Google Updates and SERP Changes - August 2016

[Jez123]

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System: The following 11 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4811319.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 9:11 am on Aug 2, 2016 (PDT -8)

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It seems to me that whatever happened over the weekend / last week has now rolled back. My positions were quite mixed up with some gains and some losses but traffic up overall. And sales were great. I am now seeing the results I have had for months again. It's too soon to tell is sales / conversions are on or off yet. Is anyone else seeing that?

[BushieTop]

@martinice - I cant get my head around this at all. Our rank doesn't seem to change dramatically, but conversions were great Monday through Wednesday. Today we're seeing a 20% drop......

[Jez123]

The funny thing is that we don't see such fluctuations in SERPS as we see changes in traffic.

I'd say that's a fair summary! I would add to that that traffic volume doesn't always change but quality of traffic does.

[glakes]

I cant get my head around this at all. Our rank doesn't seem to change dramatically, but conversions were great Monday through Wednesday. Today we're seeing a 20% drop......

Possibly a new and improved zombie pattern? LOL

I'm seeing the same thing as everyone else. Today's Google traffic is terrible. It's a real shame that the market leader in search can't seem to provide a stable and productive set of search results that matches their traffic with ecommerce sites except for the select few Google is in bed with (ie. Amazon). The on and off conversion patterns, if nothing else, are a major indication that Google is unstable and unreliable from a small business point of view. Yet people keep spending more and more on Adwords to find stable sales and there is no stability there either.

[masterjoe]

Another pure zombie day. Sales down 90% from August 1-2.

[BushieTop]

90% Jeez! This is just a mess.

[Jez123]

Could the traffic quality be affected by google's autocomplete? I keep noticing that google does not always offer the same autocomplete choices at different times of the day / week. The main change I notice is changing from plural to singular which doesn't make an enormous difference with the SERPs I monitor but if it's all about intent, who knows what google could be showing other serachers. It seems like it's was a masterplan removing referring data!

[BushieTop]

@jez123 we have the complete opposite of that. Derivatives of the same search query return completely different results.

[masterjoe]

The way I see things we'll have to just adapt. Here are a few things I've noticed. This is not scientific by any means, but I think regularly posting fresh content or editing/improving older content may have some positive effects. I notice that weeks where I post more content I seem to attract a lot more buyers than zombie traffic from new sources. I've had this happen on numerous occasions. Another thing to keep an eye on is keeping your SEO game tight. Links die off naturally, and you should always be hustling for quality. Regardless of if you think this is blackhat or not.

With all the space being taken up by more and more ads, were all responsible for getting as much visibility as we can. You can either take advantage while we can still make money (even though the bar is raised even higher), or we can just hope that things change until the entry into online cashflow is far too restricted and you're pushed out completely by massive businesses.

[Martin Ice Web]

@BushieTop, a main problem is that we as webmasters or ecom owners are used to search in other ways than the user does search items.
As i search for my items i will see only small changes, because i search directly for what i was optimizing my site for. Users tend to search more fuzzy or widely.
And i think that JEz123 is right with his guess that the autocomplet function is one of the biggest problem.

1. Poeple are lazy and take the very first offer from google autocomplet ( or suggest functions). I myself turned it of, because it was missleading me to much and i was getting to sites i would not think they have something in comon with my search term -> i was a Zombie though.

2. google changes words or is looking for similar words used in the query. That is imo not a good way.

If google changes point 1 or 2 your will immediatly take notice of it. Remeber that only about 20% are new queries!
Think of google having stop words like BUY, Shop, cheap ... itīs easy to show them other results.

Remember that google is a stock company. They will do everything for money. But they do a wonderfull job in flying under the radar and keep saying that all the bad stuff they are doing is just in interest of the users.

[mgerace]

My site just got rolled back too - back to 30% of conversions.

Do other websites gain from this rollback? Is it a zero sum game?

Or is it just Google that gains, and all websites suffer the same fate with low quality traffic?

I think the later - Google know what they're doing.

[BushieTop]

@mgerace - This is what confuses me too. Everyone seems to be losing.

@martinIce - i agree in parts, but alot of our losses are down to a simple case of diminished visibility.

[glakes]

This is what confuses me too. Everyone seems to be losing.

Not everyone is losing, though I know what you meant. Google recently reported a massive increase in profits, and as Martin Ice Web noted Google has shareholders to please.

I notice that weeks where I post more content I seem to attract a lot more buyers than zombie traffic from new sources.

I've posted new content as well, and my zombie pattern remained unchanged. And for specialized ecommerce sites, new content may not be feasible unless inventory changes, new products are added, etc. For example, I am launching some new products soon and it takes months to bring them to market after the products are ready to sell. We have to do photo shoots, write descriptions (one for our site, one for Amazon), patent applications, etc. When bringing a new product to market, it's tough for a small specialized ecommerce business to be building content because that new content mostly revolves around new product.

What happened August 1st with Google was without a doubt a 100% temporary release from the zombie pattern. Traffic quality, pages viewed, conversions, etc. all closely resembled that of the days before "Z DAY" in September of 2015 (when we first saw zombies). Google used to switch to a more ecommerce friendly set of search results for holidays. With school starting there is a lot of back to school shopping going on, and who knows if what we saw is related. All I can say is Google has become very unstable and incapable of matching buyers with ecommerce sites outside of Amazon. From my perspective, if Google's artificial intelligence is powering these ecommerce search queries it needs to be unplugged. Adwords, which was once a great advertising platform, has also become useless in terms of generating quality traffic - if you can get beyond the overly complex setting options that require a Phd to master when the most basic function we as advertisers want (getting buyers to our sites) can't be achieved regardless of settings.

[samwest]

I was going to stay out of this because things were doing very well, considering. However, yesterday three weeks of positive rate came to an end. In the beginning of July, traffic started to increase and amazingly, conversions were following at a slower, but more regular rate. Today traffic dropped back to virtual goose egg territory. Haven't compared to previous data yet.

[masterjoe]

Conversions have been off since apart from the beginning of August, is it a coincidence that it was EOFY? It's been almost a year and none of us have figured how or why this even occurs. I've had my suspicions with all sorts of things now, including ad positioning, long tail keywords, and more... but nobody has come up with an undeniable explanation so far.

As far as I know Simon got told that he had a case of Penguin from John Mueller, I don't recall reading anything about these zombie patterns since then when he asked about it directly... JM also claimed he wasn't aware of any such thing and that he'd pass it along to the engineers, which was months ago. There is a lot of obfuscation in terms of keyword rankings, and [not provided] keywords, all of which is highly suspicious to anybody in marketing. Adwords stays off until I see conversions happening in organic, because that has been the most reliable indicator so far that I won't be shovelling money into Google's tax evading bank account for zero ROI.

[mgerace]

I have Google Adsense on my site, so the increase in revenue for me was also an increase in revenue for Google. But this obviously isn't a major factor for Google.

I'm thinking (like others have said previously) that Google have more to gain by sending low quality traffic, so users jump from one site to another because they can't find what they're looking for. For me, this is the only explanation.

[EditorialGuy]

Our traffic dipped a bit in late July (as it always does) and is now going back up as it builds towards its usual secondary peak in August. Affiliate revenue has been way up in the past week or so, also as usual for this time of year. No zombies, no Google trying to bless us or screw us, just the normal seasonal pattern.

[BushieTop]

@EditorialGuy - you're blessed to have the usual seasonal pattern......

[ecommerceprofit]

Yes editorialguy, you are lucky to not have this problem.

[EditorialGuy]

you're blessed to have the usual seasonal pattern....

To paraphrase an old saying, "Familiarity breeds content[ment]," but in any case, I shared my observations because (1) that's the purpose of this thread, and (2) it's important for people to know that few experiences are universal. For everyone who complains about zombies or low-quality Google traffic, there's probably someone else who's profiting nicely from Google traffic.

That brings us to a couple of obvious questions:

- Why are some site owners awash in zombies and low-quality traffic while others aren't?

- What are the characteristics that distinguish victims from non-victims?

[glakes]

you're blessed to have the usual seasonal pattern......

you are lucky to not have this problem.

He's a MFA publisher. If we plopped Adsense on our sites too Google may send clickers because they apparently can't send buyers for any great length of time.

I see Mozcast is reporting 91 degrees yesterday. Other SERP monitors confirm the flux as well. This would explain the return to deadbeat traffic that Google likes to send.

[seohhh]

As much as I take algo flux tools like Mozcast with a grain of salt, every time Mozcast is over 90 degrees lately we experience much better sales, conversions, and revenue that day. The rest of the time, sales are average or less than the previous year. Are others seeing better/worse performance on days with more SERP volatility?

[ecommerceprofit]

What you said below is an excellent point. I think Google may keep it random (only some sites affected) to make it harder to prove (if they are doing on purpose...I am not saying for sure they are) and to increase ad costs for merchants with low cost per conversion expense. Remember this happens with organic and adwords. I am speaking from an e-commerce prospective. Remember this only happens with Google...not other traffic. My theory is it's either a problem Google is trying to fix...John Mueller asked for data and some sent it to Google. Where is John Mueller's response?

or Google wants to raise ad costs. Mix non-converting ad traffic with non-converting organic traffic so the problem looks natural. The web site owners who do not know about zombies / conversion data pay higher ad costs while maybe 25% turn off ads during zombie days...great win for Google.

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That brings us to a couple of obvious questions:

- Why are some site owners awash in zombies and low-quality traffic while others aren't?

- What are the characteristics that distinguish victims from non-victims?

[RedBar]

He's a MFA publisher.

MFA as in Made For AdSense?

If so, no he's not, his site has been around successfully since 1996, all the content is unique and self-produced.

Have you got an alternative meaning for MFA of which I am not aware?

[glakes]

Are others seeing better/worse performance on days with more SERP volatility?

Great sales on Monday (Mozcast 95 Degrees) and then dead for the rest of the week, including today so far. One very good converting day out of two flux days is better than nothing, but will I see a second day of conversions this week? If not, maybe Google is sending out more zombies. Total traffic remains consistent and conversions from non-Google owned/operated properties remains normal.

MFA as in Made For AdSense?

If so, no he's not, his site has been around successfully since 1996, all the content is unique and self-produced.

Have you got an alternative meaning for MFA of which I am not aware?

Made for ads - revenue derived without commerce performed on the site. The length of time online and whether content is unique and self produced has no bearing on how it is monetized.

[samwest]

This past week was a great for detecting that common pattern with many site reporting the exact same behavior on the exact days. This week started on fire, but then just sputtered. This would indicate something working in unison on a mass scale...but what? I don't think the Olympics getting that much attention.

[samwest]

Ah, maybe it is the Olympics... [google.com...]

[EditorialGuy]

Made for ads - revenue derived without commerce performed on the site. The length of time online and whether content is unique and self produced has no bearing on how it is monetized.

Uh....no. Real information sites aren't "made for ads." Some information sites have ads, some have affiliate links (another form of advertising), and some are supported by the owners' trust funds or day jobs. IMHO. the test of whether a site is a "made for ads" or "made for AdSense" site is what's left over after you remove the ads. Is it editorial content that's intrinsically useful to the reader, or is it filler?

I'd also point out that information sites, other than hobby or personal sites, also depend on conversions to one degree or another. (Two examples: Affiliate links that generate commissions only if the traffic from those links converts, and AdSense CPC ads that may be "smartpriced" if the publisher's referrals convert poorly.)

But we're getting off topic. Again, what is it that distinguishes sites that are awash in zombie or "low-quality" Google traffic and those that aren't?

[hasek747]

If so, no he's not, his site has been around successfully since 1996, all the content is unique and self-produced.

"unique and self produced" doesn't cut it anymore. Is his 1996 content actually useful and better than most of the 2016 content out there?

[glakes]

But we're getting off topic. Again, what is it that distinguishes sites that are awash in zombie or "low-quality" Google traffic and those that aren't?

Using your site as an example, it is content monetized with ads. Most of the others here complaining about zombies, that don't have such great success as you, actually manufacture and/or sell goods. Big difference, especially when our sites are not monetized in such a way that our goal is to send people off to other sites to make money. Big, big difference there.

Maybe we could get rid of zombies if we created a private blog network and interlink our sites like you have done. Since your site can't rank on its own merits and needs the help of a private blog network, maybe ours does too? Or maybe your site is just an intermediary to other sites via adsense/affiliate clicks so the quality of your Google traffic does not matter much to prompt someone to click far, far and away from your site?

[SnowMan68]

Noticed the spike in Mozcast Temps. The constant flip flopping of data sets over the last week has finally stuck for about 12 hours. Seems like the update may have finally pushed.