Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2016

[JS_Harris]

Continuing from:
Google Updates and SERP Changes - Feb 2015
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4788898.htm [webmasterworld.com]



I think something major might be changing right now, my 'search analytics' data in Google's 'search console'(ie:GWT) has not updated for a full week. The last data showing on the page/keyword reports is from Feb 23rd.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 8:44 am (utc) on Mar 1, 2016]

[ionguy]

@renatovieira
the problem is the storm continues too long - once any sign of good changes appear (ie conversions) the next day zombies back
maybe big fishes can live with this and survive anyway however small business going through a hard time including sending difficult messages to employees

[Kelowna]

the next day zombies back

Dont think they are zombies everyone see's, just really confused searchers who are clicking on the links they are served wondering what is going on.

I was just on google.com searching for something in Birmingham, the map and the local was all about Birmingham UK and the regular serps were from what I expected, Birmingham Alabama. The geolocation thing stills seems to be having issues at the plex as they try to guess with their intelligence what the surfer needs, this alone would account for the many clicks and no buys people are seeing.

If I use Birmingham Alabama all is well, but just the city name on google.com is giving confusing results at times for sure.

[wgchris]

I agree on Zombies probably being ill targeted traffic. I must say that not only is my traffic flat but in my demo, I'm not seeing much movement on SERPs at all on G. Bing and Yahoo are making moves like normal but G is completely stagnant.

This waiting period was very similar to Sept 15 for me. It's like my site has been held to the side and will eventually get tossed back into the mix.

[Kelowna]

Just found this online, pretty much sums up the Gorg's algo, nice to see others agree with what I have been saying for years.

[moz.com ]

Competitive Commentary
Andrew Shotland
Local SEO Guide

Once you have the basics right, it’s all about links and anchor text!

[nomis5]

Once you have the basics right, it’s all about links and anchor text!

For some maybe, but don't be sucked in, it's most definitely not for all.

In my case links and anchor text are not the deciding factor. I can see that very clearly from the stats.

One size most definitely does not fit all.

[Titi12]

Could the zombies traffic be a kind of penalty ?

[Simon_H]

@Titi12 Not sure, especially given this hits paid as well. But there may be an indirect relationship.

Last year, I asked all those seeing zombie traffic if they'd been hit by Penguin or Panda. Most had been, including us. Now, I don't think that Google is punishing sites hit by Penguin and/or Panda, but it may be that those sites notice zombie traffic much more than sites who haven't been hit.

To explain... Penguin and Panda are filters, so you tend to find that some rankings effectively disappear, especially those you've targeted to manipulate, but other terms can still rank well, e.g. the more obscure or long tail. So if the zombie phenomenon is largely playing with obscure and longer tail terms, then that may be far more noticeable to sites that are hit by Panda or Penguin as those terms may form a high proportion of traffic as the more competitive terms no longer rank. Whereas sites that aren't hit with these will still experience zombie traffic but may barely notice it.

This is just a theory and only explains the organic side of things.

[Titi12]

Thanks Simon_H

[Nutterum]

Do you believe your traffic was changed due to the mobile (and some people saying its on desktop too?) appearance of AMP carousel and are not due to some algo updates?

[Titi12]

@Nutterum
Till now I do not have a mobile site because my customers are older and they do not use smartphones, but I'm working on it with hope that it will change something...
Since 19 th of january, my traffic is twice what it was the last months, and quite at the same level than in 2010 so I thought i was recovering from Panda... I have traffic yes, but no sales anymore (only 2 for march)... What I see, and I have never seen before, is half hours with nobody in my shop, even not a bot ! And then 50 people in a few minutes, but they do nothing at all !
I hope it's clear, english is not my mother language...

[Simon_H]

@Titi12 Is that all organic traffic or is any of it Adwords or Shopping?

[Titi12]

Only organic

[samwest]

Maybe we should call zombie traffic Teflon Traffic, those visitors are not sticky...and they are back again.

[wgchris]

Still no conversions, almost two weeks.

[Kelowna]

For some maybe, but don't be sucked in, it's most definitely not for all.

Think about what you just said, because it most definitely IS for all. Unless you think that somehow this great big fancy adding machine called Google has somehow become a living breathing being of some sort that has started to think on it's own.

Tweek your pages to match what they like, get some good links, and move on. There will always be a roller coaster in the serps as they play with their knobs, but the game pretty much stays the same, it's the links.

[Titi12]

Between 21 february and 21 march, I have 4 sales !
Before may 2012, I was at least at 2 or 3 sales/day in march
I really hope someone will do something because it's just impossible to kill everyone everywhere has they do !
Wasn't enough to struggle against the chinese, google had to give them much more visibility on Am.z.n !

[Nutterum]

Google trends the topics. If you see a decline then you might have an answer to your question @Titi12 . Just because people search for something 4 years ago does not mean they will search for the same thing now. Big players like social media, Amazon, Google products, quick answers, Knowledge Graph etc. often can chip away at your organic traffic interrupting your funnel. Or the worst possible scenario, there might be a new/better/bigger product or service that organically pushed you out of the money keywords.

[renatovieira]

Hey guys, definitely the update that occurred earlier this year in January, killed my site even.

Organic traffic is still the same, but the navigation on the site no longer exists.

My site is tourism niche. What is clear now is that Google is sending me users looking for quantum physics or pie recipe.

[londrum]

i don't get this whole zombie thing.
i understand the idea, and the effects, but presumably people still know what they're clicking -- they can still see your page's title, and the page's snippet. if those two didn't describe what they wanted then they wouldn't click it. so why would their traffic be 'bad'?

[wgchris]

@londrum It is of my opinion (at least in my niche) that of the human traffic, people are clicking on their best option available in SERPs. Have you seen the SERPs lately? I have a feeling that RankBrain is partially concentrating on user intent to sort the SERPs. Regardless, it’s a huge mess.

[Simon_H]

@Iondrum Click behaviour is based on more than page title and snippet. You put results in front of users and they'll get clicked, irrespective of whether or not they're good matches. That's why the #1 result gets more clicks than #2, and #2 gets more clicks than #3, etc.

[glakes]

i don't get this whole zombie thing.
i understand the idea, and the effects, but presumably people still know what they're clicking -- they can still see your page's title, and the page's snippet. if those two didn't describe what they wanted then they wouldn't click it. so why would their traffic be 'bad'?

If you are of the opinion that zombies are actually human, which I'm not convinced of, then how Google rewrites titles and descriptions could be to blame. Instead of displaying titles and snippets of what the page is about, the data is instead rewritten to what Google thinks the user wants - which can be two completely different things.

In Google we have lost all control of our content, with the exception to use noindex. But like I said before, I'm not convinced zombies are real people. It's more likely that Google is trying to drive paid clicks so their quarterly report looks good to shareholders.

[Simon_H]

@glakes I hope you're right. March is a mirror of September 2015. For us, Zombie traffic normally takes the form of a day or two days every few weeks where conversions disappear; this is very clearly visible on our adwords cost-per-converted-click graph. (For the zombie 'doubters', we do $multi-million sales per year and I can absolutely confirm that this phenomenon is real and easily visible in our stats.) But halfway through Sep 2015, that graph suddenly showed massive turbulence with low quality traffic switching in and out far more frequently, i.e. every day or multiple times per day.

By mid-October 2015 it was back to low quality traffic switching in for a day or two every few weeks again. But March is the same as September; the turbulence is astonishing with zombie switching in multiple times per day. Our traffic is so abnormal that I would (almost) believe that Google human testers were on the site, adding 10 items to basket during their tests and then leaving. This is what we're seeing repeatedly during the day, with long gaps in between of minimal activity.

I don't buy the whole quarterly reports thing, but I can't deny that both September and March are end of Q and both are when zombie traffic is at an all time high. Although it could be that these are both around the time of major algo updates, so Google is testing on live again.

[glakes]

@Simon
For me the organic zombie patterns have been non-stop since September of 2015. Paused Adwords campaigns, and restarted them on "good days" only to lose a lot the next. If I could accurately determine when a good day was going to occur, I would have Adwords active on only those days. In the beginning the zombie pattern was easier to forecast. Now, it's much harder and most days are filled with zombies. I can't rank any better either because I'm in the top three for some of what was our historically best keywords. Since these keywords are not seasonal, associated with trends, etc., I would expect good conversions from them even ten years down the road.

As far as not buying the quarterly profit reports, I know there are some diehards out there that want to give Google the benefit of the doubt. Yes, the end of the quarter is near, but I expect Google to report great profits and modest growth again. If there were something wrong with Google, as in they are sending us the wrong visitors, I would expect this to impact Google's bottom line (fewer users, less profit, negative growth, etc.). If Google's quarterly report reflect what I think it will (profit and growth), it becomes harder for the naysayers to blame this on an internal Google problem. Instead, it supports the theory that Google is fully aware of what is going on and they are the ones controlling it. Theories such as our sites are part of some test just does not fit after six months of dealing with it. Especially with the way trends change, news breaks, etc., Google adapts relatively well in a short period of time.

Regardless of what I or you believe, we are in the same boat - getting lots of zombie traffic. I hope this gets resolved, but until it does I'm going to keep rocking with Amazon. Between Amazon's existing user base and Google's desire to give Amazon multiple listings, it's the best short-term move to stay profitable without having to deal with the headaches Google causes. Without Google I am not paying outrageous CPC, have consistent sales and forecastable profits - things that have allowed me to do the best I've ever done. In truth, I should be thanking Google for the zombies because I'm much better off because of it.

[petehall]

@glakes & @Simon

Do you think these are coming form negative-seo bots?

I've heard what they do is click to your competitors website from Google results on different IP's, so they look like Google referrals but are actually not real people.

The idea is they click off / back immediately on the sites you are targeting, which hurts their rankings.

Meanwhile you're un-clciked / bounced page rises up the SERPs.

@ least this is what I am told...

[chalkywhite]

Either 3 sites have analytics problems, the world has gone on holiday or something has changed since 2pm

[chalkywhite]

Apologies, its digital ocean down, DNS server issues.

[renatovieira]

After a few weeks, today I noticed a considerable improvement in my traffic. I believe it is too early to celebrate, but at least some positive sign.

[wgchris]

@renatovieira, same boat for me. Not a ton of traffic but first Google organic conversion in almost three weeks. Here's to hoping.

[renatovieira]

@wgchris - Really, nothing yet as before, but being a Thursday, impressions and conversions are interesting today. We will continue monitoring this. Remains that recovery! :)