Google Updates and SERP Changes - July 2015

[Johan007]

---

System: The following 4 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4750188.htm [webmasterworld.com] by aakk9999 - 12:18 pm on Jul 1, 2015 (gmt 0)

---

My panda effected (feb 2011) UK site with a 8 month complete overall is showing no uptick in Google traffic or crawl. All is calm. Fridays are generally good days for updates and this Friday being the first of the month.

No twitter chatter regarding Panda yet by @seroundtable @sejournal @rustybrick (Barry Schwartz) and @glenngabe (Glenn Gabe - Glen I think is the biggest Panda authority name who is most likely to post first though Barry also has a number of Panda sites and a heavy user of social media). I will be posting recovery story first at @futuremovies (Future Movies) though mine is a UK site and may lag behind the US sites.

[EditorialGuy]

AV was never that bad!

That's debatable, but in any case, the Web was a lot smaller in AltaVista's heyday than it is now.

(To paraphrase Eric Schmidt, there was less stuff floating around in the cesspool 15 or 20 years ago.)

[aristotle]

(To paraphrase Eric Schmidt, there was less stuff floating around in the cesspool 15 or 20 years ago.)

Do you mean that the overall quality of what's on the web has gotten worse under Google's watch?

[webcentric]

Do you mean that the overall quality of what's on the web has gotten worse under Google's watch?

Doesn't have to be the case. More content means more quality content AND more junk. There's more of everything!

[Nutterum]

I am actually a bit surprised that the major SEO and Digital Marketing outlets have not picked this up (the situation in .de that is). There is a small discussion going on here and on the Google Forums,but pretty much thats it. Perhaps I am missing some german specific SEO websites where a bigger discussion is held, but that does not change the fact that .de is totally broken, yet no one is willing to write even one 300 words article on the subject.

[Martin Ice Web]

@spiekerooger, i confirm our observation. Lots of double URLs . Double pages with Same Content , different url But from Same Domain (brand Site ). Lots of at and ch and cn Domains in German Serps. But holidays have begun in Germany. So best time to push some Quality updates.

[toidi]

Cesspool? Did one of the head honchos at goog actually refer to the web as a cesspool? Not the words of someone who loves their job.

[seo_furqan]

i think google recover those site's who hit in last penguin update and now days there is more fluctuations and changes in SERP.

[Viraj143]

We are working on site that hit by panda 4.1 in Sep. 2014. We hardly working on removing spammy links, duplicate content. Since last two day we see nice jump in SERP for that site from page #9 to page #4. Is this start of panda that Garry announce at SMX? Anyone else see flux. in SERP or panda hit site?

[Mentat]

Ok, this is unbelievable!

We had:
- Above-the-fold
- Too many ads
- Panda
- Probably Penguin
- Doorway page update

And still, we have this:

[imgur.com...]

[elAndrew]

Mentat you forgot - Keyword stuffing

[armstead98]

Seeing a big jump in organic traffic this morning. Pent up demand from July 4th holiday weekend, panda update, algo change, or something else?

[RedBar]

Ok, this is unbelievable!

I can show you similar in my widget sector, instead mine display totally inaccurate Houzz results. When I write inaccurate I mean describing something as black when it is white and vice versa, they rank simply because of keyword stuffing and supposedly bona fide images, others are now copying this method ... what mess they have created.

[OldFaces]

Maybe they are ranking because it's their 'brand name'? :P

[samwest]

...or maybe because Houzz has over 200 million in VC.

As far as my SERP observation for July, had one "lucid" day last Friday...back to zombies since. On and Off again like a switch.

[samwest]

Tuesday = Highest traffic day since April 1st, worst conversions (zero). Site did 7 conversions last Friday on less than half the traffic. F.M.

[Nutterum]

Mentat, I can show you a string of search queries where this is the norm. I am more and more inclined to believe that if you are in a quieter part of the internet, not due for monetizing by Google you can pretty much get away with anything. In my niche I see more and more often landing pages of websites almost fully loaded with scraped content + an entire section with nothing but keywords (ex, Products: 40 keywords and synonyms in succession). Sometimes these websites rank above the brand websites with the query in their _domain_ . As I said earler in this thread, I believe this is pre-Panda shift in the SERPs and I am monitoring those websites, in order to report what will happen to them after the update.

[i rahulgupta]

For me, most of the keywords ranking are gone,

[RedBar]

I am more and more inclined to believe that if you are in a quieter part of the internet, not due for monetizing by Google you can pretty much get away with anything.

It's been like that for several years now and is at its worst when the scraper uses Blogger. I did my own test on this 3-4 years ago scraping my own content and within a week my Blogger site out-ranked my official company site with precisely the same information on the first page of the SERPs.

The situation seems to be getting worse again now that many blackhatters have seen what the VC funded sites are doing and getting away with.

[scottb]

I also see many examples of big brand sites getting higher rankings on less relevant content than small sites with more relevant content. It's frustrating for small site owners.

[indyank]

@Mentat, somehow google seem to be extremely fond of softonic search result pages in that space - "software downloads"...they seem to be dominating the SERPS with several different urls which are nothing but doorway pages...they do what google advises others not to do!

[i rahulgupta]

See this- Biased Google Search Results Are Hurting Users, Harvard Study Claims-

A recent study published by the Yelp data science team, conducted by researchers at the Harvard Business School and Columbia Law School, suggests Google is prominently displaying its own content ahead of others in organic search results.

Read more: [searchenginejournal.com...]

[Rockzer]

I am seeing lots of spammy sites, after the Panda Update, I am not sure, what kind of update is been done. We are not able to gain anything in any Panda Update I am not sure, what is wrong. I think this Panda Update was only meant for spammy websites.

[Rockzer]

@indyank True, If we are listening to Google, then we face issues, and for others its been suggested by Google. I have noticed lot of time big brands, there are no restrictions for them. They make money with the sub domain down the line after 3 to 4 years they will shut it down by that time they make money and close it.

[AltamashSid]

Google updates are like cruelty even on genuine sites, resulting in change of behaviour and encouraging them to do spam, which is better fitted work according to panda updates. Why to do such a genuine and hard work if the results are to get panellised, and why the hell anyone would waste the whole day reading about policies, rule-regulation and update details.

[samwest]

SERPS look great - yet traffic non existent. On / Off conversion windows continue. Same #*$!, different day.

[Nutterum]

Google official guidelines say meta keywords account for nothing. Please can someone enlighten me, why a spammy looking WP website with scraped content went on first page and then proceeded to go to First spot of Google after implementing this abomination on to the source code page. Am I missing something here, is Panda really coming or the SERPS went full bonkers in my niche over a period of two weeks.

Link with removed domain name to show you what I mean : [postimg.org...]

These keywords appear on more than 400 landing pages of this website. I have monitored it for a month now. At first they were 20 or so. Now after expanding on these meta keywords that should do nothing, the website SKYROCKETED on the SERPS.

[indyank]

google doesn't and people use it in the belief there are other engines who consider them, which might be true. google might just be ignoring the meta keyword tag in entirety and not rewarding/punishing them for it...

[Leosghost]

There have always been all kinds of things that Google says don't "work"...that actually do..sometimes they "filter them"..sometimes not..the more sites that you have..the more you notice the discrepancies between what what they say, what they do, who ( and what ) they say "things" are aimed at, and what "works"..

Google are masters at FUD..and they are not omnipotent..

[samwest]

Super crawl going on now, What new ways will they devise to flush my content like so much bog roll? SERPs still appear to be looking "good", but traffic is non existent. Smoke & mirrors.

[seoskunk]

I just find google is broken, doesn't work anymore, I have to adjust search parameters to find what I want.