Google Updates and SERP Changes - October 2016

[Ukonline1]

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System: The following 2 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4817284.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 3:06 am on Oct 1, 2016 (PDT -8)

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Starting to get a bit concerned now. Saw very good improvement in serps on 1st September, then fell back to previous levels/slightly worse on 15th September. Seen slight improvement in one keyword and that's it. GSC shows big spike in pages crawled over last couple of days.

I'm starting to think this is how things are going to remain for me now; and after 2 1/2 years of seriously hard work! I really did expect this Penguin update to be good for us!

[Ukonline1]

@BushieTop

1 Sept - big rise in rankings.
15 Sept - ranking reverted to pre 1 Sept and possibly lower. Remained like this with slight fluctuation until 1 October.
2 October - briefly saw big rise in rankings, only stuck for 15 mins or so.
5 Oct - saw biggest improvement in ranking ever, some 50+. Still not sticking but definitely visible more often when I check my ranking checker.

Rankings do seem to look slightly worse just before the big improvements.

[BushieTop]

"Rankings do seem to look slightly worse just before the big improvements."

Are you referring to Sept 1st here?

Sounds like alot of us are in the same boat... Lets hope we're all on the right side of the fence.

[Ukonline1]

Both Sept 1st and Oct 5th.

[Jez123]

1 Sept - big rise in rankings.
15 Sept - ranking reverted to pre 1 Sept and possibly lower. Remained like this with slight fluctuation until 1 October.

Same for me up to this point and then higher traffic (I'm guessing a boost in rankings) at end of September from 25th to 27th and then a bit lower than the norm after that.

[Shai]

Guys, we are seeing major changes across sites with problematic history. Most are very positive. i think Penguin is actually reaching UK shores! (will post on Penguin thread also)

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by engine. New thread at: google/4821140.htm [webmasterworld.com]
1:00 pm on Oct 6, 2016 (utc +1)

[Ukonline1]

Not seen ranking improvements for 2 hours or so now here in the UK

[lightnb]

We're seeing windows of "normal" traffic in a desert of crappy traffic. The (converting) traffic patterns are completely unnatural. It's like Google realized that they hadn't given OurCompany it's weekly quota yet and turned us on for a bit. Lots of sales, yay! Then after a few hours, they said, "OK, that's enough" and shut us back off. We got a 6 hour burst on Sunday afternoon, a 10 hour burst on Monday from noon to 10pm, then dead two days then a burst from 10AM to noon today, then dead the rest of today. And by "burst", I mean periods of normal conversion traffic, vs periods of no conversions. This is a very unnatural pattern and it didn't start for us until a few days prior to Google Penguin announcement.

[westcoast]

We have seen a steady decline since the date the Penguin update rolled out.

The weirdest part is that it is side-wide. Everything is getting hit equally bad, which is strange for something that in theory is REMOVING site-wide penalties.

Fingers crossed it's going to change direction soon, because the current trajectory is worrying.

[Spiekerooger]

Seeing a rollback here of last two days changes. Two days ago massive domain crowding plus ranking changes, domain crowding gone (on SERP 1) yesterday, ranking changes rolled back today. Germany, ecom. Maybe (hopefully) just a stale data center serving today.

[BushieTop]

@westcoast sorry to hear that.

@spiekerooger we saw exactly the same thing. Domain crowding, us included, which then went to single listings for approximately 8 hours, then back to domain crowding.

I firmly believe they are making additional changes to the algo, hiding behind penguin. Would explain site wide drops and these recurring patterns. We saw a massive drop yesterday after a substantial climb.

[MrBlack]

A little moan....

Traffic from Google today is dire for my 11 year old UK widget price comparison website. It was dire yesterday too but today it is reaching new depths of direness. Although so far G has sent twice as many visitors as yesterday, they are from Europe and Asia.....
It has obviously been affected by the latest roll out of Penguin, although it has never been hit before. Never bought a link or placed a link anywhere myself in my life.

[samwest]

@lightnb - that is a very common problem. I'm on well over a year of solidly "throttled" or "quota" traffic and conversions. Each week is nearly identical in traffic and totally identical in conversions. However, each week is bringing fractionally less traffic and conversion even when we should be seeing a seasonal upswing. 78 months of consecutive losses since MayDay 2010.

6+ years ago I could set my watch by conversion frequency. Not any more.

[Jez123]

There seems to be one data centre that has a really good - and hopefully the one that ends up sticking - set of results for my site. I rarely see it as it flits in and out very fast but when it's in, the traffic is much higher. Is anyone else seeing this?

On the other side of this data centre, all of the other have horrible results for me. Probably worse than pre Penguin.

[renatovieira]

My organic traffic increased from yesterday to now. My main keywords dropped position. This is weird.

Something different is happening. It does not seem Penguin effect.

Tourism, USA

[robster124]

@jez123 - how do you see different google data centres these days? are you purely delineating between mobile / desktop results or through a proxy etc?

[Jez123]

@Robster. I just wait until it cycles round :-) I can usually tell by the traffic surge when the "right" DC is showing.

Out of interest, does anyone remember the old google DC checker tool? What a fabulous tool that was. I wish that was still about. I can't remember what it was called...

[samwest]

Out of interest, does anyone remember the old google DC checker tool? What a fabulous tool that was. I wish that was still about. I can't remember what it was called...

Absolutely, the only way to watch the old Google dance....and in taking it away, just one more way in which they have blinded webmasters.

[lduggan]

We still aren't seeing any significant movement for our Canadian client. Anyone heard of any Canadian recoveries yet?

[linkbuildr]

@lduggan - Canadian tourism here, it's still bizarre. I don't know what to say..

[BushieTop]

Seeing minor regression after an initial surge. We've also had a poor week conversion wise. Still seeing EMAT rule. Noticing some recoveries from other competitors though. Makes me anxious, because we're the grey area in the middle. No spam currently propping us up and no previous Penguin slap to propel us up the SERPs. Someone has to occupy those positions!

[highlander888]

I have had a real rollercoaster week, main site was moving steadily up in the rankings, started to improve beginning of Sept, stood still till Penguin 4, had another week of near daily improvements, starting from page 10, back to bottom of page#3 top of page #2, then start of the week, it vanished down to page #50, no sign of any traffic, everything flat lined all week then yesterday starting improving strongly, and now back to page #3 again.

Very stressful, and the search console shows daily crawl rates of 10 times the historic average. Praying for stability and for it to hold next week.

I changed my site from http to https the week before penguin so wondering if that has caused a glitch in the SERPS

[jambam]

Im seeing so many fake review sites made for just affiliate amazon links nowadays. Everywhere! Yeah its unique content but its trash especially when the person writing it has most very likely never actually even tried the thing that they are writing a review about.

[samwest]

Worst week of the year so far. It never gets better, always worse. It's simply amazing that the ISH, has now become a back country dirt road.
Doesn't help that most of the nation is focused on the Hurricane Mathew and the upcoming political debate / election. I expect to see no improvement until after the election...and only if one particular person wins. Funny how many sites have declined since 2008.

[superclown2]

I've never known such a long period of Google turbulence, and I was around before they were. Is this a permanent feature I wonder?

[System]

This is the monthly Google update thread. If you are looking to ask questions about the long running Google Human Editor program head over to google/4821648.htm [webmasterworld.com] Thanks and happy posting!

[edited by: goodroi at 2:11 pm (utc) on Oct 10, 2016]

[seohhh]

Couldn't agree more y'all, which is why I'm getting out of the SEO game myself. I'll still hang around the forum and the SERP update thread but my job will no longer be hanging in the balance as a result of Google's turbulence.

[edited by: goodroi at 2:16 pm (utc) on Oct 10, 2016]
[edit reason] Splitting monthly update posts from human editor discussion [/edit]

[samwest]

What is also happening is the money begets money principle.

Money always wins. Apparently Google does not mind losing 10,000 webmasters who spend $1,000 (or less....or zero) per month when there are hundreds of well funded shadowy outlets eager to spend $100,000 or more per month at $5+ cpc. Simply money cornering the web. It's eyebrow raising when I see those amounts thrown around, especially when the landing page is nowhere related to the query. Ever notice that?

One more thing...SOT: Anyone experiencing slower than normal internet speeds and tons of browser lags and crashes lately? I spent all of yesterday troubleshooting and rebooting. 10 wasted man hours. Appears to be happening on all my systems.

[BushieTop]

Seeing further slumps today.

[edited by: goodroi at 2:16 pm (utc) on Oct 10, 2016]
[edit reason] Splitting monthly update posts from human editor discussion :) [/edit]

[Robert Charlton]

For human editor discussion, see...

Google Human Editors - Common Misunderstandings
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4821648.htm [webmasterworld.com]