Google Updates and SERP Changes - July 2015

[Johan007]

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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)

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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.

[Robert Charlton]

I have seen these spammy websites appearing around Panda updates but not with such magnitude.

Guess we'll find out sooner or later, this websites fate.

Nutterum - I've felt we see spammy websites around Panda updates also. My theory is that Google needs to surface these sites in order to deal with them. When Panda comes, and by all reports it's coming soon, please keep tabs on these and let us know what you see.

[aristotle]

So a rankings boost for spammy websites could be a sign of a looming Panda update... LOL

[Shai]

Nutterum, please take before and after screenshots. It would be really interesting to see what happens post Panda.

[Nutterum]

I have something better, I plugged their domains to my SERP monitoring tools. Will report my findings once Panda hits.

[RedBar]

I'm assuming new SERPs have arrived if my sites are anything to go by.

Traffic way down and searching widget keywords in Google.com invariably reveals solely US companies and, of course, doing the same on Google.co.uk similarly shows Google's real hand by promoting those same companies.

What an utter an absolute useless mess.

[MrBlack]

Something happened in UK over the weekend. On Sunday I experienced an uptick in traffic on my favourite webiste which converted very well. Tuesday morning it got kicked in the ass. Today is my lowest traffic day in 10 years with zero conversions.
Price comparison website, UK.

[RedBar]

I have a substantial widget presence in India and just checked three important keywords for me:

1. 7/9 results American
2. 6/9 results American
3. 5/9 results American

Do you want to know what is so amusing and just how useless these results are?

All the three keyword products are sourced and produced in India and exported to the USA, why would anyone in India want to re-import them? Yeah, there are loads of Home Depots in India, oh I forgot, we export to them!

Useless and completely US-biased results, nothing less.

[mrengine]

Useless and completely US-biased results, nothing less.

I just did a search for a large American company and the top three listings in Google were for the State Bank of India. I don't recall any website I ever visited to end in .in. Seems it's not a case of bias but rather something wrong.

[RedBar]

If I'm seeing skewed results one way for my searches and you're seeing skewed results another way for your searches then, yes, something is very, very wrong.

Is anyone else seeing such bizarre results?

[seoskunk]

Is anyone else seeing such bizarre results?

Yeah ,this often happens at the start of an update, I won't say "like a google dance" as I did last update as you get people taking you literally, so instead I'll just say google shifting results. I do think this may be the start of panda.

[Nutterum]

Something is shifting alright. Some of my long tail keywords went first page to 200+ position then back to first page several times in the past 2 days. Spammy sites are appearing in local and country SERPs as well. I smell Panda rolling in the next 1-2 weeks.

[Shepherd]

Just an observation, something I've been noticing a lot lately in my niche.

Most times when a KG is displayed for a search the information came from a site listed in the 5th or 6th spot in the search results. Having trouble understanding why google felt the information was good enough to appropriate and display on their own property but not list as the #1 result.

[Martin Ice Web]

From the view a of a user I would say that google transforms from a former very good SE to a very poor SE. This happens in small "quality" steps. I hate google ignoring some words i search for, i hate goolge displaying some "freaky" most nearby reasult for my query. Ignoring keys and long tails ? Is it just because of scapers, black hat sites and landing pages? Are you not able to sort these out in a other way than displaying big brands?
Please, i like it more to get on a landing page from a smaller mom and pop site than having irrelevant amazon, ebay and brand pages i have to click through.

I would suggest that google put a toggle button in front of the serps "No Panda filtered results ( better )" , "Panda Results ( low quality)". <----- THIS AIN`T A JOKE!

[rish3]

From the view a of a user I would say that google transforms from a former very good SE to a very poor SE. ...Is it just because of scapers, black hat sites and landing pages?

If Google is trying to blame their decline on black hat, I think they are misguided. Personally, as a searcher, I was able to navigate just fine when the SERPS had obvious black hat pumped results because those entries were, well...obvious. I just ignored them, and the results around them were more relevant, targeted, etc, than the results we see today.

They do seem to have shifted to the point where locality and "big popular site with lots of inbound links, but not necessarily to this specific page" have become much more important than relevance and quality.

I would suggest that google put a toggle button in front of the serps "No Panda filtered results...

I would use it :)

[Leosghost]

:)

They do seem to have shifted to the point where locality and "big popular site with lots of inbound links, but not necessarily to this specific page" have become much more important than relevance and quality.

I have various "defensive"* accounts/pages/registrations in the names of my "brands" or sites in so called social media..many of these accounts I have never posted any content to..
Google very often ( it is still happening )..thinks that the number one answer for one in particular ( ans some others ) of my "brands" is my empty facebook or pinterest or twitter page..

Facebook ( and the others ) also tell me ( as do Googles SERPs ) that I have many tens and sometimes many hundreds or thousands of "followers" to these totally dormant contentless pages..

( hint..all "social media" lies about the number of followers )

Happily my actual pages , on my own domains are usually at numbers 2 and 3 etc ..

But if Google wasn't biased to "social media"..how do they explain that contentless pages ( with no-inbound links ) on USA "social media" outrank the real pages with content for the same "brand name" or domain name..

* "defensive" meaning I opened the accounts to stop others pretending to be me or my brands on the "social media"..
Facebook nevertheless has one page which has someone masquerading as "mydomain.com"..I have had the domain registered since 10 years now..the facebook page was I suspect ( it was opened on facebook immediately after I refused to sell the domain name to someone who offered me many thousands of euros below it's actual worth ) opened as what in the UK is known as "passing off"..

[Nutterum]

"No Panda filter" button would solve nothing. I`d love to have a "turn off brand bias" though. This will ensure relevant results, I guarantee you.

[silentneedle]

Isn't brand favorism a part of panda?

However, those crap results are nothing new, I see such results for over 3 months now in Google DE. I wonder why they aren't redirect all DE traffic to .com, because US sites are favored above DE sites anyway. It's a whole mess, lucky google that currently the most searchers are google-zombies. Let's see if this strategy still works after Apple Search is ready. Speaking for me as a searcher, I'll drop Google like a hot potato if apple search serves me relevant no-brand-favorism results.

[Martin Ice Web]

Isn't brand favorism a part of panda?

I thought and think it is. Panda is nothing else but an algo that keeps trying to push brands.

However, those crap results are nothing new, I see such results for over 3 months now in Google DE.

Yes it started in DE in april. It realy changed to worse over the time. Seeing .com .at. ch .ru .fr domains in germany serps.

"No Panda filter" button would solve nothing. I`d love to have a "turn off brand bias" though. This will ensure relevant results, I guarantee you.

Oh please, let me have my "No Pada filter" button. It is such a good idea. I think it will not make any work for them or even computer power to gernerate panda free serps.

[Leosghost]

I think it will not make any work for them or even computer power to gernerate panda free serps.

Possibly not..But to do so would make Eric's "golf buddies" displeased..

[Martin Ice Web]

Leosghost, I donīt understand? Do you mean that panda does in anyway control the serps so that they make more money? WHHHHuuuoaaa, ithink it is all about quality, compelling sites, good content, UE all this good stuff pleased within one single algo. Am i am so wrong? ;)

[silentneedle]

Yes it started in DE in april. It realy changed to worse over the time. Seeing .com .at. ch .ru .fr domains in germany serps.

In april I had almost empty chinese fb/twitter pages ranking on page 1 for some of my searches, they are gone now, but it seems they've forget to remove russian pages.

[Baby_Moos]

All my traffic today seems to be coming from the US, I'm a UK based & targeted niche ecomm site, never seen this before

[RedBar]

Think yourself lucky you even have traffic, mine is non-existent!

I didn't believe they could make the SERPs any worse however they have monumentally achieved it.

[Baby_Moos]

Little point in traffic that doesn't convert though, today I have had 1 conversion, excellent stuff Google, that'll pay the bills!

[Paperchaser]

went from 120k a day to 64k a day lol gotta love this huge trolling google doing. Time to hit the plan B

[glakes]

All my traffic today seems to be coming from the US, I'm a UK based & targeted niche ecomm site, never seen this before

Today I see more Google.ie traffic than Google.com. Terrible considering we serve the USA and Canadian markets only. This should be simple stuff for Google to deal with, but it appears they can't even handle the basics. Or maybe they just don't want to do it and have everyone pay to be in adwords. I don't really care anymore - most of my customers find my products through non-Google sources. And this may be the case since Google can't even handle the simple tasks their users want.

[RedBar]

Insofar as the image SERPs are concerned I am seeing lots of mini Houzz/Pinterest type of sites with plenty of scraped images either hotlinked or served by themselves using anywhere from 6-20 images per widget page plus every descriptive adjective possible used for each image.

None, so far, have been published by authoratative sources, mostly are by speculative bloggers all with AdSense and mostly Blogger, yeah Google, you've done real, real good!

[Spiekerooger]

Google.de/.at/.ch in german qualitywise totally broken.

URLs (not domains but exact URLs) coming up twice or even more often, only 7 results per page and not more than 15 relevant results to be found even if there are 100s (ask bing). Instead lower ranks are filled up with data garbage. Empty pages or social media accounts, non-relevant content whatsoever, content in other languages (and mostly not relevant), and so on.

I could say I don't care as I'm not affected seowise but as a searcher I'll have to state that this looks like altavista SERPs back in the 90s. Or even worse.

[RedBar]

AV was never that bad!