Google Updates and SERP Changes - May 2017

[reseller]

---

System: The following 5 messages were cut out of thread at: https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4842918.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 4:18 am on May 2, 2017 (PDT -8)

---

Last month April 2017 hasn't been a nice month to webmasters as far as Google Algorithm Updates and SERPs fluctuations are concerned. There are several WebmasterWorld friends who have lost big portions of their organic traffic. If you just take a look at RankRanger's Google SERP Fluctuations chart you would notice dates of medium to high levels of fluctuations on April 17th, April 20th, April 25th, April 29th and April 30th. Those are just indications of the "volatile SERPs environment" of April 2017.

I'm just wondering what would the current month brings us of Google Algorithm Updates surprises :)

Personally I wish to see on this thread happy posts reporting recoveries and the return of at least parts of what have been lost of Google organic traffic during the latest few months. Let's hope so :)

[reseller]

As far as Google Algorithm Updates are concerned; we shouldn't expect ALL websites to be affected by a specific Algorithm Update.

During Algorithm Updates, it's very usual that we witness here on WebmasterWorld some friends posting about loss or gain in ranking or/and organic traffic, while the other members remain unaffected.

Welcome to the real world of Google Updates and SERP Changes :)

[Cralamarre]

@Jori So you're saying that in some cases, more than 30% of a page's traffic came from keywords other than the main ones? I guess that would explain why I'm still seeing most of my pages ranking in the same top spots on Google when I search for their main keywords. And, it might also explain why my Adsense earnings and membership signups have not shown the same decrease as my traffic. Earnings have been relatively stable even with the traffic drop.

Is your site a blog? I guess blogs and other content-based sites would be affected the most by a drop in long tail.

[EditorialGuy]

Do you mind if I ask which type of website(s) you both run? Are they blogs or something different?

Information site (not a blog), with an emphasis on in-depth editorial content.

[Cralamarre]

@EditorialGuy Well that's what my site is as well, an information site with in-depth content. Its actually a software training website and my articles are tutorials on how to use the software. I've never been entirely sure of what qualifies as a "blog", but I don't think mine does.

Most of the tutorials I write end up at or near the top of the Google search results, and from what I can see, they're still in the same spots. So it must be a long tail issue as Jori suspected. Which sucks (technical term).

[traiana]

is this type of long tail update new ? I never heard of it..

[Atomic]

My site is also informational with mostly evergreen, long-form content (2,000+ words). There is a blog but it's one of the smallest sections on the site.

[traiana]

is anything we can do or just we need to wait untill settle?

[Cralamarre]

@traiana Good question, and why were some sites affected yet most (judging by the minimal discussion) not affected at all? Don't all sites get at least some of their traffic from long tail keywords?

[masterjoe]

One of my sites had a decent bump up in ranking for relevant keywords. Seems like G is doing something right with this update for once. A site that got hit (quite severely) when "fred" was rolling out, bumped my rankings down to page 5+, which has now recovered its original rankings.

I didn't understand why it got hit, in the mean time they were ranking clearly spun articles on tiered platforms, blasted with GSA link spam, fake wikis, web 2.0s that were made purely for ranking another page...

... unfortunately, zombie traffic is still running rampant. Slightly better traffic numbers, still barely any converting traffic.

[NickMNS]

@Cralamarre how do you define a long tail keyword?

[aristotle]

Well the school year is coming to an end in most U.S. towns and cities. My sites get a good part of their traffic from students so it always drops off from now until the end of summer.

[keyplyr]

Well the school year is coming to an end in most U.S. towns and cities. My sites get a good part of their traffic from students so it always drops off from now until the end of summer.

Mine are a bit more irreverent. Many are held over to make up failed classes, so I still get traffic through the summer.

[aristotle]

Mine are a bit more irreverent. Many are held over to make up failed classes, so I still get traffic through the summer.

LOL -- Of course whether they fail or not could partly depend on which sites they get their information from.

[keyplyr]

Of course whether they fail or not could partly depend on which sites they get their information from.

Hey!

[aristotle]

how do you define a long tail keyword?

It's determined by where you chop off the tail of the distribution curve.

[Atomic]

I noticed the largest crawling spike in GSC that I have ever seen on the 18th and 19th. Anyone else?

[Cralamarre]

@NickMNS Sorry, isn't that what people are referring to when they this is a long tail issue, keywords? Or does "long tail" mean something else? I thought a long tail keyword was a longer, more specific phrase, rather than the shorter one or two word normal keywords.

[keyplyr]

I thought a long tail keyword was a longer, more specific phrase, rather than the shorter one or two word normal keywords

Yes, that's the meaning most use.

[Cralamarre]

@aristotle My site is also heavily dependent on the school year, so when I saw a drop in traffic over the past few days, my initial thought was that it's just a normal, seasonal thing, although a bit earlier than usual. But then people starting saying "Google update", so now I'm trying to figure out if and why I was hit by an update.

I'm looking through my Search Analytics on the Google Console right now and I'm not seeing any drastic changes in the position of any of my main keywords on the 18th, and yet my traffic dropped by 20%.

[Cralamarre]

@Atomic I'm not seeing any crawl spikes at all on the 18th or 19th. In fact, crawls were a bit lower this month overall than they were in April. There's no sign of unusual activity on the days when my traffic dropped.

[traiana]

on my side on 19th is the lowest compared to last 90 days

[SnowMan68]

We had a massive crawl spike that start on April 16 and lasted until April 27th. It was about 9X the normal crawl.

Then on May 5th we had a second spike, that is ongoing. It is closer to 10X the normal rate now.

Thought it was an error in search console.

[aristotle]

The term "long tail" comes from the long tail portion of the keyword distribution curve. ( Theoretically the curve extends to infinity, approaching zero occurences.)

As far as I know, there isn't any generally-accepted rule for where you locate the dividing line between the medium tail and long tail portions of the curve. So the term is loosely used for keywords that get very few impressions.

[aristotle]

P.S. -- a long-tail keyword doesn't have to be a multi-word term. It could be a single word.

For example, suppose that "widgette" is an rarely-used altenative spelling of "widget". Then a site about widgets could get a small amount of traffic from searches for "widgette". But because this spelling is so rarely used, it would be on the long-tail portion of the keyword distribution curve.

[Cralamarre]

Just curious, have we settled on this recent Google update as having targeted long tail keywords? It would explain why my main keyword rankings don't seem to have been affected even though my traffic has dropped considerably. Yet it seems that the majority of websites have not been affected at all, or at least enough to take notice. So if it was an update that long tail keywords, why were more sites not affected?

[traiana]

I am also curious to find out

[aristotle]

have we settled on this recent Google update as having targeted long tail keywords?

First of all, most of the "updates" reported in this thread are false alarms, or at most very minor. I generally pay no attention to them.

Second, it would be very difficult to specifically target just long tail keywords in a general algorithm update, and anyway probably not worth doing from google's viewpoint even if it were feasible.

[Cralamarre]

@aristotle That was my thinking as well. How and why would Google target only long tail keywords.

And yet... my sudden drop in Google traffic that coincided with the exact dates of the most recent rush of activity in the SERPs seems to indicate that it was not a false alarm. Something happened last week. Something that did not affect the rankings of my main keywords and yet still resulted in a 20% traffic drop.

[traiana]

than how can you explain the drop in traffic? I have a FAQ page where I answer to 200 questions in my niche and GA shows like 600 keywords for this single page. If I compare 18th to 11th the number of keywords showed in GA are 148, 117 keywords registered an increase in ranking to first page and first position and the rest of 31 register a severe drop of at least 20 positions.

[aristotle]

Cralamarre -- You said earlier that your traffic drops when the school year ends. That explanation is strongly confirmed by your observation that the rankings for your main keywords haven't changed. I really don't see why you need to look any further.

traiana -- You seem to be talking about your best keywords, not about long-tail. In any case, sites get hit all the time for individual reasons that have nothing to do with an "update".