Google Updates and SERP Changes - Jan 2016

[Nutterum]

Continuing from:
Google Updates and SERP Changes - Dec 2015
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4780066.htm [webmasterworld.com]


I was off for the past two weeks, but looking back at the traffic patterns at the mid-end of Dec I can safely say something moved in the non US Google domains. Seeing positive changes in the UK, DE, FR and IT traffic. Asia is same but since we do not get much traffic from there either way I can't say for sure there was no changes in the SERPS there.

Too early to tell as for Jan. because it is the first workday of 2016, but I guess I can confirm my observations on Friday.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 10:56 am (utc) on Jan 4, 2016]

[SnowMan68]

We are based in the USA.

[Broadway]

I'm seeing substantial changes for my main website, unfortunately for the worse.
Started noon (Central USA) on Friday.

[breeks]

Substantial changes for about 24 hours then they all went back to previous positions.
They might be making adjustments before turning the switch on for good.

Bottom line Google doesn't give a Sh*t about your site, my site or any other site except for their prpoerties.

[MrSavage]

I may be dreading the recent "algo" update. Times like this I really can't bare to check my stats. Do I really need to see sh!tty getting sh!ttier? If there is flux I'll hold out a few more days before making a judgement on what I'm seeing.

[Rlilly]

Another massive algo change > brand name push at the expense of small business.

[niku_piku]

Some observations from Canada. Based on observing at least 2 sites that are mid sized, say 500k to 1.5 million uniques a month.
There were some very drastic movements for the location based keywords in these domains. Both these domains were panda victims in the past, not because of inherent 'problems' with the sites, but how the sites were perceived by the 'one eyed' algorithm. Both sites had recovered in the past but yesterdays' wild swings suggested the deep memory of google's data.
The last time Panda was run in the classic sense was end of October 2014. Since then the Big G has been very evasive about whether or not it was run. The guy we used to not like so much(Matt C) was great- there was some transparency and at least we had some clue of what's going on.
Coming back to the topic. There were some very wild swings yesterday causing both these sites to lose their location based positions in the Panda like fashion.
What does that mean? When these sites were penalized int he past, their position in the location based searches would be pushed back to page 3, page 4 or beyond. Normally, they rank somewhere on Page 1.
Yesterday, starting around 10 am ET, one by one, the position of these sites for location based keywords was massively shuffled. It wasn't a complete giant blow of Panda causing everything and everyone of the keywords to disappear into the oblivion of Page 4 and beyond, but selective keyword and location combos were pushed back. Many other similar combos continued to rank and even improved their positions.
And then, one by one over the next many hours, these search terms would return to their normal positions. As if a cursor were testing each of these results coming from the previously Panda impacted domains, validating them and then releasing them to their typical page 1 abodes.
This was a gradual process, but most certainly the push back to Page 3 or 4 oozed Panda in some of its disguised, real time form.
As of this morning, everything appears to be settled in. The SERPs are back with minor one or 2 place shuffles on Page 1.
And Friday, yes, Friday was the Panda's favorite outing day in 2014 or so when it used to hunt for malicious or innocent victims. 15th Jan was a Friday as well.
So Panda still might be a manually triggered process, but it can now be summoned into action without a lot of singing and dancing and other ceremonial rituals.
So ladies and gentlemen, Panda is back, much mellowed down(separate topic) but back nevertheless and it will now hunt at leisure, but mostly on Fridays.

[hasek747]

@Rlilly or maybe the brand names gained tons of new links, mentions, etc. over the past few months and hence they naturally rose higher?

[Rlilly]

@hasek747 Google has control over 'the scales of economy on the internet" which put the brands in to powerful of a position. If Google wants to deliver a more diverse set of results in some industries, they need to turn down certain signals. Other wise the point of searching diminishes.

[deuces]

Another huge algo change (the biggest in years according to algoroo) happening today, anybody seeing big changes? I keep seeing wild fluctuations for a few hours that then go back to normal, and then repeats.

[MrSavage]

If that's true about the biggest in years, I don't recall ever coming out ahead on Google drastic changes. So for me, I fear this, rather than having excitement.

[Simon_H]

Yes, lots of sites reporting traffic changes that then flip back to normal. And Glenn Gabe reporting a site even reverting back from the algo update last weekend.

I find it extraordinary that Google seems unable to properly test updates outside of production. I appreciate the infrastructure required to have a parallel test version of Google's entire index would be huge and I presume they have cut-down versions for UAT etc, but it's not like they don't have the funds or resources to do this properly. I guess the average user isn't going to notice if the serps temporarily contain the odd spammy result or are missing some decent sites - and that's presumably the reason why Google feels it acceptable to play on production. But as a tech company whose PR machine is constantly spinning stories of how they're at the forefront of technology, I'd have thought they'd do this properly.

[hasek747]

@Rlilly Fair enough.

@deuces exactly the same thing here for multiple US sites.

[Kelowna]

Another massive algo change > brand name push at the expense of small business.

brand name push = gaining new backlinks at a steady rate
expense of small business = afraid to get new backlinks from bad advice

With Google it's always been the links... and always will be, nothing new here, algo still the same, get better links!

[deuces]

@Kelowna, What about when Brand names get blackhat links at a steady rate? They might get penalized but then they also have the ability to recover and rank just as well, if not better, within a few days. Not small businesses, they have to wait months if they ever do recover, and when they do, they usually don't get back those rankings/

[dipper]

niku piku - welcome to the forums.

"Since then the Big G has been very evasive about whether or not it was run." - actually Google (both John Mueller and Gary Illyes) have quite clearly confirmed this was rolled out (started to roll out) in 18th July 2015 onwards.

[Babadook]

The reason they are evasive is no one at Google actually knows the full story. It's like government classified information, it's parsed out among many individuals, none of whom have the complete picture. It's the only way to keep the algo secret. Even Larry and Sergey don't know the whole enchilada anymore. That's why it makes no sense because no one is in charge.

[Babadook]

Deep down you know I'm right.

[Babadook]

You've been living with the assumption that someone understands the algo, no one does. The creators don't, employees don't and certainly none of us do. An AI machine is making the decisions on the algo, that's why it makes no human sense.

[dipper]

Okay, prove your (conspiracy) theory.

[superclown2]

Okay, prove your (conspiracy) theory.

I doubt if there's a human brain, either here or at Mountain View, that could predict exact SERP positions with as complex an algo as Google's. Apart from the fact that the big brands will be top for everything, of course.

It's morning here in the UK and things seem a bit more settled. Yesterday was wild in my niches with at least two different datasets swopping by the second. With a few minor changes we seem to be back where we were a week ago - for the time being.

[Babadook]

It's not a conspiracy. Take a look at the research that Google does with robots and cars, made to run without human intervention. The only reason they can do that is because they did it starting with search. They have been sampling our behavior, mimicking us and created an entity that functionally replaces human intervention in search. That's why it doesn't make any sense, it's a very sophisticated software machine that collects all our behavior data and changes constantly. That's why you need to stop using their products, they've gone off the deep end. Not every company functions this way, some still have the human touch.

[engine]

Plenty of SERPs fun this weekend, eh!

How are your mobile rankings looking?

[EditorialGuy]

How are your mobile rankings looking?

Pretty much unchanged. Then again, it's been "same old, same old" for our desktop and tablet rankings, too, except for the usual tiny day-to-day variation.

[besnette]

Friday - saw absolutely crazy fluctuations - it was pretty scary. Sites that are really old and outdated appearing near the top - some really outdated 'blog' articles from 2010 ranking for very competitive spots in my sector.

I wonder if this is penguin related, if sites that have been doing well might be at a huge disadvantage, since, with their visibility, they naturally will collect more garbage links over time than other sites. I have done disavow files and new "junk" shows up every month - how aggressive do we need to be?

The shifts were definitely concerning. I, and a lot of folks out there, like me, work incredibly hard to play within all rules, and to also make a very high quality, white-hat site, so to see sites jump in there that certainly don't deserve it.....well, I am glad the shifts were only temporary on Friday...but I hope this is not a sneak peek into what's coming.

[engine]

I have noticed non-mobile friendly sites dropped a little.

[EditorialGuy]

I wonder if this is penguin related, if sites that have been doing well might be at a huge disadvantage, since, with their visibility, they naturally will collect more garbage links over time than other sites.

It's normal for sites to pick up "garbage links." Questionable lnks that fall outside the normal pattern are more likely to be a problem.

[Martin Ice Web]

Very worse weekend. Winners are big brands though. Domain crowding is more than ever. Sometimes 6 entries in a row ( Pos #1 to #6 ). ( I canīt see any reason why this could be good for users but for selling ads. )
Lot of foreign traffic, many bots.
Till this morning, things seems to be back to normal.

ecom, germany

[Nutterum]

Actually I saw something peculiar. Most changes that I saw from the previous week were reverted. It's not that the there were additional changes, just rollback from what I can see. To recap - last week I saw many SERP leaders loose ground in the long tail corner of the vertical I monitor. Now seeing the reports for the keywords I monitor, things are reverting back to the start of December levels more or less.

To be honest that is why I dislike the SERP weather tools, their datasets are just not big enough to take seriously, rather are "sensation" content generators. Same with the the rather dull questions most SEO reporters ask on Twitter. The real question I'd ask Johnmy or Gary would be: "Should we expect a higher SERP volatility, more often, with the latest algo updates?" - even a "vague" answer like yes or no, or even "we don't know" will be more productive than, "IS THIS PANDA/PENGUIN OMG OMG DOOMSDAY?!?! #SEOisdead" type of BS.

[superclown2]

I'm seeing a lot of Xrumer junk sneaking in again. This happens with every major update now and Google's getting slower at getting rid of it recently. I would have thought that a half-competent algo could have detected blatant spamming like this.

[superclown2]

Wow, it gets worse. Page one reasonable, page 2 with one or two spam sites, page 3 onwards could have been picked at random. There's even a garbage site in there of mine on page 3 for a decent term that I created using a primitive script ten years ago (we did that sort of thing then) and forgot all about. 'Shambles' is the description that springs to mind.