Google Updates and SERP Changes - Oct 2015

[charliekoen]

---

System: The following 8 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4765618.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 11:46 am on Oct 1, 2015 (PDT -8)

---

Another long time lurker here, interesting to read all of the previous comments about this and we've definitely seen a big shift.

We operate in the UK market and took over a client from another agency about 6 months ago. Everything seemed ok, link profile wasn't too bad etc. The one glaring thing that worried me was that they had a lot of location-type pages -- e.g. keyword-location.html. In fairness, the company operates across 4 cities, but nevertheless, these pages seemed a bit excessive. I advised our client about this and they wanted to keep the pages as is because they were obviously working for them.

They were doing pretty well in the SERP's -- usually in the top 3 for keyword + location queries. They also had the beginnings of a national footprint and were at the bottom of page 1 for some competitive terms.

All pages have unique content, around 750-1250 words and aren't keyword stuffed so I'm not sure if it's a Panda thing, but my instinct tells me it is.

They saw a HUGE drop yesterday -- pretty much obliterated all rankings. Then a slight recovery today.

Just wondered what people's thoughts are on what this update is. Seems like a mix of reactions from positive shifts to negative shifts.

[highlander888]

Been lurking for more than 10 years - finally decided to come out of the shadows!

I checked the phrase "Fakuma 2015"

Whilst its true the same domain appears for me as the first 5 results, I checked the links for each page

#1 links 2,577
#2 links 1,936
#3 links 72
#4 links 38

and so one

When you get to page 2 etc

its more like

#21 links 2
#22 links 1

So for me its just simply that the pages are just so much more interesting when measured by the number of links to them and the rest of the SERP are just not that strong by comparison

I didn't spend time checking the actual quality or reputations etc.

Am I missing something?

[engine]

Welcome to posting, highlander888.

Unless there's a personalisation, or data center not yet updated, links, generally, do still play a strong role. If those links come from quality sites, the signals will be even stronger.

[Nutterum]

@Highlander888 - First and foremost, Thank you for coming out of the shadows!

Now on to your experiment, related to what I have asked earlier. Indeed if I prepare and ensure my search is from a absolutely neutral "user" I see what you see more or less. What bugs me the most is that when I go back to my original everyday account setup, the SERPS are changing rapidly with each subsequent re-type of the same search query. I asked this because of the Zombie traffic phenomenon and I was thinking that my observations can be a link towards what others are observing as "zombie visits".

Related to the recent RankBrain article, I think the three are correlated. Some websites fall more or less entirely under the RankBrain algo, which serves rapidly different results each time you search Google. Since it is an AI, sometimes it shows your website to audience that convert and other times to audience that windowshop or do nothing meaningful on your website. /tinfoilhat: ON

[timemachined]

engine

Unless there's a personalisation, or data center not yet updated, links, generally, do still play a strong role. If those links come from quality sites, the signals will be even stronger.

Not wishing to give the game away too much but don't you find content and internal linking is just as competitive against spammy external linking? I find the whole idea that Google today bases any algorithm on external links quite maddening. I can't for the life of me think why I'd want to sit there all day building links from other websites and write them content. Boring and unnecessary. External links are a nice boost though but sooo boring.

[Jez123]

but don't you find content and internal linking is just as competitive against spammy external linking?

Care to elaborate timemachined?

[timemachined]

In my sector many of the pages are automated content with dup text, with millions of members and hundreds of thousands and thousands of external links. I write content and supporting articles with internal link pyramid structures, which ranks me amongst them, top 10, top 60. Time and effort but I'll be damned if I'm spending my days finding external links.

[goodoldweb]

This may come handy:

All about rank brain
[searchengineland.com...]

[jocuriin]

I have a problem with the update when it. I have a site for online games and early October, the keywords were the first Google page, but for a week and a bit, the key words of my site disappeared from Google. However, indexed pages are ok, they have not disappeared. Before Google went to fetch can occur again keywords on Google, but for less time. Now even with google fetch, no longer appear in SERP. How can I correct this, what to do? Please help...

[edited by: aakk9999 at 8:14 pm (utc) on Oct 29, 2015]
[edit reason] No URLs please [/edit]

[Robert Charlton]

New thread for November 2015 at https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4775925.htm [webmasterworld.com].