Google Updates and SERP Changes - March 2017

[andymorris]

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System: The following 3 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4834186.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 11:19 am on Mar 2, 2017 (PDT -8)

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CTR and position going up on the 28th, not to the december and january levels, but slowly up. Was doing an average of 6000 clicks from search, and on the 28th it got past 1000 for the first time since early feb.

[jambam]

@snickles121 Dmca doesnt affect rankings. If you file a dmca request and get copyright infringing url removed the person just needs to change the url slightly redirect and the copyright content is back up ranking exactly where it was. Essentally the site is still ranking google has just "display:none"'ed it so to speak... thus dmca usless if someone if ranking above you for your content ebcause they are still getting the credit in google eyes.

:) I know, there swines.

[linkbuildr]

Canadian blog, 5+ years, never link building and all original content for this area. Site loads way fast, it's mobile friendly and all that good stuff. I have the best and only content on the subject and now Pinterest posts are outranking the content...and they're not even related pins. Nice one Google.

[Pav13]

After my research about this issue,
the first thing I noticed that many sites with stolen content are ranking better than the original sites. In my case for a specific keyword I rank much lower than the site which copied my content. Even the images have my site's watermark on them.
The second thing is that sites with only adsense ads are ranking better than sites with more than one ad companies like amazon etc. I may be a little suspicious but the ad companies competition is constantly growing.
Of course I can't be sure about these and perhaps we are just victims of the algorithm update. I don't think that we can do anything about it.

[renatovieira]

Things are a little strange today.

Checking out my Google Real-Time, I see spikes of large traffic flow followed by big drops, practically coming to stagnate at zero active users on my site.

One more day when Google engineers get us to dance. :-(

Tourism, USA

[thejimster]

@linkbuildr "never link building..."

Got it.

[NickMNS]

@Pav13

The second thing is that sites with only adsense ads are ranking better than sites with more than one ad companies like amazon etc. I may be a little suspicious but the ad companies competition is constantly growing.

Or maybe... it is because once you have placed a few Adsense ads on the page, followed by some Media.net and then few Amazon links, there is no more room for content.

[nonstop]

some more info on this here:

[searchengineland.com...]

and here:

[seroundtable.com...]

i've never had any dodgy links, only natural

[Pav13]

@NickMNS

My friend It's better to talk for yourself and stop wondering what I might have done! And no I didn't do anything like that!
And you know what? I had the same attitude with people who lost their rankings, just because I didn't. Hope you never taste it...

[NickMNS]

@Pav13

1- I am not your friend.
2- I am not making any sort of comment about anything that you have done on your site specifically, as I have no idea what your site looks like, nor do I care.
3- You are making the claim that Google is conspiring against websites that use other monetization methods than Adsense. I am countering that claim based on the simple logic that a site that uses multiple ad networks has a higher probability of being a MFA site than at site the chooses to implement just one ad network.

If you feel that more ads and less content is a better user experience, that is your opinion. But it is not shared by the vast majority of users.

Moreover there are plenty of threads with input from many other WW contributors here that show that fewer, well placed ads outperform sites stuffed with ads and affiliate links. When I write outperform I mean both in terms of search performance and revenue.

I have tasted drops in rankings, and I have endured. The key being to put user's first and build great content. And yes I know this corny, and lame and this isn't a magic solutions and worst of all it require a lot hard work. But it is the only solution that has worked for me.

[mosxu]

We all put user first and also create great content

Problem: There are too many of us and we are all on the dark

Result?

[sharpo]

if google now be less value to the normal backlink?

[reseller]

Just wish to mention that Search Engine Tools Algoroo and RankRanger are showing high fluctuations today Mar 9, 2017

[reseller]

Maybe the current Google Algorithm Update of Mar 8, 2017 is hitting websites which have been subject for over-optimization (too many SEO improvements) :)

[mosxu]

Too many SEO improvements?

We rank higher than ever after these updates but no increase in revenue which means we rank higher for invalid traffic probably

[srinivaskatam]

Big Google Algorithm Update any one noticed changes on your website rankings.

[RedBar]

Typical Google ... As an old girlfirend used to say ... What a right royal FU!

Kids playing with stuff they haven't a freakin' clue about, it's been like this for years, pathetic.

I WANT one of these jobs!

[glakes]

Kids playing with stuff they haven't a freakin' clue about, it's been like this for years, pathetic.

What I've always found interesting is how many pages that rank in the top three simply disappear completely after these updates, sometimes being found on page five and beyond. With this in mind its clear that none of these updates really address quality because many of the pages I'm talking about did not deserve to rank so well nor what Google has replaced them with. Host crowding, stolen content outranking the originals, etc. merely shows how flawed Google's algorithm is when even the most basic components of a page (ie. the uniqueness of its original source) gets overlooked. Good pages should never lose so many search positions, yet it is commonplace with these updates and nobody really questions why. Sadly many have come to see stolen content outranking the originals as commonplace. Google has a lot of work to do, and they really need to get back to the basics IMO.

[AhusonZ]

60% drop in one night, 10 year old website all natural links...

[browndog]

This is absolutely terrifying, as in losing the house type scenario.

15 year old site, have been working full time adding new content and improving old content close to 7 days a week for the past year. This update has cost me 20% of my traffic overnight, which was already 30% down from the grand old days of 2012 despite all the new content that's been added since then.

I have never engaged in link building, always believing that good quality content will bring in natural links. Any dodgy links aren't my doing. Why do they penalise for that?

I'm watching the site in real time via analytics, and it's awful. What have they done? Honestly, I wish Google would just ignore all links, good and bad.

[Nugom]

All I can say is that you're not the only one. Lost like 60% of my traffic on several websites. No backlinks, natural SERP for 4 years going up slowly, serving thousands of visitors each day with useful information and now all the work is gone. I got replaced with some spammy low quality websites. Don't know what Google is doing these days.. but aren't they supposed to do the opposite?

It's just sad.

[reseller]

Another relevant post from Search Engine Roundtable of Mar 9, 2017 :
Google Fred Update: Big Google Algorithm Update Links Related [seroundtable.com...]

[ionguy]

nice! 300-400 uniques per day; 10 yrs old website; no black hat; 1000s happy customers; natural links; unique content written by me and few employers (sadly i had to fired weeks|months ago becasue onging zombie useless traffic); and from 14 hrs all im getting is 3-4 unique zombies per hour; 3-4 f&%$ing totally useless vists; im wondering what i can do with all these 3-4 f&%$rs? yeah, i know, i invite them all for my website funeral fest;
thank you google for killing my business; you did it extremly fast after 2 years of playing with zombie traffic you send to my website;

i wish you all the best guys; it was a big pleasure to meet you and to could speak with you at forum; i now have to focus on something new......

and finally I wish all the worse to all f&%$rs from google;

ps. dear moderators i appology for uncensored content; hope you understand my frustration;

[nonstop]

my traffic is down today still

[laocoi]

Vietnam, nothing change in today, still lost 50% traffic. :( My website don't use any black hat SEO techniques

[nonstop]

a lot of innocent webmasters have been hit by this update,

my theory is:

Google have devalued some of the natural backlinks we have been getting over time. A combination of all these devaluations even slightly has impacted our sites massively.

Those that have been actively getting links to their sites probably have better link profiles and so they didn't notice a drop.

Or maybe we all had the wrong sites linking to us, Goolge have devalued them and we were unlucky.


a lot of people are reporting that spammy / rubbishy sites have replaced their positions on Google. These sites are probably the kind that are actively engaging in SEO and probably do have a better link profile.


if this is true:

It means that Google still values links more than good quality content and the strategy of building a great site that people will link to naturally doesn't work.


Just a theory!

[seoyandira]

@Vens + How do you to get all that sir? i love know how ...

[vens]

Hi seoyandira,

I understand your question not quite, what do you want to know exactly?

[masterjoe]

I have been checking rankings for some top performing keywords, the most obvious thing is that there are far more answer boxes on all of them... a lot from complete spam websites that are obviously part of PBN's. They are written monotonously, and are most likely spun from elsewhere. I also noticed Amazon taking up several spots on answer boxes as well as several results below in organic SERPs. Way to go Google.

[rustybrick]

It would be very interesting if people who got hit by 'fred' would post the type (affiliate, e-comm, blog, etc) and category (sports, news, adult, etc) of their web site.

[renatovieira]

@rustybrick

Tourism, USA - Website with four years old. I've always been in the top positions on the first page. Today I am on the fourth page.

I see my competitors with more than one URL in the top positions after these latest updates. One of them has five URLs on the first page for a term. For my niche this never happened.