Google Updates and SERP Changes - October 2017

[westcoast]

The following message was cut out of thread at:
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4866125.htm [webmasterworld.com] by robert_charlton - 2:26 pm on Oct 1, 2017 (PDT -8)

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My site is plummeting in rankings today under most keywords. Anyone else seeing this?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 10:42 pm (utc) on Oct 1, 2017]
[edit reason] Splitting off from September thread [/edit]

[MayankParmar]

Anybody using a plugin that redirects user to a specific page when the browser back button is clicked? I was thinking to buy Zero Bounce plugin to reduce bounce rate and get some views to the homepage, as low bounce rate improves the ranking.

[Cralamarre]

@MayankParmar I don't think that hijacking a user's Back button is a good idea. Preventing visitors from leaving your site by forcing them unexpectedly to your home page isn't going to improve their experience.

Also, regarding bounce rates, it really depends on the type of site you have, as certain types of sites will naturally have high bounce rates. If you have an information site where your articles all cover different topics, it's perfectly normal for a user to leave your site once they've found the information they were looking for. Your home page, of course, should have a much lower bounce rate, otherwise it's going to look to Google like your site is of little value. But individual articles shouldn't be affected as much by bounce rates.

Instead of hijacking the Back button, including links to other articles the person might be interested in would be a better solution.

[timemachined]

As much as gaming Google is a part of the game, I cannot tolerate websites that hijack my ability to go backwards. So adept at what's coming, I often right click automatically and will completely skip any two/three/four step forward jumps a header has made. I don't mind the whizz across pop under to grab your attention before you leave, though matching that to user intent is a task indeed if running a multi-topic website. Finding out whether G likes those pops ups / unders is your own discovery.

[HereWeGo123]

@MayankParmar It would also be a major quality/ UX experience issue. Google will catch up and the site may plummet in rankings for doing that.

[engine]

@MayankParmar I don't think that hijacking a user's Back button is a good idea. Preventing visitors from leaving your site by forcing them unexpectedly to your home page isn't going to improve their experience.

I could not agree more.

It's steps like that which is a bad user experience.

[koan]

A web site would deserve to be heavily penalized for doing such a thing. It's a dark pattern practice.

[keyplyr]

Pure evil... condemned to purgatory for infinity.

[MayankParmar]

Hmm. Okay, I will avoid this trick. Thank you! :D

[HereWeGo123]

So I'll ask again, anyone noticing any out-of-the-ordinary movements with SERPs or is it just me? we just migrated to https.

[keyplyr]

@HereWeGo123 - some site owners report changes after moving to HTTPS, others say no movement at all. I've moved a couple dozen sites and only a two saw any significant movement.

[HereWeGo123]

@keyplyr thanks! I guess there's no one clear-cut answer, rather it's case-by-case. I too have heard different stories from different site owners. Some saw volatility and some haven't.

[Nutterum]

There was a strange shift and roll-back between 16th and 21th of October. I was not quick to jump the gun as I wanted to analyze the data first. It was massive in terms of search crystals (clouds of keyword topics) with more than 7000 keywords over 4 big websites I monitor got skewed either up or down by more than 3 positions. The GSC showed a massive drop and then recovery as well, so it was not something I saw from third party data aggregators.

[EditorialGuy]

A web site would deserve to be heavily penalized for doing such a thing. It's a dark pattern practice.

The expression "cruising for a bruising" comes to mind. That, and "Don't poke the bear."

[samwest]

Reporting higher traffic, but also higher bounce rate. Zero conversions, it's a total Zombie fest again.

[Jez123]

Hi Sam, I just came here to say that I was experiencing higher traffic too and wondering if anyone else was.

I am not seeing zombies though. I think it's a boost in mobile traffic. Not converting all that well but some of it is converting.

How does your site fare generally with mobile traffic?

[samwest]

How does your site fare generally with mobile traffic?

Hi Jez! - Not particularly well, since it is not really geared toward mobile users.
This site seems to rank equally well on desktop and mobile searches.

In an unrelated story: My client site that went viral last week was seeing 50k users per day. Now dropping back to about 10k/day. I'm interested to see how all the articles with links back to the site will affect it's overall rank as back link weight is boosted...although probably all "nofollow" ed. So far no movement in the serps. Very interesting. [youtu.be...]

[MayankParmar]

Today is a horrible day, a drop of 30% :(

[Cralamarre]

Normal traffic day here.

[MrBlack]

Something happened on the the 17th October and we had our best day of conversions for months. However since the 18th it has been mismatched traffic from all corners of the globe to our UK based/targeted website.
Of course, my website is the best in it's niche, therefore the problem must be Google's :P

[BushyTop]

I have a feeling something big is happening again. Seeing SERPs dance around and throttled traffic, UK.

[MayankParmar]

Not sure what's wrong today but I am not able to rank one of my new articles, I have several articles on that news topic and in past they ranked on first page in just 2-3 hours after publishing. Its been 17 hours since I published the 700 words article and I cannot see it anywhere! All old articles.

If this continues, I will be in a major problem :( Because that topic accounts for 20% of my month traffic!

[Shai]

We are seeing quite wild swings across all sites. I know there are quite a lot of these predictions around here these days, and yes i do appreciate that updates are happening almost all the time (thank you very much) but this does look like some sort of "larger than a normal day" type update.

UK btw.

[vallento]

I am seeing some huge SERP fluctuations today for Google UK. For all of the many brand keywords which I used to rank top 10 for I am now pushed to 2nd or 3rd page.

On the 1st page of the brand keywords I now only see websites which are extensions of the company you could say. Example of websites listed on the 1st page now are for example wikipedia of the company, glassdoor (HR) profile for the company, the company's instagram profile, company's facebook page, the companies linkedin page and so on.

I hope it bounces back just a little. Right now all these brand keywords are totally dominated by the brand itself.

[Cralamarre]

Yesterday was a bit slower than expected for me, but most of it was from a drop in direct traffic, so not really anything Google related. Things seem to be back to normal today. I'm trying not to focus so much on traffic numbers these days so I can get more work done. It helps keep the anxiety down, and I'm more productive. But of course, I still slip from time to time and refresh my analytics. Moderation is the key, I guess.

[edited by: Cralamarre at 2:03 pm (utc) on Oct 26, 2017]

[vallento]

I forgot mention in my previous post from today that a lot of the brand searches that I target are now showing Top Stories on the 1st page.

[MayankParmar]

Google Search Algorithm & Ranking Update Brewing? [seroundtable.com...]

[Shaddows]

Circular reference. We chat, they report the chatter, we cite the report.

OTOH, our Google conversions went completely AWOL for two hours this morning, before coming back.

[lostshootingstar]

Still early in the US but also down about 20% so far today compared to the previous few weeks.

[capulkit]

Whats wrong with Google. Time to go with Bing, but very less user base.
If you are a brand with thin or useless content, you can rank with no useful information to users.
I am competing with a site which is a big brand and going heavy on SEO and content marketing with thin and content and ranks on top for every keyword.

[System]

The following 4 messages were cut out to new thread by robert_charlton. New thread at: google/4874369.htm [webmasterworld.com]
3:14 pm on Oct 27, 2017 (PDT -8)