of simple sites that just take manufacturer titgle/description/picture and put it on a very simple page.
all have the same pattern:
title tag, description tag, h1 and onpage description are the very same 5-6 word sentence.

It seems to copy content and put it on a simple page is they way google works today.

[Some_Bloke]

I've just noticed in the top right of screen, a box with the option to toggle between ALL or PRIVATE search results. (obviously I'm logged in)
Is this new or have I just overlooked it?

[Kratos]

@rustybrick good to have you here. Would it be possible to ask John Mueller next time on a Hangout if Google has webspam employees overseeing the different industries/verticals/niches? I'm not talking of pharma/casino which are known for being the worst and which we know are manually supervised. I'm talking of the verticals in mildly spamming industries like technology (non IM stuff, instead blogging, computers, etc), entertainment, outdoors (camping, gardening etc), healthy and beauty, automotive and the likes.

I recall reading that they do from an interview with an ex Google employee. You probably know which interview I'm talking about. We've also spoken with fellow webmasters and black hat spammers and they also think that they do.

I ask this because my wild theory is that google is testing one of this webspam algorithms on particular industries/verticals that are known for being spam fests. If I had to score a spamming numbers for our vertical and the different industries, it'd be an 8 (with viagra being a 10).

As of today morning, we have consolidated the data for yesterday, and again, all increased traffic (1.5x - 2x) is maintained while the huge sites we've that dropped traffic, gained it back in the last 12 hours. What I'm seeing is link related as all these sites - including the huge ones that dropped - are clean as a whistle while the spammers which have been using GSA spam are dropping. Not that they care as next week they will have the same sites on a new domain and with more GSA spam being thrown at them. Churn and burn baby.

We know the month of May is a big month historically, so Google could be testing their new anti spam data (perhaps on Penguin) on different industries (hence my question about them supervising industries) that are known for spam. Then, once they have gotten the set of anti spam data dialed in, they would apply it web wide.

It's just too big of a change and we manage enough traffic and websites to really hint when something big has happened. It could be our industry though as I've talked to a couple other webmasters in different industries and they ain't seen nothing - including with the mobile update.

I'll try to update. I'm supposed to be on holiday and my lady is not liking my being stuck to our traffic pages all day long!

Cheers to all!

[rustybrick]

Kratos, anyone can ask John Mueller questions in hangouts. Go for it.

[Mentat]

1st of May (Friday) - holiday on a lot of countries!
4th of May (Monday) - birth of Budha (India & other countries)
4th of May (Monday) - Bank Holliday in UK (let's dance!)

Hooray, more booze!

Now, can we all get back to work?
Please!

[samwest]

@mentat - you forgot 5/5 Cinco de Mayo and 5/6 CDM hangover day. Mas Tequila!

[Shai]

7th of May - Lag B'omer :)

[rlopes]

I've more than 10 sites in different industries and all of them had their traffic affected (up or down) so there has to be something. I wouldn't trust Google, as usual.

[Hollywood]

Update: For us, today's traffic is not good, yesterday was very bad (worst I have seen in a few years). I don't ever trust Google, I feel they are Investor Polluted these days.

[Kratos]

@Rustybrick Unfortunately i'm too ugly for video cam hangouts, plus I don't have a stylish goatee. I like to be the center of attention in groups and simply put, I just can't compete with THE goatee.

Seriously though I may send him a message sometime when I remember as I think you can submit questions too.

Quick update: all good here, pretty much everything on the up go including the sites that dipped in traffic. I remain expectative, don't even trust what has caused this big traffic increase even though these sites are clean and just get links from the content itself. Spammers dropping like flies but only the ones who don't know how to use GSA and SAPE effectively. However, let us remind ourselves of "Google gives, Google takes".

Anyway, I think it's links related (not necessarily Penguin). Cheers!

[keyplyr]

Google traffic up across all sites for the last 2 weeks :)

[samwest]

For your entertainment only, a site I recently dissected and left for dead just climbed 3,000,000 positions on ahrefs rank (AR) since yesterday, from flat lined for months at 8,794,633 and slowly worsening to a sudden spike up to 4,997,123 literally overnight. Not sure it means diddly or is just a glitch, no matter. See [ahrefs.com...] and FAQ # 11 for explanation of AR...kind of like G's PR.

[Nutterum]

@samwest - I don`t trust Ahrefs rank as much. It shows decline on my site for the last three months, while my sessions have remained the same. The only thing I lost was seasonal impressions count. That said 3 mill is a spike worth checking out.

As for the big shift updated happening - I fiddled with the new WMT search analytics tool and I saw that my keywords that had the biggest downfall impact (mainly in UK and Germany) recovered and I gained more grounds in India and South East Asia in general. Don`t know what, how or why but I am recovering and the higher amount of conversions I see are a good proof.