Google ZOMBIE Traffic Observations

[samwest]

Mods Note: Split out of the October 2015 Monthly Observation thread into a separate Zombie Traffic Thread
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Sunday morning, usually banging away, but nothing but slow moving Zombie traffic, one or two at a time and sitting on the same pages for several minutes. Switch is currently OFF.
Still in decline. No sign of any seasonal upswing, which is way overdue.

[edited by: aakk9999 at 7:08 pm (utc) on Oct 19, 2015]

[heisje]

Number of sites : all normally doing well : no issues : currently conversions tanking.

Very mobile friendly : hmmmm . . . . . .

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[wgchris]

Yes, people, watch your conversions. It's the only barometer we have at this point (unless someone else has a better idea). It's clear that the sites that are stuck in this "bucket" are getting manipulated traffic. There is no other way to describe the unnatural traffic being received. There has been a lot of chatter on Google targeting the wrong traffic but how often do you get low bounce rate traffic that doesn't convert? Moreover, how do you get non-converting, non-bouncing, traffic that randomly surfs a site with no ultimate goal? (This is blatantly clear in my niche).

This situation causes me to pause in great concern. Maybe not for this update by Google but a clear example of where they are headed.

[wgchris]

Meanwhile I've pounded the pavement on said site since mid-sept. Surged in a lot of keyword sets in SERPs, still the same traffic, maybe less than when this whole thing started. Feels a lot like a virtual noose. Maybe it's time for me to make a move into horticulture.

[Simon_H]

@reseller You seem to be suggesting that because 10 - 15 sites have posted on this thread that they're seeing zombie traffic and less than 15 have posted that they're not, that this means you can extrapolate that over half of all websites are getting zombie traffic. Is that what you're saying?

[goodoldweb]

@simon_h

A lot more than 15 websites are expriancing this crap. Belive you and me. Ebay is in the same boat (for many ebay sellers) as a result of this "update". It is dead as lately, with sales far and in between.

Check this thread "no sales on ebay":
[community.ebay.com.au...]

[Simon_H]

@goodoldweb Firstly, let's be clear. The zombie phenomenon is *not* shops experiencing a decline in sales over time. That's unrelated and could be due to anything such as less consumer spending, more competition, etc. The zombie phenomenon is where sites are experiencing similar traffic volume from one week to the next, but sudden large changes in conversions from day to day. The eBay stores are *not* seeing the zombie phenomenon.

Nevertheless, I'm not saying that only 15 sites are experiencing this. I'm saying that only 15 sites have posted on this thread that they're experiencing this. And I'm disagreeing with the 'maths' that has been posted that is alleging over half the web could be experiencing this because they haven't posted on this forum stating otherwise.

[goodoldweb]

That's unrelated and could be due to anything such as less consumer spending, more competition, etc

Nonsense. It is due to one thing and one thing only, Google tinkering with the algo and "rank braining" it their way, some more. The last few years in particular...

Less consumer spending does not happen at once on sharp dates right before google announcement about yet another "ground braking" algo tweaking that "may" affect 2% of searches" (as they cynically put it...) . The massive growth they report YOY is the writing on the wall. Get real folks...

What i see when checking my "free" organic traffic reports is Google insisting on sending me the wrong audience, from the wrong countries, using the wrong devices while conveniently (for them) hiding the keywords to keep me in the dark.

They are killing the web. They are killing competition and they have some serious explaining to do...

[ChrisWilson]

Just throwing in my stats.

My site for the past three years consistently gets the same number of conversions either +3 of XX or -3 of XX or somewhere in between. It's only source of traffic is organic. October has seen a 20% rise in traffic and conversions all over the place. Overall they are down over 40%. The site has never had a zero conversion day in the last three years, but has had 4 in October. The site is informational with heavy pictures and video, yet does charge a fee, so technically is eCommerce I guess.

Since the site uses no paid forms of advertising I keep a close eye on organic results for a set of queries that generate the most revenue. For the entire month of October none of the queries I monitor have lost their rankings. Some have even gone up. The site uses Google Analytics and some Google hosted YUI stuff.

[aakk9999]

I'm not saying that only 15 sites are experiencing this. I'm saying that only 15 sites have posted on this thread that they're experiencing this.

It could be that it is more widespread than 15 sites, but not everybody can recognise it. It takes quite a bit of analysis going through lots of historic data to come to Zombie conclusion.

[wgchris]

Businesses/people that are not tracking conversions would have no idea.

[EditorialGuy]

@EditorialGuy : Any site data on desktop / mobile traffic spit? Is site mobile friendly as determined by G?

We get a fair amount of mobile traffic, but desktop/laptop/tablet traffic is our bread and butter. (Nearly all of our affiliate earnings come from desktop/laptop/tablet, for example.)

We have dedicated mobile pages for our most popular evergreen topics, and Google's tool does show that those pages are "mobile-friendly."

[heisje]

@EditorialGuy : is it possible, then, that low conversions have preferentially hit the most mobile-friendly sites? This connection has been suggested earlier in this discussion. Mobile-very-friendly site > excessive % of mobile traffic > conversions tanking? Are mobile-crazy people zombies?

Are mobile-very-friendly sites rewarded by non-converting mobile zombie traffic and losing their converting desktop traffic?

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[Shepherd]

is it possible, then, that low conversions have preferentially hit the most mobile-friendly sites?

I would say no, our site is anti-mobile, we have no use at all for mobile users.

[heisje]

@Shepherd : so, conflicting data : dead end again . . . . .
What on earth is this zombie traffic? (I expect this is what everybody else is asking here . . . . )

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[WhiteHatTryHard]

Same responsive design here...

...that's what I get for listening to google... "You need responsive design NOW!"... then I get sent all the 10-year olds as a reward.

[Simon_H]

@goodoldweb There are various points being mixed. The comments in the eBay link you sent are people talking about a gradual declines in sales over time, which is sad but unrelated to this thread. That's different to what you and I are personally seeing, i.e. sudden drop in conversions, no change of traffic.

@aakk9999 @wgchris Totally agree. Again, my original comment was simply that the sites seeing this phenomenon are in the minority and so we should be focusing on understanding what we have in common to move into the bucket of sites that don't see this, rather than focusing on Google-bashing. This was picked up on by other members and the suggestion made that if more people have reported seeing this phenomenon on this thread than have reported not seeing it, then we can conclude that most sites on the web are experiencing this so we're not in the minority. That's crazy maths. But of course there are likely to be (far) more than 15 sites experiencing this. I accept that many would not realise, much like the vast majority of sites hit by Panda/Penguin/etc wouldn't realise as they don't employ an SEO. However, given all the SEOs out there, the popularity of WebmasterWorld, the popularity of SER, etc, I would have expected far more sites to have posted about this if it was prevalent.

[ecommerceprofit]

We have a regular desktop site and a different one for mobile. Our site is not responsive.

[FishingDad]

This thread is just tin foil hat-tastic.

It picked me up with its mind powers an shook me like a dawg.

[Shepherd]

sudden drop in conversions, no change of traffic.

At a basic level there's really only 2 core elements that could be at play:

1. an onsite issue(s)
2. an issue(s) with the traffic coming to the site

Onsite issues are a plenty:
- site speed, known to affect conversion rates. Yes, we all check our sites for speed, they are lightning fast, but really we never know exactly what the end user is experiencing. Many things can have an affect on our site speed that we may never see. One that comes to mind is ISP throttling. Security certs, addons/plugins, third party analytics - all can have issues periodically that we may never see.
- server issues
- merchant account issues

Incoming traffic issues.
The google serps are so incredible fluid these days, they change constantly. Ads move, widgets come and go and morph, constantly, minute by minute, search by search. All this movement can cause constant changes in the person clicking thru to a site. Minor changes in position can make a huge difference in the searcher's buying cycle. We have seen this in our testing in adwords, the top position gets a ton of non-converting traffic where maybe the second or third position gets slightly less traffic but better converting traffic. Same holds true for the organic results, move up a couple of spots and the visitor dynamic changes, a lot in most cases.

It might be that we don't see these patterns from Bing/Yahoo traffic because their search results are not as fluid as google's.

[WhiteHatTryHard]

@Shepherd
The google webmaster forums are strong in this one. I can feel it. Are you grinding out your top contributor status?

If i wanted long, useless, cookie-cutter walls of text i would be on google webmaster forums, not here. I assumed people on this board were professionals and not newborns.

We are talking about multi-year conversion patterns that do not apply anymore and lost consistency without any of the obvious explanations applying.

Load time
1.15s
Requests
95
Perf. grade
68/100
Your website is faster than 87% of all tested websites

No speed is no the issue.

[samwest]

10/29 wound up being an ON day. Second Highest conversions since April st. Looking pretty light today so far.

[Totalx]

With as many changes Google has made, it requires small or large changes on the developer's part to keep up with the algo. By now, people should stop complaining about Google and learn to adapt faster to these changes. You are only going to be rewarded with stable results if you use their PPC platform, but that is a given. When something is free, no need to complain.

Having said that, developers need to send the right signals to the bots. Right now, everyone has a square peg and Google has a round hole. If everyone here could test different areas, the results would be faster, and maybe we could give Google a run for its money.

[heisje]

but really we never know exactly what the end user is experiencing

In fact you may get a good idea of what site performance users experience through free Hyperspin test - it provides immediate performance data for an entered URL as seen from 30 servers spread worldwide. Hope this helps.

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[samwest]

You are only going to be rewarded with stable results if you use their PPC platform, but that is a given.

LMFAO - Now that's a good one! Sounds just like a Google Adwords Representative. Recently adwords conversions have tanked. I recently spent around $1000 on adwords and received about $50 in conversions...and yes, I've talked to adwords reps dozens of times...all their suggestions are geared to increase Google's bottom line, not mine.

I told my wife that sure I could make 100k again, but with current adwords performance I'd have to spend 200-300k on adwords to do so. That just reminds me of the Lucy episode where she is making & selling Aunt Martha's Old Fashioned Salad Dressing, then runs out of ingredients so she buys regular dressing from the store and sells it at a major loss, forcing her to scam a taste test to get people to cancel their orders....a rewarding and stable business model indeed. [youtu.be...]

Everyone questions why there exists a slow process of decaying organics...well it's quite easy to explain...If they took something we received for free for a decade and started charging for it overnight, there would be tremendous outrage. Google is simply slipping the knife in very, very slowly then blaming the changes on it's zoo of punitive updates..all in the name of quality and user experience. Friday = OFF.

[mrengine]

You are only going to be rewarded with stable results if you use their PPC platform, but that is a given.

Wrong. PPC had the same bad converting traffic as organic on the off days.

[heisje]

You are only going to be rewarded with stable results if you use their PPC platform, but that is a given.

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

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[reseller]

A Google Zombie Traffic Alarm, a Google Zombie Traffic Alarm! My kingdom for a Google Zombie Traffic Alarm! :)

The main function of Google Zombie Traffic Alarm is to detect and warn site owners early in the mornings of Google Zombie Traffic days!

[masterjoe]

Zero sales today.

[ecommerceprofit]

* Wrong. PPC had the same bad converting traffic as organic on the off days. *

Exactly. This is my second up day...not way up today or yesterday but not super low.

[mpman]

Hi everyone,

I'm not a webmaster like so many here, but I have been making a living from having shops on existing ecom sites like ebay and etsy for the past 10 years.

Something did happen beginning September 2nd 2015 which suddenly caused previously consistent daily sales to stop. The on/off patterns are exactly what you guys are describing here, and there seems to be more and more "off" days as the weeks have passed. This was not a gradual decline in sales over several years, but a sudden September 2 occurrence affecting all types of shops and products.

Etsy's forums are full of messages from successful sellers who are now panicking because suddenly there are no more sales for the last 2 months. Some theorize rolling blackouts... other blame localized search results... etc... but no one truly knows why the sudden drop in sales occurred.

From my own limited stats, I do see that the decline in sales is coming from Google. Not a lot of people know about Etsy, so quite often, Google SERPS send a customer to one of my items and they end up signing up for an Etsy account to purchase my item. Meaning Google sent them to my shop/item. This is no longer happening. The new sign-ups are few and far between than the norm of the last 10 years, which leads me to believe that Google is indeed sending us less traffic or showcasing us less in their SERPS AND ADS.

Etsy is in constant dialogue with Google and has been very proactive in being mobile and Google friendly. The webmasters of Etsy have been very tight lipped about this dip in sales providing absolutely no help to their sellers to get over this sudden decline.

I hope this bit of info helps someone somewhere to figure out what is happening.