Google Updates and SERP Changes - April 2017

[EditorialGuy]

---

System: The following 5 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4838449.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 12:55 pm on Apr 2, 2017 (PDT -8)

---

We had a noticeable improvement in average Google rankings on the 29th (the most recent date in Google Search Console). Google organic traffic has also been up 6.0 to 9.7 percent for each of the last five days, compared to the same days last week. Another mini-update, maybe? (The changes definitely fall outside our normal week-to-week variations.)

[samwest]

It's the weather...lol

[30K_a_month]

No changes here, 2% drops week on week since Feb, still dropping slowly

[widgetized]

Interesting. The number of visitors in my website / online store is the same as in February, but since March I'm getting a ridiculously low amount of sales. My monthly income has more than halved and I'm starting to feel a bit worried.

Since the beginning of April, I've got an AdWords campaign running to boost sales again, but nothing seems to change at the moment, except that I have even more visitors.

I also switched to HTTPS at the end of February, but nothing unusual happened. In just 1-2 weeks the stats were the same as before (no boosts, no drops).

So, now my question is: what are the "new people" sent by Google doing in my website? Bounce rate has also increased of 5% compared to the previous 12 months. Perhaps another signal that I'm getting the wrong people to visit my website.

[westcoast]

This is just getting ridiculous...

Traffic off another 10% the past couple of days. At the same time, our niche continues to be dominated by a zero-content ad-centric spun website, which has now taken over the #1 primary keyword and all related secondary keywords. The only thing it has going for it is that its name is KEYWORD.FYI. This is completely crazy.

By the way, it appears to me that ".FYI" domains get irrational boosts on other keywords too. Seems to me that Google is giving crazy weight to ".fyi" websites for some reason.

[edited by: westcoast at 4:00 pm (utc) on Apr 10, 2017]

[reseller]

@widgetized

So, now my question is: what are the "new people" sent by Google doing in my website?

It sounds like your website has been visited by "The Zombies" :)

You may wish to visit this thread:

Websites Affected By Zombie Traffic - Observations & Analysis
[webmasterworld.com...]

[mosxu]

@widgetized

Are you seeing in the same time increased competition in adwards ?

[Jori]

@westcoast : that was I said in the past : exact match domains (like keyword.com ...) are getting huge extra boosts. I remember a time when it was penalized...

[andynicky89]

Guys i have a question from a long time ago. Because the problem is still persist i want to ask you this: why after i submit the website again to Google index i see a boost of few pages 1-5 for many keywords, and then the rank drop again. Why is happening like that?

[Jori]

freshness boost ?

[andynicky89]

@Jori is not freshness boost because the page is the same and unchanged for few months. I got penalized by Fred and when i added again the blog to index manually to Google i received some boost and then goes down. This is happening for all my websites penalized or not they receive a boost in 5-10 minutes after submission and then they go down.

[glakes]

So, now my question is: what are the "new people" sent by Google doing in my website? Bounce rate has also increased of 5% compared to the previous 12 months. Perhaps another signal that I'm getting the wrong people to visit my website.

+1 to what reseller said about zombies. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing for you because it seems to be permanent for a number of us. Google's AI is reported to be taken offline and fed data to learn, but from experience it does not learn from GA data that shows a massive increase in bounce rates and drops in conversions. My guess is that Google's AI is more focused on maximizing revenue for Google then anything else.

Traffic is holding steady for me, though conversions are down in all marketplaces and from all search engines. The nice weather has people outside spending money on their lawns and grills - things I should be doing too. :)

[Mentat]

I don't know if it's Fred, something else or just April (nice weather + a lot of holidays in different religions), but for me low traffic + the AdSense crash = another round of layoffs.

[i.imgur.com...]

I see a lot of differences on local SERPS and differences between browsers.
Some of my content seems to be preferred by Asian visitors because of the google autocomplete in their SERP.

[Errioxa]

@Mentat Do you see changes in "Search Analytics" from Google Search Console? I'm noticing big changes when I compare Desktop rankings Vs Mobile rankings

[imgur.com...]

[Mentat]

My site has mobile version, but the content is not for mobile, so usually, I get 95% visits from desktop.

[browndog]

Anybody else seeing an upswing in traffic? Not sure if it's another rollout or something else.

I have been so burned out the past few days I couldn't write, so decided to go through every page on my site add alt tags if missing (in about 20% of the pages) but that's about all.

[nickchernets]

So what are the changes were? I suppose the were not so serious as my rankings even didn't drop

[samwest]

Anybody else seeing an upswing in traffic?

Not since 2008.

[EditorialGuy]

Anybody else seeing an upswing in traffic? Not sure if it's another rollout or something else.

Our Google organic traffic is up 7.22 percent for Monday through Wednesday of this week, compared to the same three days last week, 11.93 percent compared to March 26-29, and 17.41 percent compared to March 20-22.

Caveat: This is the time of year when I expect to see at least some increase in demand for the information we provide.

[andynicky89]

@brucekenway i didn't see any moves today. Algoroo is still normal.

[NickMNS]

It has been mostly flat for me this week, but today I'm seeing an notable upswing, despite having lost an hour's worth of traffic during the overnight hours due to server issues.

[browndog]

Today is horrendous for me. I am hoping it is an Easter thing.

[Mentat]

Easter is here! I can feel it since yesterday.

[Jhurwith]

Beside traffic, are people seeing casual rankings drop?

[EditorialGuy]

In looking at our Google Analytics more carefully, I see a fairly massive increase in Google mobile traffic (26 percent) for the last seven days compared to the previous week. Desktop and tablet were changed only slightly.

Maybe this is another example of Google testing (or beginning to implement?) its "mobile first" search index?

[seroundtable.com...]

[reseller]

I think there is a roll back!

[andynicky89]

@reseller can you give us some screenshots?

[MrBlack]

I woke up this morning to more than double my recent amount of traffic from Google. After lunch it went back to normal for the last couple of weeks...i.e #*$!. Something definitely rolled through Google UK. Whatever it was has now been rolled back.

[EditorialGuy]

Addendum to earlier post:

HUGE increase in Google mobile and tablet traffic today (62 and 53 percent respectively), compared to the same day three weeks ago. In contrast, desktop was down 3.75 percent. (Maybe all the Good Friday church attendees were browsing the Web from the pews?)

[samwest]

Easter is here! I can feel it since yesterday.

Well then this is a totally new and fabricated anomaly to be sure.
From 1999 to 2012 every Easter was completely normal.
9 or 10 sales per day was nothing.

Fast forward to the Stark Fist of Google age and I'm lucky to get one sale all weekend.
People didn't change, but Google sure did.

[iamlost]

Yes, Google has certainly changed. Each and every year.
So have one's competitors. New or improved. Each and every year.
So has one's market behavioural, demographic, geographic, psychographic et al segmentation aka audiences change their needs/wants/desires and associated interactions over time. Each and every year.

So, the million dollar question: what/how has your site changed, in response? Each and every year?

If not, case closed.
If yes, it was, prima fascie, inappropriate and/or insufficient. Do better this time.

Adapt or stagnate or die.
Your choice, your efforts (research, test, improve, deploy; rinse, repeat ad infinitum - the life cycle of any business, online simply suffers from frequency relativity effects).
And, sometimes even the best effort fails, online as off.

"The world isn't fair, Calvin."
"I know Dad, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?"
---Bill Watterson, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury