Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2016

[masterjoe]

Continuing from:
Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2016
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4793805.htm [webmasterworld.com]


Still suffering from zombie traffic. Not a single conversion since Good Friday. The "pocketliner" update is really aggravating me, not to mention they still haven't released Penguin. I should also mention that conversions have been dropping off slowly since my site started being blasted with exact match anchor texts and I submitted disavows. Maybe it has something to do with it, but I will wait to hear back from webmasters with clean websites.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 8:15 am (utc) on May 1, 2016]

[WhiteHatTryHard]

Incredible drop in user engagement. I dont even know. a 20% drop in pages per session. O_o

[samwest]

It would be nice to know what Google says to you.

I'll tell you what Google says to me: "you should increase the number of keywords you bid on and and increase your bid price". That's what Google says to me.

Monday observation: Once again conversions seem to be inverse to traffic. When my traffic is high, virtually no conversions. But, when traffic disappears, I suddenly get late night and early morning sales. Last night 12:02 am and this morning at 6:27 am....but I'll bet my bile duct that there are no conversions today during "normal" traffic levels.

[mrengine]

I'll tell you what Google says to me: "you should increase the number of keywords you bid on and and increase your bid price". That's what Google says to me.

Ditto. The raise your bid line must be pre-programmed into the Adwords customer contact team, which I find to be an unacceptable response. Instead of raising bids, which are already high enough to land the top position, I scaled back. There just is no justification for the poor ROI Adwords has been producing since late 3rd quarter of last year. I'm also talking about campaigns that have been running successfully for years before the zombies came into play.

but I'll bet my bile duct that there are no conversions today during "normal" traffic levels.

Shall I raise your bile duct with a kidney? LOL All humor aside, the zombie problem is no laughing matter. The fact Google staff ignores the conversion problems, with our repeated calls, is very problematic and directly undercuts the integrity of the Adwords platform.

[samwest]

Well, the day is over and I was right, no other conversion after 7 am. The whole day was fleeced. Decent daytime traffic, but nothing converting. In the past, on the same volumes I'd get a sale per hour all day. I expect the next sale around 2 am on a trickle of traffic when the filter is aimed at daytime traffic overseas..

[Ohno2]

My test domain hasn't had a single conversion since March 31st, that hasn't happened in over 10 years. It's traffic has all but gone in the day with evening window shoppers making up the numbers. Of course the Adword voucher emails continue to come thick & fast. Best not bash the lovely cuddly Google though eh?!

[billyfresh]

Zombie traffic for 2 days now, Google must have turned of the tap, keywords positions not changed, Google Adwords runing and still no converisons.

[samwest]

Just like clockwork...7:07am and I get a sale. Nothing since 6:47am yesterday. Traffic this morning is s TRICKLE, yet a conversion takes place every morning at about the same time. Been doing this for many, many weeks in a row now. Can't convert in the daytime to save my life. Luckily Amazon is a totally different story. Started private label FBA a few months back and get incredible conversions every day. Funny how the two systems vary, one is super greedy, the other is not...............yet.

Ohno2 - is that you D.L.? if so, welcome back!

[masterjoe]

Seeing zombies across the board too now for about 3 weeks. The greed is real people, take your money and efforts elsewhere.

[Ohno2]

Seeing zombies across the board too now for about 3 weeks. The greed is real people, take your money and efforts elsewhere.

That's the best advice I've ever seen on these forums.

[KiffTay]

@billyfresh I've got the same sort of thing. Organic traffic is dropping and Google is reducing the amount of times certain landing pages are shown, even though bounce rate is low, time on site is good and pages per session is generally >4. Conversions are low and this is generally a quiet time of year for us, but we're getting plenty of non converting visitors through AdWords too. It's frustrating.

[billyfresh]

100% agree "the greed is real" just stopped my Adwords this morning after been a customer with them for 7 years. Google ads no longer convert. Trying out Bing ads and Facebook ads to see what happens.

[billyfresh]

@kiffTay I recommend you look at different traffic sources because it seems to be only getting worse using Google Adwords. I have already mentioned on this forum Adwords used to convert great but now really poor quality traffic and conversions.

[KiffTay]

I will do. Thanks for the heads up.

[masterjoe]

My traffic has increased by about 30% over the last few days, still zero conversions. Keywords remain the same. This is a very serious issue that's being swept under the rug and still no explanation for it other than Google clearly ripping off adwords users and funneling organic traffic elsewhere. Perhaps Barry at searchengineroundtable might be able to make it more of an issue if more users speak up about it here.

[SEOcomfort]

seen about a 10% increase in traffic, rankings slightly increased, conversions still the same. every day at around 3pm I get my handful of conversions for the day.

[mrengine]

Perhaps Barry at searchengineroundtable might be able to make it more of an issue if more users speak up about it here.

Barry posts here and does have a submit news story on his site. Maybe utilizing one of those channels would produce a more desirable and quicker outcome? I don't go to Google's forums, but maybe that would be a good place to bring greater awareness to the problem. Because as you said, it is a serious issue.

[Martin Ice Web]

Because as you said, it is a serious issue.

for googles site of view, there is no issue. siteowners pay for traffic. they must be very happy about it while tons of money come in. So why should they take this as a serious problem?

Donīt get me wrong, it is a serious problem but only for us.

[Jez123]

Donīt get me wrong, it is a serious problem but only for us.

And the searcher. I still don't understand where the actual customer is going. If they are all going to Amazon / eBay then this can't be good for google or customer. Customer will be bored with lack of diversity and quality and google loses another chunk of searchers to eventually just use Amazon / eBay search?

[Martin Ice Web]

@Jez123,

my last oberservations when a was talking to poeple about online shopping was: go to amazon and compare price on some engines.
NONE of the poeple ever talked about going to google for online shopping!

And this is what i see in my sales stats. private sales are going down and down, while business sales are at a steady state, while businesses are likely not buy at amazon.
Amazon IS number 1 for shopping, like google is number 1 for (local) informational searches.

googles way of showing ads in a price pidding system is a bad way for users to get the best price. Higher prices follow higher bids, thats simple math. The shops that sale the items for a much more better price donīt have the money to bid this high ad prices.

google is loosing ground for private shopping searches and will continue to loose. Forced by their own silly domain crowding to put amazon 6 or 7 times in a row for shopping searches? What will you think as a user?

[Martin Ice Web]

i forgot:

i think that the zombies are currently shopping users who do not know how the thing they want to buy is called. Or they have a problem and donīt know what to buy to fix the problem. After finding this information on our sites by using google they will buy it on amazon.

[masterjoe]

Okay... I don;t know what happened but I have DOUBLE my usual traffic today. I did have a string of sales from 1 single user, but its still far below the conversions I would normally have for this much traffic.

[ecommerceprofit]

* i think that the zombies are currently shopping users who do not know how the thing they want to buy is called. Or they have a problem and donīt know what to buy to fix the problem. After finding this information on our sites by using google they will buy it on amazon *

This is not it. While what you say is correct - I'm sure this is happening...this is not the zombie problem. Keep in mind that the zombie problem is off and on...when on conversions are just like they were before being put in the zombie box (I was put in box in Sept...others were put in the box starting in 2011). Once in the box though...some days traffic is normal and then all of the sudden traffic is pretty much turned off (organic and ads)...not just a little off but big time off and then all of the sudden comes back on and is normal....so your theory is incorrect "when related to the zombie problem" Note: when I say on and off this is not one hour on one hour off but long periods...from say 15 hours to 30 hours maybe.

Your theory makes sense when zombies are not mentioned and your previous post about Amazon domain crowding is absolutely right. As a customer I buy from Amazon first...I sort of check Google but not much anymore...Amazon does a great job - my wife gets angry with me because of all the pain Bezos and company put my family through but I figure he's already rich anyway...my life is made simpler as a consumer...not messing around buying from them - great service - reviews, price (usually) - why go to Google...sad but it's true...no bias in that comment...

Sorry everyone who is a tech / nerd but usually these types have major egos...Google is missing the boat here...their ego is catching up to them and they will soon (5 years) become irrelevant...by giving Amazon and other big businesses too much love they are alienating webmasters (who have different issues than me) and, in my case, store owners like myself. I'm not smarter than the executives than Google....just saying they need to check their egos.

[SEOcomfort]

@masterjoe My traffic is up about 60% today as well and conversions are up slightly.

[masterjoe]

SEOcomfort that's great news. I am pleased with the traffic spike, but I really haven't seen anything substantial in conversions either. It seems like just the sheer number of visitors has increased with little in quality. Interesting times. Maybe Penguin is about to drop?

[sqimul]

For me, I've Around 20% traffic down right now

[Jez123]

For me, I've Around 20% traffic down right now

Same here. Wednesday's always a bit slow with Thursday usually even slower but it's down on the last few weeks - as was yesterday.

[mrengine]

masterjoe, it looks like Barry has taken notice with the spike in zombie traffic at [seroundtable.com...] It might be a good idea for people dealing with zombies here to add some USEFUL info to Barry's post since he was kind enough to cover the problem.

[SEOcomfort]

@masterjoe Conversions haven't increased with the traffic increase on my site either. I am not sure if this is Penguin related. I don't think it is based most of my traffic increase is through my site blog and not product pages. I know the site bought a small amount of links about 6-7 years ago and I have either removed those links or disavowed them. I figured if Penguin has been released then my product pages would be showing an uptick in traffic as well.

[ecommerceprofit]

mrengine - that was great to see Barry commenting - I did my part and wrote a detailed post. I hope others comment too...especially Simon. Simon is quite analytical and level headed.

[engine]

Can I suggest that you document in here the times and dates so that we can build and identify patterns?

I'd suggest using UTC/GMT to specific times, frequencies, counties, traffic status, zombie status, etc. Without some of these details it's very difficult to button it down to events and changes.