Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2016

[Robert Charlton]

Continuing from:
Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2016
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4798794.htm [webmasterworld.com]


Mod's note: In the April thread, Simon_H did an excellent job of saying something that needed to be said about off-topic discussion in the Google Updates and SERP Changes thread....

Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of Google's business ethics, moaning about it on here is counter-productive. When SER covered zombie traffic recently, there was a backlash of the type "it's just another conspiracy theory from the idiots at WebmasterWorld". That's very difficult to argue against.

If you believe that there's no hope because Google hates you, then there's no point posting on here about it. If you believe that there is hope, then try posting unemotional details of what you're seeing and we can collectively try to work out what is going on.

We try to keep the Updates thread primarily about ranking and traffic changes. The point of the thread is that by comparing changes, we can sometimes see patterns with Google that are not otherwise clear, and give those topics dedicated discussions when a pattern is observed.

[Shepherd]

The point of the thread is...

lost.

[Shai]

Things are getting very turbulent today. We run ranking checks every 2 hours on certain days and today we are seeing wild swings almost across the board.

[renatovieira]

@samwest LOL LOL LOL - You killed my question I have since last year.

Sadly desktop users are fading. Mobile users growing every year and do not consume sites, only stores, apps and social networks.

Web future?

PS: Google, beware. The day that Facebook expand its engine out of the social network, game over for you.

[samwest]

@shep, was it ever "found"?

[Shaddows]

Something pretty big happened in our neck of the woods at some point between 15:00-16:00 (GMT+1 - British Summer Time).

No insight as yet, just... pretty big.

[wgchris]

No conversions for almost 14 days, 4 conversions in the last 12 hours.

[NickMNS]

Mozcast is reporting 97 for yesterday. I have been seeing a slow but steady increase in traffic over the last two weeks, but I doubt it is related.

[samwest]

No big changes in the US Midwest other than it just keeps getting slower. Headed to a new record low for the week. Pizza money will soon be Mac n Cheese money. It's time to admit we've been outclassed and outfoxed by big money sites and mobile. We may have been valued content in the beginning, but when word spread of gold in them there hills, the free web was doomed. Corporate control is finally in full force. Bigger is always better, right?

[EditorialGuy]

No big changes for us. Just the usual slight week-over-week rise, which is typical for this time of year.

[3zero]

Something pretty big happened in our neck of the woods at some point between 15:00-16:00 (GMT+1 - British Summer Time).

Was it the teddy bears picnic ?

[highlander888]

"PS: Google, beware. The day that Facebook expand its engine out of the social network, game over for you."

I do wonder why Facebook has never taken on Google before, probably a hidden deal to divide up the world!

[hasek747]

No changes here. 8 websites (not e-commerce). Q2 so far pretty much identical to Q2 last year, which in turn was significantly better than Q2 in 2014. A bit more than usual fluctuations in daily traffic but it's not affecting income.

[vlexo]

I posted this originally on my blog, but without breaking the rules, here's a post from The SEM Post:
[thesempost.com...]

Google has increased the width of the listings within the organic search results. Impacts Featured Snippets, Title tags, and other SERP features. Update occurred on the 4th of May, 2016.

[engine]

I thought I was seeing things when titles looked different a couple of days ago.

[Robert Charlton]

On the title length, it appears that a number of people mentioned it about the same time. In addition to vlexo, we should add Shepherd, who posted about it in this thread on May 10....

Seeing some, maybe testing, changes in the serps display. For me the listings (ads and organics) on the first 2 pages are wider than normal. 3rd page and on they go back to the more narrow results.

[EditorialGuy]

I do wonder why Facebook has never taken on Google before, probably a hidden deal to divide up the world!

If you're referring to search, I think the answer is pretty simple: Creating a competitive search engine isn't a trivial effort. IMHO, Facebook Search would be to search what Google+ is to social networks.

[Jez123]

I'm seeing loads of movement today in the UK. I am loathe to say it but ... Penguin?

[engine]

I'm still seeing domain crowding in the SERPs. It looks messy, and just, Why?

[Shepherd]

Looks like google is testing the spacing between the results (organic and paid), adding more space between the results.

Also interesting is, like with the tests with the width, it is only on the first 2 pages (10 results per page), testing stops after 2nd page, third page and on is normal.

[NickMNS]

I am also seeing some strange results. For a desktop search of my own domain, page 1, position 1 my domain with 8 site-links, then 5 five more blue links, no ads. Page 2, only 5 links and two ads at the bottom. Page 3 back to normal, 10 links no ads.

[purplekitty]

I'm seeing something significant in my industry. I rely on referral traffic from social media and directories/communities linking to my content.

On May 4th, I noticed in my WMT a huge bump up in referrals, then a drop in referral traffic over the next couple of days from a major and popular community in my niche (typically 4,000-5,000 users on at any given time). The referral traffic has remained relatively flat since then, and I'm getting about 25% of the referrals that I previously had been getting on my two sites in this industry. It looks like the individual pages within this community have been devalued by google.

I've also noticed that my referral traffic from pinterest has steadily picked up and my backlinks from pinterest have increased x3 over the last couple of months, but the linked pages are just increasing at a normal rate. So it looks like Google has changed something big about pinterest and based on the anchor text I'm seeing for links to my site, pinterest back links anchor text have taken over the top 20 spots (approximately) with the phrase "learn more at mywebsitename.com" in multiple languages. (i.e. For one of my sites, on 2/16/16 I showed approximately 100,000 pinterest backlinks for 1,600 pages; today I have approximately 600,000 pinterest backlinks for 1,800 pages.)

[edited by: purplekitty at 3:18 pm (utc) on May 14, 2016]

[renatovieira]

Zombies or low-quality mobile. There are hundreds of them right now.

No one moves.

Getting worse daily.

Pathetic.

[EditorialGuy]

Our "average position" (as reported by Google Search Console's Search Analytics) has climbed by a full position over the last week.

That may or may not mean anything: We often see slight ups and downs over the course of a week or month (though not a complete position, as a rule).

[robzilla]

I'm still seeing domain crowding in the SERPs. It looks messy, and just, Why?

I'm seeing more of this, too, but find it hard to complain about now being #2, #3 and #4 for one of my more popular search phrases (the top 10 results here consist of only 6 unique domains).

[samwest]

Just found some depressing trends in ahrefs heat map data. Over the past 3 months #1 positions have eroded over 30%. #11 (#1 on page two) and + has increased enough to show orange on the chart. Although the 4/27 update was supposed to be related to reports only, it shows a large drop in organic traffic on that day that corresponds to the heat map loss of page one positions. I wonder if this is happening across the board? Also, wonder if they'll ever be a change other than sideways or down.

[blend27]

RE: domain crowding

Etsy is starting to eat Amazon`s and EBay`s BLD(breakfast, lunch and dinner) in GOOG SERP for the niche I watch:

On page 1 = 3-4 Ads, GOOG Image or a local none existent company(thin content with the address in NYC, the actual building was demolished 9 month ago, domain registered to someone in Aruba), + TOP 3 Etsy, 1 ebay, 1 amazon, and a few fly by stranglers.

Page 2: More Ads, Pinterest and Pinterest UK outperforming with up to 7 links to their properties.

Anything 3 words and up.

At lease FB junk is gone now....

For the past 2 weeks I get no more that 3 visitors from GOOG, yes that effing Bad :(,

Small US Based ECom store, 300+ unique visitors per day last year this time, up to a 1000 3 years ago - a day. I am talking about clean traffic here, no bots/zombies. Zombies are up to 10 a day.

Good thing I've invested in a local liqueur store a few years ago.... ;)

[aristotle]

blend27 -- Sorry that happened to you.

Google is really messed up now, so badly that they might never be able to fix it. The dominance of sites like amazon, etsy, and pinterest is just one of the symptoms. It's small site owners and users that are paying the price. Google is doing a lot of harm to the web.

[samwest]

Yup, three Pinterest listings in a row, all same titles. Pass the briefcase partner.

[hasek747]

@samwest

I have multiple listings with the same title on page #1 of Google for some of my most desirable converting keyphrases, and have had them for years. And I'm not passing any briefcases.

[samwest]

@hasek747 - it's silly to assume our sites are being indexed on any sort of equal terms. I'm simply making observations and they won't necessarily fit your work. The "point" of this thread is to compare notes to identify patterns or changes. Difference duly noted. I still hold may #1 positions but eroding. When I refer to the brief case, I'm talking about well VC funded sites with valuations in the billions. How can we compare when our valuation after 15 years of elbow grease is worth a few grand at best. VC is great if you can get it, but it also tilts the playing field so heavily that we are instantly out classed. This is why old M&P sites sink slowly, pushed out by well funded sites that offer feeble content or Google algo issues like domain crowding of the same. Is there a solution? Yes, get some VC. I digress...

Interesting experiment today - I just added my former robots.txt blocked gallery sub directory to sitemaps. There are several thousand pages and not necessarily SEO friendly file names (coppermine). So, once I submitted the site map, my MAIN sitemap's "indexed" number dropped over 30% instantly. Dilution perhaps? Someone claimed that keyword dilution or cannibalization did not exist. It appears to have eaten 30% of the main site. Could be a tool to help find "on the edge" content.